What a coping style is
Coping is what you do to handle stress — when something gets hard, when a problem will not go away or when feelings take over. The idea comes from the psychologists Richard Lazarus and Susan Folkman, whose 1984 book on stress and coping drew a line between tackling the problem itself and tending to the feelings it stirs up. From 1989 on, Charles Carver and his colleagues studied the specific strategies people reach for.
The test measures three things. Problem-focused coping: acting, planning and asking for practical help. Emotion-focused coping: seeing things from a new angle, accepting what you cannot change, seeking comfort, finding humor and finding meaning. Avoidant coping: keeping busy so you do not have to think, pretending the problem is not there, venting without moving forward, turning to food or alcohol, giving up or blaming yourself. The style depends on how the measures sit against each other. When the first two are high and avoidance is low, the style is balanced. Otherwise, the measure that stands clearly above the other two gives the style — problem-focused, emotion-focused or avoidant. When none stands out, the style is mixed.
A score is not a verdict. It describes what you tend to do now, not who you are, and the way you handle stress can change. No way of coping fits every situation — what helps most is often being able to choose. The test is an aid to reflection, not a diagnosis.
The statements are Inwork’s own, written for the app from that research, and the test scores exactly as the test inside the app does.
