Coping Strategies

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Video: Coping Strategies

Video: Coping Strategies
Video: Coping Mechanisms 2024, April
Coping Strategies
Coping Strategies
Anonim

Coping strategies can be cognitive, behavioral, and physiological.

Cognitive strategies help people think more calmly, rationally, and constructively under stress. For example, imagine a student who is experiencing severe academic overload, besides, he has conflicting relationships with parents and a lot of minor everyday troubles. All of this causes anxiety, discouragement, decreased interest in learning and a tendency to drink alcohol. The main source of stress for this student is the increase in study loads from high school to college and anxious thoughts in connection with this: “I can't cope, I fall behind, I will fail in exams, I will be expelled from the institute, what will I tell my parents,” etc. n. To overcome the stress that has arisen, he needs to learn to replace these destructive, paralyzing the will of thought with others, constructive. Lazarus calls this replacement process cognitive restructuring. It is important for the student to say to himself: "All that I can do is the best that I can."

Successful cognitive coping does not eliminate stressors, but makes them less threatening and destructive. The student will continue to experience academic overload and will continue to strive for success, but the possibility of failure will not frighten him as before, and the need for high achievement will put less pressure.

Behavioral coping strategies

Even after the student learns to perceive more calmly the situation of lack of time and other stressors, a situation may arise when many stressors fall on him at the same time, but he does not have a plan to overcome them. One form of behavioral coping is time management.

The student needs to start keeping track of what he is doing during the week. How much time does he devote to study, work, food, sleep, relaxation? Using this information, he can develop a plan indicating the time required to complete a particular case. Time management also helps to cope with catastrophization and shows that there is actually time for everything.

Another form of behavioral coping is as follows. Suppose a student is studying at an institute, earning extra money in his spare time, and participating in social life. Sometimes he gets tired, but he copes with everything well enough. And suddenly he is offered a research job that will increase stress to a level that exceeds his ability to overcome it. Will he accept this offer? Conflicts - especially conflicts of approach - avoidance (which is the kind of conflict we are dealing with in this example) - encourage people to make decisions impulsively, just to get it over with. But there is a better way to deal with the stress of such a conflict is to analyze the situation, weigh the pros and cons, benefits and costs, and then make a decision based on that analysis.

Physiological coping strategies

The most common physiological strategy used by humans is sedation. However, chemical methods provide only temporary relief. Therefore, it is important to learn how to reduce physical stress responses through neuromuscular relaxation, frequent massage, and meditation.

Based on materials by A. Aleksandrov "Auto-training"

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