Meaning in the context of stress and coping

Psychological Bulletin, 2010

Interest in meaning and meaning making in the context of stressful life events continues to grow, but research is hampered by conceptual and methodological limitations. Drawing on current theories, the author first presents an integrated model of meaning making. This model distinguishes between the constructs of global and situational meaning and between "meaning-making efforts" and "meaning made," and it elaborates subconstructs within these constructs. Using this model, the author reviews the empirical research regarding meaning in the context of adjustment to stressful events, outlining what has been established to date and evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of current empirical work. Results suggest that theory on meaning and meaning making has developed apace, but empirical research has failed to keep up with these developments, creating a significant gap between the rich but abstract theories and empirical tests of them. Given current empirical findings, some aspects of the meaning-making model appear to be well supported but others are not, and the quality of meaning-making efforts and meanings made may be at least as important as their quantity. This article concludes with specific suggestions for future research.

Anxiety, Stress, & Coping, 2020

Background: and Objectives: This research examined whether life meaning promotes resilience to stressor-related psychological distress and repetitive negative thinking. Design and Methods: Three studies (total N = 273) used cross-sectional (Study 1) and prospective (Studies 2 and 3) designs to assess the relation between life meaning and response to various stressors. Results: Results showed that in Study 1, greater life meaning was inversely related with repetitive negative thinking and psychological distress. Further, a mediation analysis showed an indirect effect for the life meaning-repetitive negative thinking relation through psychological distress. In Study 2, baseline life meaning predicted less repetitive negative thinking about a subsequent city-wide flood. In Study 3, baseline life meaning was inversely related to distress and repetitive negative thinking after writing about an aversive memory. A mediation analysis showed an indirect effect for the life meaning-repetitive negative thinking relation through distress. Conclusions: In all studies, life meaning predicted outcomes when controlling for other positive well-being variables. Overall, the findings suggest that individuals with greater trait life meaning experience less stressor-related distress and repetitive negative thinking and that the life meaning-repetitive negative thinking relation may be mediated by distress.

International Journal of Stress Management, 2015

A number of measures aim to assess aspects of the postevent meaning process. The relevant constructs are conceptualized differently, but few studies have examined the convergent and incremental validity of these various measures. developed the Integration of Stressful Life Experiences Scale (ISLES) as a measure of meaning made (i.e., the extent to which the appraised meaning of a stressful event has been integrated with 1's global meaning). To test the validity of the ISLES we examined the ISLES' relationship with the Meaning in Life Questionnaire (MLQ) and the PostTraumatic Growth Inventory as well as these measures' relationship with psychological adjustment. A hierarchical regression revealed that the ISLES possessed predictive ability after accounting for the MLQ. The relationship between the ISLES and other measures of meaning was partially moderated by sex. Overall, the ISLES demonstrated incremental validity above and beyond other assessments of meaning.

Stress Medicine, 1990

It is proposed that a proliferation of construct usage is risked by the routine separation of the constructs of 'stress' and 'coping', commonplace in the literature. Instead, stress, considered to be 'an undesired state of the individual', is seen as a byproduct of the 'expenditure of energy in transacting coping responses'. The concepts employed in the preceding statement are elaborated upon and operationalized. A consequence of this position for stress measurement is that the latter becomes addressed to the stated properties of coping. Such properties can occur in various temporal locations visa -vis some 'untoward event'. They may take place in advance of the event, in connection with 'prophylactic coping'; during the event; or in connection with coping impelled by the aftermath of the event. Implications of the stated proposition for the structure of measurement devices are noted.

Positive psychological assessment: A handbook of models and measures., 2003

Psychological Medicine, 1988

In recent years, research interest in stress, coping, and health has grown considerably. This growing interest has produced a substantial body of literature and, concurrently, an extensive variety of theoretical and methodological approaches. While this research activity has significantly increased our understanding of the impacts of stress and coping on health, it also has produced considerable confusion and disagreement concerning the exact meaning of stress, coping, and health, the causal relationships among these constructs, and the appropriate methodological approaches for the assessment of these constructs and their interrelationships. The purpose of this editorial is to discuss current theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of stress, coping, and health, to identify problems associated with these approaches, and to suggest tentative solutions to these problems. This discussion will take the form of a general overview rather than a detailed critique of specific theoretical or methodological approaches. By doing this, we will identify issues which are relevant to a broad audience employing a variety of research techniques. For detailed discussion of specific approaches, we will direct the reader to available literature (for general discussions, see Kessler, 1983; Lazarus & Folkman, 1984; for a recent volume covering a variety of issues, see Kasl & Cooper, 1987). To structure this paper, we will discuss issues which primarily concern stress, coping and health in separate sections. We emphasize that this is done for convenience of presentation rather than to suggest independence of the issues addressed. As the following discussion will illustrate, many issues are highly interrelated and, as a result, are relevant whether the research worker's specific focus is stress, coping, or health. STRESS: THEORETICAL AND METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES The confounding of stress, coping, and well-being In stress research the concepts of stress, coping, and well-being are frequently confounded. This confounding is exemplified in life events research, where some 'stressful' life events may also be construed as an inability to cope (e.g. divorce) or a symptom of well-being (e.g. personal illness) (Dohrenwend et al. 1984; see also Lazarus et al. 1985, Dohrenwend & Shrout, 1985, and the ensuing debate in the American Psychologist 41, pp. 713-719). Similarly, measures of role stress (e.g. ambiguity, conflict, overload) and responses to role stress (strain, distress), are often so similar that they may actually tap the same construct (Kasl, 1978). Furthermore, some definitions of stress, such as those which describe stress as a situation where demands exceed abilities (French et al. 1974; Sells, 1970), confound stress with the inability to cope. To advance our understanding of the relationships among stress, coping, and health, we must derive specific and conceptually distinct definitions and operations of these constructs. At least, we should separately assess individuals' perceptions of events (a simple reporting of'what is'), the standards by which they evaluate these events (values, desires, expectations, abilities, etc.), individuals' appraisal (i.e. perceptions relative to standards), health-related outcomes, and coping efforts directed toward altering perceptions, standards, and/or health-related outcomes.

Memory, 2013

The goals of the present study were to (1) provide a first examination of the potential overlap/ independence of three meaning making constructs emerging from distinct literatures, (2) examine those meaning making constructs in relation to psychological distress and (3) assess the extent to which these constructs relate to unique variance regarding psychological distress. Multiple measures of meaning making, including narrative coherence, cognitive mechanisms, narrative theme and post-traumatic growth, and their relations to psychological distress, measured as PTSD and depression, were compared in narratives written by university undergraduates regarding their most traumatic events. Results show that growth, elements of narrative coherence and narrative theme independently relate to PTSD, but not to depression. Stepwise multiple regression analyses and partial correlations suggest that the inclusion of multiple measures of meaning making account for additional variance within psychological distress. These findings suggest that meaning making is multifaceted.

Springer eBooks, 2007

4.3 Stone and Neal's Measure of Daily Coping 4.4 Carver, Scheier and Weintraub's (1989) COPE 4.5 Ender and Parker's MCI and CISS 5. A RESOURCE-CONGRUENCE MODEL OF EFFECTIVE COPING 5.1 What constitutes effective coping 5.2 A resource-congruence model of effective coping 5.3 The importance of congruence 5.4 The duality of psychological resources 5.5 Clarifying the relationship between appraisal and coping 5.6 Advantages of the present model 6. MAJOR SOURCES OF STRESS 6.1 Emotional distress 6.2 Existential crisis 6.3 Personal disabilities and weaknesses 6.4 Societal stress or national disasters 7. MAJOR TYPES OF COPING 7.1 Creative coping 7.1.1 Creative coping as positive coping 7.2 Meaning-focused coping and existential coping 8. RATIONALE FOR THE PRESENT COPING MEASURE 8.1 Coping schemas 8.2 Prototypical coping responses 9. RESEARCH STRATEGY AND METHODS Research strategy 9.1 Research method 9.3 Summary of the stages of research 10. THE FIRST STAGE: THE COPING INVENTORY 10.1 Age differences 10.2 Construct of validity 10.3 Coping behavior of successful agers 11. THE SECOND STAGE OF DEVELOPMENT: THE COAP 11.1 A description of the COAP 11.2 Internal consistency 11.3 Evidence of validity 11.4 Potential usefulness of the COAP 12. THE THIRD STAGE OF DEVELOPMENT: THE CSI 12.1 Study 1A: Factorial Structure of the CSI 12.2 Study 1B: Correlates of CSI with Stress Appraisal and Ways of Coping 13. RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY OF THE REVISED CSI (R-CSI) 13.1 Study 1: Evidence of reliability 13.2 Study 2A Revised CSI with CISS and COPE 13.3 Study 2B: Revised CSI and the CRI 14. GENERAL DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS 14.1 Contributions to research on effective coping 14.2 Concluding remarks Recent reviews of the coping literature indicate very little cross-cultural research on stress and coping (Folkman & Moscowitz, 2000; Snyder, 1999a; Chapters 1 and 2). Given the importance of the sociocultural context in shaping every aspect of the stress and coping process, the next major step in the psychology of effective coping needs to seriously consider culture-related variables. 1.3 The need for a comprehensive measure of coping Several researchers have suggested that research in this area has been hindered by the lack of valid and comprehensive coping measures (Parker & Endler, 1992, 1996; Fleming, Baum, & Singer, 1984). For example, Amirkhan (1990) has criticised that most studies focus on specific coping strategies related to specific life situations rather than 6. Religion: Increased engagement in religious activities. 7. Positive Reinterpretation and Growth: Making the best of the situation by growing from it, or viewing it in a more favorable light. 8. Restraint Coping: Coping passively by holding back one's coping attempts until they can be of use. 9. Acceptance: Accepting the fact that the stressful event has occurred and is real. 10. Focus on and Venting of Emotions: An increased awareness of one's emotional distress, and a concomitant tendency to ventilate or discharge those feelings. 11. Denial: An attempt to reject the reality of the stressful event.

Psychological Medicine, 1988

International Journal of Cognitive Therapy, 2008

Although cognitive behavioral research is arguably fundamentally about meaning, meaning is seldom directly addressed. Such constructs will likely come into greater focus using a transdiagnostic approach. A need was identified for a measure of personal meaning in conjunction with functioning below previously attained levels, as can happen after significant life stress. Items for the Measure of Mundane Meaning (MMM) were developed in stages. Themes within verbal protocols of individuals experiencing traumatic stress were identified and then verified through interviews with individuals with current posttraumatic stress. Additional themes were identified within existing stress scales. Items for the MMM were written based on these themes to emphasize loss of meaning from a previously attained level-a significant departure from similar scales. Content and comprehensibility were evaluated through cognitive interviewing. Preliminary psychometric analyses on a sample of 38 undergraduates suggested that the MMM was reliable and showed an expected pattern of associations. A potential "transdiagnostic profile" of personal meaning is discussed.