Coping-Strategies of the Subject Related to Images of a Difficult Life Situation in Metaphors and to Social Frustration

Abstract

The study presented in this article is devoted to the problem of the influence of adults’ perceptions and interpretations of difficult life situations on their coping behavior, which is relevant in conditions of social instability and forced population migration. The study goal is determination of relationship of the social frustration and metaphorical images of difficult life situations with subjects’ coping-strategies. Hypotheses about differences in coping-strategies of individuals, which differ in the severity of social frustration and metaphors of difficult life situations, are formulated and confirmed. Metaphors content analysis and testing are applied. In the study, 101 respondents aged 18—25 (students and employees of enterprises in Rostov-on-Don) took place. The obtained data confirm the existence of interconnections between pronounced social frustration and a decrease in the rationality and adaptability of coping-strategies of the subject. It was established for the first time that the stereotypy-differentiation of metaphorical assessments of difficult life situations by subjects, «distancing» from the situation and its participants, attributing negative qualities to «aliens» and «enemies»/positive properties to «own» people and «friends» are also associated with these parameters of coping-strategies.