Coping Styles and Competence as Mediators of Self-Reported Responses to Stress

Abstract

This study, a peer counseling analog, was designed to investigate the interaction of cognitive coping style and interpersonal competence on the process of coping with the anticipated threat of conducting a live counseling interview. Level of arousal, self-reported first coping response, the choice of preparatory behaviors, and the final decision to confront or to avoid the threat were measured. Three levels of cognitive response style crossed on two levels of interpersonal competence were compared using 76 inexperienced but motivated college students. Results generally supported the hypothesis that cognitive response style and competence interact in a complex fashion to affect both the level of arousal and the sequence of coping behaviors with stress.