WORK AND NONWORK COPING STRATEGIES - THEIR RELATION TO PERSONALITY, APPRAISAL AND LIFE DOMAIN

The nature and degree of the relationship between the choice of coping strategies, personality, situational appraisals and the extent to whi ch these relationships are domain-dependent is open. This study survey ed 330 police officers in order to answer seven specific questions: (1 ) Is the selection of coping strategies independent of the situational domain? (2) Is the experience of hassles and uplifts independent of t he situational domain? (3) Is the experience of hassles independent of the experience of uplifts? (4) Is the selection of problem-focused co ping independent of the selection of emotion-focused coping? (5) Is pe rsonality related to the selection of coping strategies? (6) Is person ality related to the reappraisal of the situational events? (7) Does t he selection of the coping strategy relate to the reappraisal of the s ituational event? The findings indicate that extraversion (E) and neur oticism (N) are related to the selection of coping strategy, and that personality, domain and coping strategy make independent contributions to the final appraisal of the events. Personality, coping and situati onal experiences operate as discrete subsystems, with N, emotion-focus ed coping and hassles correlating together on the one hand, and E, pro blem-focused coping and uplifts correlating together on the other. Thi s finding of two independent systems also adds support to other result s in signalling to stress researchers and practitioners that they need to take account of both negative and positive aspects of the stress-c oping process.