SELECTIVE EVALUATION AND COPING WITH STRESS - MAKING ONES SITUATION COGNITIVELY MORE LIVABLE

Selective evaluation processes were examined in a study involving 167 individuals receiving payments under the Disablement Insurance Act in the Netherlands. A factor analysis showed 6 strategies of selective ev aluation: emphasizing benefits, downward comparison, devaluing former dimensions, imaging ''worse worlds,'' positive framing, and creating n ew dimensions. Although emphasizing benefits was relatively less commo n among those under stress, downward comparisons and the imaging of '' worse worlds'' were clearly more prevalent among individuals experienc ing stress. A regression analysis showed that, independent of the degr ee of stress, selective evaluation techniques (in particular, emphasiz ing benefits and imagining of ''worse worlds'') contributed positively to the way respondents evaluated their situation. Moreover, when cont rolling for the evaluation of one's situation and stress at Time 1, se lective evaluation techniques, and especially imagining of ''worse wor lds,'' and creating new dimensions, were positively related to the eva luation of one's situation at Time 2 (1 year after Time 1). The result s are interpreted as support for the Taylor, Wood, and Lichtman (1983) model of selective evaluation, and for Wills' (1987) downward compari son theory.