502 Chapter 13rumination—all in the direction of women
more than men. Notice that each of these
strategies involves the expression of feelings,
either to oneself or to someone else.
One difficulty in interpreting the lit-
erature on gender and coping is that women
may report more of all kinds of coping sim-
ply because women are more distressed
than men, and more distressed people try a
greater range of strategies. We found some
support for this idea in the meta-analysis.
We argued that sex differences in coping
would be better understood by an examina-
tion ofrelative coping, which refers to how
likely men or women are to use one strategy
compared to another. Instead of compar-
ing the frequency with which women and
men engage in a specific kind of coping, we
compare the frequency with which women
engage in one coping strategy compared
to another strategy and the frequency with
which men engage in one coping strategy
compared to another strategy. Within the
range of coping responses, are men relativelyappear in the opposite direction (i.e., women
are more problem focused). The broad cat-
egories of emotion-focused coping and
problem-focused coping average across dis-
tinct coping strategies, and only some of
these may show sex differences. For example,
researchers hypothesize that men are more
likely than women to engage in problem-
focused coping but one primary problem-
focused coping strategy is to seek the advice of
others. And, we know women are more likely
than men to seek out others for help. People
can seek different kinds of help, however. If
people seek others’ advice, they are engaging
in problem-focused coping; if people seek out
others in order to express feelings, they are
engaging in emotion-focused coping. In the
latter case, the person is trying to reduce dis-
tress rather than alter the stressor. Researchers
do not always distinguish between these two
kinds of support-seeking strategies. However,
it is possible that women are more likely than
men to do both.
Thus to evaluate sex differences in cop-
ing, it is important to turn to specific coping
strategies. Examples of specific kinds of cop-
ing are shown in Table 13.3.Specific Coping Strategies. Partly in re-
sponse to the issues raised earlier—specifically
that people seem to think men engaged in
problem-focused coping and women en-
gaged in emotion-focused coping—my col-
leagues and I conducted a meta-analytic
review of the literature on sex comparisons
in coping (Tamres, Janicki, & Helgeson,
2002). We showed that women were more
likely than men to engage in nearly all the
coping strategies, both problem focused and
emotion focused. The sizes of these sex dif-
ferences were small, however. The largest dif-
ferences appeared for positive self-talk (i.e.,
encouraging oneself), seeking support, andTABLE 13.3 SAMPLES OF COPING STRATEGIES
Distraction I read a book or watch
TV to take my mind off
the problem.
Self-blame I blame myself for what
happened.
Denial I pretend the problem
does not exist.
Wishful thinking I wish the problem
would go away.
Seek social support I find someone to talk to
about the problem.
Positive reappraisal I try to look on the
bright side of things.
Problem-focused or
Active copingI figure out what to do to
solve the problem.
Planning I make a plan of action
to approach the problem.M13_HELG0185_04_SE_C13.indd 502 6/21/11 12:55 PM