may simply become too tiring. Folkman and Moskowitz (2000) summarize other
potential functions. These include (a) helping us to build social, intellectual and physical
resources; (b) helping to provide a buffer against physiological consequences of stress;
and (c) helping prevent clinical depression by interrupting negative rumination spirals.
They further point out that when people report more negative events they tend to
also report more positive events. It may be that in bad times we create more positive
events, or we may interpret neutral events more positively, to offset our negative
experiences and induce positive affect.
Positive affect has been related to three particular types of coping (Folkman, 1997;
Folkman and Moskowitz, 2000). First, it has been linked to positive reappraisal, which
is defined by Folkman and Moskowitz (2000: 650) as ‘coping strategies for reframing
a situation to see it in a positive light (seeing a glass half full as opposed to half empty)’.
This coping strategy is incorporated in the COPE questionnaire (see above) as positive
reinterpretation and growth. Second, positive affect is associated with problem-focused
coping that involves direct efforts to solve or manage the stressor, i.e. by gathering
information, planning, decision-making. Third, positive affect is associated with a
tendency for ‘the infusion of ordinary events with positive meaning’ thereby generating
good feeling about oneself or one’s life (Folkman and Moskowitz, 2000: 650).
Research attention has also focussed on the possible health benefits of positive
affect. At the daily level, positive affect has been shown to have a beneficial influence
on physiological processes such as cortisol levels and ambulatory blood pressure
(Steptoe and Wardle, 2005). Research reviews suggest that positive affect can have
significant effects on health both at the daily level andin the longer term with an
effect size comparable to negative affect (Chida and Steptoe, 2008; Howell, Kern and
Lyubomirsky, 2007; Steptoe, Dockray and Wardle, 2009). For example, Ong et al.
(2006) have suggested that the ability to maintain positive emotions in the face of stress
is one pathway through which people can successfully adapt to stress and experience
better health outcomes.
Researchers from the University of Kansas have recently taken the exploration of
positive affect and positive psychology one step further (Kraft and Pressman, 2012).
The authors in question investigated the effects of manipulating smiling and facial
expressions on participants’ responses to stressful tasks. In this innovative study,
participants held chopsticks in their mouths to either produce a smile or a neutral
expression. The results were startling and showed that participants who were smiling
had lower heart rate during the recovery from stress compared to the participants in
the neutral condition! More importantly, it did not matter if they were aware of
whether they were smiling or not.
Benefit finding
Most people, faced with even the most serious of stressors, try to identify some benefit.
For example, when faced with a stressor such as breast cancer a patient might identify
benefits such as improvements in relationships or a greater appreciation of day-to-day
experiences. Finding such benefits has been related to improved mental health (see
Helgeson, Reynolds and Tomich, 2006, for a meta-analysis). In addition, longitudinal
research has suggested benefits in terms of objective measures of physical health. For
example, Affleck et al. (1987) found that men who found more benefits 7 weeks after
a heart attack had lower incidence of further heart attacks during the next 8 years.
COPING AND SOCIAL SUPPORT 101