Emotion-focused coping skills help you process and work through unwanted or painful emotions and reactions. In other words, this approach helps you manage your emotions rather than outside circumstances.
There are many different conceptualizations of coping strategies, but the five general types of coping strategies are problem-focused coping, emotion-focused coping, social support, religious coping, and meaning making.
This is called emotion-focused coping. For example, instead of trying to meet new people, you might journal when you feel lonely to try to process what you're feeling. Or you might practice mindfulness to manage your work-related stress rather than looking for a new position.
Emotion-focused coping focuses on regulating negative emotional reactions to stress such as anxiety, fear, sadness, and anger. This type of coping may be useful when a stressor is something that you cannot change. Many people think mainly of solution-focused coping strategies as the best way to manage stress.
Relying on drugs, alcohol, dysfunctional eating patterns or gambling are just a few of the most obvious forms. However, virtually anything can turn into an addiction over time, even simple things like exercise, work or watching the TV. Subtle addictions may not seem to be particularly destructive.
The Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior explains that those who struggle with addiction often struggle with maladaptive coping strategies; it could stem from denial, blame, guilt, trauma, abuse and much more.
Relaxation. Engaging in relaxing activities, or practicing calming techniques, can help to manage stress and improve overall coping. Physical recreation. Regular exercise, such as running, or team sports, is a good way to handle the stress of given situation.
This method of coping is said to be the most effective way to tackle life's problems; however, problem-focused coping is only effective if the individual has control over the outcome (Zaman & Ali, 2019).
Weiten has identified four types of coping strategies: appraisal-focused (adaptive cognitive), problem-focused (adaptive behavioral), emotion-focused, and occupation-focused coping. Billings and Moos added avoidance coping as one of the emotion-focused coping.
Ekman proposed seven basic emotions: fear, anger, joy, sad, contempt, disgust, and surprise; but he changed to six basic emotions: fear, anger, joy, sadness, disgust, and surprise.
