Coping
The strategies people use to respond to strain: problem-focused or emotion-focused.
Coping comprises all the strategies people use to try to master strain. Research distinguishes two directions: problem-focused coping changes the stressful situation, emotion-focused coping changes the response to it. Neither is better in principle. What works is the strategy that fits the situation: acting where there is influence, regulating where there is none.
Last updated: September 14, 2026 · Editorially responsible: MindBright editorial team
What you do when strain is present: change the situation or change the response.
Not a single recipe. The strategy has to match how controllable the situation is.
Because the wrong strategy in the wrong situation doubles the strain.
Origin and research
Richard Lazarus and Susan Folkman shaped modern stress research with their transactional model: stress arises from how a situation is appraised. First a person judges whether a situation is threatening, then whether their own means suffice. In 1980 they studied how people deal with strain in everyday life and found that almost everyone uses both forms: problem-focused and emotion-focused.
The most important finding: problem-focused coping works when the situation can be influenced. Emotion-focused coping works when it cannot. Whoever tries to change the unchangeable exhausts themselves. Whoever merely endures the changeable misses the solution.
For high performers
Leaders are problem-solvers. That is their strength, and in coping it is their weakness: they reach for the problem-focused strategy with every strain, including where there is only a situation to endure. A corporate decision, a market shift, an illness on the team. The attempt to solve it is the actual stressor.
The first coping decision is not what you do, but whether the situation is in your hands at all. Whoever answers that honestly knows whether today calls for action or for regulation. Both are coping; only the confusion is expensive.
Distinctions
vs. Stress resilience
Coping is the strategy in the moment, stress resilience the outcome over time. Good coping builds stress resilience.
vs. Emotion regulation
Emotion regulation is the core of emotion-focused coping. Coping is broader and also includes changing the situation.
vs. Locus of control
Locus of control determines which coping strategy someone chooses. Whoever considers everything controllable always reaches for problem-solving.
Frequently asked questions
What coping strategies are there?
Two basic directions: problem-focused (changing the situation: planning, acting, getting help) and emotion-focused (changing the response: reappraising, accepting, recovering). Avoidance is a third strategy, usually relieving in the short term and expensive in the long term.
What is the difference between problem-focused and emotion-focused coping?
Problem-focused changes the cause, emotion-focused the effect. One fits controllable situations, the other uncontrollable ones. The skill lies in the matching.
Isn't emotion-focused coping just enduring?
No. It includes active strategies such as reappraisal, deliberate recovery, and consciously accepting what cannot be changed. Enduring without strategy is suffering through. Emotion-focused coping works on your own response.
Related terms
Understanding is the first step. Doing is the second.
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