any strategy for managing a stressful event or situation in which a person actively focuses on the problematic event or situation. Approach strategies may be cognitive in nature (e.g., trying to see the positive side of the situation, considering several alternatives for handling the situation) or behavioral (e.g., trying to find out more about the situation, seeking help from other people who have had similar experiences, praying for guidance, and bargaining or compromising to get something positive from the situation). Although generally seen as more adaptive than avoidance coping, approach strategies do have certain potential costs as well: The orientation toward threatening material can lead to increased distress and, when there is no possibility for changing the situation or for assimilating emotionally to it, nonproductive worry. [identified in 1986 by Susan H. Roth (1948– ), U.S. personality psychologist, and Lawrence J. Cohen
(1958– ), U.S. clinical psychologist]