cognitive coping

any strategy in which a person uses mental activity to manage a stressful event or situation. A variety of different forms exist, such as putting the experience into perspective, seeking to understand the causes of the situation, thinking about steps to resolve the situation, thinking about pleasant experiences instead of the current difficulty (positive refocusing), redefining the situation to emphasize potential benefits (positive reappraisal), exaggerating the negative consequences of the event (catastrophizing), blaming oneself or others for the occurrence of the event, dwelling on the negative emotions associated with the event (rumination), and minimizing the situation or its impact (cognitive avoidance). Some of these strategies (e.g., positive reappraisal, positive refocusing, putting things into perspective) generally are considered more effective than others, being associated with more positive psychological outcomes. Compare behavioral coping.

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Psychology term of the day

March 17th 2025

enactment

1. the acting out of an important life event rather than expressing it in words. See psychodrama.

2. in some forms of psychoanalytic psychotherapy, the patient’s reliving of past relationships in the transference relationship with the therapist and, conversely, the therapist’s move away from active neutrality to unwittingly intertwine personal issues into symbolic interactions with the patient (a countertransference phenomenon). Attunement to the relational patterns that emerge in this therapeutic relationship offers the therapist an opportunity to help the patient acknowledge and work through similar patterns in the patient’s relationships with others. See also relational psychoanalysis; self psychology.

3. in some forms of couples therapy, a technique in which the therapist recreates areas of conflict between partners in order to facilitate bonding moments.

4. see structural family therapy.