primary coping
a stress-management strategy in which a person actively seeks to alter external conditions, including environmental events and other people’s behavior, to bring them into line with his or her wishes. Primary coping encompasses a variety of different actions, such as seeking support, expressing one’s emotions, or regulating one’s emotions. It is a dynamic, approach-oriented coping strategy that provides an important sense of control over environmental circumstances. Also called primary control coping. Compare secondary coping. [identified in 1982 by Fred M. Rothbaum (1949–2011) and John R. Weisz (1945– ), U.S. clinical and developmental psychologists, and Samuel S. Snyder, U.S. developmental psychologist]