Question

Greg just spend the entire day wrapping presents, only to remember after that he forgot to take the price tags off of everything and he doesn't have time to unwrap and re-wrap everything himself. Explain the difference between problem focused coping and emotion focused coping, and how he could use both to deal with this problem.

Answer 1

Emotion focusing coping mechanism is used when the stressful situation is beyond a person’s control. It can be both positive and negative. Positive coping involves; doing mindfulness meditation, listening to music, taking a hot bath. Negative coping involves; distancing oneself from reality, using drugs, and eating comfort food.

In the emotion-focused coping mechanism in this situation, he may use the negative coping mechanism like; distancing oneself from reality by listening to the music instead of going and giving the gift.

In the problem-focused strategies, we aim to remove or reduce the cause of the stressor, by various ways like:

Problem-solving.

Time-management.

Obtaining instrumental social support.

In problem-focused strategy, in this situation, he gives a different gift or not give the gift at all.