Within the depth-psychology corpus, coping is treated not as a simple stress-reduction mechanism but as a multidimensional, contextually embedded process through which persons negotiate what Pargament terms ‘significance’—those ends and values that organize a life. The dominant theoretical position, advanced most systematically by Pargament, holds that coping involves an active encounter between an individual and a threatening situation, shaped simultaneously by an internal orienting system (personality, beliefs, prior experience) and by layered social and cultural contexts. Coping is explicitly distinguished from reflex and from automatized mastery; it occupies the space of possibility and choice, and it is therefore always evaluable in relation to ends, not merely outcomes. A persistent tension runs through the literature between conservational coping—efforts to preserve existing significance—and transformational coping, in which the self and its objects of value are fundamentally reconstituted. A second major tension concerns the relationship between secular and religious coping: empirical research demonstrates that religious coping contributes unique variance to psychological outcomes beyond what secular models predict, yet neither religious nor nonreligious coping holds universal superiority. Cultural embeddedness, individual appraisal, and the bidirectional influence between person and social fabric all complicate any single-axis evaluation of coping effectiveness.
Coping, we have seen, has several basic qualities: It involves an encounter between an individual and a situation; it is multidimensional; it is multilayered and contextual; it involves possibilities and choices; and it is diverse.
Pargament synthesizes his foundational conceptualization of coping as a non-deterministic, multi-quality process irreducible to uniform stages or passive victimhood.
, The psychology of religion and coping theory, research,, 2001thesis
Coping is reserved for those times that allow for possibility and choice… for the individual is rarely in a position without some options.
Pargament, drawing on Murphy and Yalom, defines coping as the domain of effortful, choice-laden response—distinguished from automatized adaptation and framed within existential responsibility.
, The psychology of religion and coping theory, research,, 2001thesis
No one copes alone, in spite of the fact that he or she may feel alone. It is impossible to remove the individual completely from layers of social relationships—family, organizational, institutional, community, societal, cultural.
Pargament establishes coping as a contextually embedded, multilayered phenomenon that spans cognitive, affective, behavioral, and physiological dimensions within a relational matrix.
, The psychology of religion and coping theory, research,, 2001thesis
The coping process is oriented to stressful life experiences; it may involve… one meaning of the term ‘cope’ is an ecclesiastical garb. This definition hints at some important parallels between religion and coping.
Pargament formally articulates the conceptual relationship between religion and coping, arguing each concerns paths toward significance and matters of ultimate value.
, The psychology of religion and coping theory, research,, 2001thesis
No single method of coping in and of itself is likely to hold the key to success… any evaluation of the impact of coping on outcomes should be sensitive to the particulars of the individual, the situation, and the social context.
Pargament argues against universalizing any single coping method, insisting that contextual particularity—individual, situational, social—governs evaluative judgments of effectiveness.
, The psychology of religion and coping theory, research,, 2001thesis
Problems in coping can arise, however, when there is a loss of balance in the various goals that contribute to an individual’s pattern of significance. The single-minded devotion to any end can become problematic.
Pargament frames dysfunctional coping as arising from imbalance among objects of significance, locating pathology in the configuration of goals rather than in specific behaviors.
, The psychology of religion and coping theory, research,, 2001thesis
Tertiary appraisals guide the selection of particular coping methods. They involve comparative assessments of those coping activities most likely to maximize gains and minimize losses to significance at minimal cost in terms of resources and burdens.
Pargament elaborates the appraisal layer of the coping process, showing how selection of coping methods is governed by significance-weighted cost-benefit reasoning operating across cognitive and affective registers.
, The psychology of religion and coping theory, research,, 2001supporting
Without the benefit of cultural support, we fall back on ourselves in coping. But to ‘go it alone’ may be a nearly insurmountable challenge, for our visions of the future… are all embedded in a larger culture.
Pargament argues that culture functions as the grounding infrastructure of coping, providing meaning-making resources without which individual coping is severely compromised.
, The psychology of religion and coping theory, research,, 2001supporting
Coping mechanisms, like physical mechanisms, have purpose built into them… Some methods are conservational in nature; others are transformational.
Pargament introduces the conservational/transformational distinction as a functional taxonomy of coping purposes, grounding coping analysis in teleological rather than purely behavioral terms.
, The psychology of religion and coping theory, research,, 2001supporting
Optimism was also associated with three methods of coping with breast cancer: greater acceptance of the disease, less denial, and less behavioral disengagement. These coping methods were, in turn, predictive of lower levels of distress over time.
Pargament cites Carver et al. to demonstrate empirically how personality characteristics in the orienting system are mediated through specific coping methods to produce psychological outcomes.
, The psychology of religion and coping theory, research,, 2001supporting
When religion is entered into the coping equation, it increases our ability to predict outcomes beyond the effects of secular coping methods. Any understanding of religion and any understanding of coping remains incomplete when we overlook the transition from heaven to earth.
Pargament asserts the incremental predictive validity of religious coping over secular coping measures, framing religious coping as a necessary complement to rather than substitute for secular coping research.
, The psychology of religion and coping theory, research,, 2001supporting
God and the individual are collaborators in problem solving. Responsibility for coping is shared, with both partners playing an active role in this process.
Pargament describes the collaborative religious coping style as a theologically grounded relational model in which agency in coping is distributed between human initiative and divine presence.
, The psychology of religion and coping theory, research,, 2001supporting
The first factor, labeled Positive Religious Coping, consisted of items that included spiritual support, collaborative religious coping, and benevolent religious reframing. The second factor, Negative Religious Coping, was made up of items that embody religious pain, turmoil, and frustration.
Pargament presents empirical validation of the Positive/Negative Religious Coping bifurcation from the Brief RCOPE, grounding the theoretical distinction in factor-analytic data.
, The psychology of religion and coping theory, research,, 2001supporting
More longitudinal studies are needed to clarify and distinguish among the mobilization of religious coping under stress, the short-term effects of religious coping on adjustment, and the longer-term effects of religious coping.
Pargament identifies methodological gaps in the coping research program, calling for temporal differentiation between mobilization, short-term adjustment, and long-term transformation outcomes.
, The psychology of religion and coping theory, research,, 2001supporting
Coping also presents opportunities for achievement. Unfortunately, the potential for success in coping may be somewhat underestimated by mood-related measures of outcome that focus, for the most part, on the negative side of the pole.
Pargament critiques distress-centered outcome measurement in coping research and advocates for inclusion of growth and benefit-finding as legitimate positive endpoints.
, The psychology of religion and coping theory, research,, 2001supporting
A more self-directing style was related to a greater sense of personal control in living and higher self-esteem… consistent with the general coping literature which emphasizes the value of proactivity and autonomy in problem solving.
Pargament connects the self-directing religious coping style to established secular coping findings on autonomy and personal control, integrating religious and general coping literatures.
, The psychology of religion and coping theory, research,, 2001supporting
People appear to be able cope as effectively without religion as with it… certain kinds of religious coping are more effective than certain kinds of nonreligious coping, and vice versa.
Pargament qualifies simple religion-versus-secular coping comparisons, arguing that differential effectiveness is type-specific and context-dependent rather than globally attributable to religiosity.
, The psychology of religion and coping theory, research,, 2001supporting
Although the relationship between attachment and coping has not been studied yet, we might expect that the secure and insecure religious attachment also translate into distinctive methods of coping.
Pargament hypothesizes that attachment-to-God styles map onto differential coping orientations, opening a theoretical bridge between object-relations constructs and coping methodology.
, The psychology of religion and coping theory, research,, 2001supporting
There is a time in this process, however, when the individual gives up. This third phase, depression, is characterized by grief, longing, and sadness for the lost incentive. Eventually, though, people rebound.
Pargament draws on Klinger’s incentive-disengagement cycle to model the sequential phenomenology of coping with loss, situating grief and recovery within a motivational framework.
, The psychology of religion and coping theory, research,, 2001supporting
Religious coping is, in fact, variable… whereas 78% of a sample of congregation members indicated that they turned to religion for understanding and/or dealing with a serious negative event, only 58% of a community sample responded in the same way.
Pargament documents the empirical variability of religious coping prevalence across populations and event types, complicating universal prevalence claims.
, The psychology of religion and coping theory, research,, 2001supporting
Religion provides its adherents with many methods to attain a sense of power and control in coping. Control can be centered in the self, growing out of the belief that God gives people the tools and resources to solve problems for themselves.
Pargament maps religious coping onto loci of control, distinguishing self-directing, deferring, and pleading styles as distinct theological-psychological configurations of agency.
, The psychology of religion and coping theory, research,, 2001supporting
The Spiritually Based factor emphasizes the individual’s relationship with God in coping. Through this relationship, problems are reframed positively, the limits of personal control are accepted, and guidance and reassurance are sought.
Pargament describes the factor structure of religious coping activities, specifying that spiritually based coping integrates relational, cognitive-reframing, and control-relinquishment functions.
, The psychology of religion and coping theory, research,, 2001supporting
Positive religious coping related to stress-related growth (r = .62), religious outcome (r = .59), and PTSD (r = .25); negative religious coping tied to stress-related growth (r = .21), and PTSD (r = .48).
Pargament’s Oklahoma City bombing study provides quantitative evidence that positive and negative religious coping differentially predict post-traumatic growth, spiritual outcomes, and PTSD symptomatology.
, The psychology of religion and coping theory, research,, 2001supporting
At what point would we say that religion is an important part of coping—if 30% turn to religion, 50%, 80%? Two additional points of comparison are needed.
Pargament raises methodological questions about prevalence thresholds and baseline comparisons needed to interpret the significance of religious coping frequencies.
, The psychology of religion and coping theory, research,, 2001aside
In order to understand how someone is going to grieve, you need to know if he or she has had previous losses and how these were grieved. Were they grieved adequately, or does the person bring to the new loss a lack of resolution from a previous one?
Worden situates historical loss resolution as a mediating variable in grief work, implying that coping capacity is cumulative and shaped by unresolved prior encounters with loss.
, Grief Counseling and Grief Therapy A Handbook for the, 2018aside