Question 1

Opposite of the commonly held belief that laughter lowers blood pressure, Martin (2002, p.218) concludes that "experimental studies indicate that laughter is actually associated with short-term increases in blood pressure and heart rate, but no longer-term effects." Discuss the more positive results found for using coping humor.

Accepted Answer

More positive results are found for using coping humor, a strategy of using humor to cope with stress.For example, Kuiper and his colleagues (Kuiper, Grimshaw, Leite, & Kirsh, 2004) demonstrated that coping humor is linked to higher levels of self-esteem, perceived competency, and positive affect as well as less anxiety, depression, and negative affect. Further, they demonstrated that some sense-of-humor styles are associated with positive psychological well-being such as affiliative humor .

Question 2

Ellis (see Ellis & Dryden, 2007) developed rational-emotive behavior therapy (REBT) in the mid 1950s as an alternative to traditional psychoanalysis.Discuss the ABC model that Ellis proposed.

Accepted Answer

He proposed an ABC model whereby "A," an activating event such as receiving a poor exam grade, is interpreted through "B," one's beliefs, leading to emotional and behavioral consequences, "C." If "B" is irrational, then a student who receives a poor exam grade is likely to have an exaggerated emotional response to "A" such as depression, shame, anger, or anxiety that is out of proportion to the event.In other words, the student will catastrophize and see the event as having catastrophic meaning.

Question 3

What issues arise in retrospective coping inventories? How do researchers attempt to get around these problems?

Accepted Answer

Retrospective coping inventories suffer from the same issues discussed in Chapter 4 regarding inventories that ask for recall of stressful life events.That is, people often have difficulty remembering events accurately and may have memory distortions or biases when answering.Some researchers have attempted to get around this problem by using momentary accounts of coping such as asking about the most stressful experience the research participant had that day or during another proximal interval, commonly 48 hours.

Question 4

____ is a specific type of coping strategy in which one reduces efforts to act on the stressor.

Accepted Answer

A)   Acceptance
B)   Behavioral disengagement
C)   Mental disengagement
D)   Denial

Question 5

What three conclusions have Smyth and Pennebaker (2008) derived from the last two decades of expressive studies?

Accepted Answer

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Question 6

One of the first theoretical groupings of coping strategies, suggested by Folkman and Lazarus (1980), splits coping strategies into the two broad-based categories.____ coping involves dealing with the perceived cause of the distress whereas ____ coping entails managing the distress caused by the problem.

Accepted Answer

A)   Emotion-focused; problem-focused
B)   Problem-focused; emotion-focused
C)   Social support seeking; meaning-making
D)   Meaning-making; social support seeking

Question 7

Define cognitive restructuring.

Accepted Answer

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Question 8

____ is a distorted thinking category in which one exaggerates or downplay the importance of something."My stomach hurts.It must be appendicitis." "Yes I smoke but I'll outlive all you nonsmokers."

Accepted Answer

A)   Overgeneralization
B)   Magnification or minimization
C)   Discounting the positives
D)   Mental filter

Question 9

Discuss the goodness of fit hypothesis.

Accepted Answer

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Question 10

The ____ process of adding new information (i.e., the situational meaning) to an already existing schema or cognitive framework (i.e., one's global meaning) is more common than the ____ process of changing the larger organizing schema (i.e., one's global meaning) to fit the smaller one (i.e., the situational meaning).

Accepted Answer

A)   acceptance; accommodation
B)   assimilation; acceptance
C)   accommodation;assimilation
D)   assimilation; accommodation

Question 11

When is self-forgiveness is more likely to occur?

Accepted Answer

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Question 12

Describe the distorted thinking category of blame used in Beck's triple column method exercise.Provide examples.

Accepted Answer

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Question 13

The statement "I went on as if nothing had happened" is a strategy of avoidance coping called ____ that can be adaptive.

Accepted Answer

A)   restraint coping
B)   denial
C)   escape avoidance
D)   distancing

Question 14

Trying harder that employs action oriented problem-focused coping is a form of ____ coping.

Accepted Answer

A)   active cognitive
B)   active behavioral
C)   avoidance
D)   meaning-making

Question 15

Discuss Park's study in which she concluded that religion was related to meaning-making coping.

Accepted Answer

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Question 16

Describe the distorted thinking category of emotional reasoning used in Beck's triple column method exercise.Provide examples.

Accepted Answer

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Question 17

____ is a category of coping that uses our values, beliefs, and goals to shape meaning in stressful situations that are generally not conducive to the use of problem-focused coping such as long-term caregiving for a loved one with dementia or loss of a loved one.

Accepted Answer

A)   Meaning-making coping
B)   Emotion-focused coping
C)   Social support seeking
D)   Active coping

Question 18

Describe the 50-item Ways of Coping scale.What coping strategies does this inventory measure?

Accepted Answer

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Question 19

____ is a specific type of coping strategy in which one deliberately waits until the time is right to act.

Accepted Answer

A)   Restraint coping
B)   Mental disengagement
C)   Suppression of competing activities
D)   Denial

Question 20

People who realize ____ are able to cultivate positive expectations when they see connections between their efforts and outcomes.In order to do this, they must challenge pessimistic causal attributional explanatory styles.

Accepted Answer

A)   learned optimism
B)   active coping
C)   restraint coping
D)   positive reinterpretation

Exam 10: Cognitive and Behavioral Approaches