A comparative study of two taxonomies of coping styles, personality and sex

Abstract

The factor structures of two sets of coping styles, proposed by Lazarus and Plutchik respectively, were investigated, as well as the relationship between each set with extraversion and neuroticism. Results show that sex is a major moderating variable. The Lazarus data yielded three separate factors for men and women, while the Plutchik data yielded four factors, of which only one was in common for men and women. A factor analysis of both sets of data yielded seven factors, suggesting that about half of the content is common to both sets of coping styles. Extraversion is positively related to six of the coping styles, and negatively to one. Neuroticism is positively related to five coping styles. For the rest, both Extraversion and Neuroticism correlate differently for men and women.