A Review of the Relationship Between Dispositional Coping Styles and Situational Coping Strategies

Coping is defined as the process of implementing a response to a stressful situation. There are two mechanisms of coping efforts, namely, dispositional coping style and situational coping strategy. The first strategy is defined as a stable coping that an individual usually employs in all stressful events. However, according to description of situational coping mechanism a particular stressful situation mandates a specific coping strategy which is changeabe in various stressful encounters. As the latter statement violates the former one, a question exists: which coping mechanism should a person apply in a stressful situation? How both types of coping strategies complement each other within the coping process? The mechanisms have individually given rise to different research focus and a body of knowledge, yet little attention has been given to the relationship between them. Based on the Lazarus Transactional Theory, the present review has considered the relationship between dispositional coping style and situational coping strategies to find whether they are complementary or separated?