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Personality and Coping

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Personality and Coping
PERSONALITY DIFFERENCES IN COPING
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Abstract

The aim of this study is to determine the relationship between personality and coping style. The study selected four predetermined groups of personality comprising of, high neuroticism group, low neuroticism group, high extraversion group, and low extraversion group from 386 undergraduate psychology students. Personality was assessed using the International Personality Item Pool (Goldberg, 1999). The study then measured which of two coping styles each personality tended to prefer. The two coping styles were emotion-focussed and problem-focussed. These coping styles were selected from the COPE Inventory (Carver, Scheier, & Weintraub). Participants that scored high neuroticism reported significantly higher emotion- focussed copying than problem-focussed copying, (p<.05). Participants that scored low neuroticism reported a non-significant problem-focussed coping than emotion-focussed coping, (p=.61). Participants that scored high extraversion reported significantly higher problem-focussed coping than emotion-focussed coping, (p<.05). Participants that scored low extraversion reported a non-significant problem-focussed coping than emotion-focussed coping, (p=.88).

Personality has been conceptualised as consisting of intelligence, feeling, actions, and temperament traits and characteristics that distinguish one human being from another (Ewer, 1929). Research has distinguished between five major personality traits: neuroticism, openness to experience, conscientiousness, agreeableness and extraversion (Perera, M.K. 2010. This study will focus on neuroticism and extraversion only. Much has been written regarding neuroticism already. Neuroticism is generally associated with irrationality and emotional instability leading to stressful relationships with others. Bolger and Zuckerman (1995) found in their study that, “anger and depression were used in response to daily conflicts by participants
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