Schanowits And P. Nicassio: A Case Study

J. Y. Schanowits and P. Nicassio conducted research to see the relationship between coping strategies and processes and psychosocial functioning. They hypothesized that meaning based coping would cause different outcomes due to a person’s sense of maintaining a state of wellbeing (Schanowits and Nicassio, 2006). The elder population experience many losses, disease, and age-related conditions. Because of this it is somethings that scientists and researchers are trying to study, to know how the elderly are still able to achieve positive psychological well-being despite all of these negative things (Schanowits and Nicassio, 2006). The research examined meaning based coping strategies like focusing on the positive in a negative reality, religious
To measure the well-being of the participants, different tests and models were used. The pain management inventory was used to measure whether each participant passively coped such as restricting activity or actively coped such as participating in physical therapy (Schanowits and Nicassio, 2006). They also used COPE which consisted of a list of coping strategies when residents experienced stressful moments (Schanowits and Nicassio, 2006). Similar to COPE, they used RCOPE to measure and identify positive and negative religious coping strategies (Schanowits and Nicassio, 2006). The PANAS-SF was used to measure each participant’s current state of mind (Schanowits and Nicassio, 2006). PWB-SF was a self-report used to measure three aspects of psychological well-being including autonomy, self-acceptance, and positive relationships with others (Schanowits and Nicassio, 2006). From these tests and models, the researchers found that females had a higher sense of well-being compared to males (Schanowits and Nicassio,
Passive coping was found to have a relation to feelings more negative and having lower self-acceptance (Schanowits and Nicassio, 2006). Thinking positively (positive reappraisal) despite a negative situation correlated with higher senses of autonomy, positive social relations and self-acceptance (Schanowits and Nicassio, 2006). With religious coping, they found that positive religious coping was associated with a more positive state and self-acceptance (Schanowits and Nicassio, 2006). This research is significant because it looked at important relationships between processes of coping and having a sense of wellbeing. This research may help develop ways to help others find strategies to cope as well as maintain a good sense of psychological wellbeing. Everyone experiences negative events at one point, but the elderly have lived a longer life oftentimes with pain, sickness, loss, and disability. This research may help open doors to increase positive mental health in the elderly population despite certain