Apologizing for One’s Own Actions: Cognitive Coping Strategies, Social Support, and Ego-Resiliency

Abstract

  The present study examined coping strategies used in situations that required a person to apologize, focusing on how coping strategies affected apologizing behavior, and how social support and ego-resiliency (ER) affected coping strategies. The participants, 834 people in their 20s who responded to a web-based survey, were randomly assigned to either a socially supported or an unsupported group. They evaluated their ego-resiliency, and then were presented with a scenario in which one person verbally abused another. The participants indicated how they might react in that situation if they were the abuser. The results suggested that the use of different coping strategies and the extent of their apology differed depending on the presence or absence of social support. Moreover, among the coping strategies used, a planning strategy promoted apologizing, whereas an abandonment/giving-up strategy reduced apologizing. Also, the group that was socially supported used fewer abandonment/giving-up strategies and apologized more extensively, whereas the unsupported group used fewer planning strategies and apologized less extensively. Furthermore, ego-resiliency had a positive effect on positive interpretations, and a negative impact on abandonment/giving-up strategies.