Abstract
The goodness of fit hypothesis (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984) posits that it is adaptive to use emotion-focused coping and not to use problem-focused coping in uncontrollable situations. This study examines the coping skills that defensive pessimists (DPs) tend to use in uncontrollable situations. The participants were 282 Japanese college students, from which 61 DPs and 64 strategic optimists (SOs) were identified. Based on the controllability they reported about recalled stress situations, they were classified into controllable or uncontrollable subgroups. Eight coping skills, which are concerned with emotion-focused or problem-focused coping, were compared. T-test and analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that DPs in uncontrollable situations tended not to use emotion-focused coping, which is not consistent with the goodness of fit hypothesis, but they also tended not to use problem-focused coping, which is consistent with the hypothesis. These results imply that DPs can control their behavior adaptively so they do not increase stress more in uncontrollable situations, although they have a vulnerability to feel stress easily because they can not use emotion-focused coping effectively.
