The Coping Strategies Men and Women Employ While Encountering Unpleasant Stimuli

The study is an effort towards understanding the differences in the use of coping mechanisms by men and women. 120 adults (60 men and 60 women) of Indian nationality, in their early adulthood years participated in the study. A semi projective instrument namely Coping Operations Reference Enquiry (Schutz, 1978) was administered. The comparison reveals that the men and women differ on only two mechanisms predominantly, 'Denial' being used more by men and 'Projection' being used more by women. Coping preferences of both the groups are also discussed.