Professorial Responses to Stress: A Self-Assessment Scale

Faculty members, like everyone else, may cope with stress by ignoring its signals, trying to escape from stressful situations, having an emotional reaction (anger, crying), or directly attacking the problem. We found that the coping strategies of a faculty at a large state university fit into five categories, which we labelled as problem-focused, avoidance-focused, cognitive redefinition, affective regulation, and resigned acceptance. Problem-focused behaviors were the most frequently reported coping strategies.