Coping flexibility was defined as the ability to discontinue an ineffective coping strategy (i.e., evaluation coping) and produce and implement an alternative coping strategy (i.e., adaptive coping). The Coping Flexibility Scale (CFS) was developed on the basis of this definition. Five studies involving approximately 4,400 Japanese college students and employees were conducted to test the hypothesis that flexible coping produces more adaptive outcomes. Studies 1, 2, and 3 provided evidence of the reliability of the CFS scores as well as of its convergent and discriminant validity for Japanese samples. Study 4 further demonstrated that flexible coping was positively associated with improved psychological health, including reduced depression, anxiety, and distress. In Study 5, coping flexibility as measured by the CFS was associated with reduced future depression, even after controlling for the effects of other coping flexibility measures and popular coping strategies. Overall, these results suggest that a valid approach for assessing coping flexibility has been developed and that flexible coping can contribute to psychological health. The implications of these findings for clinical practice are discussed.

This article reports the frequency of the use of coping scales in academic journals published from 1998 to 2010. Two thousand empirical journal articles were selected from the EBSCO database. The COPE, Ways of Coping Questionnaire, Coping Strategies Questionnaire, Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations, Religious-COPE and Coping Response Inventory were frequently mentioned. In particular, the COPE (20.2%) and Ways of Coping Questionnaire (13.6%) were used the most frequently. In this literature reviewed, coping scales were most often used to assess coping with health issues (e.g. illness, pain and medical diagnoses) over other types of stressors, and patients were the most frequent participants. Further, alpha coefficients were estimated for the COPE subscales, and correlations between the COPE subscales and coping outcomes were calculated, including depressive symptoms, anxiety, negative affect, psychological distress, physical symptoms and well-being.

Three studies involving approximately 4,100 Japanese were conducted to estimate the validity and reliability of the Interpersonal Stress Coping Scale (ISCS) in Japan, an instrument designed to measure strategies used to cope with interpersonal stressors. Factor analyses revealed that the ISCS has a stable three-factor structure: distancing, reassessing, and constructive coping. Distancing coping includes strategies that attempt to actively damage, disrupt, and dissolve a stressful relationship. Reassessing coping refers to efforts to patiently wait for an appropriate opportunity to act, such as a change or improvement in the situation. Constructive coping involved efforts that actively seek to improve, maintain, and/or sustain a relationship without aggravating the other individuals involved. The test–retest reliability coefficients of these three factors over a 6-week period were .81, .72, and .76, respectively. Estimates of validity suggested that the ISCS is related to other scales that measure other coping strategies, personality traits, psychological functioning, and relationship satisfaction. Moreover, the ISCS scores were associated with reduced future depression, even after controlling the effects of typical coping strategies and styles of conflict management. Overall, our data indicate that the ISCS scores are a reliable and valid measure.

We conducted three studies to translate the Snyder Hope Sales into Japanese, examine reliability and validity of the Japanese version, and investigate the relationship between the tendency to be hopeful and subjective well-being. In Study 1, confirmatory factor analysis was performed of the Hope Scale in the Japanese version: agency and pathways. Its test-retest reliability coefficients for the data from 113 undergraduates ranged from .81 to .84. In Study 2, concurrent validity of the Japanese version Hope Scale was examined with the data from 550 respondents, which looked at the correlations between hope and optimism, self-esteem, and self-efficacy. Results suggested that the Japanese version had high validity. In addition, the tendency to be hopeful had negative correlations with stress response, hopelessness, depressive tendency, and trait anxiety, and positive one with feeling of happiness. In Study 3, 175 undergraduates completed the Hope Scale and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) immediately prior to final examinations. Results of regression analysis suggested that the tendency to be hopeful moderated examination anxiety. Taken together, results of the studies supported the hypothesis that hope had positive effects on subjective well-being.

Previous studies have found that males are more upset over sexual infidelity than females whereas females are more upset over emotional infidelity than males. We hypothesized that such sex differences are explained by explicit sexual imagery by males. The hypothesis was tested in a laboratory using vivid infidelity scenarios and photographs to induce detailed and sexually oriented imagery of a partner's infidelity. In the main experiment, participants included 64 males and 64 females who were currently in committed relationships. The results showed that participants became more upset when they imagined sexual infidelity vividly and realistically than when they did not and there were no significant sex differences in jealousy found when sexual infidelity was imagined in this matter. Overall, our findings suggested that the sex differences in jealousy resulted from males' tendency to imagine sexual infidelity more vividly than females.