Coping with life transitions

Abstract

Abstract. Life transitions are sharp discontinuities with the previous life events. They have identifiable beginnings, turning points, and endings. Coping skills learned earlier are mobilized during the transition to help the person manage the transition process. A process conception of transitions includes a series of stages from entry through final resolution and growth. The primary dynamic is the process of letting go of the old value, relationship, or belief to taking hold of a new one. Coping skills consisting of support networking, cognitive restructuring, problem solving, and stress management are key mediating variables that determine the course and emotional intensity of the transition. Attitudes that influence the process are extent of perceived control of the event, perceptions of challenge, and commitment to change. Perceiving the change event as a normal part of living helps to alleviate much of the distress of the transition. Transition theory offers a kind of map that helps counsellors and their clients to conceptualize what is happening to them during intensive life changes.Change is a problem for most people, although their reactions to personal life transitions vary from high anxiety to exhilaration. Our rapidly changing world affects individual lives profoundly through political changes, dislocations, job changes, life-style alterations, and uncertainties about the future.Individual reactions to change depend upon whether it is chosen, such as a vacation, or imposed such as an accident. People vary considerably in coping skills that they use to manage personal change. The purposes of this article are to examine the basic concepts and consequences of life transitions and to describe teachable coping skills and attitudes. The concepts and skills are a useful framework for counselling people in transition. There are many implications for cross-cultural counselling, since how life transitions are perceived and managed varies with different cultures.Transition is defined as a sharp discontinuity with previous life events. It is usually short since coping capacities learned earlier in life emerge to help the person through the stages of "letting go and taking hold" of new values, relationships, and behaviours. Transition in this sense excludes those brief and often unstable periods between developmental stages, such as entering adolescence. Examples of life transitions are changing residence, incurring

Fighting for Life: A Qualitative Analysis of the Process of Psychotherapy-Assisted Self-Help in Patients With Metastatic Cancer

“…A threat must first be appraised as warranting change, with some awareness of the kinds of change needed. [48][49][50] The key variables determining what happens next are those clustered under what we have called "Willingness to initiate change," which includes 2 factors whose importance has been extensively described by Bandura 39 and Schwarzer 38 : the perceived ability to make appropriate changes and the outcomes expected from doing so. This motivational state is influenced by long-standing, trait-like qualities of the participant: in particular, their general flexibility or ability to act and change, versus their tendency towards defensiveness and trying to maintain the status quo.…”

Inventário de transições na carreira: estudo com profissionais graduados

“…Último fator inserido no modelo de transição do 4S são as Estratégias ou Estratégias de Enfrentamento ou coping strategies (Antoniazzi, Dell'Aglio, & Bandeira, 1998;Brammer, 1992;Pearlin & Schooler, 1978). Para descrever as estratégias de enfrentamento, Nancy…”

“…Perceber essa fase como uma mudança desafiadora é uma oportunidade de crescimento criativo. Um exemplo disso é um profissional que vê a empresa na qual trabalha em processo de reestruturação de pessoal e que, mesmo diante das tensões advindas de possível demissão, consegue enxergar nisso uma oportunidade de fazer o que sempre quis em sua carreira: deixar de ser empregado e abrir o seu próprio negócio (Brammer, 1992).…”

“…Para Brammer (1992), o tempo e a extensão das estratégias de enfrentamento diante das transições dependem de fatores mediadores, como: o significado da transição para a pessoa; a extensão do quão consciente está sobre a expressão de seus sentimentos sobre a transição; as experiências prévias de transições e o que aprendeu com elas; a disponibilidade de sistemas de suporte/apoio; o processo de counseling e as próprias habilidades de coping.…”

“…Estas habilidades são classificadas por Brammer (1992) Aqui é dado enfoque à avalição e ao estabelecimento de metas. A avaliação compreende um trabalho conjunto entre orientador e cliente para fazer um balanço entre forças e fraquezas do cliente em relação à situação da transição, ao self, ao suporte e às estratégias.…”