Graduate student styles for coping with stressful situations

To examine the types of stressful situations graduate students encounter and to delineate styles of coping with these situations, stressful experiences were elicited from 15 graduate students and 5 faculty members at a midwestern university. A 2nd set of 34 students reacted to these resulting 26 situations which were broadly grouped in 3 areas (anxiety, anger and rejection). A 3-mode factor analysis of Ss Ss * Responses * Situations revealed 2 types of graduate students who differed in coping styles to stressful situations. 1 type was progressing well in graduate school and responded to all types of stressful situations with anxiety. The less competent students responded by blaming themselves for academic failure situations, while blaming others for interpersonal failure. In situations for which there was not clear source of blame, they were extremely nonanxious. Results are discussed in the context of current situational assessment techniques. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved).