| Research has demonstrated that positive emotions are valuable since they can undo the aftereffects of negative emotions (Fredrickson & Levenson, 1998). This thesis aims to determine which coping styles will predict positive affect when an individual experiences life stress. In this study, 229 San Jose State University (SJSU) undergraduate psychology students were sampled. The participants were issued a survey containing the Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SSRS; Holmes & Rahe, 1967) in order to measure life stress, portions of the Ways of Coping Questionnaire (WOC: Folkman & Lazarus, 1988) to measure problem-focused coping, and the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS; Watson, Clark. & Tellegen, 1988) to measure affect. Findings indicated that problem-focused coping (PF-coping) predicted positive affect regardless of the level of life stress. Secondly, moderate levels of life stress and PF-coping predicted positive affect more than any other stress level. Finally, level of life stress moderated the relationship between PF-coping and positive affect. |
