Handout 3 (Slide #22):
Normal Coping
Before crisis team members consider specific crisis prevention, preparedness,
response, and recovery strategies, they must understand the primary goals of crisis
intervention and be knowledgeable about the range of crisis responses that school crisis
teams provide.
The primary goal of school crisis intervention is to help restore the crisis-exposed
student’s basic problem-solving abilities and in doing so to return them to their precrisis
levels of functioning (Sandoval & Brock, 2009). Given this perspective, it is important
for crisis team members to understand the basic elements of so-called normal coping.
A useful framework for understanding what normal coping is has been offered by Moos
and Billings (1984), who offer a taxonomy of coping skills organized into three domains,
each with three skills.
A Taxonomy of Normal Coping
Coping Domain
Coping Skill
Appraisal-focused:
Understand the crisis in a productive manner
1.
2.
3.
1.
2.
3.
1.
2.
3.
Problem-focused:
Confront the crisis reality
Emotion-focused:
Manage crisis reactions and regulate emotions
Logical analysis and mental preparation
Cognitive redefinition
Cognitive avoidance or denial
Information and support seeking
Problem-solving action
Identification of alternative rewards
Affective regulation
Emotional discharge
Resigned acceptance
Note. Source “Conceptualizing and Measuring Coping Resources and Processes,” by R. Moos & A.
Billings, 1984, in L. Goldberger & S. Breznitz (Eds.), Handbook of Stress: Theoretical and Clinical
Aspects, pp. 109–145, New York: Macmillan.
The first coping domain, appraisal-focused, involves the crisis-exposed individual
rationally thinking through and preparing for crisis event consequences (logical analysis
and mental preparation), possibly reframing the event (cognitive redefinition), and in
some cases, mentally maintaining the event at a distance until he or she is physically
and emotionally ready to address it (cognitive avoidance or denial). It is important to
acknowledge that this last appraisal-focused skill has important implications for crisis
intervention. Specifically, it suggests that such intervention must be sensitive to the
possibility that not all school community members will be immediately ready to confront
crisis facts.
The second coping domain, problem-focused, involves the crisis-exposed individual
assertively striving to identify crisis facts and support systems (seeking information and
support), initiating efforts to address crisis-generated problems (taking problem-solving
action), and adjusting relationships and activities so that there are substitutes for
resources removed by the crisis event (identifying alternative rewards).
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The third and final domain, emotion-focused, involves the crisis-exposed individual
managing the emotions generated by the crisis event (affective regulation), venting
feelings in a way that brings some relief (emotional discharge), and cognitively
attempting to respond to the problem by accepting it (resigned acceptance).
References
Moos, R., & Billings, A. (1984). Conceptualizing and measuring coping resources and processes. In L.
Goldberger & S. Breznitz (Eds.), Handbook of Stress: Theoretical and Clinical Aspects (pp. 109–
145). New York: Macmillan.
Sandoval, J., & Brock, S. E. (2009). Managing crisis: Prevention, intervention, and treatment. In C. R.
Reynolds, & T. B. Gutkin (Eds.), The handbook of school psychology (pp. 886-904). New York:
Wiley.
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