Anticipatory coping

Lazarus and Folkman (1984) suggested that there are two coping strategies that people use to deal with stress. There are emotion-focused and problem-focused methods of coping. Another known as 'Anticipatory Coping' this method is stress and anxiety come with certain symptoms which might include physical responses, like a tightening of the stomach or shortness of breath. For example, if we anticipate a change, or we have sensitivity to dealing with crowds, then we might change our plan to avoid crowds. Because of this our stress levels will not increase. So, to improve our anticipation we need to gain information about what makes us stressed and developed a plan of action to help us deal with it once we have successfully anticipated it.