Relationships Between IP Qualified Early
Memories and Specific Coping Mechanisms in Hungarian
University Students
Edit Ferencz
Ph.D.,
University of Veszprem, Dept.of Paedagogical Psychology,
Veszprem, Hungary
Janos Csorba M.D.,
Ph.D.,
Univ.of Sciences „Eotvos Lorant”,
Faculty of Special Education, Dept. of Peadagogical
Psychology,
Budapest
In the following lecture I would like to give a condensed
and brief summary of the consequences of the work carried
out by my collague Edit Ferencz’ Ph.D.This work is about the
relationships between memories from early life and some
characteristic coping mechanisms of the individuum.Her
contribution in approaching the inter-relationships of
recalled memories and individual coping mechanisms is unique
from three aspects, a) that early memories are regarded as
displays of individual life style identified by the IP
interview method of Victor Louis, b) the coping attitudes of
the subjects are measured by means of a new Psychological
Immune System test used by a leading Hungarian psychologist
Olah.This test is used with accordance to the modern
transactionalistic theory of Richard Lazarus about coping
dimensions, and finally, c) coping attitudes are analyzed
per memory elements as they emerged in memory vignettes and
identified by means of the IP interview.
Alfred Adler is presumably a remarkable forerunner of the
modern coping theory as his worldview and work on clarifying
one’s life style has several implications related to the
coping research. Courageous vs. threatened life style of
pupils, compensative work of psychical structure to overcome
somatic and psychical deficits, transgression, social
interest etc. are fragments from his classical work towards
the development of a future coping theory.Up until now there
are only a few studies dealing with the classical theory of
Adler from a modern coping perspective. To understand the
dimensionalised approach of Lazarus, let us have a short
look on the first slide. Lazarus established 15
separate scales of the Psychological Immune System, each
representing a discrete domain of mechanism or of effort
individuals attempt to use in order to fight the
consequences of stressful situations that have exceeded the
resources of the person. The term „optimism” does not need
clarification, Self-coherence means that one requires
understanding of him/herself and that external events occur
for him/her as they expect. Self-control means, that one
really controls his/her life further, „respect of Self”
focuses on that, that one likes to honour, care, manage and
nurture him/herself physically and spiritually. The coping
potential dimensions have 3 branches, the resource
management encompasses the monitoring, mobilising and the
creating of internal resources, that is, we are sensitive
and flexible towards changes in the surrounding world, we
are able to actualise our learned abilities and we have
creativity to overcome stressful situations. The column
social competence refers to abilities to monitor, mobilise
and create external, social resources in order to fight new
demands. Finally the Self-regulation factor covers such
qualities as to remain in synchrony with and continual
tracking of aims in order to control ourselves emotionally,
to control our impulsivity and to maintain a high level of
frustration tolerance.
On the slide 2. it is easy to read the hypotheses,
the aims and the design of the study. The research assumes,
that memories refer not only to the Unconscious as Freud had
thought originally, but has much to do with the life style
of the individual mirroring the functions of their character
in conjunction with his/her coping strategies. Lots of
differences are expected relating to coping mechanisms if
subjects with positive, effective, acquisitive life style
are compared with and contrasted by clients having less
effective life style characteristics.
144 teacher students were enrolled in the study with the
mean age of 23 years. The study process had 3 independent
procedures. The procedures were perfected independently, as
it was important to avoid the influence of one study phase
on another. It was imperative that the expectations of
researchers should not have an impact on the production of
the subjects. In the first phase students were asked to
choose one recalled typical memory containing some important
familial or individual events of the subject from his/her
early life. In the second phase the memory text was examined
with the help of aspects from Victor Louis’ interview method
identifying discrete elements and qualifying them as
reflecting either positive or negative life style events.
Because of time pressure we are not in the position to
present the interview method of Louis here to its full
extent. Allowing for this 2 groups were created for each
comparison. It can be seen on slide 3., five aspects
were used in estimating the memory text: Activity of Self,
presentation of Self, quality of emotions experienced in
memory process, changes of feelings from negative to
positive ones and vice versa, and finally, positive or
negative qualities attributed to mother and sibling(s) that
emerged during the memories. In the third separate process,
subjects were investigated using items from the
Psychological Immune System test, --3 items referred to each
coping dimension scale creating a comparable mean value in
each column.
With 2 dropout students, data of 142 subjects were used in
the statistical workout. Means of dichotomic variables were
compared by means of one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA)
with Levene homogeneity test of variance. If Levene test was
significant, the results of ANOVA had to be rejected.
On the following slides you see the differences in
the coping aspects of the 2 groups contrasted by important
memory elements. Participants of group I. identified with
positive life style characteristics in collected memories
were more likely to use (5.slide) successful impulsivity and
frustration control, (6.slide) an optimistic attitude to
life, to seek contacts for his/her own interest, and to
persist in tracking a task. The subjects of the first group
were more likely (7.slide) to respect him/herself and to
have realistic feelings of control over his/her life.
However, related to the management of internal resources,
some interesting unexpected results had been found. Subjects
of group II. had an increased level (8.slide) in coping
factors, such as the skill to mobilise and create some
learned or internal abilities and moreover, group II had
been more successful in synchronising the subjects to the
changes of external demands.
As you see on the slides, we found in 8 scales of 15,that
there is a significant difference in more than half of the
scale due to the abilities of group I. Commenting the
results (9.slide) the number of significant items are less
than expected, but the mechanisms found seem specific ones.
We need to pay attention to the fact that dream vignettes
are too short to place or represent each coping aspect in
their full spectrum. It is striking that, the greater the
ability for comparisons, frustration tolerance, optimism,
and a good ability to make social contacts seem to reflect
on the individuals having a vivid and acquisitive life
style. Thus, we were able to demonstrate some specific
coping mechanisms by contrasting two groups having two
different life styles in the comparisons.
Focusing on the mechanisms those group
members who have an unfavourable life style preference, it
is striking that mobilisation and creation of internal
resources and self-syndronization to external aims show us,
that these individuals rely primarily on internal resources.
These tools do not belong to the scale of social competence.
According to the Louis
interview we can regard these coping strategies as being of
a presumably higher compensatory nature. These subjects may
exert efforts to treat possible harm reflected in negative
memories towards to mother or siblings. The striking use of
such psychological factors may mirror the lack of social
contacts in the life of the subject.
Adlerian theory of Life style has been confirmed by the
coping theory. It seems wise to combine life style research
with coping studies in the future. The investigation of
early memories may be a fruitful place of research in order
to approach the study of life style as it refers to the
attitudes of individuals by avoiding the usual control of
consciousness. When viewing the pathways of how the coping
strategies influence the memory process we must be careful
to make global impressionistic statements. Probably, there
are several indirect psychological ways that coping exerts
impact on memory functions, significant associations
documented here do not mean direct contacts between the
level of coping and memory process.
Copyright ©
2005 International Association of Individual
Psychology
