title: Coping and extreme response tendency in duodenal ulcer patients.
abstract: In this study we examined problem- and emotion-focused coping in samples of 30 duodenal ulcer (DU) patients and 30 matched healthy controls. Coping processes were assessed for two stressful situations, viz, an interpersonal conflict and a difficult task or job. The results indicated that DU patients and controls did not differ in terms of preferred coping strategies: irrespective of type of stressor, no differences were found between the two samples, neither in terms of a more general inclination toward problem- or emotion-focused coping, nor in terms of separate, more fine-grained coping mechanisms. Furthermore, rating extremity was studied in both samples. It was found that DU patients have a tendency to endorse extreme positive responses ("Very characteristic of me") more often than controls. The latter finding is discussed in terms of competing explanations: (a) higher polarizing tendencies of DU patients vs. (b) higher meaningfulness of the questionnaire items for DU patients. Specific directions for future research are described.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Tilburg University, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: G L
authors.initials: GL
authors.lastname: Van Heck
authors.forename: A J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Vingerhoets
authors.forename: G C
authors.initials: GC
authors.lastname: Van Hout
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D004381:Duodenal Ulcer / Q000523:psychology*; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010555:Personality Inventory; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000523:psychology*