10.40. COPE Inventory (brief version)

10.40.1. History and guide

“The COPE Inventory was developed to assess a broad range of coping responses, several of which had an explicit basis in theory. The inventory includes some responses that are expected to be dysfunctional, as well as some that are expected to be functional. It also includes at least 2 pairs of polar­opposite tendencies. These were included because each scale is unipolar (the absence of this response does not imply the presence of its opposite), and because we think people engage in a wide range of coping during a given period, including both of each pair of opposites.

“The items have been used in at least 3 formats. One is a “dispositional” or trait­like version in which respondents report the extent to which they usually do the things listed, when they are stressed. A second is a time­limited version in which respondents indicate the degree to which they actually did have each response during a particular period in the past. The third is a time-­limited version in which respondents indicate the degree to which they have been having each response during a period up to the present. The formats differ in their verb forms: the dispositional format is present tense, the situational­-past format is past tense, the third format is present tense progressive (I am …) or present perfect (I have been …).” (Charles S. Carver, at http://www.psy.miami.edu/faculty/ccarver/sclCOPEF.html, accessed 2015-05-28.)

  • Carver CS (1997). You want to measure coping but your protocol’s too long: consider the brief COPE. Int J Behav Med 4: 92–100. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16250744.

  • Carver CS, Scheier MF, Weintraub JK (1989). Assessing coping strategies: A theoretically based approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 56: 267–283.

10.40.2. Source

10.40.3. Intellectual property rights

  • “You are welcome to use all scales of the COPE, or to choose selected scales for use (see below regarding scoring). Feel free as well to adapt the language for whatever time scale you are interested in. Be sure to adapt the instructions for completion, as well as the items themselves.” (Charles S. Carver, at http://www.psy.miami.edu/faculty/ccarver/sclCOPEF.html, accessed 2015-05-28).

  • “You are welcome to use all scales of the Brief COPE, or to choose selected scales for use. Feel free as well to adapt the language for whatever time scale you are interested in.” (Charles S. Carver, at http://www.psy.miami.edu/faculty/ccarver/sclCOPEF.html, accessed 2015-05-28).