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522 CHAPTER 12 Stress, Health, and CopingDancing in Central Park Katie will neverforget the events of that September dayor the weeks that followed. She still struggleswith the occasional nightmare, andcertain smells and sounds—smoke, sirens—can trigger feelings of panic and dread.But Katie persevered. After graduatingfrom a college dance conservatory, Katiemoved back to New York City, where she isa dancer, choreographer, and producer.Culture and Coping This young boy losthis legs in a devastating earthquake thatkilled almost 100,000 people in theSichuan province of southwest China. Withhis father’s encouragement and a new setof artificial legs, he is learning to walkagain. Do coping strategies differ acrosscultures? According to some researchers,people in China, Japan, and other Asiancultures are more likely to rely on emotionalcoping strategies than people in individualisticcultures (Heppner, 2008; Yeh& others, 2006). Coping strategies that areparticularly valued in collectivistic culturesinclude emotional self-control, gracefullyaccepting one’s fate and making the bestof a bad situation, and maintaining harmoniousrelationships with family members(Heppner, 2008; Yeh & others, 2006).ing weeks. As Fredrickson and her colleagues(2003) observed, “Amidst theemotional turmoil generated by the September11 terrorist attacks, subtle andfleeting experiences of gratitude, interest,love, and other positive emotions appearedto hold depressive symptoms atbay and fuel postcrisis growth.”Katie, too, was able to creativelytransform the meaning of her experience.As part of her application to a collegedance conservatory, she choreographedand performed an originaldance expressing sadness, fear, hope, andrenewal—all the emotions that she experienced on that terrible day. Her ability toexpress her feelings artistically has helped her come to terms with her memories.However, it’s important to note that there is no single “best” coping strategy.In general, the most effective coping is flexible, meaning that we fine-tune ourcoping strategies to meet the demands of a particular stressor (Cheng, 2003;Park & others, 2004). And, people often use multiple coping strategies, combiningproblem-focused and emotion-focused forms of coping. In the initial stagesof a stressful experience, we may rely on emotion-focused strategies to help usstep back emotionally from a problem. Once we’ve regained our equilibrium, wemay use problem-focused coping strategies to identify potential solutions.Culture and Coping StrategiesCulture seems to play an important role in the choice of coping strategies. Americansand other members of individualistic cultures tend to emphasize personal autonomyand personal responsibility in dealing with problems. Thus, they are lesslikely to seek social support in stressful situations than are members of collectivisticcultures, such as Asian cultures (Marsella & Dash-Scheuer, 1988). Members of collectivisticcultures tend to be more oriented toward their social group, family, orcommunity and toward seeking help with their problems.Individualists also tend to emphasize the importance and value of exerting controlover their circumstances, especially circumstances that are threatening or stressful(O’Connor & Shimizu, 2002). Thus, they favor problem-focused strategies, such asconfrontive coping and planful problem solving. These strategies involve directly changingthe situation to achieve a better fit with their wishes or goals (Wong & Wong, 2006).In collectivistic cultures, however, a greater emphasis is placed on controllingyour personal reactions to a stressful situation rather than trying to control thesituation itself. This emotion-focused coping style emphasizes gaining controlover inner feelings by accepting and accommodating yourself to existing realities(O’Connor & Shimizu, 2002).For example, the Japanese emphasize accepting difficult situations with maturity,serenity, and flexibility (Gross, 2007). Common sayings in Japan are “Thetrue tolerance is to tolerate the intolerable” and “Flexibility can control rigidity.”Along with controlling inner feelings, many Asian cultures also stress the goal ofcontrolling the outward expression of emotions, however distressing the situation(Johnson & others, 1995).These cultural differences in coping underscore the point that there is no formulafor effective coping in all situations. That we use multiple coping strategies throughoutalmost every stressful situation reflects our efforts to identify what will work bestat a given moment in time. To the extent that any coping strategy helps us identifyrealistic alternatives, manage our emotions, and maintain important relationships, itis adaptive and effective.