Date of Award

2002

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Psychology

Abstract

Despite evidence supporting epistemic style as an influential personality factor in a variety of behaviors, the relevance of epistemic style in coping behavior has yet to be explored. Using Royce's model of epistemic style (Royce & Powell, 1983) and Lazarus' relational model of coping (Lazarus, 1999), the purpose of this study was to investigate differences in coping behavior based on epistemic style. Participants were 90 first-year undergraduate students residing in three freshman residence halls of a mid-sized, state university located in the Mid-Western U.S. Coping behavior was assessed using the Ways of Coping Questionnaire (Folkman & Lazarus, 1988) and epistemic style was assessed using the Psycho-Epistemological Profile (Royce & Mos, 1980). Based on dominant epistemic style, mean coping scores were compared using a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA). The MANOVA was not statistically significant. The author offers several explanations for the findings as well as recommendations for future studies.

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