PSYCHOLOGY MASTER'S THESIS ABSTRACT

Rochelle Schwarz
MA-Research
December 1999

Consistency as a Moderator of the Relationship between Personality and Coping

    The intent of this research was to demonstrate the importance of consistency as a moderator of the relationship between personality and coping.  Using a measure of the “Big Five” personality traits and a measure of coping, 36 male and 74 female undergraduate psychology students were studied.  Inconsistent and consistent groups were formed on each of two criteria for consistency of coping style: general consistency measure and profile consistency measure.  It was hypothesized that stronger relationship between personality and coping would be found in the consistent groups.  However, correlational analyses showed personality traits in the consistent groups to have no greater predictive with regard to coping ability than in the inconsistent groups.  This was true for both the consistency groups general (defined by the respondents themselves) and profile (those defined by the experimenter).  Implications of these results for the role of personality in coping behavior are discussed.

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