Coping Profiles

ID 1—Blue (Healthy Coping)

ID1 primarily displays an agentic focus that emphasizes moving forward and overcoming adversity (ex. “confident in myself, sure of my strength, of my character, I keep pushing forwards”), regulates emotions effectively (ex. “You just have to fight through it and keep moving forward”), and interpersonal interactions that dominantly give support (ex. “I have always tried to help whoever in my family was dealing with it”). ID1 undergoes a change from passivity to overcoming across the first three phases (see a change in language from “we will see” to “and so you continue forwards”), in addition to a change in emotional regulation style from resigned to effectively coping (see a change in language from “my turn has arrived” and “sense of resignation” to “confident in myself, sure of my strength, of my character, I keep pushing forwards”). However, there is no displayed change in the dominant style of interpersonal relations: it remains giving support throughout the first three phases.

Overall emphasis on giving to others. Sense of maturity, composed.

ID 2—Red (Less Healthy Coping)

ID2 initially shows us a positive sense of agency in phase 1 (ex. “I am optimistic (with my own cancer)”), but quickly gives way to an all-encompassing sense of passivity and helplessness which dominates the remainder of the interview (ex. “I felt like things were going crazy, because this was the only time that I have been truly, truly, truly… how do you say it… powerless to do anything… to change the situation. That was the only time I was truly lost. Indeed, you could say that I was more lost then than I am now!”). They struggle to regulate their negative emotions (ex. “how do you fight it? What do you do? What do you know? It’s difficult.”) and both give help and receive help (ex. When you have children, you find yourself in situations which you… you wouldn’t want, but you fight for them, you understand?” and “But (my loved ones) have all helped me, my niece, my daughter, they manage to get through to you” respectively). We see no change in their style of emotional regulation; they consistently struggle to deal with negative emotions, and we only see their aforementioned change in sense of agency.

Overall struggles to deal with past and current trauma, but shows initial strength. The experience shifts them to a greater sense of resignation.

ID 3—Red (Less Healthy Coping)

ID 3 shows us a sense of agency that is dominantly passive (ex. “you have to just stay and wait… it is others who decide for you, you don’t have the power to decide about anything.”), dominantly displays a sense of resignation (ex. you face it but there is not much you can do), and experiences distress from many interpersonal interactions (ex. “Of course I didn’t have many points of reference (for how to cope with/address it), she is a weak and sick person and you accept it for what it is. But as a daughter I cannot count on her”). They display changes from phases 1 to 3 in agency and emotional regulation (see changes in language from “how is it possible that yesterday we were all alright, I was fine then, and now this happened” to “I have had to be strong and continue forwards” and from “how is it possible that yesterday we were all alright, I was fine then, and now this happened” to “you face it but there is not much you can do”).

Displays a commitment to endure in the face of adversity, despite its weight. Throughout all phases they display tension about agency, vacillating between a sense of powerlessness and a stoic commitment to endure and manage her adversity.

ID 6—Red (Less Healthy Coping)

ID6 shows an unchanging dominant sense of passivity and helplessness (ex. “ It has created so much suffering for me, and therefore (affected) my choices a bit”) and an emotional regulation style that starts resigned (ex. “I say “death is a part of life, why didn’t I just accept it?” I mean, I have accepted it but with so many consequences”) before moving to struggling (ex. “Like I already said there is the time in which I faced my mother’s illness, I cannot speak about it unfortunately”.). They have a dominant interpersonal relations style that changes from distancing (ex. “I showed myself to be very… let’s say I was “strong”) to giving (ex. “I went through the whole process with her from start to finish”).

ID 6 shows an ongoing struggle to leave behind past trauma.

ID 7—Red (Less Healthy Coping)

ID7 displays an unchanging agentic focus on endurance (ex. I try to be… confident that I can get through this, I don’t care if they have to take my breasts or if they do chemo to me, but I still want to be close to my children, and that’s all”) and an unchanging sense of distancing in regards to interpersonal relations (ex. Have tried to be strong and to not let others see my suffering”). They display an emotional regulation strategy that shifts from effectively coping to struggling (see a change in language from “I confronted (his diagnosis) with so much strength” to “I say this because my father wasn’t a talker and he didn’t say anything, he suffered in silence like I do”).

There is an emphasis on carrying weight alone and hiding pain inside.

ID 9—Red (Less Healthy Coping)

ID9 initially displays an initial agentic focus on endurance (ex. “Anyway you deal with it, the fear goes away”), but gives way to a dominant tendency towards passivity and helplessness (ex. “I have always been afraid of having to miss out on the (lives of) my two little girls, and it is all like a chain”) They also display an unchanging struggle to regulate negative emotions (see “and so there’s just so much fear, the predominant adjective for me is fear”). In addition, ID9 is primarily a giving person, and shows a deep commitment to their daughters (ex. “My mother was 40 years old when she died, and I will never do that to (my kids), I will never meet the same end”).

An emphasis on caring for their children coupled with an overwhelming fear to leave them behind.

ID 10—Red (Less Healthy Coping)

ID10 displays an unchanging passive and helpless nature (ex. “Eh I find myself today as someone who is nervous, I grind my teeth during the night and… I am not the same as I was before, I have changed”), an unchanging tendency to struggle with negative emotions (ex. “This is the strongest pain of my life…”), and an unchanging dominant interpersonal relations style of interaction distress (ex. “She does not give me the joy of living, the joy of living with this small grandson of mine, or with her (the granddaughter). Why do you have to be so mean? What have I done to you?”).

Painful anecdotes are used to communicate the trouble that ID10 is having coping with the experience of cancer.

ID 13—Blue (Healthy Coping)

ID13 displays an agentic focus on endurance (ex. At “first it was not easy, it was very hard, you do not expect your world to fall apart. I was already going to church (before this), but now I am attending a group and I am coping with life a bit better”), an unchanging emotional regulation strategy of denial (ex. “In my personal life… no. I don’t feel like… I don’t want to talk about it”), and an interpersonal relations style of faith in others and/or God (ex. “My faith has guided me… my faith has given me the strength to survive.”).

There is an emphasis on faith and a reluctance to confront, speak about, or recall specific painful experiences.

ID 15—Red (Less Healthy Coping)

ID15 possesses a sense of agency that is primarily passive and helpless (ex. “So in this case I was angry because I didn’t feel in control of my body”), but it changes to that from enduring (ex. “You continue on, without remorse, regrets, without much drama, that perhaps this is not the most serious thing”). They display an emotional regulation strategy that changes from resignation (ex. “I experienced it as a thing that just happened”) to become dominantly struggling (ex. “It was difficult to recover. In this case I became huge, and I found that even then I could not successfully react”). In addition, they display an interpersonal relations style that is defined by interaction distress (ex. “The return to work was incredibly difficult, as you are no longer considered a woman, but a mother.”), but that began as distancing.

Their experience is defined by a feeling of lack of control, and a sense that their efforts of denial are ineffective.

ID 16—Red (Less Healthy Coping)

ID16’s sense of agency is dominantly passive and helpless, and it does not change (ex. “When the phone rang, I was always filled with anxiety, because I was afraid that it would be the hospital calling with bad news, as it was such a precarious situation”). Their emotional regulation strategy is dominantly distraction and denial (ex. “I tried to not… to not think, that is how I am”), but over time she struggles to maintain her efforts at distancing and denial (ex. “Ultimately I feel dazed when I engage with these thoughts, and my mind wanders and it is chaos”). Her dominant style of interpersonal relations is distancing (ex. “Let’s say that I was always making myself strong, because my whole family was always busy”).

There is an emphasis on distancing herself from her painful experiences.

ID 17—Blue (Healthy Coping)

ID17 displays a sense of agency that is initially overcoming (ex. “I had a bit of a feeling like the earth had been pulled out from beneath my feet when… when he started to get sick, and then when he was gone… but fortunately, he gave the basics (life skills/insight) both to me, and to my sister, so that we could grow up”), and changes from this (ex. “I basically was responsible for it, because my mother wasn’t capable of it, and my sister is a little further away from these things, and so I took care of it, I tried to take this all on”) to passivity and helplessness (ex. “He did not have this same disease but anyways, essentially, he suffered greatly in his final phase of life, and I experienced (anxiety) very intensely in that period, similar to how I feel in this one”). It crosses the gamut of agency scores. They struggle regulating negative emotions (ex. “I never left him alone, I spent every night with him; it was a long and heavy journey”), but they initially displayed strength in the face of these emotions (ex. “Eh, as it came, day by day, I centered myself around the things that I had to do for him, I mobilized, I tried to do my best”). They display an interpersonal regulations style that is dominantly and firmly about giving to others (ex. “I was very close to my father, throughout the entirety of his illness”).

There is a huge emphasis on taking care of others, and growing in the face of trials and tribulations.

ID 22—Blue (Healthy Coping)

ID22 displays an agency that is initially passive and helpless in nature (ex. “There was a somewhat long period in which we found ourselves alone, me and both my brother and my sister”), but over time becomes more focused on strength and overcoming adversity (ex. “When the experience is yours personally, you manage to not lose strength”). In addition, she displays a coping strategy that is initially struggling (ex. “I have endured bad things but they could be resolved, I was the one who couldn’t understand”) but shifts to focus on marshaling her strength (ex. “When you are experiencing it on your own skin you can be stronger”), and an interpersonal relations style that is dominantly giving (ex. “But when you assist someone else who is sick it is more difficult”).

Over the four phases, there is a developing emphasis on keeping up her strength and not placing a burden on others. She is hardened by her prior experiences with illness in her family.

ID 24—Blue (Healthy Coping)

ID 24 displays an agency that shifts from enduring (ex. “Eh… with patience, you just keep moving forwards, unfortunately I couldn’t do anything about it, it is not the kind of thing that can be cured or operated on”) to passivity and helplessness (ex. “In contrast, this has been much more heavy, not so much with the surgery but with radiation, because I experience burning, fatigue, heaviness, everything… it burns, it hurts, and everything goes black”), but is ultimately dominantly overcoming in nature (ex. “And now, I am overcoming it too”). In addition, she ultimately shows that she can effectively cope with negative emotions (ex. “And now, I am overcoming it too”), but she begins as resigned (ex. “There is nothing to operate on, so there is really nothing that I could do”) and overtime shifts to struggling (ex. “No, no, no. No other experience. This has been so much more… serious”). Her dominant interpersonal relations style is faith in others or God (ex. “I went to the day hospital, they did it and then sent me home. I am always going to check how it is, and they say that it’s all fine”).

Over time she learns to cope with the difficult experience, and sees herself overcoming the difficulty.

ID 29—Blue (Healthy Coping)

ID 29 shows an agentic focus on endurance (ex. “Your world falls apart a bit, you feel that the years go by, though you always hope that things will go well even if it was not a good experience”) but one that shifts to an overcoming nature over time (ex. “I give myself courage, and I go on because that’s the way life is”). She effectively copes with negative emotions (ex. “I have always found strength for myself and others”), and in terms of interpersonal relations, she distances herself from others (ex. “I don’t have anybody and therefore I don’t feel like begging for attention”).

There is an overwhelming sense of individual strength, she is getting through cancer by herself. There is an emphasis on stoicism.

ID 31—Red (Less Healthy Coping)

ID 31 displays an agency that shifts from passivity and helplessness (ex. “In the meantime as I was waiting for the results”) to overcoming in nature (ex. “I have overcome multiple challenges in life”), but that is ultimately dominantly enduring (ex. “I have overcome so many challenges in my life, but these were manageable challenges overall… graduation, work… These were things in my power. In contrast, this disease has put me up against the uncontrollable, something that possesses you without giving you any power to take action, other than trusting my doctors and being a patient”). She displays an emotional regulation style that shifts from struggling (ex. “I lost so much weight because I was working so many shifts, even at night, and I was so thin and so stressed”) to effectively coping (ex. “I have earned all that I have, I have had other challenges and for better or for worse I have always managed to overcome them”), but that settles as resigned in its nature in phase 4 (ex. “Something that possesses you without giving you any power to take action”). Finally, her interpersonal relations style is defined by interaction distress (ex. “But she said this very calmly, like how I am talking now… she just threw these things in my face”).

There is a struggle here to trust others because of past negative interactions with medical personnel. Although she perceives herself as strong and agentic, the disease creates passivity.

ID 39—Red (Less Healthy Coping)

ID 39 may have blocked painful memories. She alludes to tough times with the death of her mother, but never elaborates. In addition, she says she does not remember anything (ex. “No, fortunately… with my mother I was so young (when she died) that I don’t remember anything. I was 5 years old when she died and I don’t remember anything”).

An emphasis on denial and distraction with regards to emotional regulation.

ID 50—Blue (Healthy Coping)

ID 50 displays an unchanging enduring sense of agency, and an emotional regulation strategy that is dominantly effectively coping (ex. “Well, with optimism, with the tranquility and optimism that is needed, of course, it is necessary, and then by trusting the doctors… and (those) who are working for you, that is very important, isn’t it?”). However, it shifts over time to distraction and denial in phase 3. In addition, she displays an interpersonal relations style that is dominated by expressing faith (ex. “Anyways, putting trust in a person, in a doctor, in a team that follows your case. And so (you trust that)…they combine the various things and then, they take the right…the right direction”).

The difficulty of confronting the cancer closes her off in phases 2 and 3, but she does express vulnerability again in phase 4.

Blue Code—healthier emotional processing and coping (seven participants)

Red Code—more problematic emotional processing and coping (10 participants)