Over the past two decades, Taylor (1983; Taylor & Brown, 1988) has explored the tendency of individuals to develop positive illusions in coping with stressful, or traumatic events. These illusions consist of unrealistic positive self evaluations, exaggerated perceptions of control or mastery, and unrealistic optimism. According to Taylor, illusions are important in accomplishing several tasks associated with successful adaptation, namely, search for meaning, regaining a sense of mastery, and restoring self-esteem through processes of social comparison. The purpose of the study was threefold: (a) to explore the construct of positive illusions (PI), (b) to explore employees' use of PI in coping with a stressful work event, and (c) to discover how PI, temporal distance, level of perceived stress, and a priming manipulation affect the type and frequency of inferences made while responding to items taken from a coping inventory. / The study was conducted in two phases. In Phase I, 209 nurses responded to a questionnaire which identified their level of PI, perceptions of occupational climate, and job satisfaction. They were also asked to describe a stressful work situation, and their appraisals and coping strategies used to manage the event. Results demonstrated that the PI construct for this population was best identified by enhanced self-perception, high dispositional optimism, and low internal locus of control. PI were associated with high self-efficacy for resolving the stressful event, appraisals of challenge, positive reappraisal and self-controlling coping, and the nonuse of escape-avoidance coping. / In Phase II, 36 nurses "high" and "low" in PI were assigned to two priming conditions. Nurses participated in a think-aloud procedure during which time they rated 16 coping items in relation to their previously identified work event and gave reasons for their ratings. After protocol analysis, results demonstrated that, (a) the type of prime used affected the consistency of recall even after controlling for temporal distance, and (b) positive illusions, prime, and time interact to produce significantly different patterns of self-statements and contextual inferences for the four groups. The results demonstrate that measures which rely on the recall of coping strategies need to be treated with considerable caution.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.36930 |
| Date | January 2000 |
| Creators | Freedman, Sandra. |
| Contributors | Dumont, Frank (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001808727, proquestno: NQ70023, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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