An Empirical Study of the Interrelations Between Cognitive Style, Coping Strategies, and the Creative Component of Personality in the Context of Stress Management

Background: This article examines the interrelationships among cognitive style, coping behavior, and the creative dimension of personality within the framework of stress management.

Aims: This study focuses on the role of cognitive style, coping strategies, and the creative dimension of personality in overcoming stress.

Methods: This study involved a sample of 44 participants. The basic psychodiagnostic methods used were: the Personal Differential Method (A. & B. Pease) assesses whether an individual demonstrates an analytical-logical or emotional-intuitive type of thinking; the Questionnaire for Determining General Emotional Orientation (B. Dodonov) is used to assess the creative component of personality; the “Coping Strategies” Questionnaire by R. Lazarus allows for the assessment of the main forms of coping behavior that a person typically uses in stressful situations; the Gottschaldt Figures Test assesses the cognitive style parameter of field dependence/independence. Statistical analyses of empirical data and graphical presentation of results were conducted using the SPSS v.21.0 statistical software package. To verify the statistical significance of differences in cognitive style and the creative component in the context of stress management, the nonparametric Mann–Whitney U test and Kruskal–Wallis H test were applied.

Results: The influence of the cognitive style “field dependence/field independence” and creative components—specifically, “type of thinking” and “emotional orientation”—on respondents’ coping strategies for overcoming stress was analyzed. Through comparative analysis, it was found that 50% of male respondents demonstrated a creative type of thinking, while among female respondents, the distribution was as follows: 47.5% exhibited a creative thinking style, and 37.5% showed a mixed type of thinking. The influence of cognitive style and the creative component of personality on stress coping was analyzed. The results revealed that the creative component has a significant impact on the forms of coping behavior. In particular, emotional orientation significantly influenced the choice of coping strategies, whereas no significant correlation was found between coping behavior and an individual's type of thinking. Analysis of field-dependent/field-independent cognitive styles revealed that the majority of respondents, both male and female, exhibit a field-dependent cognitive style. It was also found that respondents who are neither employed nor enrolled in education, particularly those aged 21–30 and over 46, predominantly display a field-dependent style. The study of coping behavior among men revealed that the confrontational coping strategy is used by them exclusively as an adaptive mechanism. In contrast, for women, the levels of this strategy fall within the moderate to high range. A similar distribution was observed with respect to the location variable: respondents currently residing in Ukraine tended to employ more aggressive coping strategies.

Conclusion: The study demonstrated that the creative component of personality - specifically, emotional orientation - significantly influences the choice of coping strategies in stressful situations. Individuals with a stronger emotional orientation are more likely to use emotion-focused coping. In contrast, no significant link was found between type of thinking and coping behavior. A field-dependent cognitive style was more common among both male and female respondents, particularly among those not engaged in work or study. Gender and location differences were also identified: men tended to use confrontational strategies adaptively, while respondents living in Ukraine showed a greater tendency toward aggressive coping behavior. These results emphasize the role of individual psychological traits in shaping coping mechanisms.