This project is concerned with the personality disposition of openness to experience and its relation to coping styles. One study examined the relation between openness and Eysencks' measure of psychoticism. Because both openness and psychoticism were originally conceived as complements to the personality dimensions of neuroticism and extraversion, Eysenck hypothesized that openness was the opposite of psychoticism, and that a substantial negative correlation should be found between measures of the two constructs. However, data from 451 men and women, aged 24 to 96, showed no significant correlation between openness and psychoticism, and suggested that psychoticism was better identified as the opposite pole of the two dimensions of agreeableness and conscientiousness. A second study examined major dimensions of coping efforts. Scores for the use of 27 coping mechanisms were factored in two samples of men and women, and two replicated factors were found. The first, labeled Neurotic coping, was defined by such coping mechanisms as hostile reaction and self-blame, and was associated with lower psychological well-being. The second, Mature coping, included rational action, perseverance, and positive thinking, and was associated with increased well-being.
