ABSTRACT
Recently, the domain of coping scholarship has experienced a signi cant growth in interest. Originally rooted in the early psychoanalytical work of Freud and others (Freud, 1946; Selye, 1956), coping research today exists as a diverse body of literature spanning several related, yet distinct disciplines, including social, clinical, counseling and developmental psychology, sociology and anthropology. In addition to the abundance of research entering the literature in recent years (cf. Aldwin, 1999; Folkman & Moskowitz, 2004; Schwarzer & Schwarzer, 1996, for reviews), consumer research has begun to build on these ndings expanding coping theoretical frameworks to include new variables and address pertinent consumer behavior phenomena (cf. Luce, Bettman, & Payne, 2001). Despite these noteworthy developments in recent years, many important implications of coping research have remained relatively unexplored. e goal of this chapter is to pro le the existing body of coping research and to highlight several areas of consumer research that would bene t from a more rigorous examination of coping theory. e chapter focuses on several streams of nascent consumer coping research and makes prescriptive recommendations for progress within these areas.
