ABSTRACT
This chapter explores specific personality traits and coping followed by how coping-personality research has been 'reinvigorated' by the adoption of a more 'unified framework' for exploring personality described as the five-factor personality model or simply the Big Five. Despite the presence of alternatives the 'Big Five' model is generally accepted as providing a unifying framework for the study of personality. M. Vollrath also reports on the relation between the 'Big Five' and in this case the use of problem- and emotion-focused coping. A number of factors helped to usher in a third generation of research linking personality to coping. The utility of a taxonomic or structural approach rests on the way personality traits are systematically, completely and economically classified and on the 'essence of structure' as portrayed by patterns of covariation. Measuring and classifying coping strategies present researchers with a number of challenges.
