exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. The exploratory factor analysis identified two factors with eigenva-
lues over 1, with the vigilance items mapping on to one factor, and the cognitive avoidance items mapping on to
the other factor. The confirmatory factor analyses showed that a two-factor model had good fit for the North
American sample, but failed to meet the criteria for good fit for the German sample. The misfit for the German
sample was rectified by allowing the residuals of ‘dentist’ and ‘flight’ to covary, as in Krohne et al. (2000) .
Criterion/Predictive
The MCI has been found to predict emotion regulation and health outcomes in medical contexts ( Krohne &
Egloff, 2005 ). Vigilance was associated with greater negative affect ( r5.18), lower self-esteem ( r52.19), and
higher neuroticism ( r5.34). On the other hand, avoidance predicted less negative affect ( r52 .41), greater posi-
tive affect ( r5.32), better self-esteem ( r5.26), and lower neuroticism ( r52 .43), marking it as a useful emotion
regulation strategy in these contexts. However, vigilance was positively associated ( r5.27) and avoidance nega-
tively associated ( r52 .25) with symptom reporting. As a result, vigilant individuals may be less happy than
avoidant individuals, but also more likely to receive treatment for potentially life-threatening illnesses.
The MCI also predicted self-reported and physiological stress reactions in a sample of patients awaiting sur-
gery ( Krohne, 1989 ). Individuals high in both vigilance and avoidance (unsuccessful copers) showed the most
subjective and objective levels of stress, while individuals low in both dimensions (flexible copers) showed the
lowest levels of stress.
Location
Krohne, H., Egloff, B., Varner, L., Burns, L., Weidner, G., & Ellis, H. (2000). The assessment of dispositional
vigilance and cognitive avoidance: Factorial structure, psychometric properties, and validity of the Mainz Coping
Inventory. Cognitive Therapy & Research, 24 , 297/C0311. doi: 10.1023/A:1005511320194.
Results and Comments
The MCI has been used to investigate reactions to a number of threatening life events. For example, the mea-
sure has been used to test how people cope with the stress of surgery ( Krohne, Heinz, Kleeman, Hardt, &
Thesen, 1990 ), high-stakes athletic competitions ( Krohne & Hindel, 1988 ), exposure to threatening health commu-
nications ( Nestler & Egloff, 2012 ), reactions to media violence ( Krahe, Moller, Berger, & Felber, 2011 ), and aca-
demic performance ( Krohne, 1993; Krohne & Hock, 1993 ). In general, cognitive avoidance has been found to be a
particularly effective strategy in achievement situations; individuals who scored high in cognitive avoidance
tended to outperform those who scored low on this dimension, or high in vigilance, in the athletic and academic
stress situations. This echoes findings with the conceptually similar monitoring subscale of the MBSS ( Miller,
1987), which suggest that cognitive vigilance may ultimately prove to be a maladaptive and stressful coping strat-
egy in situations of extreme or chronic stress.
Krohne’s theory proposes that the environment plays an important role in successful coping, and the degree to
which people are enabled by the environment to use their coping strategies of choice. For example, in one test of
this logic Krohne (1993) found that repressors and sensitizers performed equally well on an academic test when
provided with structured instructions on the content of the test (‘structured preparation’). However, sensitizers
were impeded and repressors facilitated in their performance when given no information about the content that
would be tested (‘unstructured preparation’). Accordingly, it is important to consider how people’s dispositional
coping styles may result in adaptive or maladaptive coping depending on the situation. This theorizing repre-
sents an example of the kind of attempt to synthesize research on dispositional and situational coping that we
called for in the introduction of this chapter.
The two dimensions of vigilance and cognitive avoidance provide a useful framework with which to catego-
rize reactions to stressful events. However, the MCI as a measure does suffer from some limitations. As with the
MBSS, the instrument relies on hypothetical scenarios to measure dispositional reactions to stress. Some research-
ers have criticized this type of measurement as lacking ecological validity (e.g., Muris & Schouten, 1994; Steptoe,
1989) and as a sub-optimal way of measuring people’s actual coping style.
It can also be noted that within the vigilance subscale there are both measures of rumination (self-pity, recal-
ling negative information) and more problem-focused responses (planning, information search). Similarly, within
the avoidance measure there are measures of self-enhancement and denial as well as reappraisals such as focus-
ing on one’s own efficacy and on the positive aspects of the situation. The dimensions thus reflect considerable
diversity in coping methods. As a broader philosophical point, the measure focuses on the absence of pathologi-
cal coping strategies rather than the presence of functional coping strategies. Other measures of coping take a330 12. MEASURES OF COPING FOR PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING
III. EMOTION REGULATION