Journal of Traumatic Stress, Vol. 10, No. 3, 1997 The Effects of Stressor Type on Projected Coping Jeffrey P. Bjorck1,2 and Lisa L. Klewicki1 Previous analog research (Bjorck & Cohen, 1993), in which Caucasian college students' projected coping responses to major stressors differed as a function of stressor type (threat, loss, or challenge), was replicated with an ethno- culturalfy diverse sample. Because Bjorck and Cohen's findings might have been confounded by participants' prior life experiences and/or differing perceptions of event controllability, these two dimensions were also assessed. Even after statistically controlling for these two potential confounds, however, projected coping again differed as a function of stressor type. Effects of both controllability and prior experience were also found. Results are discussed in terms of their application to coping processes in general and to coping with trauma in particular. Much of the coping literature has been influenced by Lazarus and Folkman's (1984) appraisal and coping theory, which suggests that coping involves the ongoing transaction between a person and his/her environment. Lazarus and Folkman define coping as ". . . constantly changing cognitive and behavioral efforts to manage specific external and/or internal demands that are appraised as taxing or exceeding the resources of the person ..." (p. 141). They further distinguish between problem-focused coping, which emphasizes controlling or altering the present problem which is causing distress, and emotion-focused coping, which focuses on the regulation of emotional response to the present problem. A variety of empirical studies 1Graduate School of Psychology, Fuller Theological Seminary. 21b whom all correspondence should be addressed at 180 North Oakland Avenue, Pasadena, California 91101. KEY WORDS: stress; coping; trauma. 481 0894-9867/97/0700-0481$12.50/l C 1997 International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies