How does social complexity facilitate coping flexibility? The mediating role of dialectical thinking

ABSTRACT

Background and objective

Past research has shown that worldviews can influence coping strategies but coping is often regarded as a stable person-based behavioral characteristic. The present research aims to examine how one component of worldviews – social complexity – influences the flexibility of coping strategies across situations.

Design

In two cross-sectional studies and one prospective study, we tested a mediation model in which the perceived complexity of the social world (i.e., social complexity) predicted coping flexibility through dialectical thinking.

Results

Across three studies, social complexity consistently facilitated dialectical thinking, which in turn fostered the cross-situational flexibility of coping strategies at a single time point and over 12 months.

Conclusions

Believing in complex causes of phenomena and multiple solutions to problems facilitates a cognitive style of viewing issues from multiple perspectives and tolerating contradictions, which are conducive to the flexible evaluation and implementation of effective strategies to cope with problems. Theoretical and practical implications of the present research are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Worldview
• social complexity
• dialectical thinking
• coping flexibility
• social axioms

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The contribution of the second author was supported in part by the Departmental General Research Grant [P0014017] and the Faculty Collaborative Research Scheme (P0030960) from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.