Affiliations: Hochschule Magdeburg-Stendal (FH), Studiengänge
Rehabilitationspsychologie Diplom, B. Sc., M. Sc., Osterburger Straße 25,
39576 Stendal. E-mail: [email protected]
Abstract: This paper aims to give an overview of German psychodiagnostic
inventories measuring stress, coping, and coping with diseases. Until today,
the concepts and definitions of Lazarus' transactional stress model
serve as gold standard in coping research. It is well known that stress can be
a source of illness, and that illness can be a source of stress. Especially
from an interventional point of view, it is necessary to measure stress and
coping soundly in order to tailor intervention to the specific needs of the
patients. Therefore, several psychodiagnostic inventories were constructed to
measure stress, reactions to stress, and coping with illness. German
psychodiagnostic inventories are presented that investigate coping with stress
for different groups and scopes: adults, children and teenagers, global coping
questionnaires, and inventories for coping with diseases. A special focus is
given to test construction, application, normative data, reliability and
validity. Capability and limits of the actual coping research and its
translation to applied fields in medical, health and rehabilitation psychology
are discussed.
Keywords: Stress, coping with diseases, assessment, German language
