Please feel free to adapt the instructions as needed for your application. I do not generally do that in my own use of the scales. There is no such thing as an overall score on this measure, and I recommend no particular way of generating a dominant coping style for a give person. I generally look at each scale separately to see what its relation is to other variables. If you decide to do that, I recommend that you use your own data to determine the composition of the higher-order factors.
Different samples exhibit different patterns of relations.
These items deal with ways you've been coping with the stress in your life since you found out you were going to have to have this operation. There are many ways to try to deal with problems. These items ask what you've been doing to cope with this one. Obviously, different people deal with things in different ways, but I'm interested in how you've tried to deal with it. Each item says something about a particular way of coping.