Part 1 describes a way of thinking about coping that some psychologists have developed. A Psychological Analysis Of Coping Psychologists think of coping as something a person does when they are confronted with something stressful and they are trying to make the best of it. Coping, then, occurs in relation to a stressful event, and is an attempt to reduce stress. Almost anything can qualify as a stressful event. An event is stressful if it knocks us off of an even keel and changes or challenges us.
Stress can come from positive events as well as from negative ones.
Approach and Avoidance are abstract concepts that may be best described through the use of concrete examples. There are multiple different ways that our friend could react to his spouse's insult. He could think about that Ohio State game he has a bet on. In options 1-3, our friend demonstrates a variety of coping strategies that all involve Approaching the stressful situation and doing something with it. We can sense that worrying and denying are going to be completely ineffectual - largely because they don't really address the problem of the angry spouse at all.