Coping and purpose in life of patients with cardiac disease

A descriptive, correlational study was conducted to ascertain the relationship between coping and purpose in life of patients with cardiac disease. Frankl's (1963) concept of purpose in life and Lazarus' (1966, 1968) theory of cognitive appraisal and coping formed the framework for the study. The sample was a convenience sample comprised of 30 patients who were to undergo coronary vein graft surgery at one of two hospitals located in the Southern part of the United States.

The hypotheses of the study examined the relationships between the variables of coping, problem-oriented methods, affective-oriented methods, purpose in life, and Type A behavior pattern. Four instruments were administered. The instruments were Coping Scale (Jalowiec, 1979), Purpose in Life Test (Crumbaugh & Maholick, 1964), Short Rating Scale for Type A behaviors (Bortner, 1969), and researcher-developed Demographic Data Sheet.

The hypotheses were tested using the Spearman rank correlation coefficient. Results showed no significant relationship between use of coping methods and purpose in life scores. A significant relationship was found between the problem-oriented coping scores and Type A behavior scores (r(,s) = .3879, p = .017) and between purpose in life scores and Type A behavior scores (r(,s) = .4543, p = .006).