Compare of University Student's Working Memory, Flexibility and Problem Solving Levels in Selecting the Emotion-Focused Coping with Stress Strategies

This study were aimed to investigate the differences between working memory, flexibility and problem solving in four subgroup of emotion-focused coping with stress strategies (encounter, avoidance, dependence & continence). The sample size was 100 participants majoring in Humanitarian Science in BA selected from different universities in Tehran that were divided into four groups of 25. The sampling design was simple semi randomized style and participants were in the intermediate level of stress and anxiety. The research tools were depression, anxiety and stress inventory DASS-21, coping with stress inventory WOCQ and strop, N-Back and tower of London software tests to measure the flexibility, working memory and problem-solving. Results showed that the level of working memory and flexibility in learning the new matters were significantly low in encounter subgroup. Moreover the result postulated that the dependent subgroup was similar with encounter subgroup in cognitive impairments. The problem solving weakness is similar in the four subgroups. Findings of this study represent the people who apply the emotion-focused coping strategies are weak in working memory, flexibility and problem solving. Moreover, the encounter and dependence subgroups suffer from cognitive impairments more than the others.