As one of the FIRO Awareness Scales, the Coping Operations Preference Enquiry (FCPE - formerly known as COPE) measures preferences for certain defensive or coping mechanisms. Scales include: Denial, Isolation, Projection, Regression, and Turning-Against-Self. There are separate forms for men and women.
Schutz (1977) used the FCPE to derive two major defense mechanisms which were correlated with administrator effectiveness: projection and denial. The findings are provocative. The trends indicate that projectors will perform badly in all district types while deniers will perform well in small districts. Projection is a hostile defense mechanism which elicits negativity. Denial, however, while leading to possible failures in recognition of problems, still enables the denier to maintain an image of inoffensive, unruffled competence.
Copyright © 1978 by Consulting Psychologists Press, Inc.
Features of the FCPE
Purpose: Measure preferences for certain defensive or coping mechanisms
Length: 6 items
Average completion time: 10 minutes
Target population: Adults
Administration For individual or group administration
Uses of the FCPE
Scales
Denial
Isolation
Projection
Regression
Turning-against-self
From the Manual
"Five coping or defense mechanisms are measured. These were selected as representative of all coping mechanisms following an extensive analysis of the various devices described in the psychological literature. Each coping mechanism is defined as a technique for not dealing directly with an unacceptable feeling of the following type: “I experience a feeling toward you that I find unacceptable (such as, ‘I hate mother’).” Each coping mechanism, in some way, alters or distorts either the subject (I), the feeling, or the object (you)."
--Will Schutz, Coping Operations Preference Enquiry Manual
"The following questionnaire is designed to see how you would guess certain kinds of people might feel in various situations. Several situations are described here by a person who has observed an incident. You are to guess which of the five alternatives best describes the way the person in the story feels. In the space beside each choice, rank your guesses: Place a 1 beside that alternative you feel is most likely, a 2 beside the one next most likely, down to 5 for the alternative least likely to apply in the situation."
EXAMPLE: Harassed Harry
___3___ a. He's not worried.
___1___ b. (most likely) He doesn't feel this has much to do with how he acts.
___2___ c. He feels that this is because other people expect him to.
___5___ d. (least likely) He feels he may act too strongly towards others, but with help from someone more experienced, he could change.
___4___ e. He feels that the fault of other people's actions lies completely with himself and no one else.