Coping behaviour: correlates of survival on a raft

The seven survivors of a shipwreck, involving ten men, were interviewed within a few days of rescue. They had been floating in a rubber raft for 9 days and had thereafter been on an isolated rocky beach for four days. Three of the men walked through dense bush to obtain help. Rescue came on the thirteenth day. The purpose of the authors' examination was to identify those behaviours which the survivors reported as helping them to cope during their ordeal. The most prominent of these were attachment ideation, drive to survive, modelling, prayer and hope. Attachment behaviour is described in some detail as a most potent, but inadequately recognised coping behaviour.