Abstract: Recent research indicated the important role of future-oriented coping in the area of stress management. However, the relationship between proactive coping and preventive coping, and their function mechanisms remain unclear. The present project is the first attempt to investigate the theoretical models of future-oriented coping from the pointcuts of time perspective and implicit cognition. This project consists of four parts: (1) Development of the sequential model of future-oriented coping in the context of job-hunting among university seniors; (2) Verification and generalization of the aforementioned model using implicit cognition in the context of university adjustment; (3) Examination the time discounting mechanisms in different stages of future-oriented coping using the Experimental Discounting Task; (4) Exploration of time discounting mechanisms of future-oriented coping using threatening and neutral faces as subliminal priming. The project provides evidences for the theoretical development of proactive coping and preventive coping and promotes their application in the field of mental health and education.

Key words: future-oriented coping, sequential model, time perspective, subliminal affective priming