Acting in advance to deal with an expected change or difficulty
Frequency
Pronounced as (IPA)
/pɹəʊˈæk.tɪv/
Etymology
From pro- + active; originally coined 1933 by Paul Whiteley and Gerald Blankfort in a psychology paper, used in technical sense. Used in a popular context and sense (courage, perseverance) in 1946 book Man’s Search for Meaning by neuropsychiatrist Viktor Emil Frankl, in the context of dealing with the Holocaust, as contrast with reactive.