Coping & Stress Management Skills Test - Sample report
Overall Results 62
Stress is part of life. A death in the family, the birth of a baby, moving, taking a vacation, getting a job promotion, arguing...all of these common occurrences are stressful. Since stress can't be excised from the life experience, it is very important to learn how to deal with it.
Research shows that it isn't necessarily the nature of the stressor that drives people to dizzying heights of fist-clenching, jaw-grinding, cold-sweating states of stress and panic. The key factor is one's response to a stressful situation. People vary in the way they respond to stress. For instance, one person may calmly face moving day, while another person (in the exact same situation) might be totally wiped out by the stress that moving induces. So the ability to manage the stressors that bombard us daily is of the utmost importance.
Stress manifests itself physically. When facing a stressor, your body responds by switching into "fight or flight" mode. Physiologically, your body is ready to deal with the perceived danger (the stressor). Your blood pressure goes up, heart and respiration rate increase, and hormones such as adrenaline are released. The muscles become tensed (some people clench their jaw), along with the formation of headaches, back pain, stomach aches (ulcers become exacerbated), bad skin and the inability to concentrate. Extremities become cold as blood is kept in the central part of the body. The immune system is weakened (since your body is concentrating on dealing with the stressor) and you become very susceptible to colds, flus, cold sores, cankers, etc. Stress erodes away sexual function also. Evidently stress is a very real and potentially uncomfortable component of life.
We should view stress in much the same way as we view the weather. Although we might not be pleased with a rainy day, there is not much to be done about it. We continue to go about our business in full acceptance of the rain. To deal with it we take an umbrella, wear a raincoat and maybe even rubber boots. Maybe we change our plans a little so as to spend less time outdoors. The best way to battle stress is to deal with it in much the same way. Instead of trying to fight against stressful situations or make them go away, the best bet is to learn how to work with and around them.
Overall Results
Problem-Focused Coping
Emotion-Focused Coping
Negative Coping Methods
Overall Results
When dealing with stress in your life, you tend to use more effective, healthy strategies than unhealthy ones. This leaves you better equipped to deal with the negative emotional, psychological, and physical impact of stress. Try practicing the healthy stress management techniques you do use more often so that they become more of a habit. Review the advice section for more details.
Problem-Focused Coping
Problem-focused strategies, although not particularly effective when dealing with situations that cannot be removed or controlled, can be quite useful when the stressor you are facing is changeable. Your results indicate that you often use these strategies in order to cope with stress. It's important to realize that in certain circumstances, it is to your advantage to take action to modify or take charge of a stressor in order to better cope with it. Here are your results on the different types of problem-focused strategies:
- On a fairly regular basis, you use problem solving as a method of coping with stressors in your life, making concrete plans to try to improve or resolve your situation.
- You often turn to seeking out information to help you cope with stress. Doing some research can help you deal with a stressful situation by letting you know what to expect, to understand why the circumstances have occurred, and help you discover solutions.
- Negotiation is a major part of your coping repertoire. This can include compromising with other people when in a stressful conflict situation, or adjusting your behavior, attitudes, or thinking style in order to adapt to the situation at hand.
Emotion-Focused Coping
Emotion-focused coping is a very valuable strategy when dealing with stressors that you can't change or control, and most importantly, the emotional impact that they can have. The fact that you don't use these techniques very often can make it very difficult for you to deal with the feelings that often arise in tough situations. Negative emotions can make a stressful situation seem all the more overwhelming, which makes it worth the effort to practice these techniques more often. Here are your results on the different types of emotion-focused strategies:
- You sometimes actively seek out emotional support from others when under stress. Trusting others can help you feel less alone, and provide you with new perspectives on your problem.
- You often utilize positive cognitive restructuring as a part of your coping repertoire. It can be useful to reframe your thinking and find the hidden benefits or lesson of a problem.
- You are sometimes able to regulate your emotions when you are under stress, at least to a degree. Learning how to relax even in stressful times and finding other outlets for emotions can help you feel less tense and think more clearly.
- You sometimes try to distract yourself from stressful situations. While to completely avoid thinking about your hardships is not smart, sometimes it can really help to get your mind off things.
Negative Coping Methods
You may have used negative coping strategies on the rare occasion, but it's not a typical stress management technique for you. Keep in mind that "empty" strategies, besides being rather ineffective, can actually make stressful situation worse. Although they may provide a little relief in the short-term, negative coping strategies will almost always have repercussions. Here are your results on the different types of negative coping strategies:
- You have a great deal of trouble controlling your thoughts when you are under stress. Ruminating on a problem to such a degree can lead to depression or other mental health issues, and make a stressful situation more of a challenge.
- You rarely, if ever, deliberately avoid facing your problems. While it is not always possible to totally overcome a major stressor, dealing with it head on provides a sense of control and purpose.
- You rarely avoid social contact when feeling stressed. This is helpful because being around others more often can help buffer the effects of stress.
- When pressures in your life abound, you sometimes lash out at others. While it can be forgiven every once in a while, people may not be so forgiving if you make it a habit.
Strengths
- You often use problem-focused coping methods
- You rarely, if ever use negative coping methods
Potential Strengths
- Overall, the methods you use to cope with stress are relatively healthy
Limitations
- You seldom, if ever, use emotion-focused coping methods
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