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SELF-ASSESSMENT “Normally
we do not so much look at things as overlook them.” - Alan Watts Real People, Real Stories SELF
ASSESSMENT Several years ago author Richard
Carlson created a very catchy title for his best-selling book, Don't Sweat
the Small Stuff…It
Is All Small Stuff. He offered
some important advice for our over-stressed society. We need to step back and
relax. That is great advice. The problem is, not all stuff is small stuff.
Some things are worth sweating over. The tricky part is determining what is
really important and worthy of your energy and what is the “small stuff” that
causes needless worry and decreases the quality of your life. One of the great challenges for
successful stress management is determining what it is that causes you
stress. A certain level of stress can energize and motivate you to deal with
the important issues in your life. You want to focus your energy on those
things in your life that are truly important. How do you determine what
factors are causing unnecessary stress? Is my stress level normal? These are important questions we will answer in this
chapter. Where Are You
Now? How do you
assess stress? How do you measure stress? In this chapter, you will find a
variety of tools to help assess your stress. Some of these tools are simple
and fun. Some are more scientific and complex. Each of them has been selected
to increase your understanding of stress in your life. Each of these tools
will provide information that you can use to develop a stress management
program that works for you. The first step in developing a plan is
assessment. Assessing where you stand right now is critical to making
progress in achieving a balanced life. As Alan Watts stated in our chapter
quote, “Normally we do not so much look at things as overlook them.” This
quote contains real truth. You may be so busy living your life that you don't
take time to stop and assess. You just keep doing what you are doing. There is not
one best tool for assessing stress, in part because reactions to events vary
from person to person. What absolutely frazzles one person may excite and positively challenge
another. Research supports the idea that it is not the actual stress that
matters most, but our ability to control how we perceive and react to the
situation that contributed to the stress. External events do not cause
stress; how we perceive and cope with them does. It is important to know
that the information you gain from the assessments
in this chapter is for you to take and use as it seems relevant to you and
your life. These assessments and surveys are not intended to be diagnostic,
but only to guide you in understanding yourself better. Taken together you
will discover an overall picture of your current stress status. This
will help you decide where you want to go and how you can get there. Begin with a few simple, yet informative,
measures of potential stress. Using the Assess
Stress Table, fill in your response for each item based on the instructions
following the table. Assess Stress
Table
Resting Heart Rate Breathing Pattern Try this second technique to see if
you get the same results. First, breathe out and empty your lungs. Count to
three as you inhale deeply. Now, hold it. Did your shoulders go up? Did you
feel like the air filled the upper part of your lungs? If so, you probably
lean toward chest breathing. If you are a diaphragmatic breather, you would
feel your abdominal area expand, your belt tighten, and fullness in the lower
part of your lungs and chest. Record your results on the Assess Your Stress
Table. Respiration Rate Stress-o-meter Considering the last month as one
single period
of time, it is most likely that you would rank
yourself somewhere between these two extremes. If you were to average the
month (we all have highs and lows), what number would you give yourself on
this scale from 1 to 10? Make a note of this number on the Assess Your Stress
Table. We will refer to this number again later. Assess Your Stress Results Were you primarily a chest breather
or an abdominal breather? Many of us are primarily chest, or thoracic,
breathers. Chest breathers tend to take shallower breathes. Diaphragmatic, or
abdominal, breathing involves the abdominal muscles to facilitate deeper
breathing. This allows you to take in more oxygen with each breath. Later you
will learn more about
why deep breathing is effective as an important relaxation technique. Your perception of stress
primarily determines how your body responds. The Stress-o-meter increases
your awareness of the level of stress you perceive
in your life. When we exercise we can follow a perceived exertion scale that
will give us some idea of how hard we are exercising. We can determine our
intensity level. Similarly, we can use the Stress-o-meter to assess our
general levels of perceived stress over the past month. You will learn later
in the book how your perception of stress relates to your health and your physiological responses. Your body
responds the same, whether the stress is real or imagined, so your perception
becomes your reality. Now, look back over your results
recorded in the Assess Your Stress Table. What does this information tell you
about your stress level? Research Highlight - Stress Seems to
Block Deep Sleep Stress may disrupt the natural rhythms of the body's nervous
system during various stages of sleep, according to a Researchers monitored the heart rates of 59 healthy undergraduate
students while they slept. Heart rate variations can provide clues about the
activity of the autonomic nervous system, which controls the function of
organs such as the heart and lungs. To trigger stress during sleep, the
researchers told half of the students they would have to deliver a 15-minute
speech when they woke up. The topics would be chosen for them upon awakening,
the students were told. The researchers detected significant heart rate variations
between the stressed and non-stressed students as they slept. The stressed
group had changes in heart rate patterns during REM, or rapid-eye-movement,
sleep - the sleep phase when dreaming occurs - and non-REM sleep. The
heart rate variability patterns detected in the stressed students were
similar to those seen in people with insomnia, the study revealed, suggesting
similar pathways of nervous system disruption. ( Symptoms of Stress
The more often you experience these
symptoms of stress, the more likely stress is having a negative impact on
your life. Like Angie in our opening vignette, you may be so used to feeling
a certain way that you assume this is normal. Look back over the Symptoms of
Stress Table. Are there symptoms of stress that you would like to eliminate
or change? In later chapters you will learn proven strategies to help
eliminate the negative symptoms of stress. FYI - Lesson From the Titanic The blockbuster movie Titanic has a
health lesson for us all. The captain of that mighty ship was warned six
separate times to slow down, change course and take the southern route
because icebergs had been sighted. But, he ignored all six specific warnings,
lulled into complacency of believing that the ship was unsinkable. The lesson
is listen to your body when it sends you
signals. Symptoms and changes are warnings that you should slow down,
change course, or take another route. Perceived
Stress Scale A more precise measure of personal
stress can be determined by using a variety of instruments that have been
designed to help measure individual stress levels. The first of these is
called the Perceived Stress Scale The Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) is a classic stress assessment instrument. This tool, while
originally developed in 1983, remains a popular choice for helping us
understand how different situations affect our feelings and our perceived
stress. The questions in this scale ask about your feelings and thoughts
during the last month. In each case, you will be asked to indicate how often
you felt or thought a certain way. Although some of the questions are
similar, there are differences between them and you should treat each one as
a separate question. The best approach is to answer fairly quickly. That is,
don't try to count up the number of times you felt a particular way; rather
indicate the alternative that seems like a reasonable estimate. For each question choose
from the following alternatives: 0 - never 1 - almost never 2 - sometimes 3 - fairly often 4 - very often ____ 1. In the last
month, how often have you been upset because of something that happened
unexpectedly? _____ 2. In the last
month, how often have you felt that you were unable to control the important
things in your life? _____ 3. In the last
month, how often have you felt nervous and stressed? _____ 4. In the last
month, how often have you felt confident about your ability to handle your
personal problems? _____ 5. In the last
month, how often have you felt that things were going your way? _____ 6. In the last
month, how often have you found that you could not cope with all the things
that you had to do? _____ 7. In the last
month, how often have you been able to control irritations in your life? _____ 8. In the last
month, how often have you felt that you were on top of things? _____ 9. In the last
month, how often have you been angered because of things that happened that were outside of your control? _____ 10. In the last
month, how often have you felt difficulties were piling up so high that you
could not overcome them? Figuring your PSS score: You can determine your PSS score by following
these directions: First, reverse your scores for questions 4, 5, 7,
& 8. On these 4 questions, change the scores like this: 0 = 4, 1 = 3, 2 =
2, 3 = 1, 4 = 0. Now add up your scores for each item to get a
total. My total score is ______. Individual scores on the PSS can range from 0 to
40 with higher scores indicating higher perceived stress. Scores ranging from 0-13 would be considered low
stress. Scores ranging from 14-26 would be considered
moderate stress. Scores ranging from 27-40 would be considered
high perceived stress. The Perceived Stress Scale is interesting and
important because your perception of what is happening in your life is most
important. Consider the idea that two students, John and Dan, could have the
exact same events and experiences in their lives for the past month.
Depending on their perception, John's total score could put him in the low
stress category and Dan's total score could put him in the high stress
category. Consider the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Nothing can bring
you peace but yourself.” The Inventory
of College Students' Recent Life Experiences Another useful scale used to measure
stress levels in a different way is called The Inventory of College Students'
Recent Life Experiences (ICSRLE). The ICSRLE was designed to identify
individual exposure to sources of stress or hassles and allow for an
identification of the extent to which those stressors are experienced over
the past month. The ICSRLE was developed uniquely for college students. As
you know, the sources of stress in a university environment can be unique and
different from other settings. What do college students typically
perceive to be the major sources of stress? The ICSRLE is helpful in
assessing the major sources of stress and in identifying individual exposure
to sources of stress or hassles. This inventory also allows for an
identification of the extent to which those stressors are experienced over
the past month. The following is a list of
experiences which many students have some time or other. Please indicate for
each experience how much it has been a part of your life over the past month.
Mark your answers according to the following guide: Intensity of Experience over the Past Month 0 = not at all part of my life 1 = only slightly part of my life 2 = distinctly part of my life 3 = very much part of my life ____1. Conflicts with
boyfriend's/girlfriend's/spouse's family ____2. Being let down or
disappointed by friends ____3. Conflict with
professor(s) ____4. Social rejection ____5. Too many things to
do at once ____6. Being taken for
granted ____7. Financial
conflicts with family members ____8. Having your trust
betrayed by a friend ____9. Separation from
people you care about ____10. Having your
contributions overlooked ____11. Struggling to
meet your own academic standards ____12. Being taken
advantage of ____13. Not enough
leisure time ____14. Struggling to
meet the academic standards of others ____15. A lot of
responsibilities ____16. Dissatisfaction
with school ____17. Decisions about
intimate relationship(s) ____18. Not enough time
to meet your obligations ____19. Dissatisfaction
with your mathematical ability ____20. Important
decisions about your future career ____21. Financial burdens
____22. Dissatisfaction
with your reading ability ____23. Important
decisions about your education ____24. Loneliness ____25. Lower grades than
you hoped for ____26. Conflict with
teaching assistant(s) ____27. Not enough time
for sleep ____28. Conflicts with
your family ____29. Heavy demands
from extracurricular activities ____30. Finding courses
too demanding ____31. Conflicts with
friends ____32. Hard effort to
get ahead ____33. Poor health of a
friend ____34. Disliking your
studies ____35. Getting “ripped
off” or cheated in the purchase of services ____36. Social conflicts
over smoking ____37. Difficulties with
transportation ____38. Disliking fellow
student(s) ____39. Conflicts with
boyfriend/girlfriend/spouse ____40. Dissatisfaction
with your ability at written expression ____41. Interruptions of
your school work ____42. Social isolation ____43. Long waits to get
service (e.g., at banks, stores, etc.) ____44. Being ignored ____45. Dissatisfaction
with your physical appearance ____46. Finding course(s)
uninteresting ____47. Gossip concerning
someone you care about ____48. Failing to get
expected job ____49. Dissatisfaction
with your athletic skills Scoring the
ICSRLE Add your total points: ________ Your score on the ICSRLE can range from 0 to 147.
Higher scores indicate higher levels of exposure to hassles. Focus on two key
outcomes from your results. First, you can determine your current level of
stress by adding your score for each hassle and getting a total. Second, you can
discover which of the hassles play a greater part in your life. Higher scored
items that you rated with a 3 indicate those stressors are more of an issue
for you. The Ardell Wellness Stress Test Don Ardell
developed a stress assessment that is unique in its holistic approach to
stress. In chapter one, you learned about the importance of incorporating all
dimensions of health in your understanding of stress. The Ardell Wellness
Stress Test incorporates physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and social
aspects of health for a balanced assessment. Rate your
satisfaction with each of the following items by using this scale: + 3 =
Ecstatic -1 = Mildly disappointed + 2 = Very
happy - 2 = Very disappointed + 1 =
Mildly happy - 3 = Completely dismayed 0 =
Indifferent _____ 1.
Choice of career _____ 2.
Present job/ business/ school _____ 3.
Marital status _____ 4.
Primary relationships _____ 5.
Capacity to have fun _____ 6.
Amount of fun experienced in last month _____ 7.
Financial prospects _____ 8.
Current income level _____ 9.
Spirituality _____ 10.
Level of self-esteem _____ 11.
Prospects for having impact on those who know you and possibly others _____ 12.
Sex life _____ 13.
Body, how it looks and performs _____ 14.
Home life _____ 15.
Life skills and knowledge of issues and facts unrelated to your job or
profession _____ 16.
Learned stress management capacities _____ 17.
Nutritional knowledge, attitudes, and choices _____ 18.
Ability to recover from disappointment, hurts, setbacks, and tragedies _____ 19.
Confidence that you currently are, or will in the future be, reasonably close
to your highest potential _____ 20.
Achievement of a rounded or balanced quality in your life _____ 21.
Sense that life for you is on an upward curve, getting better and fuller all
the time _____ 22.
Level of participation in issues and concerns beyond your immediate interests
_____ 23.
Choice whether to parent or not and with the consequences or results of that
choice _____ 24.
Role in some kind of network of friends, relatives, and/or others about whom
you care deeply and who reciprocate that commitment to you _____ 25.
Emotional acceptance of the inescapable reality of aging Total ______ Ardell
Wellness Stress Test Interpretation + 51 to +
75 You are a self-actualized person, nearly immune from the ravages of
stress. There are few, if any, challenges likely to untrack
you from a sense of near total well-being. + 25 to +
50 You have mastered the wellness approach to life and have the capacity to
deal creatively and efficiently with events and circumstances. + 1 to +
24 You are a wellness-oriented person, with an ability to prosper as a whole
person, but you should give a bit more attention to optimal health concepts
and skill building. 0 to - 24
You are a candidate for additional training in how to deal with stress. A
sudden increase in potentially negative events and circumstances could cause
a severe emotional setback. - 25 to -
50 You are a candidate for counseling. You are either too pessimistic or have
severe problems in dealing with stress. - 51 to -
75 You are a candidate for major psychological care with virtually no
capacity for coping with life's problems. (Adapted
from High Level Wellness: An Alternative to Doc, Drugs and Disease by Don
Ardell) Look back
at the items in the Ardell Wellness Stress Test. Identify which items related
more to physical health, to mental health, to
emotional health, to spiritual health, and to social health. Do you see any
patterns develop? For instance, are more areas of disappointment related to
physical health than to social health? Remember, for holistic health we are
seeking a balance in all dimensions of health. Student
Stress Scale This chapter offers a
variety of stress assessment tools to assist you in assessing stress from
several different perspectives. The Student Stress Scale focuses on events that may occur in the life of a
student to offer you a different perspective for evaluating stress. The
Student Stress Scale is an adaptation for college students of the Life Events
Scale developed originally by Holmes and Rahe. This
popular stress assessment measured the amount of change, using Life Change
Units, a person was required to adapt to in the previous year. It was
designed to predict the likelihood of disease and illness following exposure
to stressful life events. Each life event is given a score that indicates the
amount of readjustment a person has to make as a result of change. Some
studies have found that people with serious illnesses tend to have higher
scores on similar assessments. For each event that occurred in your
life within the past year, record the corresponding score. If an event
occurred more than once, multiply the score for that event by the number of
times the event occurred and record that score. Total all the scores.
Total Stress
Score ________ Score Interpretation: Researchers determined that if your
total score is: 300 or more - statistically you stand
an almost 80 percent chance of getting sick in the near future. 150 to 299 - you have a 50-50 chance
of experiencing a serious health change within two years. 149 or less - you have about a 30
percent chance of a serious health change. This scale indicates that change in
one's life requires an effort to adapt and then an effort to regain
stability. Stress is a natural by product of adapting and then regaining
internal homeostasis.
Take note that this assessment considers only the events that occur, not
individual perception of these events in life. Perception is a critical part
of the ultimate stress experience, so while the Student Stress Scale has
value in increasing awareness of potential stress-producing events,
ultimately individual perception of the event is an important variable. When all is said and done, one of the most important assessments may be the Tombstone Test.
How do you want to be remembered? Do you want to be remembered for being a
workaholic? Do you want to be remembered as the one who always won the
argument? Do you want to be remembered for making more money than your
neighbor? Do you want to be the one who never forgave someone who wronged
you? Or, do you want to be remembered as a good parent, spouse, and friend?
Do you want to be remembered as someone who was whole and balanced in body,
mind, and spirit? Do you want to be remembered for the service you provided
to those who needed help? Take a few minutes right now to write
down how you want to be remembered. What do want others to say and think
about you when your life is over? Make a list of the qualities and
characteristics you want to be remembered for. Are you living your life in a way that
demonstrates the qualities and characteristics you value? The choices you make every single day determine
to a large extent the stress you experience. Your daily work, which at times
can feel like drudgery, can actually become a significant stress managing
mechanism when you view your work as part of your
contribution to bigger priorities. Thinking about today, this minute, the
task at hand in a positive manner can bring peace and contentment. There is a
story about two people laying bricks. A man passing by asks, “What are you
doing?” The first worker answers, “Laying bricks.” The other worker answers,
“Building a cathedral.” Assess what is most important in your
life. When your choices are guided by the values and goals that are most
important to you, your life can be full and active, yet not stressful. Decide
how you want to be remembered - and then live your life so that happens. Daily Stress
Log The final activity in this chapter is
the Daily Stress Log. Chances are many of you have completed a Food Diary at
some time. The purpose of the food diary is to record everything you eat to
increase your awareness of what you are eating. The information you enter in
your diary can be analyzed for its calorie level and nutritional content.
This information helps you evaluate your diet. The Daily Stress Log serves the same
purpose only relating to your stress. For several days, you will make a note
of any and all activities that put a strain on energy and time, trigger anger
or anxiety, or precipitate a negative physical response. You can also note
your reactions to these stressful events. When you have completed a daily log
for a few days, review the log and identify 2 or 3 stressful events or
activities that you can modify or eliminate. It has been said that awareness
is half the battle. As you keep track of all of the events that happen during
a day, and you notice patterns in which you find yourself getting more
stressed, you can begin to take steps to make adjustments in those damaging
patterns. The following is an example of a Daily Stress Log. Daily Stress Log Name:___________________________
Date:__________________
*Tension level .........................1 = Slight 2
= Moderate 3 = Strong 4 = Intense Major source of stress today:
______________________________ Assessment of how you managed stress
today: ________________________ The Daily Stress Log can be a real
eye-opener in helping you become aware of triggers of stress throughout your
day. Watch for patterns that develop. Do you notice that your stress level
rises every time your roommate's boyfriend comes over and plops himself down in
your favorite chair? Do you find that you always feel stressed after you and
your friend consume an entire family-sized pizza? Do you notice that the days
that seemed filled with stress and the days you seem least able to cope with
the stressors that occur are the days after your stay up late enjoying the
all-you-can-drink specials at the bar? Take a moment to summarize the results
of each of the self-assessments in this chapter in the table below. Circle
either “High” or “Low” according how much each assessment indicates high or
low levels of stress for you. For example, a higher resting heart
rate may indicate higher stress levels; chest breathing rather than stomach
breathing may indicate higher stress levels; increased number of breaths per
minute might indicate higher stress levels. If you are consistently circling
the “High” indicator, extra effort in the chapters of this book may be
helpful in reducing the potentially harmful effects of stress. Personal Self Assessment Summary
Conclusion Assessing stress is a complex and
challenging process. In this chapter you have had the opportunity to assess
your stress from many different perspectives. Look back over each of the
assessment surveys and tools. You will see that these tools measured stress
from a variety of perspectives including: ·
Physiological indicators of stress ·
Your perception of what is happening in your life
·
Sources of stress and frequency of hassles ·
Your level of satisfaction with events in your
life ·
Type of life events you have experienced The real impact of this chapter is in
what you do with the information you learned about yourself. It is like
putting a puzzle together. Each of the assessments is like a piece of the
puzzle. When you put all the pieces together you have a complete picture. Stress Management for
Life will provide you with all the tools and information you need to develop a plan that will help reduce stress and enhance
the quality of your life. Key Points ·
Assessment is the first important step in
developing a plan to reduce and manage stress. ·
Stress can trigger physiological changes like
increased pulse and increased respiration rate. ·
Symptoms of stress can include headache, muscle
tension, insomnia and a host of other warning signs. ·
Perception is key when
assessing stress. The same situation can elicit a very different stress
response in different individuals due to the individual's perception of the
experience. ·
Frequency of exposure to different stressors and
hassles can be another way to measure stress. ·
For a balanced picture of stress in your life,
consider all dimensions of health, physical, mental, emotional, spiritual,
and social. ·
A daily stress log can be a valuable tool for
increasing your awareness of stress in your life. ·
No single survey or tool
can tell the whole picture when it comes to assessing stress. Consider the
results from all the assessments to gain a better understanding of your
personal stress level. |
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