The Effectiveness of Stress Management Skills

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The Effectiveness of Stress Management Skills

The Effectiveness of Stress Management Skills

What helps you relieve stress and how effective is your method? There are a variety of reasons individuals select the stress management techniques they use. However, an effective stress management technique allows you lessen the physiological impact of the stress you are experiencing. In addition, it helps you to assess your situation, recognize your emotional response, and support your thought processes regarding a stressor. There are many stress management techniques and selecting ones that might be most effective depends on the individual, the stressor, and the stress response. If you enjoy the calm that comes from communing with nature, you might recognize its effectiveness in how the peaceful nature of the outdoors makes you feel less frantic. One stress management technique cannot serve everyone and all the stressors they face. Therefore, evaluating a variety of stress management techniques is important to reducing stress and its influence on the development of illness. Barriers to effective stress management include lack of adherence to the use of stress management techniques, inadequate or inappropriate support of family and friends, and an unwillingness to forgo unhealthy stress management practices.

For this Discussion, review this week’s Learning Resources. Select a stress management technique from your Week 5 Final Project assignment. Then consider how you might measure the effectiveness of the stress management technique. Reflect on the benefit stress sufferers might derive from using multiple stress management techniques. Finally, consider two barriers to effective stress management.

With these thoughts in mind:

Post by Day 4 a brief description of the stress management technique you selected. Then explain a measure to evaluate the effectiveness of the stress management technique. Next, explain benefits of providing multiple stress management techniques to stress sufferers. Finally, explain two barriers to effective stress management. Be specific.

Be sure to support your postings and responses with specific references to the Learning Resources.

Readings

  • Course Text: Almeida, D. M., Stawski, R. S., & Cichy, K. E. (2011). Combining checklist and interview approaches for assessing daily stressors: The daily inventory of stressful events. In R. J. Contrada & A. Baum (Eds.), The handbook of stress science: Biology, psychology, and health (pp. 583–595). New York, NY: Springer Publishing Company.
  • Course Text: Anderson, B., Wethington, E., & Kamark, T. W. (2011). Interview assessment of stressor exposure. In R. J. Contrada & A. Baum (Eds.), The handbook of stress science: Biology, psychology, and health (pp. 565–582). New York, NY: Springer Publishing Company.
  • Course Text: Edenfield, T. M., & Blumenthal, J. A. (2011). Exercise and stress reduction. In R. J. Contrada & A. Baum (Eds.), The handbook of stress science: Biology, psychology, and health (pp. 301–319). New York, NY: Springer Publishing Company.
  • Course Text: Kamarck, T. W., Shiffman, S., & Wethington, E. (2011). Measuring psychosocial stress using ecological momentary assessment methods. In R. J. Contrada & A. Baum (Eds.), The handbook of stress science: Biology, psychology, and health (pp. 597–617). New York, NY: Springer Publishing Company.
  • Article: American Heart Association. (2011). What is stress management? Retrieved from http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/GettingHealthy/StressManagement/FightStressWithHealthyHabits/What-Is-Stress-Management_UCM_321076_Article.jsp
  • Article: Edwards, D. & Burnard, P. (2003). A systematic review of stress and stress management interventions for mental health nurses. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 42(2), 169–200.
    Retrieved from the Walden Library using the CINAHL Plus with Full Text database.
  • Article: Lehrer, P. (2007). Principles and practice of stress management: Advances in the field. Biofeedback, 35(3), 82–84.
    Retrieved from the Walden Library using the Academic Search Complete database.
  • Article: Varlow, M., Wuthrich, V., Murrihy, R., Rémond, L., Tuqiri, R., van Kessel, J.,…Kidman, A. (2009). Stress literacy in Australian adolescents. Youth Studies Australia, 28(4), 29–34.
    Retrieved from the Walden Library using the Academic Search Complete database.
  • Web Resource: Walden Writing Center. (2012). Paper templates. Retrieved from http://writingcenter.waldenu.edu/57.htm
    • Review the links under the header titled “PowerPoint Presentation.”