The Life Stress Inventory test was interesting to me because I generally see myself as a very stressed out person. I work 40 hours a week and take a full load of online college courses. This schedule does not leave me with a ton of free time, which can make it difficult to find times to relax. However, upon taking this test, I mainly focused on realizing how many of the options I do not feel stress about in my daily life because they do not apply to where I am at in my life yet, such as having a spouse, in laws, and a bunch of family nearby. I am the only member of my family living in Oregon, so while I feel a great deal of stress from how busy I am throughout my daily life, the external factors noted in this test are not making as much of an impact. This led me to have a score of 152, which is less than what I expected.
The Coping and Stress Management Skills Test revealed that I have a score of 76 for Problem-Focused Coping. Based on the description, I feel this is a very accurate assessment of how I approach and handle stressors in my life. However, this strategy is only effective when the stressor is “changeable” and if caused by “situations that cannot be removed or controlled” it is not effective. This also advised me to take charge of the stressors in my life by taking action to make my life less stressful, rather than always finding an avenue to cope or deal with the stress. This advice is important to me because I am someone who chooses to break things down and determine how I can find a way to deal with them and adapt my life to the stressful factor.
With the Type A Personality Survey, I already knew that I am very Type A, but my results were having a score of 55 in Impatience and Irritability. The description was accurate because it explained how while I am generally tolerant of others and can be warm I am also a very impatient person. This I already know about myself, but what I learned is that I may be at an increased risk of heart disease because impatience and hostility have been found to contribute to coronary heart disease. While there are a number of other factors that would have to be occurring for me to one day have heart disease, this is a good wake up call about how my personality type and stress levels can evoke physical responses and changes in my body that may become more serious later in life.
In taking these three tests, I am more aware of what I need to work on. I look forward to the upcoming break from school so I can focus more on exercising again and finding ways to relax, so I may enjoy life a bit more each day.
