Stress Management Training Stress Management Training: Coping Strategies 4 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which of the following best describes 'secondary appraisal' in Lazarus and Folkman's Transactional Model of Stress?
- Deciding if a situation is threatening or challenging
- Evaluating one's available resources and coping options (Correct answer)
- Experiencing the physiological stress response
- Rating stressors on a standardized scale
Correct answer: Evaluating one's available resources and coping options
Secondary appraisal involves assessing what coping resources and options are available to deal with the appraised stressor.
Question 2: Humor as a coping strategy helps manage stress because it:
- Denies the reality of stressors completely
- Shifts perspective, reduces tension, and promotes social bonding (Correct answer)
- Only works for minor stressors, not serious ones
- Increases adrenaline to power through challenges
Correct answer: Shifts perspective, reduces tension, and promotes social bonding
Appropriate humor reframes situations, physiologically reduces stress hormones, and strengthens social connections that buffer stress.
Question 3: A manager notices an employee is stressed and offers to redistribute tasks. Which level of stress intervention is this?
- Tertiary prevention
- Primary prevention (Correct answer)
- Secondary prevention
- Quaternary prevention
Correct answer: Primary prevention
Primary prevention addresses the stressor itself before symptoms develop, such as redesigning job demands to prevent overload.
Question 4: Which sleep practice is most directly linked to improved stress coping the following day?
- Using screens until falling asleep for distraction
- Maintaining consistent sleep and wake times with a wind-down routine (Correct answer)
- Sleeping longer on weekends to compensate for weekday loss
- Taking multiple short naps rather than one consolidated sleep period
Correct answer: Maintaining consistent sleep and wake times with a wind-down routine
Consistent sleep timing regulates circadian rhythms and supports the emotional regulation and cognitive flexibility needed for effective coping.
Question 5: 'Stress inoculation training' (SIT) prepares people to cope with future stressors by:
- Exposing them to small, manageable stressors with guided coping practice (Correct answer)
- Vaccinating against cortisol production
- Eliminating all stress from their environment in advance
- Teaching complete emotional suppression
Correct answer: Exposing them to small, manageable stressors with guided coping practice
SIT uses graduated exposure to stressors combined with skill rehearsal so that coping responses become automatic under pressure.
Question 6: Which statement about emotional regulation as a coping strategy is most accurate?
- Suppressing emotions is the most effective long-term strategy
- Identifying and labeling emotions reduces their intensity and improves decision-making under stress (Correct answer)
- Expressing all emotions intensely releases stress most effectively
- Emotional regulation is only relevant to clinical populations
Correct answer: Identifying and labeling emotions reduces their intensity and improves decision-making under stress
Research (affect labeling) shows that naming emotions activates the prefrontal cortex and reduces amygdala reactivity, calming the stress response.
Question 7: Which of the following is a key characteristic of 'resilient' individuals in stress management research?
- They experience no stress response to adversity
- They recover from setbacks quickly and use stress as a growth opportunity (Correct answer)
- They avoid all high-demand situations
- They rely exclusively on professional help for every stressor
Correct answer: They recover from setbacks quickly and use stress as a growth opportunity
Resilience is defined by the ability to adapt, recover, and sometimes grow following adversity, not by the absence of stress.
Stress Management Training Stress Management Training: Coping Strategies 4
Which of the following best describes 'secondary appraisal' in Lazarus and Folkman's Transactional Model of Stress?