--Original published at Isabella's Psychology Blog

Evaluating Stress Management Websites

Stress is a part of daily life. Many people struggle with dealing with stress. Fortunately, there are stress management strategies. Many stress management strategies are published online along with other stress management advice. Websites hosting information about stress management have different target audiences. Using real stress management techniques from psychology, three websites with different target audiences will have their stress management content evaluated.

Help Guide Website

Help Guide is a website which tries to help people with a range of mental and emotional problems. The website’s target audience is people with mental and emotional problems. Stress is one of the website’s main topics. Stress Management is a subtopic to Stress. This subtopic has three authors, Lawrence Robinson, Melinda Smith, and Robert Segal. (Robinson)  Lawrence Robinson is a senior writer of Help Guide and has over twenty years of writing experience about health and fitness. Melinda Smith has a masters degree in psychology and is the editorial director and senior writer of Help Guide. Robert Segal has a masters degree in educational psychology and is the executive director of the website Help Guide. Based on the authors of the subtopic of the website I find the subtopic to be very credible. Most of the authors had a master degree in psychology, and all authors were important people in the Help Guide company (About Us).

The subtopic of Stress Management is made up of seven tips for stress management. Tip one is to find the stress; done by evaluating yourself by keeping a stress journal and access ones habits and attitude. The second tip is using a technique called the 4 A’ which stand for avoiding stress, alter situations, adapt to stressors, and accepting some stressors are unavoidable. Each of these four steps is broken down into smaller steps which are easier to complete. Being active is the third tip. The site recommends thirty minutes of exercise a day but recognizes even small activities can help relieve stress. Connecting with other people is the fourth tip; the website even recommends ways to build relationships. Tip five is to make time for yourself and to have fun. Improving time management skills is the sixth tip; done by not over-committing, prioritizing tasks, getting help, and breaking up tasks. The seventh tip is to live a healthy lifestyle through diet, abstaining from harmful substances, and sleeping. Then the final tip is to relieve stress at the moment (Robinson).

The first tip was good advice since it is half of problem-focused coping. Problem-focused coping is getting rid of stress by changing the stressor or our response to the stressor. So by identifying the stress, one is part way done with changing the stressor and our response to it. Tip two is very close to changing the stressor since it includes altering situations. Then adapting and accepting stressors one is changing their response to the stressor. Improving time management skills is a problem-focused-coping since time management helps eliminate stressors (Myers 406-437).

The third tip of being active was great advice since exercise helps alleviate depression and anxiety. Even a short walk can create two hours of feeling better. Connecting with other people is good advice since a support system of people can help with stress management. Making time for yourself is a valid stress management technique since relaxing reduces depression, anxiety, and even headaches. Relaxing at the moment requires calming down through relaxation techniques. Then sleeping and eating well are also good for living a happy life since it makes the body healthy (Myers 406-437).

American Heart Association Website

   The American Heart Association is a famous organization dedicated to helping people fight against heart disease and stroke. When it comes to fighting heart disease one of the important things a person has to do is manage stress. The American Heart Association put stress management as one of its main topics. The Stress Management topic page has a couple of articles and two infographics. After looking through the stress management articles and infographics, most of the stress management information on the website are summarised in the article “3 Tips to Manage Stress”. None of the website content had an author’s name, but the information is considered credible because it is published by a credible company (Stress Management).

   The stress management advice the American Heart Association gives is separated into three different steps: positive self-talk, immediate de-stressors, and stress relieving activities. Positive self-talk is being nicer to yourself and thinking optimistically. Immediate de-stressors are counting to ten, take deep breaths, go on a walk, meditate, sleep on non-urgent stressors, take a break from the stressor, break down large problems, listen to relaxing music, hug someone, and workout. Stress relieving activities are being creative, read, connect with others, play sports, listen to music, meditate, and self-care (3 Tips).

   The American Heart Association was focused mostly on emotion-focused coping. Emotion-focused coping is attending to the emotional needs created by the stressor but ignoring the stressor. Stress is eliminated by aerobic exercise, relaxation, meditation, and active spirituality. Immediate de-stressors and stress relieving activities closely related to meditation, relaxation, and exercise. Positive self-talk is also useful for stress management because it makes a person more like an optimist. Optimism is good for stress management because optimists are happier and react better to stress than pessimists (Myers 406-437).

Positive Psychology Website

Positive Psychology Program is a website which provides stress management resources ranging from paid courses to blogs. The website’s target audiences are people trying to become more positive and people becoming educated in positive psychology. One of the topics of positive psychology is stress management. One of the available articles about stress management is “62 Stress Management Techniques & Tips To Prevent A Burnout” by Amba Brown. Amba Brown is a credible author since she has degrees in both psychology and sociology. She has also authored books and presented a TEDx talk about major life transitions (Brown). These major life transitions are stressful times since even happy life changes cause a person stress (Myers 406-437).

The stress management content on the Positive Psychology Program website starts by defining stress management and stress in general. Then the article goes into information about stress and burnout. Next, the article goes into the “62 stress management techniques” it had collected from various resources. Some of these techniques even have videos to go along with them. The first set of technique given are understand stress, identify stress, recognize stress, recognize stress strategies, takes self-care, and ask for help (Brown).

Most of these techniques are problem-focused coping, which is reducing stress by changing the stressor directly. The only exception is taking self-care which is emotion-focused coping, which reduces stress by ignoring the stressor to focus on the emotional needs caused by the stressor (Myers 406-437).

The second round of techniques used three categories of stress management strategies which were action-oriented, emotion-oriented, and acceptance-orientated. Action-oriented approaches are being assertive, reduce surrounding noise, manage time, say no to others, and calming thoughts. Emotion-oriented approaches are giving yourself positive affirmations, challenge negative emotions, and use the ABC’s method. The ABC method is recognizing adversity, react with positive beliefs, and accepting the consequences of the adversity. Acceptance-oriented approaches are having a healthy diet, exercising, meditating, build resilience, talk to others, and get a good night’s sleep (Brown).

In psychology, there is (action) problem-focused coping and emotion-focused coping. Action/problem-focused coping is reducing stress by changing the stressor. The website used good examples that fit the definition. Emotion-focused coping is reducing stress by ignoring the stressor and focusing on the emotional reaction. Trying to be more positive and accepting of the stressor like the website suggested focuses on the emotion side of stress done by emotion-focused coping. Acceptance is not a coping strategy, but it is made up of many useful stress management techniques. Meditation, exercise, and relaxation are three of the four major concepts that reduce stress. Social support gives people calm and open heart therapy, where one can talk to others about stress. Eating healthy and sleeping well make the body healthy and reduces stress (Myers 406-437).

The third set of techniques is for stress management at work by setting realistic deadlines, take breaks, create a work-life balance, and going to therapy. Then the final set of techniques is to perform de-stressing activities like breathing exercises, listening to relaxing music, giving yourself hand massage, then focus on each of your five senses for a minute each. (Brown)

   The advice in the third and fourth set of stress management techniques was also useful. Setting realistic deadlines was problem-focused coping, and then most the rest of the techniques were emotion-focused coping. Giving yourself a hand massage and focusing on each of your senses for a minute are not methods of relaxation I am familiar with when it comes to reducing stress. Since I have never heard of these stress management techniques anywhere else, I do not recommend these two methods of relaxation for stress management (Myers 406-437).

Conclusion

   Based on my evaluation of the three websites I found them overall useful and full of good stress management techniques. There may be a few weird results like giving yourself a hand massage, but there was also very good advice. Useful stress management techniques are repeated more frequently than the rare questionable stress management technique.

Links to websites:

https://positivepsychologyprogram.com/stress-management-techniques-tips-burn-out/

https://www.helpguide.org/articles/stress/stress-management.htm

http://www.heart.org/en/healthy-living/healthy-lifestyle/stress-management

Work Cited

“3 Tips to Manage Stress.” Heart.org, American Heart Association , June 2014, http://www.heart.org/en/healthy-living/healthy-lifestyle/stress-management/3-tips-to-manage-stress.

“About Us.” Help Guide, Help Guide, www.helpguide.org/misc/about-us.htm.

Brown, Amba. “62 Stress Management Techniques & Tips To Prevent A Burnout.” Positive Psychology Program, Positive Psychology Program, 23 Feb. 2018, positivepsychologyprogram.com/stress-management-techniques-tips-burn-out/.

Myers, David G. ”Stress, Health, and Human Flourishing”  Exploring Psychology, 10th Edition. Worth Publishers, 2016. [Chegg].

Robinson, Lawrence, et al. “Stress Management.” Help Guide, Help Guide, Sept. 2018, www.helpguide.org/articles/stress/stress-management.htm.

“Stress Management.” heart.org, American Heart Association, http://www.heart.org/en/healthy-living/healthy-lifestyle/stress-management.

--Original published at HarrysCollegeBlog

Throughout my college life, i have so many responsibilities suddenly thrust upon me, on top of school work and my own health, and it has taken a toll on me with how much stress it produces. Dealing with it did not go as well as I had hoped, and it is when things get dire, that we seek  a helping hand, in this case, in the form of online tips. I will be evaluating 3 different websites and their tips on how to reduce stress.

The first website is fairly detailed about dealing with stress. Not only does it give you the advice, but explains the reasoning behind it, in case you didn’t know about it, and even has links to where you can find more about this information. It gives advice such as avoiding Caffeine/alcohol, to suggesting Laugh therapy and getting more sleep, all while giving out the information and reasoning explaining why you should do it. The explanations behind them have sources linked to other parts of the website explaining how it benefits you, which serves as free advertising for itself, which is also a clever idea. This source overall did a great job, and I highly recommend you check it out!                        Source: https://www.skillsyouneed.com/ps/stress-tips.html

The second website is a bit more questionable in its approach. It gives out the advice in a straight forward list, but not any reasoning or explanations behind it. Only broken links that send you to the page you were already on. although despite its straight forward nature, it has some decent tips, such as keeping a positive attitude, excising, and not accepting too much work. although many of these tips can be figured out on your own, like getting sleep, and making time for hobbies, positive attitudes, etc. This source was not as informative as I’d like it to be when trying to solve my stress, but it was short and simple.                                                                                                                                                        Source: https://www.webmd.com/anxiety-panic/guide/tips-for-reducing-stress

The third source is similar to the first one, in which every choice has a detailed list and explanation, however this one has an introduction, which introduces me to why this list is beneficial. it then lists the advice, and gives information on why you should follow it. Although this one doesn’t have any sources to back it up, so its reliability comes into question. It says facts such as stating exercise is proven to be uplifting, but without any source material I can click on and check out, it seems a bit suspicious. Its better than the second one, but not as reliably as the first one.                                                                               Source: https://www.apa.org/helpcenter/manage-stress.aspx

--Original published at Zachs College Blog

For the spotlight post this week, we had to choose three different websites addressed towards different audiences that explained different effective ways on dealing and coping with stress. For this post, I chose to examine different ways of coping with stress in high school students, college students, and people dealing with the stresses of work. We had to critique the three different websites and present our opinions on the affect each of these tips would be on a person and how potentially successful each of them could be.

The first website I examined provided tips for reducing stress for high school students. High school is a time where school becomes more intense and important, and many people are experiencing changes both mentally and physically. Stress is deemed evident in the high school years of many students who are experiencing both of these changes. The first tip stated by the website was to take breaks with your time. Taking breaks has actually been proven to be important for people to do so we can refuel and rest both mentally and physically. This tip can be a very important method of reducing stress and something people should be emphasis on as in balancing both work and a social life. Another important tip stated is to better or maintain a healthy sleep schedule because as a teenager it is important obtain a certain amount of sleep. Sleep is also proven to provide your body with a solid foundation at which you can successfully take on the next days tasks. Lastly, another helpful tip given for people to use is exercising or getting out and get moving. Exercise has been proven by research to be very beneficial for distracting people from their daily stresses. For example going to lift, for a run, or even a quick walk will take your mind off of many of the daily stresses high school students deal with. I personally believe this article provided three strong easily attainable tips to help alleviate stress. Researchers know that being a high school student can be a stressful time due to having a very restricted schedule with having to wake up at a certain time, school ends at the same time, athletic and club practices/meetings, etc. This is why these tips provide can be very helpful and do not require much effort or time to do something that will simply make their stresses and day get much better.

The next website I took a look at was tips for dealing with stress directed towards college students. College has proven to be an even more stressful time than high school as many factors in your life change very quickly. For example, having to adjust to living on your own away from your family and friends you grew up with, a much more intensive work load and having to find a resourceful way to balance your amount of free time and school work. Also stated in the previous article, it provided very similar tips for college and high school students including exercise, setting a well followed sleep schedule, and taking breaks from academic work/studies as I already described can be very beneficial for reducing stress in both college and high school students. This article also provided more successful tips for stress by stating to eat healthy. Establishing a healthy diet and eating well on a daily basis can help provide a huge increase in a individual’s energy levels as its been shown that junk foods decreases energy levels dramatically. Another important tip stated is for college students to make sure they have a strong emotional support system around them. Whether this includes a friend or group of friends or even a professor or athletic coach to let out your emotional feelings and thoughts. This has been proven to be a good way to reduce stress levels and physically letting your feelings out can be a fantastic stress reliever. As school work and studying seems to keep piling up, it could be very beneficial to physically write out a schedule with your work for your week creating a checklist that you use for making sure you get your work done by a certain deadline. It is a bad idea to procrastinate and allow your work load to keep stacking stacking each day. Make sure to work ahead and be a productive student each day.  Overall, I believe this website deemed to provide many tips that are beneficial and could easily be successful for reducing stress levels. College can be described as the best time of your entire life, but also the most stressful. College students deal with a great deal of very life changing experiences that they need to adjust to as well as dealing with a complete new social scene and tons of college work.

The Last website I examined provided multiple tips on how to deal with and reduce the amount of stress someone may experience while working. Obtaining and maintaining a job can be very stressful as multiple factors may play a role in the source of stress. For example, people rely on a job to make money to sustain a healthy and happy life for both themselves and their loved ones. Also, one may experience large amounts of stress due to  unhappiness at their work or with their co-workers. As stated in the past two articles related to reducing stress in high school and college students, researchers suggest exercising, eating healthy, and getting enough sleep to also be beneficial ways to reducing stress in the workplace. As we can tell, these three points seem to be very relevant as they are simple, and common ways to reducing stress for example in all three of the situations dealing with high school and college students and also people in the workplace. One successful tip provided by this website is to form positive relationships with your peers. Developing friendships with your coworkers and people you surround yourself with on a daily basis can be a great resource for discussing certain ideas and concerns you are currently going through or experiencing at your job. Also, it can also provide you with a reliable support system for you to lean on when it is needed. Anther great tip prescribed is to prioritize and organize. For example, plan our regular breaks throughout the day to take you away from work and stress for a short amount of time. This also means to prioritize your most important tasks that need to be completed for earlier in the day rather than later. Make sure to keep an organized and neat schedule that lists all of your work related issues for the week. People who have a consistent job and income source have many stresses that come along with working and provide for yourself and a family. I feel that these types listed can provide someone with quick and easy tasks to complete that could make someone’s stress levels plummet or ease greatly.

Citations:

--Original published at Caroline's Blog

Stress management is an important life skill to have or acquire so that you do not become extremely overwhelmed by any of the crazy things that may be put in front of you. To manage or cope with stress, one may turn to physical release, which is a release of pent up emotions in a physical or psychological way, use self-defense strategies such as repression of stress by being removed of conscious awareness, or by self-indulgence which includes treating yourself.  You could take a more problem-focused approach to coping by aiming directly at the stressor or you could take a more emotion-focused approach by focusing on feelings resulting from whatever is causing you stress. Focusing on your observer-self through mindfulness-based stress reduction can also serve as a helping tool for stress management. Stress can affect people of all ages, and there are helpful ways targeted to some specific demographic groups.

As an athlete, I understand how stressful it is to be involved in a competitive sport. An article by The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center suggest that athletes take a ‘PERFECT’ approach to dealing with stress. This strategy includes positive self-talk, embracing adversity, reverse engineering, focusing on the now, evolving and chilling out.  This strategy focuses on using self-indulgence by taking a rest from the strains of physical exercise. It also explains that embracing diversity means that even when things are getting tough, athletes need to push through this feeling to succeed. This could be an example of self-defense coping as a reaction formation by doing the opposite of how you are feeling and pushing through the pain.

Parents have to deal with an all new set of stressors when having to deal with their family, finances, and work. An article on the Parenting Science website gives research-based tips to make life better and to reduce stress. One of the main things that this article focuses on is reducing negativity of all forms in your life to make things better. These kinds of negative thoughts, people, and experiences are examples of chronic negative situations, or continued negative situations with no end. Clearing these out will allow you to focus on and bring in more positive thoughts and experiences into your everyday life. These adaptive strategies of switching to more positive thinking will allow for a decrease in stress without complications.

Sometimes, we forget about how stressful the lives of younger kids are. Although their issues may not seem so severe to an older adult, the problems and stresses they are enduring can be taking a toll on them psychologically. An article on web-MD gives us an insight about how adults can help children deal with stress. Most of this advice focuses on helping with schoolwork. It discusses how secondary appraisal, or the appraisal of abilities to deal with the stressors. By appraising their ability to study properly and manage their time with school work they will not feel as overwhelmed by those issues every day.

Most people will have to deal with a stressor in their life someday. These stressors come in all shapes and sizes and managing them can become difficult, but once you find a way to stay calm, cool, and collected, the stressors will minimize, and you will be able to carry out your day without stress weighing you down.

https://wexnermedical.osu.edu/blog/perfect-method-reduces-athlete-stress

https://www.parentingscience.com/parenting-stress-evidence-based-tips.html

https://www.webmd.com/parenting/features/coping-school-stress#2

--Original published at Psychology 105

There are many techniques people can use to cope with stress in their everyday lives. The Internet contains an abundance of tips and different coping mechanisms. In this post, I will be analyzing different stress management techniques for college students, parents, and athletes. A lot of the basic information found on each website for the different audiences is built on the same principles.

For college students, I found an article from www.everdayhealth.org. This source provided a lot of constructive strategies to deal with stress. It advised that students lead a healthy lifestyle with a balanced diet and sleep schedule, as well as regular exercise. These are helpful, but these tips are generally suggested to most people. On of the more helpful tips specifically for college students is to not overload their schedule. This is more of a problem-focused strategy, but I think it’s useful because it provides students a way to keep their stress levels lower in the first place, rather than struggling to cope later. It also tells students to avoid relaxing with drugs or alcohol which is a great tip. A lot of students may turn to substance use to avoid dealing with stress, and this can quickly become a larger problem rather than a solution.

The source I found for athletes came from www.nova3labs.com. I think this article was more geared toward providing emotion-focused coping strategies for athletes. Generally, I think athletes lead healthy lifestyles, so these tips were omitted. However, they made a good point about keeping a positive attitude. In class, we discussed Richard Lazarus’s levels of appraisal and how secondary appraisal is a significant factor in how individuals respond to stress. By keeping a positive attitude, I think individuals would feel that they have better abilities to deal with their stressors. The article also suggests that athletes build a strong support system, such as their peers, coaches, and trainers, who will encourage them and provide perspective and hope. It also suggests that athletes take time to do fun activities other than their sport, which I think is extremely important. Although self-indulgent techniques can be done to excess, I think they are necessary to include because it is important to keep a wide range of techniques at your disposal.

For parents, I found an article from www.parenting-ed.org. It included many of the tips that the articles discussed above provided. I was able, howeve to find tips that would be more helpful specifically for this audience. One of the these was that parents should take time to get organized. Parents have many different things to worry about, including work, children, and finances. The article suggested that parents plan ahead and avoid procrastination.  Another helpful tip was to develop a weekly or monthly budget. Money is a point of stress for a lot of parents, and I think a budget provides a direct way to cope with the problem instead of ignoring it.

Overall, each source seemed focused on providing more adaptive coping strategies rather than maladaptive strategies. As we discussed in class, these strategies are very individualized but can be used across many different situations which we saw in each article.

Sources