Introduction Now that you have completed the stress test we are going to show you the results and discuss what they mean. But before doing so a few words of caution might be in order. Scores on tests like these are expressed in the precise language of arithmetic. In that language 1 + 1 = 2 and 4 is twice as much as 2. Always and exactly. But when that language is applied to the real world there is always a little slippage. When measured precisely a steel rod 4 inches long turns out to be only approximately twice as long as one 2 inches long. The more precise the measurement the less certain is the application of numbers to the real world. So it is with this stress test. The scores reflect your judgement of your stress level on the day you took it. On another day when you are feeling a little differently some of the item entries might be a little different and the scores would be changed accordingly. Since that is the case approach what you read here with what a famous psychologist once called cool benevolence. Read it think about and take it seriously enough to act on it. But don't become obsessed about the numbers. An overall test score of 95 is not a lot better than 100 and not a lot worse than 90. These numbers are pointers not meters. Test Results Now let's look at the test results. The test consists of thirty items each of which is scored on a 1 to 5 scale. Therefore if you scored each one of the items at 1 the lowest possible score for an individual item you would get a total score of thirty. If you scored each item at 5 the highest possible score for an individual item you would get a total score of one hundred and fifty. So your overall score on this test must lie somewhere in the range of thirty to one hundred and fifty. In addition the test items can be grouped so that they show your scores on three sub-tests: one for physical stress one for emotional stress and one for social stress. That means we can analyze your stress levels by four scores one for the overall test and one for each of the three sub-tests. To understand the significance of these scores we need to understand two things. First the structure of the stress test itself. Each test item reflects a specific kind of stress. You were asked to estimate the frequency with which that stress symptom occurs in your life. High scores mean that you are experiencing that particular symptom very frequently while low scores mean that you aren't experiencing that stress very often. Second the role of individual differences in the expression of their stress. No two people express their stress in exactly the same way. Everyone has their own pattern of stress expression. Therefore to understand your stress you need to know something about the pattern with which you express the stress. The stress test is designed to tell you something about both the frequency of expression of stress symptoms and the pattern of their occurrence. Now let's consider the results. The score ranges reflect low medium and high levels of stress. By seeing where your scores fit in those ranges you can estimate your stress level. Let's look at the physical stress scores which are in the first sub-test. The items in that group are concerned with the bodily symptoms of stress like tightness in the chest tension headaches or sweaty palms. A low score on this test indicates that you are expressing your stress in some other way. A high score on this sub-test indicates that you are the kind of person who expresses your stress somewhere in your body. Stress can be expressed in any organ system from the skin to the activity of the heart. [Sometimes it is hard to tell if you are having a stress-related reaction or not when you are experiencing physical symptoms. When in doubt be sure to check with your physician]. Your physical symptoms are probably stress-related if their severity varies with the intrusiveness of the stressors in your life e.g. if the only time you get headaches is when the boss asks you to work overtime. Now we can consider the emotional sub-test. This sub-test describes the emotional and cognitive aspects of stress like being angry for no good reason or forgetting an important appointment. A low score on this test implies that stress has little effect on how you feel or think. A high score indicates that you express stress through your emotions and how you think. The most likely form of emotional expression in the early stages of stress is irritability. You know the short fuse. Somebody says Good morning and you say What's so good about it? Later stages of emotionally expressed stress can include irrational outbursts of anger and feelings of depression. [Stress is not the only reason for sustained feelings of negative emotionality. If you are not sure if your feelings are stress- related you might want to confer with a psychologist or some other mental health professional]. These symptoms are probably stress-related if their severity varies with the intrusiveness of stressors in your life e.g. if you get depressed only when your spouse (or other significant other) is giving you a hard time. The last sub-test is concerned with the social aspects of stress. If you find yourself feeling alienated from your family or angry when someone praises you there is a possibility that you are feeling some socially related stress. A low score on this sub-test implies that you express your stress in personal rather than social ways. A high score indicates that you tend to express your stress through your interactions with other people. For example this can include being upset when meeting strangers feeling confused and angry at being praised or finding it difficult to give negative feedback to someone. Such symptoms are probably stress- related if they occur in the absence of a long history of such problems coupled with an increase in the severity of your stressors e.g. they begin to occur while you are coping with a chronic illness in your family. The final score to consider is the overall stress test score. This is simply an integration of the scores on the three tests. If this score is low it probably means that your stress level is not a cause for immediate alarm. You might want to use this time to learn some relaxation skills to get ready for the time when the stress levels will increase. If the score is in the moderate or high range it probably means that your pattern of stress expression involves all three areas covered in the stress sub- tests. You can best understand it by considering the pattern of the three sub-tests in relation to each other. [Scott: Please put instructions in at this point for getting to the graphic display of the test results]. If the pattern discloses that one area is significantly higher than the others e.g that you tend to express much of your high stress level emotionally then that's what you need to deal with. If they are all high then the stress has affected much of your life. Treat the pattern as a set of pointers to tell you what to pay attention to. Your good judgement will tell you what to do next.