Transcript Managing Our Scale of Living

Chapter 8
Reduce: Finding Our
Optimal Level of
Stimulation
© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
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Overview
This chapter
Introduces the second of the Five Rs of
Coping—Reduce—which is aimed at
cutting back on potential stressors in our
lives
Discusses how much stress is optimal
Discusses managing our scale of living
and how to manage our resources
Discusses the role of communication
and self-assertion in stress management
© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
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Outline
Finding your optimal level of
stimulation
The Three As of Coping
Managing your scale of living
Managing limited financial
resources
© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
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Outline (cont’d)
Managing your limited time
Managing school, work, and
home space resources
Reducing stress by
communicating effectively
Reducing stress by learning to
say no
© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
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Stimulation, Demand, and Stress
 Reduce: the second level of defense
against stress in the Five Rs of Coping
 Strategies designed to help you find your
optimal level of stimulation by cutting
back on the overall volume of potential
and actual stressors in your life
 All forms of stimulation use energy and
force our bodies to adapt
 What stresses some people does not affect
others
© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
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Finding Your Optimal Level of
Stimulation
Each person needs a certain number
of demands to be stimulated enough
to reach her/his potential but not too
many to become stressed
The inverted U-shaped curve of
demand (stimulation) and
performance level
Understanding your optimal level of
stress requires trial and error
© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
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Categories of Stressors
David Elkind describes three
categories of stressors
Stressors that are foreseeable and
can be controlled
Stressors that are foreseeable and
cannot be controlled
Stressors that are neither
foreseeable nor controllable
© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
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The Three As of Coping
Abolish the stressor—
completely eliminate stressors
Avoid the stressor—minimize
your exposure to stressors
Alter the stressor—change the
way you are exposed to
stressors
© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
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Managing Your Limited Resources
We all have about 30,000 days to
live
Think of your time and energy as
limited resources
Selye (1956): Since we all have
limited energy available to adapt to
life’s changes, we need to conserve
it as much as possible
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Managing Our Scale of Living
Our society equates money and
material things with the good life
The Voluntary Simplicity Network
rejects this notion and offers
guiding principles
Downscaling can reduce stress
Begin by reviewing your values
and goals
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Managing Limited Financial
Resources
Our purpose in life is shaped by
our values and daily life criteria
Since the American economy is
consumption-based, it is easy to
get pushed off our planned
course and end up owing more
than we can afford
© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
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Dealing With College Debt
 The share of family income required to
pay college expenses in the 2000s has
surpassed the percentage required in the
‘80s and ‘90s
 Students in the 2000s accumulate a
higher proportion of debt than their
parents did as students
 Costs of tuition, room, board, and fees
are ever-escalating
 Student credit card use is out of control
© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
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Budgeting Your Limited
Resources: How Much Money Do
You Really Need?
 People often underestimate the amount
of money they spend and how much
they really need
 First step in managing: Take an
inventory of how much you spend
 Next, categorize expenses (rent, food,
etc.)
 Finally, construct and follow a budget
© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
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Managing Your Limited Time
Time management is a threepart process
Set clear goals
Assess your use of time
Prioritize your use of time
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Goal Setting and Time
Management
Setting goals for our lives
provides structure and purpose
serves as a basis for planning the
use of time
Building free time into one’s
schedule is just as important as
building in time to study and work
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Assessing Your Use of Time
Self-care time
School time
Work time
Commuting time
Before and after time
Playtime
Sleep time
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Prioritizing Your Time by ACTing
The ACT model for prioritizing
activities
Absolutely must be done today
Could do when the A-list is
finished
Try to do after the As and Cs
Finish your A-list activities first
© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
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Managing Time Resources by
Limiting Procrastination
Procrastination: one of the biggest
wasters of time
Major reasons for procrastination
Fear of failure
Laziness or apathy
The need for instant gratification
Strategies for breaking the
procrastination habit are given in the
text
© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
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Managing School, Work, and
Home Space Resources
Three steps to organizing limited
school and work space (Mayer):
Start with your desk
Lock the door; get to work
Start a file system
Everything off your desk and into a file
Develop a master list
Serves as the index to your file system
See Stress Buster Tips for becoming
organized at home
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Reducing Stress by
Communicating More Effectively
Communication: the process by
which information is exchanged
through a common system of
symbols, signs, or behaviors
Communication occurs at two
levels
Verbal communication
Non-verbal communication
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Building Communication Skills
Communication involves
three specific sets of skills
Initiating skills
Listening skills
Responding skills
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Gender Differences in
Communication
Tannen:
Women seek inclusion and equality
Men seek independence and differences
in status
Women are more likely to talk about their
troubles in great emotional detail and
respond to others’ problems by sharing
and sympathizing/empathizing
Men tend to respond with advice, joke
telling, changing subjects, or remaining
silent
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Gender Differences in
Communication (Cont’d)
Noller and Fitzpatrick:
Wives tend to send clearer
messages and frame them in an
emotional context
Husbands send more neutral,
less expressive messages that
are harder to interpret
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Reducing Stress by Learning to
Say No
 Assertiveness: understanding your wants
and needs and pursuing them without
infringing on the wants and needs of others
 Aggressiveness: understanding your wants
and needs and pursuing them at the
expense of others with little or no regard to
how this affects the rights of others
 Non-assertiveness: failing to pursue your
needs and wants while allowing others to
meet theirs, often at your expense
© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
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Asserting Yourself
How to say no
Not always easy but
essential to reduce stress
Stress Buster Tips give
suggestions for how to say no
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Verbal Assertiveness: The DESC
Model
The DESC Model for assertive
and effective communication
Describe
Express
Specify
Consequences
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Chapter 8: Reduce: Finding Our
Optimal Level of Stimulation
Summary
© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
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