Describe the relationship between social skills and individual ...

[rl]

Describe the relationship between social skills and individual vulnerability to stress.

Question 2

Explain why a variety of assessment tools provides the best approach to understanding an individual's stress.

[Beatricemm]

Answer to Question 1

The more integrated people are in society and the more social support they experience, the less vulnerable they are to stress. The better a person's social skills, the easier it is for him or her to give and receive help. People with more supportive relationships tend to do better in times of crisis.

Answer to Question 2

To assess stress, no one best tool will suffice, in part because reactions to events vary from person to person. What distresses one person may excite and challenge another. Research increasingly supports the idea that the amount of stress is not what matters but, instead, the individual's ability to control the stressful situation. Often, external events are not what cause stress. How a person perceives and copes with stressful events is the determining factor. Taken together, the results of these assessments will produce an overall picture of an individual's current stress status and help him or her decide how to use the information in a way that seems most relevant to their lives.