SIT focuses on developing a way to cope with stress before problems arise, that is why it is called stress inoculation training – this is done through three phases. Firstly, during the conceptualisation phase, a relationship is formed between the client and the therapist. The client leans about the impact and nature of stress and may be taught to view perceived threats as problems that need to be solved. Secondly, through skills acquisition and rehearsal the client learns how to deal with stress through cognitive and behavioural techniques such as relaxation, positive thinking, time management, positive self statements and using social support networks. Lastly, through application, clients are provided with the opportunity to test their coping skills through stressful situations.
The effect of SIT in dealing with stress has been shown to be extremely positive. Meichenbaum found it worked well with acute and chronic stressors as it treated the causes of the stress, not just the symptoms. However, it is very time consuming and requires money and motivation, so dedicated, wealthy people usually succeed best with this form of stress management. Stress inoculation training has also been criticised for possibly being too complex, with the effectiveness being said to be down to the positive thinking and relaxation that helps, instead of all the elements of SIT itself.
Another psychological method of coping which has been shown to reduce levels of stress and stress related illnesses is hardiness training. According to Kobasa (1979) certain types of people have a similar personality called the hard personality, who show higher resistance to stress than other personality types. Kobasa developed the idea further as a way to train individuals to become hardier through specialised training. The hardy personality has been seen to contain three characteristics: control, where the individual views themselves as having complete control over their lives instead of any exterior forces, commitment, in which the individual is actively involved in the world around them instead of playing a passive role and challenge, where they view threats as challenges to be overcome or problems to be solved.
As a result of increasing hardiness, the individual experiences reduced physiological arousal to potential stressors which results in less stress-related illnesses. Maddi, a colleague of Kobasa’s, formed a training programme which aims to increase hardiness in a person by means of increasing self confidence and a sense of control over their lives. Clients are taught to recognise physiological and mental signs of stress as well as identifying the sources, i.e. stressors. They also relive stressful situations to analyse how they deal with them. Once the client as insight into how they deal with their stress, they can learn new helpful techniques which approach stressors as challenges that need to be overcome. This in turn leads to reduced stress levels, and subsequently, lowers risk of stress-related illnesses.
As a result, hardiness training has been shown to be very effective as it deals with the stressors in peoples’ lives and not just the symptoms. Maddi et al (1988) found that hardiness training improved job satisfaction and lowered stress-related absences in a sample of business managers – however, the conclusions of this study were criticised for generalising the result of the managers’ improvements, as they are a specific type of person to begin with (one who likes control, etc). Nevertheless, this is only one amongst other studies which have shown that hardy individuals are at a much lower risk of stress and stress-related illnesses because they are able to handle the physiological reactions to stress far better than other personality types.
It can be seen that as psychological methods of dealing with stress, both stress inoculation training and hardiness training have been shown to significantly improve an individual’s ability to deal with stress and subsequently lower the risk of suffering from stress-related illnesses. Both of these approaches treat the causes rather the symptoms and involve the acquisition of new skills which provide long term methods of dealing with stress. They also both teach clients to view stress as problems to be solved, but are expensive, time consuming and require much effort and dedication. Each individual is different and so different approaches to stress are likely to have varying levels of success – the key is to finding a method which works for the individual, as there can be no universal approach to lowering levels of stress and stress-related illnesses which works perfectly for everyone.
