Name: ___________________________________
Response to Stressful Experiences Scale
The following statements describe how some individuals may think, feel, or act during and after the most stressful events in life. Please indicate (with a √) how well each of these statements describes you during and after life’s most stressful events.
| Exactly like me |
Not at all like me |
||||
| During and after life’s most stressful events, I tend to… | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| 1. … take action to fix things. | X | ||||
| 2. … not give up trying to solve problems I think I can solve. | X | ||||
| 3. … find a way to do what’s necessary to carry on. | X | ||||
| 4. … pray or meditate. | X | ||||
| 5. … face my fears. | X | ||||
| 6. … find opportunity for growth. | X | ||||
| 7. … calm and comfort myself. | X | ||||
| 8. … try to “recharge” myself before I have to face the next challenge. | X | ||||
| 9. … see it as a challenge that will make me better. | X | ||||
| 10. … look at the problem in a number of ways. | X | ||||
| 11. … look for creative solutions to the problem. | X | ||||
| 12. … put things in perspective and realize I will have times of joy and times of sadness. | X | ||||
| 13. … be good at determining which situations are changeable and which are not. | X | ||||
| 14. … find meaning from the experience. | X | ||||
| 15. … find strength in the meaning, purpose, or mission of my life. | X | ||||
| 16. … know I will bounce back. | X | ||||
| 17. … expect that I can handle it. | X | ||||
| 18. … learn important and useful life lessons. | X | ||||
| 19. … understand that bad things can happen to anyone, not just me. | X | ||||
| 20. … lean on my faith in God or a higher power. | X | ||||
| 21. … draw upon lessons learned from failures and past mistakes. | X | ||||
| 22. … practice ways to handle it better next time. | X | ||||
| Total your score for each column | |||||
| Add all column totals together to provide your final score | |||||
Johnson, D. C., Polusny, M. A., Erbes, C., King, D., King, L., Litz, B., Schnurr, P., Friedman, M., and Southwick, S. (2008).
The Response to Stressful Experiences Scale (RSES). VA National Center for PTSD.
Reflection 310