| Course | SOS-3200 The Management of Stress and Tension |
|---|---|
| Module | Module 1 |
| Paper type | Reflective paper: stressors and appraisal |
| Length | About 1,025 words, 6 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Thomas Edison State University |
| Program | B.S. in Health Studies |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for SOS 3200 Module 1
Small Things, Every Day: Measuring My Stressors With Two Scales and One Theory
Student Name
B.S. in Health Studies, Thomas Edison State University
SOS-3200: The Management of Stress and Tension
Mentor Name
Month Day, Year
Small Things, Every Day: Measuring My Stressors With Two Scales and One Theory
Introduction
Before I could manage my stress, I needed to know what it was made of. I am an invented student for this sample: I am 41, supervise a medical billing team in Hamilton, have two children aged 12 and 15 and take two TESU courses each term at night. My father, who has Parkinson's disease, lives ten minutes away, and I stop by most evenings to set out his medicines. I described myself to friends as stressed all the time, but I could not say whether that meant my life had too many big changes or too many small ones. This paper uses two published scales and a theory of appraisal to find out.
A List of My Stressors
For two weeks I kept a stressor log, writing down each time I felt tense, what had happened and how I reacted. The log held 61 entries. I sorted them into groups:
| Group | Examples from my log | Entries |
|---|---|---|
| Work | Claim denials, a team member out sick, a new billing system | 19 |
| Family | Teenager's missed homework, arguments about phones, dinner | 14 |
| Caregiving | Father's missed medicine, a fall scare, pharmacy calls | 12 |
| School | Discussion deadlines, a confusing assignment | 9 |
| Money and time | Car repair, late bus for my son, no time to exercise | 7 |
Life Events
To build the Social Readjustment Rating Scale, Holmes and Rahe (1967) had several hundred people rate how much readjustment 43 life events require, using marriage as an anchor at 50 points. At the top, with 100 points, sat the death of a spouse, followed by divorce and marital separation. Even positive events, such as a vacation or an outstanding personal achievement, were included because they require change. The scale rests on the idea that change itself, good or bad, places demands on a person.
Over the past year, my events included a change in responsibilities at work, a change in my father's health, my son starting high school, a change in my sleeping habits and a change in my financial state after the car repair. My total was 162 life change units, a moderate score. On this scale I did not look especially stressed, which surprised me.
Perceived Stress
Cohen et al. (1983) argued that life event lists miss how people experience their lives. Their Perceived Stress Scale asks how far, over the past month, life has felt unpredictable, uncontrollable and overloaded. Items ask, for example, how often a person has felt unable to control the important things in life or that difficulties were piling up so high that they could not overcome them. In their studies, scores on the Perceived Stress Scale predicted health outcomes and symptoms better than life event scores.
I completed the ten-item version. I scored 24 of a possible 40, higher than typical scores in published adult samples. The items I rated highest were about feeling that things were piling up and about being unable to control what mattered.
Daily Hassles
Researchers who followed Holmes and Rahe pointed out that most stress comes not from rare upheavals but from the irritations of ordinary days: misplaced things, traffic, too many tasks, small conflicts. My log confirms this. Of my 61 entries, only three related to anything the life events scale would count. The rest were hassles, each small, many repeated: my father's pharmacy calling about a refill, a claim denied for a coding error, my daughter's lost charger before school. A single hassle took minutes. Together they filled my days with moments of alarm. I also noticed that hassles clustered between 6 and 8 p.m., when I left work, stopped at my father's, cooked and tried to log in for class. That two-hour window produced nearly a third of my entries, which suggests the timing of demands matters as much as their number.
Why the Scores Differ
Lazarus and Folkman (1984) offered an explanation. In their theory, stress is not in the event or in the person alone but in the relationship between the two. Primary appraisal asks whether a situation matters to me and whether it is a harm, a threat or a challenge. Secondary appraisal asks what I can do about it and whether my resources are enough. Stress arises when a person appraises demands as taxing or exceeding their resources. One person may shrug off an event that overwhelms another.
This framework explains my results. My life events were not unusual, but my appraisals of daily demands were. I appraised my father's missed medicines as a threat, since a missed dose can leave him stiff and at risk of falling, and I saw few resources, since my brother lives in Ohio. I appraised work problems as threats to my standing rather than challenges I could meet. The everyday hassles in my log, repeated many times a week, added up to a sense of overload that the life events scale could not capture.
What the Scales Leave Out
Both scales have limits. The life events scale treats events as equally stressful for everyone and was developed in the 1960s, so events such as caregiving for a parent or managing children's online lives are missing. The Perceived Stress Scale asks about feelings without naming their sources. My log filled that gap, showing that caregiving and work produced most of my overload.
First Targets
Appraisal theory suggests two ways to reduce stress: change the demands or change my appraisal and resources. From the log, I chose two targets for later modules. The first is caregiving, where I could ask my brother to share pharmacy calls by phone and set up a pill organizer with alarms for my father. The second is work, where I could reframe some problems as challenges and ask my manager for clearer priorities during the billing system change.
Conclusion
A life events scale suggested my stress was moderate. The Perceived Stress Scale and my stressor log showed something else: daily demands appraised as threats, with too few resources, left me feeling overloaded. Lazarus and Folkman's theory explains why both results can be true and points to where change is possible.
References
Cohen, S., Kamarck, T., & Mermelstein, R. (1983). A global measure of perceived stress. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 24(4), 385-396. https://doi.org/10.2307/2136404
Holmes, T. H., & Rahe, R. H. (1967). The social readjustment rating scale. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 11(2), 213-218. https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-3999(67)90010-4
Lazarus, R. S., & Folkman, S. (1984). Stress, appraisal, and coping. Springer Publishing Company.
SOS 3200 Module 1 instructions, in plain terms
TESU's SOS-3200 catalog description asks students to analyze stressors and apply theory to their own lives, and since the syllabus is not online, module one is planned as a reflective paper on stressors and appraisal. Write in the first person, keep a stressor log, score at least one published scale, explain the results with a named theory, name what the scales miss and choose targets for later modules. Some sections use the Holmes and Rahe scale alone or a daily hassles scale instead. Check whether your mentor wants the full scale in an appendix and whether your scores should be compared with published norms. Most mentors also like to see a short look at timing, such as when in the day stressors cluster, since it points to practical changes. Keep personal details to what the analysis needs.
Inside the SOS 3200 Module 1 example
The invented writer, a 41-year-old billing supervisor in Hamilton caring for her father, opens with why she wanted to measure her stress. A two-week stressor log sorted into five groups, her Social Readjustment Rating Scale total of 162 and her Perceived Stress Scale score of 24 follow. Lazarus and Folkman's primary and secondary appraisal explain why daily hassles appraised as threats outweighed life events. The limits of both scales, two targets for later modules and a conclusion close the paper. Earlier, a passage on daily hassles shows that only three log entries fit the life events scale and that a third clustered between 6 and 8 p.m.
SOS 3200 Module 1 rubric: what earns full marks
Stressor papers earn credit for honest measurement, published scales described with their authors and purpose, accurate reporting of the writer's scores, a named theory used to explain the results, attention to what each scale leaves out and targets that follow from the analysis. Mentors notice when a student explains why two measures disagree rather than ignoring the difference. A stressor log adds evidence that self-report scales cannot. Book references need the publisher, and scales should be cited to the article that introduced them. Noticing when stressors cluster, not only how many there are, shows careful analysis and leads naturally to planning.
SOS 3200 Module 1 help from the desk
Stressor papers often describe a busy life without measuring it; keep a log and score a scale. Another common gap is naming a theory without applying it. Report your scores. Explain them with appraisal. Say what the scale misses. Choose specific targets. Keep personal details to what the assignment needs. For a free first draft that fits your own life, send the prompt. Look for when your stressors cluster. Count how many are hassles rather than major events. Use those patterns to pick targets you can actually change. Write your log entries as they happen, not from memory at the end of the week.
Write yours, or have the desk draft it
This paper is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Thomas Edison State University document. Read it for the moves, then write your own to the instructions in your classroom. If you want one built to your exact prompt and rubric, the first custom sample is free and arrives in 24 to 48 hours.
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SOS 3200 Module 1 questions, answered
Where can I find a free SOS 3200 Module 1 sample paper?
The stressors and appraisal paper, written by an invented Hamilton student who scores two stress scales, is on this page.
What is the Social Readjustment Rating Scale?
Holmes and Rahe's 1967 list of 43 life events weighted by how much readjustment each requires, from 100 for death of a spouse down.
What does the Perceived Stress Scale measure?
The extent to which the last four weeks have felt unpredictable, out of control and overloaded.
What are primary and secondary appraisal?
The first asks whether a situation matters and whether it threatens, harms or challenges; the second weighs the options and resources for handling it.
Why might a life events score look low when stress feels high?
Daily hassles and how they are appraised can create overload that a list of major events does not capture.