Managing Stress - Stress Inoculation Training (SIT) Cognitive - Meichenbaum

Meichenbaum - SIT is used to help people learn when they'll become stressed and help use positive thoughts to reduce future stress responses through cognitive therapy. There are 3 stages of SIT: Conceptualisation; Skills Acquisition; Application. Stage 1: Conceptualisation = Involves discussing/identifying typical stressors. They tend to do this by using negative comments like 'I can't handle this'. Stage 2: Skills Acquisition = Patients taught coping strategies which enables them to restructure their thoughts and replace negative self-statements. This may include relaxation and breathing techniques.. Stage 3: Application = These skills are then put into practice in a real-life situation e.g. someone who has a fear of failing an exam, they may conceptualise by saying 'I am going to fail' and SIT can help with their skill acquisition by helping them with their breathing and help them to relax. The application stage can enable them to try the skills in a mock exam and eventually in a real exam.

Aim/M&P: Comapre SIT with standard behavioural systematic desensitisation; Experiment; Matched-Pairs design; 21 students; repsonded to an advert for test anxiety; SIT group and systematic desensitasion received 8 therapy sessions; control group on waiting list

Results/Conclusion: SIT group improved most, although both therapy groups showed overall improvement compared with the control group; SIT is an effective way of reducing anxiety in students who are prone to exams. Not only does it change their behaviour but it changes their thoughts.