Read the following passage.
Meenal is the only girl from her village who has reached High School. For this, she has to move away from her village and stay in the city. She has made a lot of friends and every time she is invited by them to attend parties, she is unable to say 'no' to them. This leaves her with less time to study, which adds to her stress level. She has been procrastinating her work and spends more time thinking that she will not be successful in life. This has increased her tension and resulted in a lack of confidence in her. Quite often she vents out her feelings of anger and frustration at her parents. Her teacher, who had been observing her, advised her to take charge of herself and seek professional help from a psychologist who uses cognitive behavioural techniques to reduce stress.
Identify the statements that are true for cognitive behavioural techniques:
(A) It is a subjective experience that uses imagery and imagination.
(B) It replaces negative and irrational thoughts with positive and rational ones.
(C) It reduces the risk of interference from unbidden thoughts and turns imagined scenes into reality.
(D) Its main phases are assessment, application of stress reduction techniques and follow-up.
(E) It monitors and reduces physiological aspects of strain by providing feedback and is accompanied by relaxation.
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → (B) and (D) only
(A) It is a subjective experience that uses imagery and imagination. Incorrect. This is how creative visualisation is described, a separate stress management technique. The person sets a realistic goal and pictures it with a quiet mind and a relaxed body. It works through imagery, not through changing the person’s thoughts as cognitive behavioural techniques do.
(B) It replaces negative and irrational thoughts with positive and rational ones. Correct. Cognitive behavioural techniques aim to inoculate people against stress. Their best-known method, Meichenbaum’s stress inoculation training, has this as its very essence: negative and irrational thoughts are replaced with positive and rational ones.
(C) It reduces the risk of interference from unbidden thoughts and turns imagined scenes into reality. Incorrect. This too belongs to creative visualisation. A quiet mind and a relaxed body keep unwanted thoughts away and give the energy needed to turn an imagined scene into reality.
(D) Its main phases are assessment, application of stress reduction techniques and follow-up. Correct. Stress inoculation training has three main phases: assessment (discussing the problem and seeing it from the client’s point of view), stress reduction techniques (learning ways such as relaxation and self-instruction), and application and follow-through.
(E) It monitors and reduces physiological aspects of strain by providing feedback and is accompanied by relaxation. Incorrect. This describes biofeedback. It gives the person feedback about current body activity, such as heart rate, so that she or he learns to control it, often along with relaxation training. It works on the body’s responses, not on the person’s thoughts.
NCERT (2025-26): “Stress Management Techniques … Biofeedback : It is a procedure to monitor and reduce the physiological aspects of stress by providing feedback about current physiological activity and is often accompanied by relaxation training.” “Stress Management Techniques … Creative Visualisation : It is an effective technique for dealing with stress. Creative visualisation is a subjective experience that uses imagery and imagination. Before visualising one must set oneself a realistic goal, as it helps build confidence. It is easier to visualise if one’s mind is quiet, body relaxed and eyes are closed. This reduces the risk of interference from unbidden thoughts and provides the creative energy needed for turning an imagined scene into reality.” “Cognitive Behavioural Techniques : … These techniques aim to inoculate people against stress. Stress inoculation training is one effective method developed by Meichenbaum. The essence of this approach is to replace negative and irrational thoughts with positive and rational ones. There are three main phases in this : assessment, stress reduction techniques, and application and follow-through. Assessment involves discussing the nature of the problem and seeing it from the viewpoint of the person/client. Stress reduction involves learning the techniques of reducing stress such as relaxation and self-instruction.…” |