Do you ever feel like the woman looks at work in the above photo? She looks stressed out about something. The following case study illustrates one or more of the common types of stress, suggests some common sources of stress, and calls for ways to deal with stress constructively. The case study also illustrates how stress management goes hand-in-hand with anger management because stress can lead to anger. The purpose of this activity is to apply correctly the key concepts, principles, and suggestions from Chapter 8 to the case study.

Read the following case study and the instructions that follow it.

“With my wife Elena, I’ve been unhappy and stressed out over the fact that she may leave me. We have been a couple since early high school. I can’t imagine anyone else as my wife. Note that the husband does not seem to realize that this uncertainty is making him edgy and irritable. Everything she does right now is getting to me. I don’t like it that she doesn’t have any time for fun anymore. We don’t go out to eat or do Happy Hours out anymore. We haven’t had a date night in months now. I’ve been unemployed for several months. I’ve had a couple of leads on jobs, but they haven’t gotten anywhere. I am trying very hard to find a good job. In the meantime, my wife has been working overtime to try to keep us out of debt. She expects me to do her “honey-dos” around the house. If we were both working, she wouldn’t expect as much. She has accused me of not doing anything at all around the house except play games on my computer. I have to do that as an escape from all I am going through. When she came home last night and got upset because the house wasn’t clean, I got so frustrated that I grabbed the computer and slammed it down on the table and threw it the length of our living room. She ran into the bedroom and locked the door. I don’t know what came over me. I walked straight out of the house, got in the car, and drove to the Silver Dollar Bar.”

The original version of this case study appears in Cahn, D., & Abigail, R.A. (2014), Managing conflict through communication (5th Edition), p. 200.

People tend to manage their anger in one of the following three different ways: anger-ins, anger-outs, or anger controllers. For this discussion, please engage in the following:

1. Read the case study
   1. Which ways of dealing with anger are illustrated in the case study?
   2. Was the conflict managed constructively or destructively?
   3. How might it be better managed?
2. Jot down what concepts you read in Chapter 8 that might apply to this scenario
3. Define what the concept(s) is that fits this case
4. State what behaviors you see happening that substantiate why you chose the concepts you have identified
5. Write a 250-300 word post where you put together #2 and #3; this post should be in narrative form
6. Include references to the textbook in your post; use the APA style guide
7. Make sure to proofread for grammar