Assessments Map Q & A

How will I know if my Map is good or bad?

How are the Maps developed and tested? Can I trust the results?

Why do the questionnaires focus on the last thirty days?

Each Map is a personal snapshot of you, captured at a particular point in time. This is a freeze frame of your current life situation, pressures, changes and circumstances. As such, your Map provides you with invaluable information about your current stress strengths and stress vulnerabilities. Use this information to learn about your personal issues paying particular attention to areas in need of improvement.

Many of us wish we could score in the Optimal Performance Zone in every scale. However, a straight line in Optimal Performance is no more desirable than a straight line in the Burnout/Caution Zone. As any EKG will attest, straight lines are not the goal, the up and down rhythm is the best indicator of life and energy. Look at your Map results as data available for your evaluation of your current life rhythm.

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Essi Systems has been developing Maps for 17 years, and our Maps are developed through rigorous testing and comparison with our original StressMap® database. The StressMap® has been tested by over 300,000 people in more than 2500 companies in the United States and Canada, as well as around the world. Extensively researched, statistically reliable and completely norm-tested, the StressMap® is scientifically sound and is extremely well-behaved as a measurement instrument, according to Dr. K. Trocki, Director or Research for Essi Systems, Inc.

Professional articles on the instruments themselve, or studies conducted using the instruments have been published by the American Psychological Association/National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health and Medical World News, to name a few. Data is constantly being collected internationally, and new norms and upgrades are regularly added to the maps.

When you place yourself on the Scoring Grid, you are placing yourself in relation to others like you in the United States. If you score in the Optimal Zone, for example, you are well above the national average which is represented by the median line between strain and balance.

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Scale One, Major Changes is the only scale on the Maps that asks you about the last 12 months rather than the last 30 days. Major changes require an adjustment period of up to a year, more in some cases, after the initial event or change.

All other scales ask for your recent experiences within the last month. Our studies have shown that most people carry the experiences of the last thirty days in their bodies with some direct influence on their day to day life. If the time period were longer, say 6 months, you might have difficulty remembering an event, or you might respond only from your memory of an experience rather than from any current influences.

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In a way, yes, it will. The Maps are designed to help you answer the questions as quickly and easily as possible. For this reason, each scale is named by the subject or issue being assessed, to allow you to focus on that particular stress area. In this way, the Maps have what researchers call "face validity." As a self-scoring learning tool, it is important that each taker have as much information as possible to assist in their personal assessment and exploration. For these reasons, Essi Systems has defended the naming of each scale openly and without intentional confusions, as might be found in other instruments.

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