Stress resilience profile: method

What it measures

Self-reported calmness versus stress reactivity (the low ends of two Neuroticism facets: anxiety and vulnerability to stress). It is not a measure of resilience in the sense of recovering from adversity.

Procedure

16 statements, one at a time, in a fixed order, with a 5-point scale: Very inaccurate, Moderately inaccurate, Neither accurate nor inaccurate, Moderately accurate, Very accurate. Instruction: describe how you generally are, rather than just today. Untimed; any statement can be skipped, and Back changes an answer. Input: tap or click, or the keyboard (Tab and arrow keys, then Next). Items, N1 Anxiety (reverse keyed): Worry about things; Fear for the worst; Get stressed out easily; Get caught up in my problems. N1 (calm keyed): Am relaxed most of the time; Am not easily bothered by things; Am not easily disturbed by events; Adapt easily to new situations. N6 Vulnerability (reverse keyed): Panic easily; Become overwhelmed by events; Feel that I'm unable to deal with things; Get overwhelmed by emotions. N6 (calm keyed): Remain calm under pressure; Can handle complex problems; Know how to cope; Am calm even in tense situations. Not used from the 10-item IPIP-NEO scales: 'Am afraid of many things', 'Don't worry about things that have already happened' (N1); 'Can't make up my mind', 'Readily overcome setbacks' (N6).

Parameters

Scoring

Answers are coded 1 to 5. Calm-keyed items keep their value; anxiety- and vulnerability-keyed items are reversed (6 minus the answer). Calm mean = mean of the 16 keyed values, 1 to 5, higher = calmer; only when all 16 are answered. Label: 'less calm' below 2.5, 'more calm' above 3.5, otherwise 'mixed'. These cut-offs describe the answers; they are not clinical or norm-based. The two facets are not scored separately. Compared with other players only as a band (under the 25th percentile, between, over the 75th) from 100 comparable complete runs. Player comparisons use only first runs (no earlier run by the same visitor, account, or IP address and device) without quality flags, with the same scorer version and the same runner settings. Item-level answers are returned to the browser for the result screen but are not stored; the stored record keeps the item-bank version, the number answered, the mean and the label.

Valid-run rules

Every statement needs one answer or an explicit skip; answers outside the scale and an out-of-date item-bank version are rejected. Runs with any skip get no mean, no label and no comparison. Quality flags (stored, not shown, not blocking): 'straight lining' (the same answer to every answered statement) and 'too fast' (at least half of the answers within 700 ms). The server rebuilds every run from the raw log (and the run's seed where there is one) and computes the score itself; anything the page says about right or wrong is ignored. A log that breaks the game's rules is rejected, and nothing is stored. Stored runs can carry quality flags that are never shown and never block a result: 10 or more runs from one IP address, a missing visitor id, tab switches, and automation signals (automated browser, impossible speed, no input events, machine-regular timing).

Differences from the classic task

The IPIP-NEO uses 10 items per facet and scores Anxiety and Vulnerability separately, in the Neuroticism direction. This profile uses 8 items from each, combines them into one score and reverses the direction (calmness). This selection, the combined score and its cut-offs have not been validated, and the reliability of the full scales does not transfer to it.

Limitations

Self-report: mood, context, self-image and how a statement is understood change the answers. It is not a mental-health screen, not a diagnosis and not a prediction of how anyone will cope with a future event. Translations have not been validated and there are no local norms. The comparison players are site visitors, not a representative or clinical reference group.

Languages and review status

English IPIP wording plus 99 other languages (machine-assisted translation with automated script and spelling checks, comparison with native text corpora). Keys, reverse scoring and item order stay in the English master. No local validation or norms.