The Moch Stress Curve
Dr Jonathan Moch (psychiatrist and director of 3DDiagnostic) developed and used
the MSC since 1996. His work was presented in 1997 at the World Congress of Psychosomatic
Medicine in Australia. The tool has been used in over 4500 patients, over 400 workshops/lectures
and in numerous organisations from a wide variety of industries. Dr Moch is the
author of two books on stress A brief exploration of being human and What
are the colours of apples? An international speaker on the subject of stress
and a lecturer of Mind-Brain seminars at The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.
The MSC is a natural distribution curve along which an individual’s stress level
is plotted. The instrument is developed and based on the fact that a link between
performance or overall functioning and stress levels exists. A certain
amount of stress is desirable for productive levels to be attained. Stress in excess
of the ideal quantity causes productivity to decrease in proportion with the experienced
stress. Not enough stimulation can in itself lead to stress and underperformance.
The effect of an environment can be that even though an individual does not perceive
stress and negative emotional responses, it can place him/her at risk. An individual
who completes the MSC questionnaire can be plotted in 1 of 8 categories:
- Boredom
- Understressed
- Ideal
- Mild distress
- Moderate distress
- Early burnout
- Severe burnout
- Breakdown
The MSC is a reliable diagnostic for remedial steps at the three levels of stress intervention:
- Primary intervention (organisational culture/climate; stress reduction)
- Secondary intervention (individual adaptation; stress management)
- Tertiary intervention (stress related illnesses; workplace counselling)