This practice forum explores how the “quantified self movement” can contribute to developing leaders by offering new approaches to assessment and feedback. Often associated with wearable technologies (digital technologies worn on the body), self-tracking sensors and feedback systems help individuals assess how they interface with the world, automatically capturing and monitoring data for learning, growth, and change. The authors make the case that such tools can create ongoing opportunities for learning intrapersonal qualities relevant to leadership. In particular, they offer insights about using self-tracking to manage responses to stress and fatigue and for the delivery of verbal presentations. The exploration also notes concerns about the use of technological devices for development purposes. The authors conclude by offering a summary of six factors to consider before using self-tracking tools for leadership development, and by identifying four aspects of self-tracking approaches that would benefit from more I-O psychologist involvement.

Objective: To examine the relationship between social support and emotional functioning and stress reactions. Our hypothesis is that patients who reported a high degree of social support will experience better emotional functioning and less serious stress reactions than patients with a low degree of social support.

Method: The sample was comprised of 434 patients at the Palliative Medicine Unit (PMU), University Hospital of Trondheim in Norway. The patients completed a questionnaire monthly including questions about social support from the MacAdam's Scale, subjective stress measured by the Impact of Event Scale (IES), and emotional functioning measured by the subscale in the EORTC QLQ-30.

Results: Although our hypothesis was not supported at the baseline assessment, it was supported at the second assessment, 2 months later. Patients with high social support reported better emotional functioning and less serious stress reactions, in terms of lower scores on the IES avoidance subscale, than patients with a low degree of social support.

Significance of the results: The mixed findings may indicate that social support has only small effects on emotional functioning and stress reactions. Our results on the second assessment indicate, however, that social support might work as a buffer against reactions toward external stressful events such as terminal cancer.