For example, an employee who is promoted to a leadership position would likely perceive the promotion as a much greater threat if she believed the promotion would lead to excessive work demands than if she viewed it as an opportunity to gain new skills and grow professionally. Similarly, a college student on the cusp of graduation may face the change as a threat or a challenge.
Graduating from college and entering the workforce can be viewed as either a threat loss of financial support or a challenge opportunity for independence and growth. The perception of a threat triggers a secondary appraisal : judgment of the options available to cope with a stressor, as well as perceptions of how effective such options will be Lyon, [link].
Imagine that two middle-aged women, Robin and Maria, perform breast self-examinations one morning and each woman notices a lump on the lower region of her left breast. Although both women view the breast lump as a potential threat primary appraisal , their secondary appraisals differ considerably.
What if the cancer has spread to the rest of my body and I cannot recover? What if I have to go through chemotherapy? What if I have to quit my job? Although most times these things turn out to be benign, I need to have it checked out. If it turns out to be breast cancer, there are doctors who can take care of it because the medical technology today is quite advanced.
As such, Robin would clearly experience greater stress than would Maria. When encountering a stressor, a person judges its potential threat primary appraisal and then determines if effective options are available to manage the situation. Stress is likely to result if a stressor is perceived as extremely threatening or threatening with few or no effective coping options available.
To be sure, some stressors are inherently more stressful than others in that they are more threatening and leave less potential for variation in cognitive appraisals e.
If a person appraises an event as harmful and believes that the demands imposed by the event exceed the available resources to manage or adapt to it, the person will subjectively experience a state of stress.
In contrast, if one does not appraise the same event as harmful or threatening, she is unlikely to experience stress. According to this definition, environmental events trigger stress reactions by the way they are interpreted and the meanings they are assigned.
Although stress carries a negative connotation, at times it may be of some benefit. Stress can motivate us to do things in our best interests, such as study for exams, visit the doctor regularly, exercise, and perform to the best of our ability at work.
Indeed, Selye pointed out that not all stress is harmful. He argued that stress can sometimes be a positive, motivating force that can improve the quality of our lives. A moderate amount of stress can be beneficial in challenging situations. For example, athletes may be motivated and energized by pregame stress, and students may experience similar beneficial stress before a major exam.
Indeed, research shows that moderate stress can enhance both immediate and delayed recall of educational material.
As stress increases, so do performance and general well-being eustress ; when stress levels reach an optimal level the highest point of the curve , performance reaches its peak. A person at this stress level is colloquially at the top of his game, meaning he feels fully energized, focused, and can work with minimal effort and maximum efficiency. People who reach this level of stress feel burned out; they are fatigued, exhausted, and their performance begins to decline.
As the stress level increases from low to moderate, so does performance eustress. At the optimal level the peak of the curve , performance has reached its peak. Stress is everywhere and it has been on the rise over the last several years. Each of us is acquainted with stress—some are more familiar than others.
Nearly half of U. Stress is an experience that evokes a variety of responses, including those that are physiological e.
The scientific study of how stress and other psychological factors impact health falls within the realm of health psychology , a subfield of psychology devoted to understanding the importance of psychological influences on health, illness, and how people respond when they become ill Taylor, Health psychology emerged as a discipline in the s, a time during which there was increasing awareness of the role behavioral and lifestyle factors play in the development of illnesses and diseases Straub, In addition to studying the connection between stress and illness, health psychologists investigate issues such as why people make certain lifestyle choices e.
Health psychologists also design and investigate the effectiveness of interventions aimed at changing unhealthy behaviors. Perhaps one of the more fundamental tasks of health psychologists is to identify which groups of people are especially at risk for negative health outcomes, based on psychological or behavioral factors. For example, measuring differences in stress levels among demographic groups and how these levels change over time can help identify populations who may have an increased risk for illness or disease.
All three surveys demonstrated higher stress in women than in men. Unemployed individuals reported high levels of stress in all three surveys, as did those with less education and income; retired persons reported the lowest stress levels. However, from to the greatest increase in stress levels occurred among men, Whites, people aged 45—64, college graduates, and those with full-time employment.
One interpretation of these findings is that concerns surrounding the — economic downturn e. This is the immediate reaction to a stressor. This stage takes energy away from other systems e. If alarm reactions continue, the body begins getting used to being stressed.
But this adaptation is not good for your health, since energy is concentrated on stress reactions. This is the final stage after long-term exposure to a stressor. Language German English French. Search Search for:. The Centre for Studies on Human Stress CSHS is dedicated to improving the physical and mental health of Canadians by empowering individuals with scientifically grounded information on the effects of stress on the brain and body. Search here:. History of stress. History of stress The term stress was borrowed from the field of physics by one of the fathers of stress research Hans Selye.
The Great Debate Selye pioneered the field of stress research and provided convincing arguments that stress impacted health. Stage 1 : Alarm reaction This is the immediate reaction to a stressor.
Did you know? Far from being limited to soldiers, the range of potential sufferers included all of humanity.
By , he was famous in his field, but his discoveries had yet to trickle down to patients. Still, Dr. Sure enough, as the decade progressed , stress diseases were increasingly the subject of concern and study.
Though we use the term almost exclusively in a negative sense, he knew that a little bit of stress keeps life exciting. Selye, who died in , had these instructions for finding the right balance:.
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