A lot of
research has been conducted into stress over the last hundred years. Some of
the theories behind it are now settled and accepted; others are still being
researched and debated. During this time, there seems to have been something
approaching open warfare between competing theories and definitions: Views have
been passionately held and aggressively defended.
What
complicates this is that intuitively we all feel that we know what stress is,
as it is something we have all experienced. A definition should therefore be
obvious... except that it is not.
Definitions
Hans Selye
was one of the founding fathers of stress research. His view in 1956 was that
"stress is not necessarily something bad – it all depends on how you take
it. The stress of exhilarating, creative successful work is beneficial, while
that of failure, humiliation or infection is detrimental." Selly believed
that the biochemical effects of stress would be experienced irrespective of
whether the situation was positive or negative.
Since
then, a great deal of further research has been conducted, and ideas have moved
on. Stress is now viewed as a "bad thing", with a range of harmful
biochemical and long-term effects. These effects have rarely been observed in
positive situations.
The most
commonly accepted definition of stress (mainly attributed to Richard S Lazarus)
is that stress
is a condition or feeling experienced when a person perceives that
"demands exceed the personal and social resources the individual is able
to mobilize." In short, it's what we feel when we think we've lost control of events.
This is
the main definition used by this section of Mind Tools, although we also
recognize that there is an intertwined instinctive stress response to
unexpected events. The stress response inside us is therefore part instinct and
part to do with the way we think.
Fight-or-Flight
Some of
the early research on stress (conducted by Walter Cannon in 1932) established
the existence of the well-known "fight-or-flight" response. His work
showed that when an organism experiences a shock or perceives a threat, it
quickly releases hormones that help it to survive.
In humans,
as in other animals, these hormones help us to run faster and fight harder.
They increase heart rate and blood pressure, delivering more oxygen and blood
sugar to power important muscles. They increase sweating in an effort to cool
these muscles, and help them stay efficient. They divert blood away from the
skin to the core of our bodies, reducing blood loss if we are damaged. As well
as this, these hormones focus our attention on the threat, to the exclusion of
everything else. All of this significantly improves our ability to survive
life-threatening events.
Not only
life-threatening events trigger this reaction: We experience it almost any time
we come across something unexpected or something that frustrates our goals. When
the threat is small, our response is small and we often do not notice it among
the many other distractions of a stressful situation.
Unfortunately,
this mobilization of the body for survival also has negative consequences. In
this state, we are excitable, anxious, jumpy and irritable. This actually
reduces our ability to work effectively with other people. With trembling and a
pounding heart, we can find it difficult to execute precise, controlled skills.
The intensity of our focus on survival interferes with our ability to make fine
judgments by drawing information from many sources. We find ourselves more
accident-prone and less able to make good decisions.
There are
very few situations in modern working life where this response is useful. Most
situations benefit from a calm, rational, controlled and socially sensitive
approach.
In the
short term, we need to keep this fight-or-flight response under control to be
effective in our jobs. In the long term we need to keep it under control to
avoid problems of poor health and burnout.
Introducing Stress Management
There are
very many proven skills that we can use to manage stress. These help us to
remain calm and effective in high pressure situations, and help us avoid the
problems of long term stress. In the rest of this section of Mind Tools, we
look at some important techniques in each of these three groups.
This is a
much-abridged excerpt from the 'Understanding Stress and Stress Management'
module of the Mind Tools Stress Management Master class. As well as covering this material
in more detail, it also discusses:
·
Long-term stress: The General
Adaptation Syndrome and Burnout.
·
The Integrated Stress Response.
·
Stress and Health.
·
Stress and its Affect on the Way We
Think.
·
Pressure & Performance: Flow and
the 'Inverted-U'.
These
sections give you a deeper understanding of stress, helping you to develop your
own stress management strategies for handling unique circumstances. Click here
to find out more about the Stress Management Master class.
The first
of these articles shows you how to keep a stress diary – an important technique
for understanding the most important sources of stress in your life. To read
this, click 'Next article' below.
Warning: Stress can cause severe health
problems and, in extreme cases, can cause death. While these stress management
techniques have been shown to have a positive effect on reducing stress, they
are for guidance only, and readers should take the advice of suitably qualified
health professionals if they have any concerns over stress-related illnesses or
if stress is causing significant or persistent unhappiness. Health
professionals should also be consulted before any major change in diet or
levels of exercise.
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