What Is Stress ?
What Is Stress ?
Stress is the process of adjusting to or dealing with circumstances that disrupt, or threaten to disrupt a person’s physical or psychological functioning. Here are two examples.
Marlene has spent ten hours of a sweltering August day on a crowded bus from Cleveland, Ohio, to Muncie, Indiana. The air conditioner is not working, and she discovers that the person next to her has apparently not had a bath since the beginning of the decade. By the time she reaches Muncie, Marlene is hot, dizzy, depressed, tired, and irritable.
Jack is waiting in a room full of other college seniors to interview for a job with a large accounting firm. His grades are not outstanding, but he hopes to get by on his personality. He feels that his parents and his fiancée expect him to land a high-prestige, high-paying position. He is very nervous. His mouth is dry, his stomach feels tight, his heart is pounding, and perspiration has begun to soak through his new suit.
These sketches illustrate that stress involves a relationship between people and their environments---more specifically, between stressors and stress reactions. Stressors are events and situations (such as bus rides or interviews) to which people must react. Stress reactions are the physical, psychological, and behavioral responses (such as nausea, nervousness, and fatigue) people display in the face of stressors. Mediating factors, such as the circumstances in which stressors occur and each person’s characteristic, make people more or less sensitive to stressors and to stress responses. Thus, stress is not a specific event but a process. We consider stressors and stress responses first and then examine some of the factors that influence the relationship between them.
STRESSORS
Many stressors involve physical demands such as invading viruses, extreme temperatures, or strenuous work. For humans, however, many of the most significant stressors are psychological. The person who must give a speech to impress a potential employer is facing stressors that can be just as demanding as a day of hard physical labor. Many, perhaps most, human stressors include both physical and psychological components. Athletes, for example, are challenged by the demands of physical exertion, as well as by the pressure of competition. In this section, we focus on the psychological stressors that, combined with the physical demands of life, contribute most significantly to the stress process.
MAJOR PSYCHOLOGICAL STRESSORS
Even very pleasant events can be stressors. For example, the increased salary and status associated with a promotion may be desirable, but the upgrade also requires finding ways of handling new responsibilities and increased pressures. Similarly, it is not uncommon for people to feel exhausted after the travel and intense fun-seeking of a vacation and somewhat depressed by the “real world” when the excitement of a wedding is over. Still, the events and situations most likely to be associated with stress are unpleasant ones – those involving frustration, pressure, boredom, trauma, conflict, or change.
Frustrating situations contain some obstacle that stands between a person and his or her goals. Waiting in a long line at the bank or being unable to find a phone to make an important call are simple examples of frustrating situations. More substantial illustrations include being unable to earn a decent living because of adverse economic conditions or job discrimination or failing in repeated attempts to find a love relationship.
Pressure situations require a person to do too much in too short a time. If you are trying to fix Thanksgiving dinner for twenty people on a day’s notice, or if you are struggling to finish the last two questions on an essay test in ten minutes, you are under pressure. Many air-traffic controllers, physicians, nurses, and police officers face constant or long-lasting pressure. They must make many difficult decisions, sometimes involving life and death, under heavy time pressure. People under such pressure day after day sometimes begin to perform poorly and develop physical illness, alcoholism, anxiety, and many of the other stress – related problems.
Boredom, or underestimulation, is the opposite of pressure, but it, too, can be a stressor, especially if it continues for a long time. The agony of solitary confinement in prison or the tedium of a remote military post are probably the most extreme examples.
Trauma is a shocking physical or emotional experience. Catastrophes such as rape, military combat, fire, tornadoes, or torture are only a few examples. More common disasters, such as a divorce or the sudden death of someone close, can be equally devastating.
Conflict is almost always stressful. The most obvious examples are disputes in which friends, family members, or coworkers fight with, insult, or otherwise get nasty with each other. If you can recall the last time you experienced one of these interpersonal conflicts (even if you were just a spectator), you can probably also remember the discomfort you felt. Internal conflicts can be equally, if not more, distressing than those with other people. Imagine, for example, the stress that might result when a woman stays with a man she does not love only because she fears he will commit suicide if she leaves.
Change can also be a major stressor. Divorce, illness in the family, unemployment, and moving to a new city are just a few examples of changes that create social, psychological, financial, and physical demands to which people must adapt and adjust …
MEASURING STRESSORS
Attention to change was the keystone in a pioneering effort to find a standard way of measuring the stress in a person’s life. Working from the assumption that all change, positive or negative, is stressful, Thomas Holmes and Richard Rahe developed in 1967 the Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS). They asked a large number of people to rate a list of change-related stressors in terms of life change units (LCUs), the amount of change and demand for adjustment the stressor introduces into a person’s life. Getting married, the point against which rates were told to compare all other stressors, was rated as slightly more stressful than losing one’s job.
You can use the SRRS to measure the stressors in your own life by adding the LCUs associated with each item you have experienced within the past year. If your score strikes you as being high, don’t be surprised. College students routinely face numerous stressors having to do with everything from course work to social life.
The Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS)
Each event in the SRRS has a life change unit (LCU) value associated with it. People with higher total LCUs may experience more stress-related problems, but stress mediators, such as social support and coping skills, also shape the effect of stressors.
Rank Event LCU Value
- Death of spouse 100
- Divorce 73
- Marital separation 65
- Jail term 63
- Death of close family member 63
- Personal injury or illness 53
- Marriage 50
- Fired at work 47
- Marital reconciliation 45
- Retirement 45
- Change in health of family member 44
- Pregnancy 40
- Sex difficulties 39
- Gain of new family member 39
- Business readjustment 39
- Change in financial state 38
- Death of close friend 37
- Change to different line of work 36
- Change in number of arguments with spouse 35
- Mortgage over $10,000 31
- Foreclosure of mortgage or loan 30
- Change in responsibilities at work 29
- Son or daughter leaving home 29
- Trouble with in-laws 29
- Outstanding personal achievement 28
- Wife begins or stops work 26
- Begin or end school 26
- Change in living conditions 25
- Revision of personal habits 24
- Trouble with boss 23
- Change in work hours or conditions 20
- Change in residence 20
- Change in schools 20
- Change in recreation 19
- Change in church activities 19
- Change in social activities 18
- Mortgage or loan less than $10,000 17
- Change in sleeping habits 16
- Change in number of family get-togethers 15
- Change in eating habits 15
- Vacation 13
- Christmas 12
- Minor violations of the law 11
Douglas A. Bernstein
ý kiến xung đột,
gây nhau, cải nhau
he taught and disputed with local poets
the two drivers crashed while disputing the lead
the question in dispute is altogether insignificant
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