The term “stress”, as it is currently used was created in 1936 by “Hans Hugo Bruno Selye (1907-1982), an endocrinologist known for his studies of the effects of stress on the human body. Selye defined it as: the non-specific response of the body to any demand for change”. ("Hans Selye," n.d.). In addition, Harvard Medical School’s Medical Dictionary of Health Terms defines stress as: “an innate survival response in which certain hormones are released, increasing blood flow to the brain and heart. The stress response leads to an energy surge, enabling a person to flee dangerous situations. Ongoing stress, however, can sap energy and damage health.” (Stress, 2010). “Although experts do not always agree on its definition, stress, or the stress response, can be described as the unconscious preparation to fight or flee that a person experiences when faced with any demand. A stressor, or demand, is a person or event that triggers the stress response. While stress is a neutral concept, it carries a negative connotation for some people, as though it should be avoided. …show more content…
Stress is the body and mind’s reaction to both positive and negative events. When you are stressed, your body produces more of the "fight or flight" chemicals, adrenaline and noradrenaline, which prepare your body for a threat. Your heart rate increases, blood pressure rises, and your breathing escalates. All of these things happening inside of you are powering you to function at your best when reacting to danger, running away, responding to a crisis, or solving a dilemma. Tragically, these transformations are not useful if you are experiencing chronic levels of stress in the work environment. You can neither fight nor run away. For this reason, you are unable to deplete the chemicals your body has created to protect you. Over time these chemicals and the changes they produce can seriously damage your
For me to focus my research, and my paper in particular, it would be important that I develop a research question to be a guideline as I carry out the research. The reason why I feel that a research question will be important is that it will help me direct all my effort to the topic at hand by collectively reading and evaluating different sources of data. The research I intend to discuss in this case is, “What are the Causes and Symptoms of Stress?” When coming up with the research paper, it would be important that I answer a few questions as discussed here below.
Stress (anger) has many meanings, but most people think of stress as the demands on life. Technically, these demands are called “stressors” and the actual wear and tear on our bodies is the stress. Biologically, stress (anger) is defined as a stress response t internal or external demands, threats, and pressures.( Beverly Engel, 2004,Honor Your Anger)
Stress means different things to different people and stress effects people in different ways. Some people think stress is something that happens to them such as an injury or a promotion and others think that stress is what happens to our mind, body and behaviors in response to an event. While stress does involve events and how one responds to them these are not the critical factors, but our thoughts about the situation in which we are involved are the critical factors. Essentially, stress exists whenever homeostasis is disturbed or cannot be maintained (Stress and the Social System Course Guide, 2013). Homeostasis refers to the body's ability to keep the internal chemical and physical environments constant. As your body begins to react to stress several changes occur. These changes include increased heart rate, blood pressure and secretion of stimulatory hormones. Ones body prepares itself in stressful situations to either stand ground and fight or to flee from the situation. Walter Cannon called this stressful reaction the fight-or-flight response (Greenberg, 2012).
The term ‘stress’ was generally thought to have been a concept created by Robert Hooke in the 17th century. He worked on the design of physical structures, such as bridges; his concept of stress came from how much pressure a structure could withstand. However, Lazarus (1993) pointed out that the term ‘stress’ has been used as far back as the 14th century, when it meant hardship or adversity. Back then it referred to the external stressor, such as the death of a spouse or financial worry; in the 20th century, there are many different schools of thought on this area. Hans Selye (1956), brought together the work of Cannon and Bernard and devised a comprehensive system of physiological stress; which he termed the ‘General Adaptation Syndrome’, and is a 3-stage process. He theorised that a certain level of stress called ‘eustress’ (Cox, 1978) could actually be beneficial to our overall performance. Later In 1976, Cox & Mackay devised another model called the ‘Transactional model’. This model takes into account the individual differences in the perception of the amount of stress experienced by the person. The main difference between these two models is that Selye’s model only accounts for the physiological side of stress, whereas Cox’s model takes into account both the physiological and psychological aspects of stress. Therefore, both models will have slight similarities and differences in their explanation for how stress occurs in individuals, which is the main focus of this essay.
What is Stress actually? Hans Selye, the noted stress researcher, once said, “Stress is a scientific concept which has suffered from the mixed blessing of being too well known and too little understood. Physicians, psychologists, biologists, engineers, and students may each have a different meaning in mind when they talk about stress”. One useful definition of stress is that it is a demand made upon the adaptive capacities of the mind and body.
Addressing job stress is not only the responsibility of the organization. Individuals must also share the responsibility for dealing with stress that is affecting them. They must be willing to take care of themselves through leading healthy lifestyles including eating a balanced diet, exercising, and taking advantage of stress reductions techniques and therapies which could include yoga, meditation or aromatherapy.
Stress is defined as “any circumstances that threaten or are perceived to threaten one’s well-being and thereby tax one’s coping abilities” (Weiten & Lloyd, 2006, p. 72). Stress is a natural event that exists literally in all areas of one’s life. It can be embedded in the environment, culture, or perception of an event or idea. Stress is a constant burden, and can be detrimental to one’s physical and mental health. However stress can also provide beneficial effects; it can satisfy one’s need for stimulation and challenge, promote personal growth, and can provide an individual with the tools to cope with, and be less affected by tomorrow’s stress (Weiten & Lloyd, 2006, p. 93).
Stress is the combination of psychological, physiological, and behavioral reactions that people have in response to events that threaten or challenge them. Stress can be good or bad. Sometimes, stress is helpful, providing people with the extra energy or alertness they need. Stress could give a runner the edge he or she needs to persevere in a marathon, for example. This good kind of stress is called eustress. Unfortunately, stress is often not helpful and can even be harmful when not managed effectively. Stress could make a salesperson buckle under the pressure while trying to make a sales pitch at an important business meeting, for example. Moreover, stress can increase the risk of developing health problems, such as cardiovascular disease and anxiety disorders. This bad kind of stress is called distress, the kind of stress that people usually are referring to when they use the word stress.
Stress is defined in the dictionary as “state of mental tension and worry caused by problems in your life”. Everyone encounters stress in their life caused by many different variables in life and we all cope with in different ways. The way one copes with the stress is how it can affect our body. Some take to working out, eating healthy, take breaks from what is stressing you out and getting plenty of sleep which are good ways to cope with it. Some take to other coping mechanisms that are not very great for the body. Some examples are stress eating, abuse of drugs and alcohol, bottling up the stress, and depression. These bad methods can cause serious damage to one’s health on the body.
First, stress is defined as an unpleasant state of emotional and physiological arousal that people experience in situations that they perceive as dangerous or threatening to their well being (Patel, 14). Stress is a universal feeling to everyone but the word stress means different things to different people. Some people define stress as events or situations that cause them to feel tension, pressure or negative emotions such as anxiety or anger (Patel, 15). Other people may view stress as a process involving a person’s interpretation and response to a threatening event. In any case, stress has many facets of how one perceives and responds to the certain predicament that is ailing them.
Hans Selye defined stress as “the non-specific response of the body to any demand for change.” He later defined it as “the rate of wear and tear on the body.” Stress can be good because the pressure placed on someone can motivate them to complete the tasks ahead of them. From this, small amounts of stress can be positive. However, long periods of stress wear the body down and begin to have negative effects on the body which could be long term.
“Stress is the body's normal response to anything that disturbs its natural physical, emotional, or mental balance. Stress reduction refers to various strategies that counteract this response and produce a sense of relaxation and tranquillity’’ (1-TheFreeDictionary.com). Stress has become part of everyday life especially within the western world and particularly in the work place. Stress from work is as a result of workers reacting negatively and harmfully to the demands, pressures, targets, expectations and demands placed on them at work. Every worker more especially professionals essentially need some measure of stress in their lives to meet the challenges of life each day, but if it is steady or acute, it becomes dangerous to health. According to the latest estimates from the Labour Force Survey, the total number of cases of stress in 2011/12 was 428 000 (40%) out of a total of 1 073 000 for all work-related illnesses 2 (http://www.hse.gov.uk). Stress, specifically work related stress, can be a significant cause of illness and comes with high levels of sickness absence, low productivity, staff turnover, increased errors, lack of concentration and other issues. Stress must be controlled, understood, managed and reasonably minimised. There are different strategies and therapies available help people relax, cope and manage stress.
"Stress is a natural physical and mental reaction to both good and bad experiences which can be beneficial to your health and safety." (8 Ways Stress Is More Dangerous Than You Think) Everyone 's body responds to stress by releasing hormones, also, you brain receives more oxygen. Stress starts to occur when we become worried about a task or responsibilities we face. Major stress is called chronic stress. It can cause symptoms that can affect your health in a larger way. Some people may say that they succeed more under stress, but sadly, that’s rarely the case. Research has shown that "stress makes a person more likely to make mistakes" (Stress Symptoms, Signs, & Causes). For most people, stress is extremely normal for them that they don 't see it as anything but ordinary. However, stress can motivate someone while under pressure and even get you through a tough or dangerous
In order to find a solution to the issue of stress in the workplace, it is important to first understand what stress is. Stress is a difficult issue to solve because everyone experiences stress differently. According to the National Institute of mental health, stress can be defined as the brain’s response to any demand (“Fact Sheet on Stress”). When there is any sort of change going on, it usually triggers the stress response. Since people are always dealing with certain changes in their lives, they are always dealing with some type of stress. One of the biggest growing issues with stress is stress in the workplace. According to Northweste...
The term “stress” has multiple meanings. As Richard Lazarus stated in his 1966 book “Psycho...