Laura sits in her room surrounded by a stack of notes, cramming for a test that she entirely forgot about, while James stares blankly at a college application. He also has the knowledge that he must be at work in 20 minutes, and that his car hardly has any gas left in it. Both of these teenagers suffer from a common dilemma, stress.
Stress is a reaction to external and internal pressure. It is a normal function that helps people in their daily lives ("Stress: Who"). Without some level of stress, individuals wouldn't have the motivation to meet deadlines or complete projects ("Stress: Who"). However normal stress can become a burden over a long period of time and this leads to chronic stress. Chronic stress is what people are referring to when they say that they are "stressed out" ("Spotlight"). Stress can become even more overwhelming if chronic stress goes into overload; this is what is known as distress (Romero, B1).
Since stress is a reaction, there must be a trigger to cause that reaction. The items that cause the stress reaction are called stressors, and they can fall into three different categories: catastrophes, major life changes, and daily hassles ("Stress (psychology)").
A catastrophe can be described as a sudden calamity that pushes people to their outmost coping abilities. Some examples of catastrophes are:
Ø Earthquakes, Fire, Flood, etc,
Ø War/Torture,
Ø Car accidents,
Ø Violent physical attacks,
Ø Sexual assault ("Stress (psychology)").
Catastrophes often affect the victim's mind long after the incident is over ("Stress (psychology)").
- The following form of stressor is major life changes. A few examples of this, is:
ü Death,
ü Divorce of a parent,
ü Imprisonment,
ü Disability/Illness ("Stress (psychology)").
The final class of stressor is the daily hassles. These may not appear very stressful but if experienced repeatedly over a long period of time may have very severe effe...
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Situations, pressures, and ideas that cause stress are called “stressors”. (Stress, 2013). Typically, stressors are thought to be negative, like a long day at work or a seemingly rocky relationship. However, anything that places high demand on a person or forces a person to adjust to a situation or idea can be considered stressful. Included in this are positive events like getting married, buying a new home, going away to college, or receiving a promotion at work.
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.
A stressor is an event or time period in which the family faces that adds struggles in their lives. Stressors can affect the family in many different ways depending on the ways that it is handled by each family. For example, the death of a
Stress has been viewed as a stimulus or response. It can be viewed as a stimulus when it arises from catastrophic event (tornadoes and earthquakes), major life events (getting married, moving) or chronic circumstances (living in disturbing environment). Hans Selye “assumed that critical life events, regardless of their specific (e.g., positive or negative) quality, stimulate change that produces challenge to the organism.“(H.W.Khrone, 2002). Stress can be seen as a response when somebody answers to a particular situation. Two types of response can be: physiological or psychological.
First are stressors caused by crises and catastrophes, which are unpredictable as well as unexpected. This makes an individual completely powerless, which makes the stress levels even higher. Examples of these stressors are natural disasters such as floods, earthquakes, and even wars.
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).
Family stressors are events that could happen in a family which lead to disaster. Some examples of events could be disease, unwanted birth, death and
A stressor is the object or event that the individual perceives to be disruptive. Stress results from the perception that the demands exceed one's capacity to cope. (Wiersm...
Overall, no matter what category we put stress in, it is always going to be a part of our lives. Either as a motivator or as problem that gets in the way. Cataclysmic events, personal stressors, background stressors, they are happening all around us and the only thing we can do is cope with it all. Once we know how stress affects us in our relationships and everyday lives the easier it is for us to cope with it all.
Stress happens to everyone at some point in their lives. My definition of stress is when one is worried about something that is bothering them, whether it is miner or major. Personally I stress about every day, financially, family, school, work, at tons more. The key is how does one actually deal with stress so it will not get out of hand? Everyone is different and some may not know how to cope with it. The actual definition according to our Life Fitness book stress is used to describe the general physical and emotional state that accompanies the stress response. There are ways to deal with stress. There are many things that happens to us when we stress. Three examples are; types of stress, common sources of stress, and how to deal with stress.
Stress is a very common problem being faced by individuals today. It is described as an internal state which can be caused by physical demands of body or by social situations in which individuals are in. Stress can be thought of in negative terms, but it can be described as positive and negative stress.
Stress is a natural occurrence that most every person will experience at some point in his or her life. A stressor, as defined by Potter, Perry, Stockert, and Hall (2013), is any kind of event or situation that a person encounters in their environment that requires him or her to change and adapt. When a person responds to stress, his or her coping mechanisms and actions are individualized. No two people are going to handle stressful situations and cope with experiences the same exact way. Each person is unique and has his or her own customized way of dealing with stress. While some people are very open and honest about what they are dealing with, others keep their feelings bottled up. I find this topic so
A convenient way to think about stress is in terms of stressors and stress responses. Stressors are events that threaten or challenge people. They are the sources of stress, such as having to make decisions, getting married, and natural disasters. Stress responses are psychological, physiological, and behavioral reactions to stressors. Anxiety, depression, concentration difficulties, and muscle tension are all examples of stress responses.
Stressors are anything that causes stress. Any event, thought, or situation that cause stress is called a stressor (Feldman, 10). Modern life exposes people to many stressors. Some physical stressors may include natural disasters, illnesses, and noise. More emotional stressors can include certain life experiences, such as death of a loved one or...
Stress is a reaction to external and internal pressure. It is a normal function that helps people in their daily lives ( ). Without some level of stress, individuals wouldn't have the motivation to meet deadlines or complete projects ( ). However normal stress can become a burden over a long period of time and this leads to chronic stress. Chronic stress is what people are referring to when they say that they are "stressed out" ( ). Stress can become even more overwhelming if chronic stress goes into overload, this is what is known as distress ( ...