What is Stress?

Stress - the unconscious preparation to fight or flee

that a person experiences when faced with any
demand
Stressor - the person or event that triggers the stress
response
Distress - the adverse psychological, physical,
behavioral, and organizational consequences that
may arise as a result of stressful events
Strain – distress
Homeostasis – a steady state of bodily functioning
and equilibrium
 Homeostasis
+
External environmental
demand
Fight =
Flight
 4 Stress Approaches:
Cognitive Appraisal Approach
Individuals differ in their appraisal of events &
people
What is stressful for one person is not for another
Perception and cognitive appraisal determines what
is stressful

Problem-focused coping Emotion-focused coping

emphasizes managing emphasizes managing
the stressor your response
4 Stress Approaches:
Person-Environment Fit Approach
No undue stress
Good person-environment fit: a
person’s skills & abilities match a
clearly defined, consistent set of
role expectations

Stress, strain, and depression

occur when role expectations are
confusing and/or conflicting, or
when the person’s skills & abilities
do not meet the demands of the
social role
 4 Stress Approaches:
Psychoanalytic Approach
Ego Ideal - the Self-Image - how a
embodiment of a person sees oneself,
person’s perfect both positively &
self negatively

= the difference
between ego ideal and
self-image
 The Stress Response
• Blood redirected from the
skin & internal organs to
brain and large muscles
Release of • Increased alertness:
Sympathetic
chemical improved vision, hearing,
nervous system
messengers, & other sensory
& the
primarily responses
endocrine • Release of glucose & fatty
adrenaline,
(hormone) system
into the acids for sustenance
activated • Depression of immune
bloodstream
system, digestion, &
similar restorative
processes
 Sources of Stress at Work
Work Demands
Task Demands Rol e Demands
Change & uncertainty Role conflict:
Lack of control  Interrole
Career progress  Intrarole
New technologies  Person-role
Work overload/underload Role ambiguity
Interpersonal Demands Physi cal Demands
Abrasive personalities Extreme environments
Sexual harassment Strenuous activities
Leadership styles Hazardous
substances
Stress Sources at Work
NonWork Demands
Fami l y Demands Personal Demands
Marital expectations Religious activities
Child-rearing/day care Self-improvement tasks
arrangements Traumatic events
Parental care
 Stress Benefits and Costs
Benefits of Healthy, Normal Stress (Eustress)
Performance Heal th
Increased arousal Cardiovascular efficiency
Bursts of physical strength Enhanced focus in an
emergency
Costs of Distress
Indi vi dual Organi zati onal
Psychological disorders Participation problems
Medical illnesses Performance decrements
Behavioral problems Compensation awards
Performance arousal
High

Low
Low Optimum High
(distress) (eustress) (distress)

Stress level

Boredom from Optimum Conditions Distress from

understimulation stress load perceived overstimulation
as stressful
Positive Stress/Negative Stress
Stress response itself is neutral
Some stressful activities (aerobic exercise, etc.)
can enhance a person’s ability to manage stressful
demands or situations
Stress can provide a needed energy boost
Negative stress results from
a prolonged activation of the stress response
mismanagement of the energy induced by the
response
unique personal vulnerabilities
 Beh
avio
i l ln e s s (sub ral pro
i c al s,
M e d
a s e ,s t r o ke viole stance a blems
rt d i s e c h e s) nce, buse
(he a b a ck a acci ,
a ch e s , dent
h ea d s)

Work-related psychological disorders

(depression, burnout,
psychosomatic disorders)
Organizational Stress
Participative Problems - a cost associated with
absenteeism, tardiness, strikes & work stoppages,
& turnover
Performance Decrement - a cost resulting from
poor quality or low quantity of production,
grievances, & unscheduled machine downtime &
repair
Compensation Award - an organizational cost
resulting from court awards for job distress
 Achilles’ heel
phenomenon - a
person breaks down at
his or her weakest point
 Sexual harassment
Early age fatal health problems
Long term disabling health problems
Violence
 Type A Behavior Patterns
Type A Behavior Patterns - a
complex of personality and
behavior characteristics
sense of time urgency
“hurry sickness”
quest for numbers (of
achievements)
status insecurity
aggression & hostility expressed in
response to frustration & conflict
Personality Hardiness
Personality Hardiness - a personality resistant to
distress & characterized by
challenge (versus threat)
commitment (versus alienation)
control (versus powerlessness)
Transformational Coping - a way of managing
stressful events by changing them into subjectively
less stressful events (versus regressive coping -
passive avoidance of events by decreasing
interaction with the environment)
Self-Reliance
Self-Reliance - a healthy, secure, interdependent pattern
of behavior related to how people form and maintain
supportive attachments with others
Counterdependence - an unhealthy, insecure pattern of
behavior that leads to separation in relationships with
other people
Overdependence - an unhealthy, insecure pattern of
behavior that leads to preoccupied attempts to achieve
security through relationships.
Preventative Stress Management
Preventative Stress Management - an
organizational philosophy that holds that people &
organizations should take joint responsibility for
promoting health and preventing distress & strain
Primary Prevention - designed to reduce, modify, or
eliminate the demand or stressor causing stress
Secondary Prevention - designed to alter or modify
the individual’s or the organization’s response to a
demand or stressor
Tertiary Prevention - designed to heal individual or
organizational symptoms of distress & strain
Organizational stressors Primary
• Task demands prevention
• Role demands Health risk factors
• Physical demands
stressor
• Interpersonal demands directed

Secondary
Stress responses
• Individual prevention Asymptomatic
response disease
• Organizational
directed

Distress
Individual problems Tertiary
• Behavioral •Medical prevention Symptomatic
• Psychological symptom disease
Organizational costs
• Direct
directed
• Indirect
Source: J. D. Quick, R. S. Horn, and J. C. Quick, “Health Consequences of Stress,” Journal of Organizational Behavior Management 8, no. 2, figure 1 (Fall 1986): 21. Reprinted with permission of Haworth Press,
Inc., 10 Alice Street, Binghamton, NY 13904. Copyright 1986.
Organizational Stress Prevention
Focuses on people’s work demands
Focuses on ways to reduce distress at work
Most organizational prevention is primary
job redesign
goal setting
role negotiation
social support systems
 Workload Unresolved
Low High
strain
Low

b (ill health)
Self- jo
Passive a in
determination r
job - st
gh
Hi

jo b
ain
tr Active
-s
ow job
High

L
SOURCE: B. Gardell, “Efficiency and Health Hazards in Mechanized Work,” in J. C. Quick, R.S. Bhagat, J. E. Dalton, and J. D. Quick, eds., Work Stress: Health Care
Systems in the Workplace. Copyright © 1987. Reproduced with permission of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc., Westport, CT.
Organizational Family
Supervisor Spouse Children
Colleagues Parents In-laws
Subordinates
Clients Church
Minister/Rabbi
Individual Friends
Professional
Support groups
Physicians
Psychologists Clubs
Counselors Business associations
Lawyers Social clubs
Athletic groups
SOURCE: From J. C. Quick J. D. Quick, D. L. Nelson and J. J. Hurrell, Jr., in Preventive Stress Management in Organizations, 1997, p. 198. Copyright© 1997 by The American
Psychological Association. Reprinted with permission.
 Individual Preventive
Stress Management
Primary Prevention
Learned optimism: Alters the person’s internal self-talk & reduces
depression
Time management: Improves planning & prioritizes activities
Leisure time activities: Balance work & non-work activities
Secondary Prevention
Physical exercise: Improves cardiovascular function & muscular
flexibility
Relaxation training: Lowers all indicators of the stress response
Diet: Lowers the risk of cardiovascular disease &
improves overall physical health
Tertiary Prevention
Opening up: Releases internalized traumas & emotional
tensions
Professional help: Provides information, emotional support, &
therapeutic guidance