...Philosophy of Stress The purpose of this paper is to discuss the concept of stress by evaluating it through the lenses of logical positivism and process organism. Stress will be defined in the context of each perspective. A leading perspective will then be determined and its selection justified. Definition of the Concept within the Two Perspectives Logical Positivism One of the key assumptions logical positivism makes is the theory of verifiability (Godfrey-Smith, 2003). Thus, through this lens one must consider the verifiability of the concept of stress. In order to verify that stress is occurring one must be able to observe and quantify its occurrence according to logical positivism. Additionally, logical positivism aims to describe...
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...Stress is simply a reaction to stimulus that disturbs our physical and mental equilibrium. In psychology stress is a feeling of strain and pressure. Small amounts of stress maybe desired, beneficial, and even healthy. Positive stress improves athletic performance. It also plays a factor in motivation, adaptation, and reaction to the environment. Excessive amounts of stress, however, may lead to bodily harm. Stress will increase the rest of strokes, heart attacks, ulcers, dwarfism, and mental illnesses such depression. People can counter the effects of stress by changing their lifestyle such as diet, excise, meditation, and social support. 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...
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... Clarke 2008 middle managers have the highest stress level simply because they are in the middle, which can cause a great deal of conflict. A survey conducted by the American Management Association indicated that 41% of middle management has more work than time. it add that middle managers must respond to sometimes conflicting demands from governmental agencies, union representatives, and the community, in addition to their supervisors and subordinates. They further found that middle managers under 30 years of age felt more stress than older managers because of confusion over lines of authority. Suzanne M. Crampton 2009 Stress is found in all aspects of life. Hans Selye, a pioneer in stress research, has defined stress as "the nonspecific response of the body to any demands made upon it" . It is considered to be an internal state or reaction to anything we consciously or unconsciously perceive as a threat, either real or imagined . Stress can evoke feelings of frustration, fear, conflict, pressure, hurt, anger, sadness, inadequacy, guilt, loneliness, or confusion . Individuals feel stressed when they are fired or lose a loved one (negative stress) as well as when they are promoted or go on a vacation (positive stress). While many individuals believe they must avoid stress to live longer, Freese argues that it is the salt and spice of life and that to have no stress we would have to be dead. Amit Gupta 2010 Job stress is a common problem across occupations and it impacts...
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...Effects Of Stress Stress is a normal physical reaction to events that make you feel threatened or upset. Many different things can cause stress. It can be caused by emotional things such as relationships. Identifying what may be causing your stress is the first step in learning how to deal with your stress. Stress stops being helpful and starts causing major damage to your well being, your mood, your productivity, your relationship, and our quality of life. The situations and pressures that cause stress are known as stressors. We often think of stressors as a bad thing, such as a very busy work day or a hurtful relationship. However, anything that puts pressure on you or forces you to change the way you think is stressful. This might also include good things or events such as getting married, buying a house, going to college or even getting a promotion. What level of stress depends on, at least in part, on how you accept it. Something that is stressful to you may not be stressful to someone else. Your ability to deal stress depends on many things such as how your relationship is going, your general outlook on life or your emotional status. Effects of Stress: Your body doesn’t know the difference between physical stress and mental stress. Thinking about things that stress you out such as mate accident monthly bills, your body reacts the same way as if you were facing a life or death situation. If you have a lot of troubles and worries, your stress level is...
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...Physical Response to Stress Stress causes numerous physical effects. There are two main systems in the body that react to stressors producing the symptoms we experience in response to stress of all types. The Two Body Systems that respond to stress Sympathetic-Adrenal Medullary system (SAM): fight or flight The first system is the Sympathetic-Adrenal Medullary system or SAM for short. This is the process responsible for fight or flight. It is a release of hormones into the body in response to the brain perceiving a threat or stressor. This same reaction can be experienced in response to good or bad stress. When the brain experiences a stressor, it sends a signal to the adrenal medulla, which is the center of the adrenal gland, and the sympathetic...
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...There are two different kinds of stress. They both affect the body and the mind differently. Acute stress occurs when the nervous system is activated to stimulate the adrenal glands which cause the heart rate to increase as well as the blood pressure and breathing rate. After this happens it takes the body approximately 20 to 60 minutes to return to its normal state. (Lyle H. Miller, 2013). This response is also known as the flight or fight response. Usually this happens when the body either decides to fight or flee the initial threat. Acute stress is caused by specific events that involve unpredictability, demands and pressure from the recent pass, novelty, and a threat to the ego. For example you may receive a phone call while at work saying that your child has a medical emergency. This may cause your blood pressure to raise which in return you experience acute stress. This type of on the spot stress however can be good for you because of the hormones released which cause you to deal with the situation. Since acute stress is short term it doesn’t have time to do any lengthy damage. Emotional stress is a form of acute stress which is caused by anger, irritability, anxiety or depression. While dealing with acute stress the body experiences muscular problems such as tension headaches, back pain, and tendon and ligaments problems. The body may also experience sweaty palms, heart palpitations, dizziness, and shortness of breath, chest pain, a rise in blood pressure, or cold hands...
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...While many actions and ailments can be chalked up to stress, not many can actually say they can identify the different types of stress. One might respond to this that there is no real benefit to identifying types of stress evident in them. This is patently false, for several reasons. As I will expand upon in this essay; by defining these different types of stress, one can have a better understanding of how they can tackle it when experiencing it themselves. Before we analyze each one individually, it is important to identify the three different kinds of stress. They are named Acute Stress, Episode Acute Stress, and Chronic Stress. While all three deal with different symptoms/occurrences in a person’s stress, these same symptoms “converge with one another” (Miller) when analyzing all three together. Acute Stress, the first of the three, would probably be defined as the broadest type, in terms of what it entails. It is known in many medical circles as the “most basic form of stress”. (Hains 18) The symptoms of Acute Stress can be separated into four major categories. Emotional distress; some combination of anger or irritability, anxiety and depression, the three stress emotions. Muscular...
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...Michele Lemma, RN Pace University Self-Care Paper: Yoga as a Stress Management Technique: The ABCs of Downward Dog Yoga is an age-old discipline which seeks to create a balance between the mind, body, and spirit. It incorporates physical activity with specialized breathing and meditation. The purpose of this paper is to explore the use of yoga as a health management technique. “Due to the increasing popularity of yoga, it has not only been used as a treatment for a range of health conditions, it has been practiced by healthy adults for health maintenance and disease prevention” (Olpin & Hesson, 2013, p. 334). Current research links the practice of yoga to a decrease in psychological stress and improved physical health (Ross & Thomas, 2010). Review of the Literature Historical Overview Although it has been practiced in India for more than 5,000 years, yoga did not become widespread in Western society until recently (Li & Goldsmith, 2012). Not unlike the branches of a tree, it has eight “limbs” of its own: yama (restraint), niyama (observance), asana (physical exercises), pranayama (breathing techniques), pratyahara (preparation for meditation), dharana (concentration), dhyana (meditation), and samadhi (absorption). These limbs comprise the constructs of yoga and are an integral part of its various styles. Its practice restores the body to a balanced physiological state thereby reducing stress caused from the activation of the fight-or-flight response. Health...
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...9 Stress and Health Key: Answer, Page, Type, Learning Objective, Level Type A=Applied C=Conceptual F=Factual Level (1)=Easy; (2)=Moderate; (3)=Difficult LO=Learning Objective AP=AP* Learning Objective p=page MULTIPLE CHOICE 1. _____________ psychology is the field of study devoted to understanding the relationship between physical activities, psychological traits, and social relationships and overall health and rates of illness. a) Physiological Incorrect. Physiological psychology may be interested in these topics, but health psychology explores these relationships from approaches other than the physiological perspective. b) Developmental c) Health Correct. This is the correct definition of health psychology. d) Medicinal e) Adjustment ANS: c, p. 344, C, LO=Prologue, AP VIII.5, (2) 2. Kirima has her doctorate in health psychology. Which of the following research questions might she be most likely to investigate? a) Why are college students more prone to doing drugs when they take harder classes? Correct. Health psychologists are interested in the factors that lead us to lead healthy lives, so the relationship between classes and the tendency to take drugs would be an appropriate topic for Kirima to research. b) What is the relationship between one’s ethnicity and their political affiliation? Incorrect. The effects of a social category like ethnicity would be more applicable to experts from other fields, which might include sociology...
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...Stress is unavoidable and it is not possible to eliminate it from our lives entirely. Life is full of challenges, and a life without some turmoil is not only impossible but is also undesirable. The hassles, deadlines, frustrations, and demands of modern life have made stress so commonplace that it has become a way of life for many people. In small doses, stress can help people perform under pressure and motivate them to do their best. But it is not desirable to constantly be in an emergency mode as the mind and body would have to ultimately pay the price. Stress is a normal physical response to events that make us feel threatened or upset our balance in some way. When a threat is perceived, our nervous system responds by release a flood of stress hormones, including adrenaline and cortisol. These hormones rouse the body for emergency action. As a result, our heart pounds faster, muscles tighten, blood pressure rises, breath quickens, and senses become sharper. These physical changes increases our strength and stamina, speed our reaction time, and enhance our focus, thus preparing us to either fight or flee from the danger at hand. This reaction to a real or imagined danger is called the stress response. The stress response is the body's way of protecting us. When working properly, it helps us to stay focused, energetic and alert. In emergency situations, stress can save our life by giving us extra strength, or for example, spurring us to slam on the brakes to avoid and accident...
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...Stress is something all people experience from time to time. Anything that poses a threat or challenge to ones’ well-being is stress. It can affect you mentally and physically. Stress can be beneficial or atrocious to ones’ health. Stress can emerge in many different forms from school, work, and divorce. Stress can also make a person feel frustrated, angry, sad, nervous, anxious and even hopeless at times. Stress is the way the body responds to a threat or challenge. This response is known as fight or flight response telling the body to either to fight or get away from immediate danger. Fight or flight response is based on the sympathetic nervous system responding. The body produces larger quantities of chemicals cortisol, adrenaline and other chemicals, which activates a higher heart rate, sweating, and alertness. Non-essential body functions such as the digestive system are stagnant. In addition, the body’s energy is concentrated on breathing, blood flow, alertness and muscle use. There are three kinds of stress acute, episodic, and chronic. Acute stress is the most common of the three. It comes from demands and pressures of the recent past and anticipated demands and pressures of the near future. Episodic stress comes when a person makes unreasonable or unrealistic demands. These demands get clustered together resulting in stress because of not being able to accomplish all of the goals. Chronic stress is brought about by long time exposure from unhappy marriage, poverty...
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...Occupational Stress and How to Deal with It Heather L. DuSoleil English 333 December 12, 2012 Executive Summary Occupational Stress is a substantial problem to workers and employees all over the world. Occupational stress is considered an “epidemic” and it is costing employers over $200 billion dollars a year. With that being said, there is a lot that bosses and managers should be educating not only themselves about, but also their employees about. This proposal is to give people the tools that they need to help them solve the problem of occupational stress. Keywords: Stress, Occupational Stress, Epidemic, Tips, Acute Distress, Acute Episodic Distress, Chronic Distress, Eustress, and Distress. Statement of Need Teaching employees how to deal with occupational stress will help reduce costs to employers, reduce work accidents, and make employees and workplaces a lot healthier and safer. When people are not stressed their environment is a much less hostile place. That makes customers more at ease and co-workers get along much better. Employers spend more than $200 billion dollars a year on absenteeism, accidents, sickness, and burnt out employees. That number can be greatly reduced by making sure that employees have many ways of dispelling occupational stress both at work and in their personal lives. By implementing a plan to reduce occupational stress and the effects it has on employees the business world will...
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...Summary Stress is a term we all are aware of, and it is experienced by people in their different workplaces. Stress in the workplace is detrimental to human health and organization when it comes to productivity, performance standards and job satisfaction. Organizations whose workers are stressed are likely to be successful in a competitive market. Workers who are stressed are more likely to be unhealthy, poorly motivated, less productive and less safe at work. Stress can be destructive in a way that, after reaching a certain point, the performance of the employees begins to reduce also which prevents fulfillment of work and various assignments. The following are the causes of stress in the workplace; Exhaustion (weakens the employees mentally and physically), moral injury (destructive of self-esteem of employees or lack of confidence in their abilities, discrimination), illness of the employees (feeling of irritation, uncertainty, guilt or mistrust), violence (damage to the property of the employees or organization), long hours, lack of rewards or incentives by the managers and managers lackadaisical attitude to employees. Stress can be brought to a minimal level; to prevent stress, we have to identify, know the causes and prevent it. The reduction or elimination of stress are the employee’s participation in the management, improvement of communication skills of managers, adequate training should be given to employees in other to prevent negligence of training which...
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...This assignment is based upon stress, the bio-psychosocial approach on how stress can affect health, well-being and the maintenance of homeostasis. There are many definitions of stress but the majority of definitions put emphasis on the relationship between the individual and the environment. This is called the bio-psychosocial approach. When treating patients the Practitioner should take a more holistic approach when determining the type of treatment that is required, this would include taking into account the patients lifestyle, environment and social support. The World Health Organisation states that ‘Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity’. (WHO 1948). Stress can be defined as any type of change that causes physical, emotional or psychological strain. However, there are many types of stress and not all types of stress are harmful or negative. One theory is that stress is the result of a persons appraisal process. The assessment of whether personal resources are sufficient to meet the demands of the environment. Stress has been identified as being the individuals ability to adapt to the environment (Lazarus and Folkman 1984; Lazarus and Launer 1978; Pervin 1989). There are two types of stress response which Lazarus (1966) made a distinction between, these are psychological and physiological stress. Lazarus stated that physiological stress is a response to a physical damage already incurred...
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...way that psychologists conceptualize stress, emphasizing that stress is a biopsycho-social process. You will explore the sources of stress in your own life, review your body’s response to stress, and then learn how cognitive appraisal dramatically affects how much stress you actually experience. Checking the Level of Stress in Your Life • What was your “Stress Test” score? ____39________ • Do you think that such a test accurately captures your experience? What other stressors should be included? I think it give you a general idea of the amount of stress your under, also adding something about your children should be included. Stress, Stressors, and Coping • Psychologists differentiate stressors, strain, and stress. What does each of these terms mean? A stressor is an externalsituation or event that triggers coping adjustments in a person. Stress is the process in which we perceive and respond to certain events, called stressors that we believe to be threatening or challenging, and coping is the cognitive, behavioural, and emotional ways that people handle stressful situations. The General Adaptation Syndrome • Describe Selye’s general adaptation syndrome. Selye argued that every organism has a state of internal balance called homeostasis. External stressors disturb this balance, producing an immediate general physiological aarousal. The organism adjusts to the stress in stages, first mobilizing its resources...
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