©2007McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. Chapter 1 What is Stress? ©2007McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.

© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. Overview Examines the etiology of the author’s new way of defining stress by tracing its roots in four common ways of defining stress Describes how the author’s new definition of stress integrates these four common views of stress © 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.

© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. Outline Many researchers and theorists have contributed to defining what stress is Early physiological research pioneers Psychological stress researchers The holistic health/wellness movement A new definition of stress © 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.

Stress Is Universal But Different for Different People Everyone experiences stress To be alive is to be stressed Stress means different things to different people © 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.

© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. What Is Stress? Four common ways of defining stress Stress as response Stress as stimulus Stress as a transaction Stress as a holistic health phenomenon © 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.

© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. Stress as Response The early pioneers Claude Bernard (milieu interieur) Walter Cannon (homeostasis) Hans Selye (General Adaptation Syndrome—GAS) © 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.

© 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved. Stress as Stimulus Psychological stress researchers Holmes and Rahe (life events approach) © 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.

Stress as a Transaction Other psychological stress researchers Simeons (symbolic threats) Lazarus (threat appraisal model) A person perceives a stimulus as threatening This transforms it into a stressor, triggering the stress response © 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.

Stress as a Holistic Health Phenomenon Stress can be better understood in the context of one’s functioning level across six dimensions of wellness Physical Social Intellectual Emotional Spiritual Environmental/Occupational © 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.

Author’s Definition of Stress Stress is a holistic transaction between an individual and a potential stressor resulting in a stress response © 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.

To Understand This Explanation of Stress . . . Potential stressors only become actual stressors when they are perceived as being beyond one’s ability to cope with Determined as a result of a transaction between the individual, the potential stressor, and the environment in which the transaction occurs Holistic transaction because it is influenced by the person’s overall well-being level © 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.

Chapter 1: What Is Stress? Summary © 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.