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

2. © 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.

3. © 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.

4. 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.

5. © 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.

6. © 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.

7. © 2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
Stress as Stimulus
Psychological stress researchers
Holmes and Rahe (life events approach)
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8. 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.

9. 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
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10. 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.

11. 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.

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