Psychological Theories Of Stress

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Stress is the process by which people interpret and respond to events that we see as challenging or threatening. The factors that cause stress are called stressors. There are two types of stressors: acute and chronic. Acute stressors appear suddenly, lasts for a short period of time, and needs immediate attention. Chronic stressors last for a long time and are often detrimental to your health. There are also multiple aspects of stress, including psychological and physiological aspects. Speisman et al. (1964) and Kiecolt-Glaser et al. (1984) delves into these aspects and how they may be interrelated. Psychological stress impacts cognition. Psychological processes determine whether or not an event is perceived as stressful. The way a person …show more content…
(1964), an experiment, aimed to confirm Lazarus's theory of appraisal that the appraisal can interfere with emotions. Participants were shown an unpleasant documentary on the topic of a traditional coming-to-age ceremony where genital mutilation (circumcision) is performed on young males. The participants were sorted into three groups: trauma, denial, and intellectualization. The trauma group was shown the documentary with a soundtrack that emphasized the pain while the denial group was shown the documentary with a more exciting soundtrack that implied that the males anticipated the ceremony and entering manhood. The intellectualization group was shown the documentary with a scientific explanation that ignored the painfulness of the procedure. Participants in the trauma group reacted more emotionally than the other two groups as they had evaluated the event as painful and stressful through the documentary and the included soundtrack, which shows that through appraising the event, the same documentary or stimuli can elicit different emotional responses. As shown here, psychological stress interrelates to physiological stress as the emotional interpretation of a stressful event leads to stress hormones being released, bringing out negative …show more content…
The changes may prepare someone confront or flee from the source of stress; This is called the flight-or-fight response. If the event is perceived as stressful, it is likely that there will be a physiological response. Selye (1956) proposed the General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS). He proposed that there are three stages in the stress process: alarm stage, resistance stage, and the exhaustion stage. The initial stage is equivalent to the flight-or-fight response which then becomes the second stage where a person attempts to cope and fix the alarm stage. The final stage is reached when someone is incapable of coping anymore. This explains the fatigue someone feels after a stressful situation. Psychological factors play a minor role in this model and interrelates to the physiological aspects of stress as the emotions brought on by the situation are influenced by personal characteristics that affect the appraisal which begins the three stages of the stress
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