Not all stress is bad: Optimal Stress is good for Performance

Optimal Stress is good for Performance :
The stress response is the body’s way of protecting you. When working properly, it helps you stay focused, energetic, and alert. In emergency situations, stress can save your life – giving you extra strength to defend yourself, for example, or spurring you to slam on the brakes to avoid an accident.

The stress response also helps you rise to meet challenges. Stress is what keeps you on your toes during a presentation at work, sharpens your concentration when you’re attempting the game-winning free throw, or drives you to study for an exam when you'd rather be watching TV. Imagine that if you do not have the motivation and little stress in your  mind to do anything then you would not feel disinterested in the world and would not have the enthusiasm for life activities and would  not be able to enjoy it.
But beyond a certain point, stress stops being helpful and starts causing major damage to your health, your mood, your productivity, your relationships, and your quality of life.

Stress is good - but only till certain levels:

Stress isn’t always bad. In small doses, it can help you perform under pressure and motivate you to do your best. Psychologists Robert M. Yerkes and John Dillingham Dodson (1908) has long back stated that optimum level of stress, keeps you motivated and give some  meaning in  life. Imagine, if you have nothing productive to do in a day, then it may lead to boredom. Similarly, too much of stress would lead to pain and disaster, as it may get to your nerves. When you’re constantly running in emergency mode, your mind and body pay the price.

Original Yerkes Dodson Law

Hebbian version of the Yerkes Dodson Law (this version leaves out that hyperarousal does not adversely impact simple tasks). This version is the most common version and often incorrectly cited in text books.

Levels of arousal:

Research has found that different tasks require different levels of arousal for optimal performance. For example, difficult or intellectually demanding tasks may require a lower level of arousal (to facilitate concentration), whereas tasks demanding stamina or persistence may be performed better with higher levels of arousal (to increase motivation).

Because of task differences, the shape of the curve can be highly variable. For simple or well-learned tasks, the relationship can be considered linear with improvements in performance as arousal increases. For complex, unfamiliar, or difficult tasks, the relationship between arousal and performance becomes inverse, with declines in performance as arousal increases.

The effect of task difficulty led to the hypothesis that the Yerkes–Dodson Law can be decomposed into two distinct factors – compare bathtub curve. The upward part of the inverted U can be thought of as the energizing effect of arousal. The downward part is caused by negative effects of arousal (or stress) on cognitive processes like attention (e.g., "tunnel vision"), memory, and problem-solving.
There has been research indicating that the correlation suggested by Yerkes and Dodson exists (such as that of Broadhurst, 1959; Duffy, 1962; Anderson, 1988), but a cause of the correlation has not yet successfully been established (Anderson, Revelle, & Lynch, 1989).


                                                                                                                            -   Dr Smita Pandey

What is Stress?

What is this stress?

“Stress" is a condition or feeling experienced when a person perceives that “demands exceed the personal and social resources the individual is able to mobilize” as defined by Richard S Lazarus.

“Stress (roughly the opposite of relaxation) is a medical term for a wide range of strong external stimuli, both physiological and psychological, which can cause a physiological response called the general adaptation syndrome, first described in 1936 by Hans Selye in the journal Nature “

Stress is an emotionally disruptive or upsetting condition occurring in response to adverse external influences and capable of affecting physical health which can be characterized by increased heart rate, a rise in blood pressure, muscular tension, irritability and depression as explained in medical terms.

There is no doubt that people generally respond well to a challenge particularly if they are involved in creating or something they find exciting. Where those involved believe what they do matters and they feel they have some ownership and control over their situation there is a positive payback even when working extremely hard over long hours. This is a positive aspect of stress.
Where stress is detrimental people are often in situations where they feel they have little control, feedback is non existent or overly negative, failure, humiliation, lack of support results in the person feeling that what they do has little value or they themselves are not valued. Sustained exposure to such negative situations can have serious implications for the health and well being of the individual and ultimately for the organization as a whole.


Modern Life and Stress:

In the modern days, life has become very fast pacing. There are so many deadlines, frustrations and demands that many a times it exceeds with the adjusting abilities of the individual. Sometimes, even the daily hassles are so stressful that the individual fails to adjust to this fast pacing environment.

Stressors:

The agents which cause stress are called as stressors. Stressors could be physical, mental or emotional.

Physical Stressors: are those that are cropped up due to the physical strains in the environment like the physical illness, physical injury or bone fracture etc.

Mental Stressors: Mental worries, restlessness, inability to relax, inability to sleep properly etc. cause mental stress.

Emotional Stressors:
The stressors, that effect the emotions of the individual negatively, that makes him or her sad, depressed etc.


Stress as a Vicious Cycle:

Stress is highly vicious and malignant. It is kind of a cycle. As you could see in the example of Albert that the illness started simply with a physical illness and it traps him into a vicious cycle of mental and emotional stress such that instead of confidently preparing for exams he focuses more on his drawbacks leading to further gloom and despair.

General Adaptation Syndrome:
The great scientist and the father of the stress research – Hans Selye (1936) introduced this simple model of stress. He was the first person who explained stress as the major cause of diseases and long term neuro-chemical changes, which is a proven fact these days. Pressures, tensions, and other stressors can greatly influence your normal metabolism. Selye determined that there is a limited supply of adaptive energy to deal with stress. That amount declines with continuous exposure. This initial hormonal reaction is your fight or flight stress response - and its purpose is for handling stress very quickly! The process of the body’s struggle to maintain balance is what Selye termed, the General Adaptation Syndrome. He described three distinct stages:
The Alarm Stage:
At this stage everything is working as it should – you have a stressful event, your body alarms you with a sudden jolt of hormonal changes, and you are now immediately equipped with enough energy to handle it. Too much adrenaline results in a surge of blood pressure that can damage blood vessels of the heart and brain – a risk factor in heart attack and stroke.
Resistance Stage:
Stress hormone levels may return to normal but you may have reduced defenses and adaptive energy left. If a stressful condition persists, your body adapts by a continued effort in resistance and remains in a state of arousal. Problems begin to manifest when you find yourself repeating this process too often with little or no recovery. Ultimately this moves you into the final stage
Exhaustion Stage:
Chronic stress can damage nerve cells in tissues and organs. Particularly vulnerable is the hippocampus section of the brain. Thinking and memory are likely to become impaired, with tendency toward anxiety and depression. There can also be adverse function of the autonomic nervous system that contributes to high blood pressure, heart disease, rheumatoid arthritis, and other stress related illness.
When the body reacts to ongoing stressful situations it can result in any combination of the following:
• Feeling impatient, anxious, jumpy, irritable, over excited
• Raised heart rate, pounding heart and in severe cases palpitations
• Dry mouth
• Sweaty palms
• Feeling sick, indigestion
• Finding it hard to think clearly
• Difficulty in dealing with other people appropriately
• Difficulty sleeping
• More likely to make mistakes
• Accident prone
• Less able to take information from a range of sources resulting in impaired judgment
• Poor self image and Poor self esteem
Conclusion:
In simple words stress is the term used for excessive demands and pressures that exceeds the capacities of an individual to adjust. Stress is the failure of the individual to respond adequately due to the excessive pressures from the environment. A physical factor, such as injury, or mental state, such as anxiety, that disturbs the body's normal state of functioning- all may cause stress. Stress may have a variety of reactions on the body.

                                                                                                                           -  Dr Smita Pandey