The Definition of Stress
Stress is an emotion experience that has a bi-folded nature. This means that stress has both positive and negative features. While some amount of stress is absolutely necessary for our survival, the experience of stress beyond a threshold point may turn out to be exhaustive and sometimes life-threatening too.
Since understanding stress is a critical concept, there are virtually wide numbers of definition of stress documented in different psychology and medical journals. The definition of stress has thus different shades, different perspectives. With the help of this article, let us explore few of them. Here we go.
Stress as Separation Anxiety
When we search for the definition of stress, where stress is perceived as an outcome of separation anxiety, we can define it as an emotional response occurring as a result of early separation from mother. Stress as separation anxiety may lead to the development of depression and substance abuse in adult life.
Stress as Post Traumatic Reaction
The definition of stress occurring as a result of post traumatic reaction is explained as post traumatic stress disorder, which is characterized by an intense fear regarding personal safety without any specific cause, recurrent thoughts of traumatic events, nightmares and poor quality sleep, feeling of detachment, emotional numbness, etc.
Stress as Biopsychosociological Reaction
The definition of stress as a biopsychosociological reaction is first explained by Hans Selye, an Austro-Canadian endocrinologist. In his explanation, he adopted a stress model, popularly known as General Adaptation Syndrome or GAS model during 1936. He explained that the stimuli of stress or stressors are perceived through three individual stages - alarm, resistance and exhaustion. While stress is perceived at alarm stage, body breaks down during exhaustion stage.
Stress as Eustress and Distress
In 1974, this definition of stress was proposed by Richard Lazarus, a psychology professor and cognitive-mediational theorist from University of California. In this definition stress was explained as either of two types - eustress or distress. While the definition of eustress suggests a perception of healthy stress, distress is characterized by unhealthy one.
In the definition of eustress, all the good stress experiences are documented such as preparing for examination, meeting a goal, marriage, buying a new property, receiving the news of promotion, etc. On the other hand, the same event can be listed under distress if those incidents are perceived from a different angle, say, taking excessive pressure before examination.
There are many other definitions of stress as well. However, the above-mentioned definitions are widely known and perceived by many people around the world. Since the understanding of stress needs an in-depth study, so the definition of stress can be too complicated. These are only intended to give a general overview of the definition of stress.
