Stress the unconscious preparation to fight or flee that a person experiences when faced with any demand
Stressor the person or event that triggers the stress response
Distress the adverse psychological, physical, behavioral, and organizational consequences that may arise as a result of stressful events
Strain distress

Homeostasis a steady state of bodily functioning and equilibrium
External environmental demand

• Individuals differ in their appraisal of events & people
• What is stressful for one person is not for another
• Perception and cognitive appraisal determines what is stressful
Problem-focused coping emphasizes managing the stressor
Emotion-focused coping emphasizes managing your response

• No undue stress
Good person-environment fit: a person’s skills & abilities math a clearly defined, consistent set of role expectations.
• Stress, strain, depression occur when role expectations are confusing and/or conflicting, or when the person’s skills & abilities do not meet the demands of the social role

Ego Ideal the embodiments of a person’s perfect self
Self-image how a person sees oneself, both positively
& negatively
Self-image
= the difference

Release of chemical messengers, primarily adrenaline, into the bloodstream
Sympathetic nervous system
& the endocrine
(hormone) system activated
•Blood redirected from the skin & internal organs to brain and large muscles
•Increased alertness: improved vision hearing, & other sensory responses
•Release of glucose & fatty acids for sustenance
•Depression of immune system, digestion, & similar restorative processes

Task Demands
Change & uncertainty
Lack of control
Career progress
New technologies
Work Demands
Role Demands
Work overload/underload
Role conflict:

Interrole

Intrarole

Person-role
Role ambiguity
Interpersonal Demands
Abrasive personalities
Sexual harassment
Leadership styles
Physical Demands
Extreme environments
Strenuous activities
Hazardous substances

NonWork Demands
Family Demands Personal Demands
Marital expectations
Child-rearing/day care arrangements
Parental care
Religious activities
Self-improvement tasks
Traumatic events

Benefits of Healthy, Normal Stress (Eustress)
Performance Health
Increased arousal
Bursts of physical strength
Cardiovascular efficiency
Enhanced focus in an emergency
Individual
Costs of Distress
Organizational
Psychological disorders
Medical illnesses
Behavioral problems
Participation problems
Performance decrements
Compensation awards

Performance arousal
High
Low
Low
(distress)
Boredom from understimulation
Optimum
(eustress)
Stress level
High
(distress)
Optimum stress load
Conditions perceived as stressful
Distress from overstimulation

• Stress response itself is neutral
• Some stressful activities (aerobic exercise, etc.) can enhance a person’s ability to manage stressful demands or situations
• Stress can provide a needed energy boost
• Negative stress results from
– a prolonged activation of the stress response
– mismanagement of the energy induced by the response
– unique personal vulnerabilities

Work related psychological disorders
(depression, burnout, psychosomatic disorders)

Participative problems a cost associated with absenteeism, tardiness, strikes & work stoppages, & turnover
Performance decrement a cost resulting from poor quality or low quantity of production, grievances, & unscheduled machine downtime & repair
Compensation award an organizational cost resulting from court awards for job distress

Achilles’ heel phenomenon a person breaks down at his or her weakest point

Sexual harassment
Early age fatal health problems
Long term disabling health problems
Violence

Type A Behavior Patterns a complex of personality and behavior characteristics
– sense of time urgency
“hurry sickness”
– quest for numbers (of achievements)
– status insecurity
– aggression & hostility expressed in response to frustration & conflict

Personality hardiness a personality resistant to distress & characterized by
– challenge (versus threat)
– commitment (versus alienation)
– control (versus powerlessness)
Transformational coping a way of managing stressful events by changing them into subjectively less stressful events (versus regressive coping passive avoidance of events by decreasing interaction with the environment)

Self-reliance a healthy, secure, interdependent pattern of behavior related to how people form and maintain supportive attachments with others
Counterdependence an unhealthy, insecure pattern of behavior that leads to separation in relationships with other people
Overdependence an unhealthy, insecure pattern of behavior that leads to preoccupied attempts to achieve security through relationships.

Preventative stress management an organizational philosophy that holds that people & organizations should take joint responsibility for promoting health and preventing distress & strain
Primary prevention designed to reduce, modify, or eliminate the demand or stressor causing stress
– Secondary prevention designed to alter or modify the individual’s or the organizations’ response to a demand or stressor
– Tertiary prevention designed to heal individual or organizational symptoms of distress & strain

Organizational stressors
• Task demands
• Role demands
• Physical demands
• Interpersonal demands
Primary prevention stressor directed
Health risk factors
Stress responses
• Individual
• Organizational
Secondary prevention response directed
Asymptomatic disease
Distress
Individual problems
• Behavioral •Medical
• Psychological
Tertiary prevention Symptomatic
Organizational costs
• Direct • Indirect costs symptom directed disease
Source: J. D. Quick, R. S. Horn, and J. C. Quick, “Health Consequences of Stress,” Journal of Organizational Behavior Management 8, no. 2, figure 1 (Fall 1986): 21. Reprinted with permission of Haworth Press,
Inc., 10 Alice Street, Binghamton, NY 13904. Copyright 1986.

• Focuses on people’s work demands
• Focuses on ways to reduce distress at work
• Most organizational prevention is primary
– job redesign
– goal setting
– role negotiation
– social support systems

Selfdetermination
Work load
Low High
Unresolved strain
(ill health)
Passive job
Active job
B. Gardell, “Efficiency and Health Hazards in Mechanized Work,” in J. C. Quick, R.S. Bhagat, J. E. Dalton, and J. D. Quick, (eds.),
Work
Stress: Health Care Systems in the Workplace . Copyright © 1987. Reproduced with permission of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc.,
Westport, CT.

Organizational
Supervisor
Colleagues
Subordinates
Clients
Family
Spouse
Children
Parents
In-laws
Professional
Physicians
Psychologists
Counselors
Lawyers
Individual
Church
Minister/Rabbi
Friends
Support groups
From J. C. Quick J. D. Quick, D. L. Nelson and J. J. Hurrell,
Jr. in Preventive Stress Management in Organizations , 1997, p. 198. Copyright© 1997 by The American Psychological
Association. Reprinted with permission.
Clubs
Business associations
Social clubs
Athletic groups

Primary Prevention
Learned optimism: Alters the person’s internal self-talk & reduces depression
Time management: Improves planning & priortizes activities
Leisure time activities: Balance work & nonwork activities
Secondary Prevention
Physical exercise: Improves cardiovascular function & muscular flexibility
Relaxation training: Lowers all indicators of the stress response
Diet: Lowers the risk of cardiovascular disease & improves overall physical health
Tertiary Prevention
Opening up:
Professional help:
Releases internalized traumas & emotional tensions
Provides information, emotional support, & therapeutic guidance