Stress and Management is an important topic under the subject of Behaviour. In today’s fast-paced world, stress has become a common part of daily life, affecting both mental and physical well-being. Understanding how to manage stress effectively is essential for maintaining emotional balance and overall health.
Previous year Questions
| Year | Question | Marks |
| 2023 | Distinguish between emotion focussed and problem focussed coping strategies to reduce stress. | 5M |
| 2021 | Mention the sources of stress. | 2M |
| 2021 | Explain the strategies of stress management. | 5M |
| 2018 | What is General Adaptation syndrome? | 2M |
| 2018 | What are the factors that promote positive health and well-being ? | 5M |
| 2016 | Explain General Adaptation Syndrome. | 2M |
| 2016 | What do you understand by positive health and well-being ? | 5M |
| 2016 | What is Stress ? | 2M |
| 2016 special | Analyse different ways of Coping for stress management. | 5M |
Nature, Types, Sources, Symptoms, Effects
The word stress has its origin in the Latin words ‘strictus’, meaning tight or narrow and ‘stringere’, the verb meaning to tighten. Stress is like electricity. It gives energy, increases human arousal and affects performance. However, if the electric current is too high, it can fuse bulbs, damage appliances, etc.High stress too can produce unpleasant effects and cause our performance to deteriorate. Conversely, too little stress may cause one to feel somewhat listless and low on motivation which may lead us to perform slowly and less efficiently.
- Hans Seyle (Father of modern stress research) has defined stress as “the non-specific response of the body to any demand for change”
- According to NCERT, Stress is the pattern of responses an organism makes to stimulus events that disturbs the equilibrium and exceeds a person’s ability to cope.
Nature of stress
- Stress is often explained in terms of characteristics of the environment that are disruptive to the individual.
- Stress is a dynamic mental/cognitive state.
- It can be Temporary-Long term or severe-mild.
- It is a disruption in homeostasis or an imbalance that gives rise to a requirement for resolution of that imbalance or restoration of homeostasis.
- There are 2 prerequisite
- Uncertainty over outcome
- Outcome must be important
Type of Stress
Stress can be categorised into different types as follows:
- Eustress: Eustress can be defined as “good stress, caused by a positive response to a desired stressor, such as a wedding or a new job” (Truxillo).
- Neustress: When stress is not helpful nor harmful, it can be described as ‘Neustress’ (Schafer).
- Distress: This is the third category of stress that most people commonly relate stress with. ‘Distress’ occurs when the arousal experienced by the individual is very high or very low (Schafer). Distress can also be categorised into acute and chronic stress.
- Acute stress can be termed as stress that is intense but does not last for a prolonged period of time.
- chronic stress may not be as intense but may exist for a prolonged period of time.
- Hyperstress: Excessive stress is termed as ‘Hyperstress’.
- Hypostress: Insufficient stress is termed as ‘Hypostress’.
| Eustress | Distress |
| Positive Stress (desirable) | Negative Stress (undesirable) |
| Short Term | Short-Long Term |
| Increases Performance | Decreases Performance |
| Produces Excitement | Produces Anxiety |
| Eg:- Starting a New Job | Eg:- Traumatic Events |
Other types of Stress :
According to Ncert, The three major types of stress are physical and environmental, psychological, and social
- Physical and Environmental Stress: physical change the state of our body for eg- overexert ourselves physically. Environmental stresses are aspects of our surroundings that are often unavoidable such as air pollution, crowding, noise, heat of the summer.
- Psychological Stress: These are stresses that we generate ourselves in our minds. These are personal and unique to the person experiencing them and are internal sources of stress. We worry about problems, feel anxiety, or become depressed. for eg- ‘I must do everything perfectly’.
- Social Stress: These are induced externally and result from our interaction with other people. Social events like death or illness in the family, strained relationships, trouble with neighbours are some examples of social stresses.
Sources of Stress
A variety of events and conditions can cause stress, including major life events like the death of a loved one, daily hassles, and traumatic experiences.
- Life Events: We learn to cope with small, everyday changes but major life events can be stressful, because they disturb our routine and cause upheaval. Eg. break-up of a long-term relationship.
- Hassles: These are the personal stresses we endure as individuals, due to the happenings in our daily life, such as noisy surroundings, commuting, quarrelsome neighbours, traffic snarls.
- Traumatic Events: These include being involved in a variety of extreme events such as a fire, train or road accident, robbery, earthquake, tsunami, etc. The effects of these events may occur after some lapse of time and sometimes persist as symptoms of anxiety, flashbacks, dreams and intrusive thoughts, etc.
in addition to these sources, Coleman classified sources of stress into three main categories i.e., Frustration, Conflict of motives and Pressure.
- Frustration: Frustration can be described as occurring when a goal oriented behaviour of an individual is thwarted. eg- Ravi expected a promotion but didn’t get it, leading to frustration
- Conflict of Motives: The next source is conflict of motives that can cause stress as an individual has to choose between alternatives and decision making in this regard can lead to stress.
- Pressure: Pressure is yet another source of stress that can be external or internal. External pressures are the result of demands from the environment, responsibilities, and obligations for eg. child is pressurised by parents to do well in examination. example of internal pressure is when a child himself/ herself feels that he/ she needs to study and do well in examination.
Symptoms of Stress
Stress can have an impact on various aspects of life that include behaviour, cognition, emotions as well as physical health. Though stress will have a different effect on different individuals and each individual will react to stress in a different way, there are certain symptoms that can be related with stress.
- Physical symptoms: The physical symptoms of stress include low levels of energy, stomach upset, headaches and migraines, pain and aches, chest pain, rapid heartbeats, lack of sleep, dryness in mouth, experiencing tension in muscles, frequent infections and so on.
- Emotional symptoms: The emotional symptoms include, displaying frustration, getting irritated or agitated easily, feelings of worthlessness, feeling lonely and even depressed.
- Psychological symptoms: The cognitive symptoms related to stress include worrying constantly, experiencing racing thoughts, lack of organisation in thinking, forgetting, not able to focus, lack of judgement or poor judgement and also pessimism.
- Behavioural symptoms: The behavioural symptoms of stress include 18 Introduction to Stress deterioration in performance effectiveness, indulgence in substance use, prone to accidents, nervous mannerisms, poor time management, displaying checking rituals, changes in appetite, procrastination, eating faster, even talking or walking faster, impaired speech and so on.
Effects of Stress
- Emotional Effects: Those who suffer from stress are far more likely to experience mood swings, and show erratic behaviour leading to serious emotional problems:
- Mood swings, Anxiety, Depression
- Suicidal thoughts, Loneliness, Irritation
- Physiological Effects: When physical or psychological stress acts on the human body, the secretion of certain hormones increases in the body which cause specific changes in heart rate, blood pressure level, metabolism and physical activity. These physical reactions help us to function efficiently when we are stressed for a short time, but in the long run they can cause great harm to the body for Eg.
- Production of some hormones (adrenaline, cortisol) increases, Cardiovascular disorders.
- High blood pressure,Rapid pounding of heart.
- Slowing down of the digestive system,Low energy, Migraines,Dryness of throat/Mouth
- Cognitive Effects: If the pressure due to stress continues to build up, the person suffers from mental overload for eg-
- Memory loss, Poor judgement, job loss
- Racing thoughts, poor concentration
- Behavioural Effects: The effect of stress is reflected in our behaviour by consuming less nutritious food, excessive consumption of stimulants (caffeine, cigarettes and alcohol) and other drugs (sedatives). Sedative drugs can be addictive and have other side effects.
Health, Stress and Immune System
- Stress can produce changes in the immune system and increase the chances of someone becoming ill.
- Stress has been implicated in the development of cardiovascular disorders, high blood pressure, as well as psychosomatic disorders including ulcers, asthma, Hypertension, allergies and headaches.
- Researchers estimate that stress plays an important role in 50-70% of all physical illnesses. Studies also reveal that 60% of medical visits are primarily for stress related symptoms.
- Stress can affect natural killer cell cytotoxicity, which is of major importance in the defence against various infections and cancer. Reduced levels of natural killer cell cytotoxicity have been found in people who are highly stressed, including students facing important examinations, bereaved persons, and those who are severely depressed. So, Stress can cause illness by impairing the workings of the immune system.
- Following diagram shows the relation of stress with illness.
Hans Seyle proposed a Three Stage Model of stress to explain the physiological changes that take place in the body as a result of stress. It was popularly known as General Adaptation Syndrome(GAS).
- Stage 1 : It is an Alarming stage. It prepares the learner to either flee or fight the situation. During this phase the blood pressure, heart rate and muscle tone of the learner may be affected. As a responce, the sympathetic branch of the ANS is activated and releases adrenaline and produces cortisol to prepare the body for action (flee or fight).
- Stage 2 : It is Resistance stage. After fight or flight responses the body begins to repair itself with the help of parasympathetic system and tries to maintain homeostasis.
- Stage 3 : It is an Exhaustion stage. Continued exposure to the same stressor or additional stressors drains the body of its resources and leads to the third stage of exhaustion. The physiological systems involved in alarm reaction and resistance become ineffective and susceptible to stress-related diseases.
Stress Management
Coping With Stress:
Coping is a dynamic situation-specific reaction to stress. It is a set of concrete responses to stressful situations or events that are intended to resolve the problem and reduce stress. The three coping strategies given by Endler and Parker are:
- Task-oriented Strategy : This involves obtaining information about the stressful situation and about alternative courses of action and their probable outcome; it also involves deciding priorities and acting so as to deal directly with the stressful situation. For example, schedule time better.
- Emotion-oriented Strategy : This can involve efforts to maintain hope and to control one’s emotions; it can also involve venting feelings of anger and frustration. For example, tell myself that it is not really happening to me.
- Avoidance-oriented Strategy : This involves denying or minimising the seriousness of the situation; it also involves conscious suppression of stressful thoughts and their replacement by self protective thoughts. Examples of this are watching TV, phone up a friend
According to Lazarus and Folkman, coping responses can be divided into two types of responses.
- Problem-focused : Problem-focused strategies attack the problem itself, with behaviours designed to gain information, to alter the event, and to alter belief and commitments. They increase the person’s awareness, level of knowledge, and range of behavioural and cognitive coping options. They can act to reduce the threat value of the event. For example “I made a plan of action and followed it”.
- Emotion-focused : strategies call for psychological changes designed primarily to limit the degree of emotional disruption caused by an event, with minimal effort to alter the event itself. For example “I did some things to let it out of my system”
Stress Management Technique
Stress is a silent killer. As we have discussed, it plays a significant role in physical illness and disease. Due to lifestyle changes stress is on the increase. Some of stress management techniques are:
- Relaxation Techniques : It is an active skill that reduces symptoms of stress. Deep breathing is used along with muscle relaxation to calm the mind and relax the body. Usually relaxation starts from the lower part of the body and progresses up to the facial muscles in such a way that the whole body is relaxed.
- Meditation Procedures : It involves such a thorough concentration that the meditator becomes unaware of any outside stimulation and reaches a different state of consciousness.
- Biofeedback : It monitors and reduces the stress by providing feedback about current physiological activity and accompanied by relaxation training. Biofeedback training involves three stages
- Developing an awareness of the particular physiological response. Eg- Heart rate
- Learning ways of controlling that physiological response.
- Transferring that control into the conditions of everyday life.
- Creative Visualisation : It uses imagery and imagination. It provides the creative energy needed for turning an imagined scene into reality.
- Cognitive Behavioural Techniques : The essence of this approach is to replace negative and irrational thoughts with positive and rational ones. There are three main phases in this :
- Assessment,
- Stress reduction techniques, and
- Application and followthrough.
- Exercise : Exercise can provide an active outlet for the physiological arousal experienced in response to stress.
- Thought Stopping : Limiting unnecessary thoughts.
- Time Management : Effective time management requires planning and prioritizing.
Promotion of Mental Health
The World Health Organization (WHO) defines mental health as a “state of well-being in which the individual realizes his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to his or her community”.
Characteristics of A Mentally Healthy Person
- He/She has an ability to make adjustments.
- He/She has a sense of personal worth, feels worthwhile and important.
- He/She solves his problems largely by his own effort and makes his own decisions.
- He/She has a sense of responsibility.
- He/She can give and accept love.
- He/She lives in a world of reality rather than fantasy.
- He/She shows emotional maturity in his behaviour, and develops a capacity to tolerate frustration and disappointments in his daily life.
- He/She has a variety of interests and generally lives a well-balanced life of work, rest and recreation.
Signs of Poor Mental Health
- Confused thinking
- Aggression
- Suicidal thoughts
- Prolonged depression
- Sleeping more or less
- Frequent mood swings
- Seeing or hearing things that aren’t there (hallucinations)
- Finding it hard to make decisions
Factor that can lead to poor mental health
Many factors are responsible for the causation of mental illness.
- Predisposing Factors: determine an individual’s susceptibility to mental illness.
- Genetic make up
- Physical damage to the central nervous system
- Precipitating Factors: These occur shortly before the onset of a disorder
- Physical stress
- Psychosocial stress
- Perpetuating Factors: These factors are responsible for aggravating disease
- Biological factors– Heredity,Brain Damage
- Physiological changes- occur at certain critical periods of life namely-puberty, menstruation, pregnancy, delivery, period after birth
- Psychological factors– some specific personality types, strained interpersonal relationships are more prone to develop certain psychological disorders,
- Social factors– Poverty, unemployment, injustice, insecurity, migration, urbanization
Mental Health Promotion
According to WHO, following measures should be taken –
- Early childhood interventions (Eg. Providing a stable environment, protection from threats, opportunities for early learning, interactions,emotionally supportive)
- Support to children (e.g. Life skills programmes, child and youth development programmes)
- Socio-economic empowerment of women (e.g. improving access to education and microcredit schemes).
- Social support for elderly populations (e.g. Befriending initiatives, community and day centres for the aged).
- Mental health promotional activities in schools (e.g. Programmes involving supportive ecological changes in schools)
- Mental health interventions at work (e.g. Stress prevention programs).
- Programs targeted at vulnerable people, including minorities, Indigenous people, migrants, and people affected by conflicts and disasters (e.g. Psychosocial interventions after disasters).
- Violence prevention programs (e.g. Reducing the availability of alcohol and access to arms).
- Poverty reduction and social protection for the poor.
- Community development programs (e.g. integrated rural development).
