There may be few health-related concepts that have captured both the research interes of scientific investigators and the popular imagination as much as "social stress". this reflects both the substantive appeal of the concept for researchers in medicine and the biological and behavioral sciences and attempts by individual to understand and take responsibility for their own health.
this chapter presents a brief description of the historical development of the concept, an introduction to the various way that stress is conceptualilized, and a model of social stress that attempts to capture its causes. mediating effects, and out comes. current research into stress as it is related to social class, race, and gander is also presented.
DEFINITION OF STRESS
The term "stress" is used in almost countless ways. it can refer to event or circumstances, such as an examination, that causes us unease, to the general unease we fell during such events to the specific bodily, responses to such events, such as rapid hearthbeat; or to the mind's and body's attemps to deal with the unease in order to recapture a sense of wellness.
Most researches include in the concept of stress some reference to the resulting state in an individual who has experenced various demands. Stocklos (1986:35) defines stress "a state of inibalence within a person, elicited by an actual or perceived disparty between enfironmental demands and the person's capacity to cope with these demand". stress occurs in response to " strainfull and thereatening circumstances in the environment" and has cleared bounnsaries than stress such as anixiety or depression, wich are more global and more diffuse and many exist "even in the absense of specified threats" (Pearlin and Schooler, 1978:4)
A MODEL OF SOCIAL STRESS
several stress researces have developed models of the process by wich potenttialy stressful events are interpreted are apparaised by individual. resources are applied to deal with the events and outcomes of the stress process are determined. the model presented in figure 5 - 1 is influenced by several of these models but especially that by Morton Lieberman (1982), and Pearlin and Aneshensel (1986). while stress is a broad intelectual concept, a benefit of this model is that it offers appropiate entry poins for appliying the sociological perspective to understand the following areas :
- The nature and dinamics of how social forces and circumstance (stessors) create stressfull situations.
- How the perception or appraisal of stressor affects the maner in wich they are handled.
- How the appraisal of stressors affects the enactment of social roles.
- How social resources infuence the likelihood of stressfull circumstances, the extent to wich role enactment is problemictic.
STRESSORS
a primary concern of many sosiologistic is the identification of stressors -social factor or social forces that contribute of tsress. kataloging these forces is a difficult task, however, as they range form the broades of social forces and large scale social organisation. on the one hand, to the personal social environtment in wich people function on a day-to-day basis, on the other hand.
We mentioned it earlier and it bears repeating: stress is not always a bad thing. Stress is simply the body's response to changes that create taxing demands. The
previously mentioned Dr. Lazarus (building on Dr. Selye's work) suggested that there is a difference between eustress, which is a term for positive stress, and distress, which refers to negative stress. In daily life, we often use the term "stress" to describe negative situations. This leads many people to believe that all stress is bad for you, which is not true. Eustress, or positive stress, has the following characteristics:
- Motivates, focuses energy
- Is short-term
- Is perceived as within our coping abilities
- Feels exciting
- Improves performance
In contrast, Distress, or negative stress, has the following characteristics:
- Causes anxiety or concern
- Can be short- or long-term
- Is perceived as outside of our coping abilities
- Feels unpleasant
- Decreases performance
- Can lead to mental and physical problems
It is somewhat hard to categorize stressors into objective lists of those that cause eustress and those that cause distress, because different people will have different reactions to particular situations. However, by generalizing, we can compile a list of stressors that are typically experienced as negative or positive to most people, most of the time.
Examples of negative personal stressors include:
- The death of a spouse
- Filing for divorce
- Losing contact with loved ones
- The death of a family member
- Hospitalization (oneself or a family member)
- Injury or illness (oneself or a family member)
- Being abused or neglected
- Separation from a spouse or committed relationship partner
- Conflict in interpersonal relationships
- Bankruptcy/Money Problems
- Unemployment
- Sleep problems
- Children's problems at school
- Legal problems
Examples of positive personal stressors include:
- Receiving a promotion or raise at work
- Starting a new job
- Marriage
- Buying a home
- Having a child
- Moving
- Taking a vacation
- Holiday seasons
- Retiring
- Taking educational classes or learning a new hobby
Work and employment concerns such as those listed below are also frequent causes of distress:
- Excessive job demands
- Job insecurity
- Conflicts with teammates and supervisors
- Inadequate authority necessary to carry out tasks
- Lack of training necessary to do the job
- Making presentations in front of colleagues or clients
- Unproductive and time-consuming meetings
- Commuting and travel schedules
Stressors are not always limited to situations where some external situation is creating a problem. Internal events such as feelings and thoughts and habitual behaviors can also cause negative stress.
Common internally caused sources of distress include:
- Fears: (e.g., fears of flying, heights, public speaking, chatting with strangers at a party)
- Repetitive Thought Patterns:
- Worrying about future events (e.g., waiting for medical test results or job restructuring)
- Unrealistic, perfectionist expectations
Habitual behavior patterns that can lead to stress include:
- Overscheduling
- Failing to be assertive
- Procrastination and/or failing to plan ahead
