What is Stress ? - Well, it Depends...

To nearly everyone, 'stress' is unpleasant. But a lot of psychologists write about stress as something that can have encouraging effects. So, what is stress exactly? Why the uncertainty? The reasons lie in how a person evaluates his or her own intellectual and physical condition.

A few examples may help to make the issue understandable. Picture two individuals, one a title holding skier in the Olympics, the other a university senior about to take a final mathematics examination. The skier has been preparing for the majority of his life for the Olympics, the senior has barely studied in any way.

From a purely physiological point of view, both are bound to experience the same things - fast heartbeat and breathing, elevated metabolism, active sweat glands and so forth. Psychologically, there are also similarities - elevated attentiveness on the present and thoughts about the next few minutes, lucid imagery and sensitive feelings.

But there are significant differences, at least psychologically. The skier is elated, prepared for the dare, and excited to demonstrate his ability to prevail at the race. The senior feels hesitation and panic.

In both cases it's logical to reason that the two young men are under stress. You could also exclaim they are feeling stressful. But the differences are imperative. The skier evaluates his circumstance as a challenge he wants to face and he believes that he's ready to tackle. The senior knows he is insufficiently prepared and anticipates the result of his expected failure, a lowered grade and possibly the necessity to retake the class.

In both cases, the young men are unsure about the result, but both evaluate the likelihood of triumph in a different way. Each may also interpret the result of failure another way.

The skier might end up with just a silver award. That may be second-rate, but in the Olympics, the second place can nonetheless point to profitable endorsements and future opportunities. The senior may interpret his probability for getting into a high-quality graduate school thinning. He may have to retake the lesson before he can even graduate.

Yes, the examples are incredibly oversimplified. But the pattern is about right. Whether you feel stress or joy, stress can sometimes turn on how you assess outside conditions and your own internal status.

So there are in fact two meanings of the word 'stress' that from time to time get jumbled as one. One refers purely to sensitive consciousness and the physiological symptoms described above. The other is in effect, the same as the combination of anxiety and those symptoms. The latter can have harmful health consequences, since those symptoms can be physically damaging. But given that humans are both mind and body, and the two aspects influence one another, the psychological element is just as essential.

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