COMMON THEORIES ON STRESS MANAGEMENT AT WORK PLACE

These are the theories that support job stress, below are different school of thoughts that postulated several theories on job stress with concentration on those models that have been influential in past theorizing and empirical research.

 

             The Transactional Stress Model

One the most prominent models which on stress process is the transactional model by Lazarus ,1966; Lazarus & Folkman, 1984. Lazarus and Folkman define psychological stress as “a particular relationship between the person and the environment that is appraised by the person as taxing or exceeding his or her resources and endangering his or her well-being”. Thus, Lazarus and Folkman assume that cognitive appraisals play a crucial role in the stress process. Appraisal processes refer to an individual’s categorization and evaluation of an encounter with respect to this individual’s well-being.

Specifically, primary and secondary appraisal can be differentiated. By primary appraisal, encounters are categorized as irrelevant, benign-positive or stressful.

 

Stress appraisals comprise harm/loss, threat, and challenge. By secondary appraisals, individuals evaluate what can be done in the face of the stressful encounter, they tax their coping options. On the basis of primary and secondary appraisals, individuals start their coping processes which can stimulate reappraisal processes.

2.4.2    Systemic Stress – Selye’s Theory:

The popularity of the stress concept in science and mass media stems largely from the work of the endocrinologist Hans Selye. In a series of animal studies he observes that variety of stimulus events (e.g., heat, cold, toxic agents) applied intensely and long enough are capable of producing common effects, meaning not specific to either stimulus events. According to Seyle, these non specifically caused changes constitute the stereotypical i.e. specific response pattern of systemic stress. Selye (1980) defines stress as a non specifically response of the body to any demand, whether it is caused by or results in, pleasant or unpleasant conditions. Selye identifies three stages of adaptation which a person goes through in his General Adaptation Syndrome 1936.They are Alarm, Resistance, and Exhaustion. These stages are associated with particular biological markers such as changes in hormone patterns and the production of more “stress hormones” and the gradual depletion of the body’s energy resources.

 

 

             Psychological Stress – The Lazarus Theory:

Lazarus states that stress is experienced when a person perceives that the  “demands exceed the personal and social resources the individual is able to mobilize." this is called the 'transactional model of stress and coping.' According to Lazarus stress is experienced when a person perceives that the “demands exceed the personal and social resources the individual is able to mobilize.” This called the transactional model of stress and coping. Neither the environment event nor the person’s response defines stress, rather the individuals perception of the psychological situation is the critical factor.

 

According to Lazarus, the effects that stress has on a person are based more on that persons feeling of threat, vulnerability and ability to cope than on the stressful event itself. He defines psychological stress as a “particular relationship between the person and environment that is appraised by the person as taxing or exceeding his or her resources and endangering his or her well being. According to his theory there are two things that a person thinks when they are faced with a situation. These are called the primary appraisal and the secondary appraisal.