Delimitación del glosario objeto de elaboración en esta tesis doctoral

Stress is a dynamic condition in which an individual is confronted with an opportunity, constraint or demand related to what he or she desired and for which the outcome is perceived to be both uncertain and important. The term stress has many definitions, (Lazarus & Folk man, 1984) defines stress as an internal state which can be caused by physical demands on the body or by environmental and social situations which are evaluated as potentially harmful, uncontrollable, or exceeding our resources for coping. The physical, environmental and social causes of the stress state are termed stressors.

While stress at work will remain a major challenge to occupational health, our ability to understand and manage that challenge is improving. The future looks bright. Work stress is recognized worldwide as a major challenge to worker’s health and the healthiness of their organizations. Workers who are stressed are also more likely to be unhealthy, poorly motivated, less productive and less safe at work.

Their organizations are less likely to be successful in a competitive and less safe at work. Their organizations are less likely to be successful in a competitive market.

Stress can be brought about by pressure at home and work. Employers cannot usually protect workers from stress arising outside of work, but they can protect them from stress that arises through work. Stress at work can be a real problem to the organizations as well as for its workers. Good management and good work organizations are the best forms of stress prevention. If employees are already stressed, their managers should be aware of it an know how to help.

Selye (1956) define stress as a nonspecific response of the body to any sort of demand made on it. Seyle defines this “demand", which could include a stimulus or an event, as a stressor and notes that a wide variety of stimuli is capable of producing the same internal stress response. Stressors are external and can come in several different forms, ranging from extreme temperature to a physical assault.

According to Seyle, once the individual has been exposed to the stressor, a physiological stress response will occur. This response can be observed through several different measures, including elevated heart rate, dilated pupils, increased blood pressure and galvanic skin response (GSR) (which measures the electrical conductivity of the skin that changes

THE ENERGY DRAINING TRAID

GUILT

ANGER FEAR

(He stress consultancy, 1999, P.S1.b page 63)

However, Mandler (1993) argues that a definition focusing on the physiological aspects of stress is too narrow. He suggest that “stress” refers most appropriately to other convergence of the physiological effects of stressors. He maintains that only when stressors and their physiological responses affect behavior, thought, or action do they become relevant to the stress concept. Like Selye, he notes that all types of stressors, ranging from extreme temperature to the death of a friend, affect the nervous system in the same way but many differ in their psychological or emotional effects. For the purpose of this report, we consider Mandler’s psychological results of stress as apart of the performance effects of stress and use the terms stress to refer only to the physiological response.

Figure 1.1 represents the stressor – stress relationship

THE STRESSOR – STRESS RELATIONSHIP

Although stress is a physiological response to external stimuli the stress response can also affect individuals in many important dimensions beyond simple physiological reactions. For example, individual and group performance, decision making process and perception are all affected by stressors. Adding this performance dimension to the framework, the entire relationship can be represented as shown in Figure 1.2. Because

STRESS

operational deployments inherently have many stressors that may affect military personnel and their functioning, understanding each part of this frame work is seesntial to improve the effectiveness of soldiers during deployment. In general, stress is considered to have an inverted U-shaped relationship with performance that is, performance may improve under moderate levels of stress but decline under high or constant stress.

Figure 1.2 Stresses Can Affect Performance

THE STRESSOR – STRESS RELATIONSHIP

STRESSOR STRESS PERFORMANCE An external demand An response in the external Response

or event event affects

Although few, if any, individuals are likely to be immune to the effects of stress on performance, there are intervening variables, known as moderators that can reduce the performance decrement caused by stress. A moderator variable is one that affects the relationship between the independent and dependent variables, decreasing the casual relationship between the two. Although moderators usually reduce the effect of stress on performance, there are moderators that can have the opposite effect and actually increase the performance effects of stress. Moderators come in a variety of forms, ranging from personality type of specifically targeted forms of training and are discussed in more detail in chapter 4. figure 1.3, shows the two points at which the moderators may affect the relationship between stress and performance one moderator point occurs between stressor and stress response and the other between stress response and performance.

Figure 1.3 Moderators in Stressor – Stress – Performance Relationship

MODERATORS IN STRESSOR – STRESS – PERFORMANCE RELATIONSHIP

STRESSOR STRESS PERFORMANCE An external demand or event An response in the external event Response affects performance

Moderator 1 (Type 1) Moderator 2

(Type 2)

Factors that affect the individual’s Factors that affects the effect of stress on

Response to the stressor performance Training Personality or risk type Training Uncertainty Self-

efficiency Perceptual outlook Anticipation

Some moderators may function as both type 1 and type 2 moderators, depending on the context for example, as shown in the figure, training can help to reduce the physiological stress response to an external stressor and prevent performance degradation in the face of stress. For cases in be the most common manifestation of the moderator.

STRESSORS:

Almost any change in the environment even a pleasant change, such as a vacation demands some coping; and a little stress is useful in helping us to adapt. But beyond some point “stress” become “distress”. What acts to produce distress varies greatly from person to person, but some events seem to be stressors for many of us.

Chief among these are injuries or infections of the body; annoying or dangerous events in our environments; major changes or transitions, in life, which force us to cope in new ways and anticipated or actual threats to our self-esteem.

STRESS CYCLE:

Stress has a number of immediate effects and if the stressors are maintained, long-term behavioral, physiological, emotional and cognitive (thinking) effect occur.