THE STRESS–ILLNESS LINK
The term ‘stress’ means many different things to many people. A lay person may define stress in terms of pressure, tension, unpleasant external forces or an emotional response. Psychologists define stress in a variety of differentways. Contemporary definitions of stress regard the external environment as a potential stressor (e.g. problems at work), the response to the stressor as stress or distress (e.g. the feeling of tension), and the concept of stress as something that involves biochemical, physiological, behavioural and psychological changes. Researchers have also differentiated between stress that is harmful and damaging (‘distress’) and stress that is positive and beneficial (‘eustress’). The most common definition of stress was developed by Lazarus and Launier (1978), who regarded it as a transaction between people and the environment. Within this definition,stress involves an interaction between the stressor (‘My job is difficult’) and distress (‘I feel stressed by it’). So a stressful response might be the feeling of stress that results from a mismatch between a) a situation that is appraised as stressful and b) the individual’s self-perceived ability to cope and therefore reduce the stress.
The term ‘stress’ means many different things to many people. A lay person may define stress in terms of pressure, tension, unpleasant external forces or an emotional response. Psychologists define stress in a variety of differentways. Contemporary definitions of stress regard the external environment as a potential stressor (e.g. problems at work), the response to the stressor as stress or distress (e.g. the feeling of tension), and the concept of stress as something that involves biochemical, physiological, behavioural and psychological changes. Researchers have also differentiated between stress that is harmful and damaging (‘distress’) and stress that is positive and beneficial (‘eustress’). The most common definition of stress was developed by Lazarus and Launier (1978), who regarded it as a transaction between people and the environment. Within this definition,stress involves an interaction between the stressor (‘My job is difficult’) and distress (‘I feel stressed by it’). So a stressful response might be the feeling of stress that results from a mismatch between a) a situation that is appraised as stressful and b) the individual’s self-perceived ability to cope and therefore reduce the stress.
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