Peter's Sigma

This assignment will explore the concept of stress by firstly distinguishing between the definitions set out by Selye 919560 and Cox (1976). Following this assignment will critically evaluate the General Adaption Syndrome, SRRS and Daily Hassles explanations of stress and finally, conclude with a discussion on individual differences based on Friedman and Rosenman’s research.

Introduction Stress affects millions of people. One of the most common forms of stress is that related to our careers and the workplace. In today 's economic difficulty, work related stress is even more pronounced than ever before. Everyone who has ever held a job has, felt the pressure of work-related stress. Any job can have stressful elements, even if you love what you do. According to the American Psychological Association 's (APA) annual Stress in America Survey. Only 37 percent of Americans surveyed said they were doing

(February 2014) Similar to this study I used a stress scale although, I reduced mine to a scale between: 1-5. “5” being the highest level of stress. The Stress in America study used a Perceived Stress Scale that participants self-monitored their stress levels by answering where they would answer such questions as “how often have you felt irritable and angry in the last month” and they could answer,(very often, sometimes, never etc.) For my purposes I asked myself the following three questions and used the following rating system to determine my stress levels that day.(Angus, n.d.)

The Kendall's coefficient of concordance is an index of interrater reliability of ordinal data, in this case indicating that the reliability is low (Kline, 2005).

6. Why is the black line so much more variable than the red line? What 's the difference between the data they show?

Stress has been linked to hypertension, heart attacks, diabetes, asthma, chronic pain, allegeries, headaches, skin disorders, cancer, immune system weakness and decrease blood count (Cummings et al, 2005). It has also been linked to an increase risk of alcoholism and drug use. High levels of stress can lead to higher absenteeism, larger staff turnover and low productivity. The symptoms are evident in the quantitative data, with an

Selye, H. (1975). Confusion and Controversy in the Stress Field. Journal of Human Stress, 1(2), 37-44. doi:10.1080/0097840x.1975.9940406

Although certainly some occupations are more intense and fast paced than others, it isn’t as important to consider the occupation as much as it is how well the person fits the job environment. Another important factor that determines the severity of stress is the individual’s sense of control over decision-making and the demands of their job.

Stress is one of the number one causes that contribute to people’s health problems. According to Weber.edu, “in Healthy People 2000, a report from the U.S.

Many believe that stress is a simple problem, however it is often misunderstood and more complex than they believe (p. 181, Griffin & Moorhead, 2014). Stress is the physiological and psychological response to excessive and usually unpleasant stimulation as well as threatening events in the environment (p. 284, Schultz and Schultz, 2010). Stress appears in silent and subtle ways but this negative response affects millions of employees in all levels of all types of jobs (p. 284, Schultz and Schultz, 2010). If identified

Test results showed that most of the independent variables were positively related in the strength of the

In defining the concept of stress, occupational stress and role stress are examined based on the fact that people's lives are characterized with stressors that contribute to numerous threats to their well-being. Since the concept of role stress, which is related to occupational stress, is not found in the dictionary, the starting point in the definition and analysis of stress is the use of the term stress (Riahi, 2011, p.722). While stress was initially described as the experience of some form of strain by any living organisms, the description has been expanded to a phenomenon that contributes to severe and distressing experience,

Hayes & Weathington (2007) cited the “National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health” as saying that job stress has developed into

41% of employees report experiencing three or more indicators of stress sometimes, often or very often, which is a significant increase from 2002.

Stress is not only affecting individuals, but also affects how are businesses function and how our society operates (Morrison 1).