The history of stress: From ancient wisdom to killer disease
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- Written by Brent Duncan, PhD
Academic discussions on the history of stress tend to start with Walter Cannon’s 1914 study of how emotions influence illness or with Han Selye’s 1950s proposal of a three-stage general adaptation syndrome through which people cope with daily life. Although social science, business, media, and global governance organizations might be able to share some credit for the global obsession with the “the disease of our times” (Manzies, 2005, p. 59), the concepts and terms around stress research have evolved over centuries. Stress is hardly unique to modern humans.
Understanding stress as a purposeful force
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- Written by Brent Duncan, PhD
A problem with understanding stress is it is so subjective that it “defies definition” (American Institute of Stress, n.d.) [para. 2], thus is difficult to measure. “Stress” means different things to different people, and different people respond differently to stressors or stressful situations. Despite a missing definition, sufficient information exists to provide an understanding of how to tap stress as a productive force for human development. This section will explore definitions of stress through the history of contemporary stress research to identify and understand sources of dysfunctional coping strategies and to lay a foundation for building functional adaptability strategies.
Systems perspective sees stress as an essential force for life
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- Written by Brent Duncan, PhD
General systems theory provides a critical perspective that is missing from contemporary stress dogma, offers some insights into why contemporary society seems to be increasingly unable to cope with reality, and suggests functional adaptability strategies that foster growth and wellness.
Dynamic Interactive Adaptability Model provides an analytical framework for adjusting perspectives on stress
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- Written by Brent Duncan, PhD
In fewer than 50 years, stress went from Selye’s “salt of life” (1956) to global killer disease (Manzies, 2005; Oz, 2009), and it still lacks a definition. The different perspectives on stress fall into four basic categories: response-based, stimulus-based, cognitive-transactional, and dynamical systems. These perspectives are not mutually exclusive. Viewing stress through only one of the perspectives provides an incomplete picture that limits adaptability. Still, the dynamical systems perspective seems to provide improved understanding by integrating elements of the other perspectives.
Amazon's #1 New Book: Conditioning: Training the Mind for Clarity, Joy, and Effortless Flow (The Horizontal Path)
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- Written by Brent Duncan, PhD
- Parent Category: Dynamic Interactive Adaptability
Ranked as the #1 new book on Amazon, Zachary Duncan's "Conditioning: Training your mind for clarity, joy, and effortless flow" explores how to develop emotional maturity through no-nonsense spiritual growth.
Lessons in resilience from the battlefield
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- Written by Brent Duncan, PhD
- Parent Category: Dynamic Interactive Adaptability
Proactive coping theory offers strategies for leveraging challenge as growth opportunity
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- Written by Brent Duncan, PhD
- Parent Category: Dynamic Interactive Adaptability
Is stress something that happens to us or is stress the result of our interpretations and reactions to events?
Schwarzer and Taubert (2002) proposed a cognitive-transactional theory of stress that recognizes the reciprocal and continuous interaction between us and our environment. In this framework, stress is how we appraise and interpret environmental events that we perceive will tax our resources or threaten our well-being. The resulting proactive-coping framework can shift our perspective of events as stressors that make us sick to recognizing events as opportunities for growth. The event doesn't cause us stress, our inability to handle the event is what breaks us down. A proactive coping perspective helps us prepare for and leverage stressful events for adaptability, performance, growth, resilience, and wellness.
Let's explore the Schwarzer and Taubert cognitive-transactional theory to discover functional coping strategies for building resilience, mindset, and skills for facing and conquering stressful events as opportunities for growth.
