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Stress and Anger have always been related with each other. There have been countless studies, even more theories, about stress and anger and how they relate. But, no matter how many studies are conducted, there will always be the questions about whether or not stress and anger are related. But, I am here to provide the facts on both stress and anger, and then allow you, as the reader, to determine the relationship, because all-in-all, I feel that stress and anger can and cant be related, depending on the circumstance. If psychologists completely understood how stress and fears developed, we would know how to produce and reduce a phobia or an anxiety state. We don't.
There seems to be a wide variety of life experiences which result in some form of stress, fear, anxiety, or psychosomatic illness. It would be convenient if life were simpler but it isn't. Perhaps a summary will help you review the ways you might become stressed and anxious Changes, such as sudden trauma, several big crises, or many small daily hassles, cause stress. Intense stress years earlier, especially in childhood, can predispose us to over-react to current stress. Events, such as barriers and conflicts that prevent the changes and goals we want, create stress. Having little control over our lives, e.
g. being "on the assembly line" instead of the boss, contrary to popular belief, often increases stress and illness. Many environmental factors, including excessive or impossible demands, noise, boring or lonely work, stupid rules, unpleasant people, etc. , cause stress. Conflicts in our interpersonal relationships cause stress directly and can eventually cause anxieties and emotional disorders. The human body has different ways of responding to stress; one quick responding nerve-hormonal system involving adrenaline, another long-lasting system involving cortisol, and perhaps others. These systems not only determine the intensity of our anxiety reactions but also our attitudes, energy level, depression, and physical health after the stressful events are over.
As individuals, our nervous systems differ; however, according to Richard Dienstbier at the University of Nebraska, we may be able to modify our unique physiological reactions by learning coping skills. The genetic, constitutional, and intrauterine factors influence stress. Some of us may have been born "nervous" and "grouches. " Almost certainly we are by nature prone to be shy or outgoing, and we inherit a propensity for certain serious psychological disorders. We don't know yet if different treatments are required for genetically determined problems than for learned problems. Having a "bad experience" causes us to later be stressed in that situation, i. e.
pairing a neutral stimulus with a painful, scary experience will condition a fear response to the previously neutral stimulus. Fears and other weaknesses may yield payoffs; the payoffs (like attention or dependency) cause the fear to grow. Avoiding frightening situations may reinforce and build fears and stress. Seeing others afraid and being warned of real or nonexistent dangers can make us afraid under certain conditions. (modeling) This can include seeing a movie or TV or reading a book or perhaps just fantasizing a danger. Some people have learned to see things negatively; they have a mental set that causes them to see threats and personal failure when others do not. Of course, seeing the situation as negative ("terrible"), unpredictable, uncontrollable, or ambiguous is stressful.
Many long-lasting personality factors (neuroticism, pessimism, distrust, lack of flexibility and confidence) are related to stress, decision-making, and physiological responses. Having a negative self-concept -- expecting to be nervous and a loser -- generates stress. Irrational ideas about how things "should be" or "must be" can cause stress when we perceive that life is not unfolding as we think it should. Believing that we are helpless, that we can't handle the situation causes stress.
Drawing faulty conclusions from our observations, such as scary ideas, like "they don't like me" or "I'm inferior to them, " or having unreasonable fantasies of awful consequences ("I'll be mugged") increase our fears and restrict our activities. Pushing yourself to excel and / or failing to achieve a desired goal and one's ideal lead to stress. Assigning fault for bad events, i. e. placing blame on self or on others, causes stress and anger. Realizing we may have been wrong but wanting to be right stresses most of us.
Careful, logical decision-makers are usually calm; people who have learned to be indecisive worrier's or quick impulsive risk-takers are tense. The ideas of dying, of loosing relationships and things we value, of having a meaningless life, etc. scare us. Unconscious conflicts -- like Oedipus and Electra complexes -- cause stress which manifests itself symbolically as fears, phobias, and neurotic symptoms. One emotion can be converted into another, e.
g. anger (wanting to kill someone) becomes fear (of knives) or lust becomes suspicion that spouse has been unfaithful, but the stress is not entirely avoided by this process. The list could go on and on. My intention isn't to give you a "complete list" of sources of stress. I merely want you to realize there are many possibilities to explore, if and when you go looking for the sources of one of your anxieties.
Be open-minded. Explore every trail. You may discover very different, unique sources. Look in every nook, consider every possibility. It can be an interesting investigation into the workings of your mind. The effects or consequences of stress are also numerous; they are both positive and negative.
First, the desirable results: 1. We need and enjoy a certain level of stimulation... a certain number of thrills. It would be boring if we had no stresses and challenges. Some people even make trouble for themselves to keep from getting bored. 2. Stress is a source of energy that can be directed towards useful purposes.
How many of us would study or work hard if it were not for anxiety about the future? 3. Mild to moderate anxiety makes us more perceptive and more productive, e. g. get better grades or be more attentive to our loved ones. 4. By facing stresses and solving problems in the past, we have learned skills and are better prepared to handle future difficulties. 5. Anxiety is a useful warning sign of possible danger -- an indication that we need to prepare to meet some demand and a motivation to develop coping skills.
Janis (1977) has studied one aspect of this process by observing patients scheduled for surgery. He found that patients with mild "anticipatory fear" adjusted better after the surgery than those who were traumatized or those who denied all worries. Other researchers have found personality differences: some deniers do well post-operatively, others do not. This lead to an investigation of how to prepare different personality types for surgery, i. e. how to help the patients prepare to deal with a serious, painful stress, by Shipley, Butt, Horowitz, and Ferry (1978).
They studied two personality types: repressor's (deny feelings; "Forget about it; it's in the doctor's hands") and sensitizers (open to feelings; "What are the risks? I'm scared. Will it hurt a lot?" ). One group of patients was shown an informative film about the medical procedure; a second group saw the same film three times. A third group didn't see it at all. There were repressor's and sensitizers in all three groups.
The results? The sensitizers were quite anxious if they hadn't seen the film, but the more they saw it the less stressed they became. Thus, for sensitizers it is helpful to have a realistic, detailed view of what will happen and to know the hazards as well as the help and support available. But what about the repressor's who start out "dumb and happy?" Without the film, they are much more relaxed during the painful medical operation than the sensitizers, but with one prior viewing of the film, their heart rate during the operation was very high, considerably higher than even the unprepared sensitizers. However, if repressor's had seen the film three times, they were fairly relaxed during the medical procedure.
Thus, some people -- repressor's -- need to deny and avoid and think of other things or have lots of advanced warning, information, practice, reassurance and support in preparing for a stressful event. You should note two things: (l) this study involves a rare event -- a life-endangering time when someone else is in control of your life. There is little you can do except try to keep your panic under control. (2) This study involves only one personality factor from among hundreds and only one approach to allaying fears from among hundreds. But it illustrates the complex kind of information you and I need to run our lives most effectively. We need more scientific knowledge, and a willingness to learn and use that knowledge in our own lives. The negative effects or consequences of stress and anxiety are: 1.
Several unpleasant emotional feelings are generated -- tension, feelings of inadequacy, depression, anger, dependency and others. 2. Preoccupation is with real or often exaggerated troubles -- worries, concerns about physical health, obsessions, compulsions, jealousy, suspiciousness, fears, and phobias. 3. Most emotional disorders are related to stress; they either are caused by stress and / or cause it or both. This includes the concerns mentioned in 1 & 2 and the many psychological disorders described in an Abnormal Psychology textbook. 4. Interpersonal problems can be a cause or an effect of stress -- feeling pressured or trapped, irritability, fear of intimacy, sexual problems, feeling lonely, struggling for control, and others. 5. Feeling tired is common -- stress saps our energy. 6.
Many bad habits (e. g. procrastination, see chapter 4) and much wasted time are attempts to handle anxiety. They may help relieve anxiety temporarily but we pay a high price in the long run. 7. Psychosomatic ailments result from stress -- a wide variety of disorders are caused by psychological factors, maybe as much as 50 % to 80 % of all the complaints treated by physicians. 8. High stress almost always interferes with one's performance (unless it is a very simple task).
It causes inefficiency at school and on the job, poor decision-making, accidents, and even sexual problems. In chapter 4 we discussed achievement needs and how test scores relate to anxiety. Season (1975) found that students with high test anxiety do more poorly on exams, especially important tests, than less anxious peers, but they profit more from the teacher's hints, suggestions, and advice about taking the test. Jan (1975) observed that males with sexual anxiety had difficulty perceiving the difference between warm, friendly, approachable women and cold, aloof ones.
Other males notice the difference easily. 9. Anxiety and fear causes us to avoid many things we would otherwise enjoy and benefit from doing. People avoid taking hard classes, trying out for plays or the debate team, approaching others, trying for a promotion, etc. because they are afraid.
It's regrettable. Let's do something about it. Stress can be noticed through many different signs by a trained observer. 1. Psychophysiological responses -- muscles tight or aching, nervous tics like in the eyelid, hands unsteady, restlessness, touching yourself repeatedly, clearing your throat, frequent colds, pain, upset stomach, sweating, skin problem or itch, stiff posture, holding things tightly, strong startle response, headaches, high blood pressure, ulcers, heart disease, colitis, hemorrhoids, rashes, diarrhea, or frequent urination. These are somatoform disorders. 2. Behavioral-emotional signs -- hyperactivity, walking or talking faster, in a hurry, irritation with delays, panicky, blushing, getting tongue-tangled, avoiding people, nervous habits (strumming fingers, eating, smoking, drinking), changing habits (becoming less or more organized), poor memory, confusion, stumbling over words, inattentiveness, excessive worrying, preoccupation with a certain situation, holding a grudge, irritability, crying, obsessive thoughts, compulsive actions, outbursts of emotions, bad dreams, apathy, etc.
These are anxiety reactions. 3. Tiredness and lack of energy -- general lack of interest, bored, watching TV and falling asleep, humorless, sleeping a lot, insomnia, can't get going, sighing, and moving slowly. (Or, sometimes, too much energy, as mentioned above. ) 4. Anxiety intrudes on our consciousness or cognition in many ways: excessive preoccupation with the threatening person or situation, a desperate striving to understand why someone behaved the way they did, repeatedly obsessing about the upsetting event, unstoppable pangs of emotion (loss, anger, jealousy, guilt, longing, etc. ), excessive vigilance and startle reactions, insomnia and bad dreams, aches and pains and other unwanted sensations. Plus all the words mentioned above in the introduction that reflect the subjective feelings we have, including nervous, up tight, scared, apprehensive, etc. Naturally, no one has all these signs.
Having only a few may mean nothing; yet, having only one to an extreme may be a sign of serious stress. One would probably have a pretty good idea about how anxious he or she is. There are over 100 personality tests of stress, anxiety, fears, self-doubt, risk-taking, etc. , which could help assess emotional disease (Aero & Weiner, 1981). How often you experience racing against the clock, hating to be late, hating to wait, losing your temper when pressured, irritated by other's mistakes, speaking in a loud critical voice, being competitive, rushing to do something quickly, feeling guilty if not working, etc. How often do you do these things? If a lot, you are likely to be a tense, competitive, ambitious, irritable Type A.
Because stress and anxiety are complex reactions (including feelings, actions, thoughts, and physiology), these emotional states can and have been measured many ways: self-ratings, observation by others, psychological tests, behavioral signs, and physiological or medical tests. The trouble is (1) each person has their own unique way of responding to stress, i. e. heart rate may increase but no stomach distress may occur in one person and the opposite pattern in another person equally stressed. (2) There is very little agreement among these measures, e. g.
a person may rate him / herself as anxious but not appear anxious to others nor respond with stress on the physiological measures, like GSR (perspiration), blood pressure, or muscle tension. This is a major problem in studying stress scientifically. (3) The concepts of stress and anxiety are so broad and vague that general measures of anxiety do not predict very well how people behave or feel nor do such measures explain psychological problems or help a therapist develop a treatment plan. Being "anxious" roughly means "I'm having some problems" but more specifics must be known to diagnose and correct a particular disturbance. You may need to go deeper and find out exactly what is causing your stress.
There are many possible causes which you need to know about before deciding what causes your anxiety. Almost any change in our lives is a stressor because there is a demand on us to deal with a new situation. This is Hans See's view, who has spent a life-time studying stress (1982). There are thousands of external causes of stress. Moreover, we can be overstressed when there are too many demands at school or work or interpersonally, and we can be under stressed when there is "nothing to do" and we feel like we aren't getting anywhere. As mentioned before, there are bad stresses and good stresses.
Here are some bad stresses (the percentages estimate the difficulty in managing that particular stress relative to death of a spouse, which is 100 %): a spouse dies (100 %), we get divorced (73 %), have a serious illness (53 %), we lose our job (47 %), change occupations (36 %), have more arguments with our spouse (35 %), and so on. These are good stresses: when we fall in love and get married (50 %), re conciliate after a separation (45 %), retire (45 %), have a baby (39 %), buy a house (31 %), get promoted (29 %), have an unusual success (28 %), graduate (26 %), find new friends (18 %), and take a vacation (13 %). The more of these major life changes -- good and bad -- that have occurred in your life during the last year or two, the greater the chances of your becoming physically or emotionally ill (Holmes & Rate, 1967). Other researchers have found that having just one close, confiding relationship protects us from many of these stresses.
Alvin Toffler (1970) wrote a best seller, Future Shock, putting forth the idea that technology was producing such rapid change that people felt unable to keep up with and handle the accelerating flow of information and choices. We are in a mobile society with few permanent relationships. Today almost everything is disposable, even our jobs and friends. We give them up and move on. Certainly, computers, robots, and cheap foreign labor may threaten our jobs. On the other hand, I would suggest that an equal amount of stress or frustration is caused by changes being made too slowly rather than too fast, i.
e. racial prejudice and greed don't go away fast enough, we'd like to make some changes at work but can't, or the slow driver in front of us drives us crazy -- see frustration and conflict below. Siegelman (1983) and others speculate that change is upsetting because we are leaving a part of our selves behind. Any change involves a loss of the known -- a giving up of a reality that has given meaning to our lives. We are also afraid we won't get the things we want after the change is made. No wonder changes are resisted.
Siegelman and others also believe that there is an opposite force to the resistance to change. Of course, many of us seek change; there is an urge to master new challenges, to explore the unknown, to test ourselves. And she says, "mastering the anxiety of venturing promotes new levels of growth. " How do you see yourself? As wanting things to stay comfortable and the same or more as wanting things to change? This is probably an important personal characteristic to be aware of and to consider if you need to change this attitude. Lazarus and Folkman (1984) believe the little daily hassles rather than the major life events bother us the most, causing mental and physical problems.
The research at the University of California at Berkeley investigated the hassles of college students, middle-aged whites, and health professionals. Each group had some similar hassles: losing things, concern about physical appearance, and too many things to do. But each group had different concerns too: middle-aged persons worried about chronic money matters, professionals fretted about continuing pressures at work, and students were stressed by wasting time, not doing as well as they would like, and loneliness. Note, these are not major life changes, but chronic conditions.
Stress may come from constant, steady tension in a relationship, continuing lack of friends, no interest or excitement day after day, or inability to find meaning in life, as well as from...
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Research essay sample on Neutral Stimulus Psychological Disorders
