STRESS AND ADAPTATION
Every one faces stress in his/her life. Some very effectively adapt to stress. Others do not
cope up with stresses and stress related diseases.
Concepts of Stress and Stressors
All of us experience various kinds of stress throughout our life. Stress can provide the stimulus
for change and growth or stress can result in poor judgement, physical illness and inadequate
coping with stressor.
The term stress is derived from the Latin word ‘stringere’, which means, “to draw tight”. Stress
is any physiological or psychological tension that threatens a person’s total equilibrium. It can
threaten homeostasis.
A ‘stressor’ is anything that causes stress. Stressor can be external or internal. Internal stressors
such as fever, pregnancy, menopause, or emotion such as guilt, originate inside a person. External
stressors such as marked change in environmental temperature, peer rejection or change in family
role, originate outside a person.
Homeostasis
Homeostasis is a dynamic form of equilibrium in the body’s internal environment. A healthy
individual maintains homeostasis, if his physiological needs are met, even though these needs
may change with time. Thus body system continually adapt to changes. Stress interfere this
adaptive activity.
i) Homeostasis Mechanism: Homeostasis involves automatic adjustment by the body. Major
homeostatic mechanisms are controlled by the medulla oblongata, which controls vital functions
such as heart rate, blood pressure and respiration that are necessary for survival.
ii) Limitations of Homeostatic Control: Homeostatic control mechanisms are done through the
inter-connection between the nervous system, hormone levels, and other body systems to
maintain homeostasis with in the body. These mechanisms are effective in maintaining healthy
body but do not adapt to long-term changes in hormone secretion. For Example: Long term illness
or injury.
Models of Stress
i) Physiological Stress
Hans Selye: The Hans Selye did the research and identified three stages of General
Adaptation Syndrome (G.A.S.)
a) Alarm Reaction: Alarm reaction refers to the body’s attempt to fight off the effect of
, noxious substance with all its defensive abilities. After the initial shock of a stressor met with a
strong defensive response stimulated by hormones from the adrenal cortex, the body gradually
settles into a less stimulated phase, during which it continues to maintain its defenses. If the
stressor is severe, such as third degree burns or severe shock of any kind, death can result. Body
defenses are overwhelmed and in capable of defending the stress effect.
b) Stage of Resistance: This is the second stage when the body maintains its resistance
until the noxious agent disappears and the body is able to return to homeostasis. If the body’s
defensive capability is so completely used up, it enters stage three.
c) The Stage of Exhaustion: If the stage of exhaustion is not reversed by removal of the
toxic substance or the body’s resistance capability is not supported by medical intervention then
the result is death.
ii) Psychological Stress and The Coping Process
It’s given by Richard Lazarus. Richard Lazarus, a psychologist is one of the leading theorists in
the psychological stress field. His theory called as cognitive appraisal is determined by the
interplay of personality and the environment.
The constant evaluation and reevaluation by individual about the events occurring in one’s life is
called cognitive appraisal. The first step in this process is called primary appraisal. It involves
decision-making and judgements about a person’s encounters with the environment. There are
three possible outcomes of primary appraisal. The event is irrelevant or the event is being-positive
or the event is stressful.
Stressful event involves judgement of harm, loss, threat or challenge. Harm or loss refers to harm
or loss that has already occurred. For Example: Loss of self-esteem or incapacitating illness.
• Threat differs from harm or loss. Threat refers to the person’s fear about loss of
selfesteem or diseases that has not yet occurred. The fear is anticipatory.
• Lazarus’s theory of cognitive appraisal is important in conceptualizing patients’
responses to illness.
The next step in a person’s awareness of an environmental event is called secondary appraisal. It
occurs after the person answers the challenge of primary appraisal, “Am I okay or in trouble?
During this secondary stage of cognitive appraisal, the person consciously applies coping
strategies that have worked for him in the past.
If person’s anxiety or fear is not reduced by original efforts, reappraisal occurs. This process
involves continuous feedback between a person’s emotional and intellectual psychic subsystems
and the environment.
When a person is physically ill, his body sensations feed into his/her emotional and intellectual
response i.e. coping, coping defined as “efforts, both action-oriented and intrapsychic, to manage
Every one faces stress in his/her life. Some very effectively adapt to stress. Others do not
cope up with stresses and stress related diseases.
Concepts of Stress and Stressors
All of us experience various kinds of stress throughout our life. Stress can provide the stimulus
for change and growth or stress can result in poor judgement, physical illness and inadequate
coping with stressor.
The term stress is derived from the Latin word ‘stringere’, which means, “to draw tight”. Stress
is any physiological or psychological tension that threatens a person’s total equilibrium. It can
threaten homeostasis.
A ‘stressor’ is anything that causes stress. Stressor can be external or internal. Internal stressors
such as fever, pregnancy, menopause, or emotion such as guilt, originate inside a person. External
stressors such as marked change in environmental temperature, peer rejection or change in family
role, originate outside a person.
Homeostasis
Homeostasis is a dynamic form of equilibrium in the body’s internal environment. A healthy
individual maintains homeostasis, if his physiological needs are met, even though these needs
may change with time. Thus body system continually adapt to changes. Stress interfere this
adaptive activity.
i) Homeostasis Mechanism: Homeostasis involves automatic adjustment by the body. Major
homeostatic mechanisms are controlled by the medulla oblongata, which controls vital functions
such as heart rate, blood pressure and respiration that are necessary for survival.
ii) Limitations of Homeostatic Control: Homeostatic control mechanisms are done through the
inter-connection between the nervous system, hormone levels, and other body systems to
maintain homeostasis with in the body. These mechanisms are effective in maintaining healthy
body but do not adapt to long-term changes in hormone secretion. For Example: Long term illness
or injury.
Models of Stress
i) Physiological Stress
Hans Selye: The Hans Selye did the research and identified three stages of General
Adaptation Syndrome (G.A.S.)
a) Alarm Reaction: Alarm reaction refers to the body’s attempt to fight off the effect of
, noxious substance with all its defensive abilities. After the initial shock of a stressor met with a
strong defensive response stimulated by hormones from the adrenal cortex, the body gradually
settles into a less stimulated phase, during which it continues to maintain its defenses. If the
stressor is severe, such as third degree burns or severe shock of any kind, death can result. Body
defenses are overwhelmed and in capable of defending the stress effect.
b) Stage of Resistance: This is the second stage when the body maintains its resistance
until the noxious agent disappears and the body is able to return to homeostasis. If the body’s
defensive capability is so completely used up, it enters stage three.
c) The Stage of Exhaustion: If the stage of exhaustion is not reversed by removal of the
toxic substance or the body’s resistance capability is not supported by medical intervention then
the result is death.
ii) Psychological Stress and The Coping Process
It’s given by Richard Lazarus. Richard Lazarus, a psychologist is one of the leading theorists in
the psychological stress field. His theory called as cognitive appraisal is determined by the
interplay of personality and the environment.
The constant evaluation and reevaluation by individual about the events occurring in one’s life is
called cognitive appraisal. The first step in this process is called primary appraisal. It involves
decision-making and judgements about a person’s encounters with the environment. There are
three possible outcomes of primary appraisal. The event is irrelevant or the event is being-positive
or the event is stressful.
Stressful event involves judgement of harm, loss, threat or challenge. Harm or loss refers to harm
or loss that has already occurred. For Example: Loss of self-esteem or incapacitating illness.
• Threat differs from harm or loss. Threat refers to the person’s fear about loss of
selfesteem or diseases that has not yet occurred. The fear is anticipatory.
• Lazarus’s theory of cognitive appraisal is important in conceptualizing patients’
responses to illness.
The next step in a person’s awareness of an environmental event is called secondary appraisal. It
occurs after the person answers the challenge of primary appraisal, “Am I okay or in trouble?
During this secondary stage of cognitive appraisal, the person consciously applies coping
strategies that have worked for him in the past.
If person’s anxiety or fear is not reduced by original efforts, reappraisal occurs. This process
involves continuous feedback between a person’s emotional and intellectual psychic subsystems
and the environment.
When a person is physically ill, his body sensations feed into his/her emotional and intellectual
response i.e. coping, coping defined as “efforts, both action-oriented and intrapsychic, to manage
