How We Respond to Stress

Some people will say a glass is half empty. Others will say it is half full. Similarly, different people react differently to the same stressor. In one person a stressor arouses great anxiety and distress. In another, the same stressor appears no more than a simple challenge.

For example, Janet and Peter both have an economics exam on Friday. Janet has a solid В grade average. She has turned in her homework regularly and has kept up with her classswork. Peter, on the other hand, dislikes economics. He has trouble with his homework and barely passes the tests. Naturally, Janet and Peter have different feelings about the exams on Friday. She feels confident about sing and, in fact, hopes to do well enough to raise her average. He has been worried all week and fears that this test will cause him to the course.

Circumstances also have a lot to do with the way people react to stressors. Willie Joe, for example, broke his ankle in football practice the day before the season started. He was upset at missing the season. But since he was only a junior, he knew he would have a chance to play the next year. How different his situa­tion was from that of Gavin, a senior, who had to miss the season because he came down with hepatitis. Gavin was hoping for a good year and an athletic scholarship. It was his only chance of affording a college education. Willie Joe viewed his situation as a tough break while Gavin viewed his situation as a tragedy.

This is one criticism of the Holmes-Rahe scale for rating life changes. It is hard to assign a value to a life change without knowing the circumstances of the person undergoing the change. Losing a job may not mean much to someone with a large fortune. But to a person with financial problems, the loss of a job may seem like the end of the world. The impact of any stressor on a person varies with many

factors. Some of these factors are the per­son's age, social status, income, cultural background, stage in life, and previous experi­ences.

People's responses to stressors are also af­fected by how much control they have—or think they have—over the situation. The im­pact of a stressor on someone who feels unable to do anything about it can be overwhelming. On the other hand, if a person feels he or she can do something, the stressor may be viewed as a welcome challenge.

Personality Differences

The amount of stress in a person's life also depends to a large degree on the individual's personality. Researchers have described two basic kinds of personalities, which they call Type A and Type B. Type A people are hard-

driving, hurried, and tend to have a short fuse. They are often praised for their dedication and their obvious desire to succeed. Type В people, on the other hand, are outwardly composed and relaxed. They tend to speak more softly and be less aggressive than Type A people.

Type A people are more likely to feel stress than those who are Type B. Recent research indicates that Type A people are also more apt to have heart disease and other stress-related diseases. When Type A people change their impatient behavior by learning to relax, they reduce their risk of developing heart disease.