The Three Types of Stress

As finals approach here at university, I find myself feeling more and more like the pug in the picture. Unfortunately for us students, there’s been a plethora of research published recently about why chronic stress is unhealthy. But did you know that not all stress is created equal? Modern scientific theories of stress view stress as a particular relationship between a person and their environment (1). What I mean by this is that stress is when a person appraises their environment and concludes that their situation exceeds their resources or endangers their well-being.

The relational nature of stress is what differentiates it into several different categories: harm/loss, treat, and challenge (1). The category the stress falls into is dependent on the way you evaluate your situation. Harm/loss is the stress caused when the damage is already done—like the loss of a friend, an injury, or a blow to your self-esteem. Threat stress is what you feel when you evaluate your environment as having the potential for harm or loss. Challenge stress is when your situation provides an opportunity for growth or gain. As I’m sure you can imagine, these kinds of stress feel very different. Harm/loss stress and threat stress are typically associated with negative emotions like anger, fear, and anxiety. In contrast, challenge stress feels better, being associated with feelings like eagerness and excitement. It’s worth noting though, that some situations don’t fall cleanly into one category or another. For example, research (and personal experience) has shown that students typically feel a mix or threat stress and challenge stress before an exam.

I think I’m not alone when I say that I want less harm/loss stress or threat stress and more challenge stress in my life. Actually, I’m in luck because the kind of stress you experience has to do with how you perceive your situation, and we do have some control over our perceptions. In general, the theory of most of the 20^th century was that feeling in control over your environment reduces threat stress (2). For example, believing that you have control over how you do on a tough exam (by studying) could reduce your perception of the exam as a threat stress and make it seem more like a challenge stress. Unfortunately, more recent research has shown that the relationship between feeling in control and stress is not always that simple (3). Researchers are somewhat baffled by the finding that sometimes, giving someone too much control over a situation—like getting their blood drawn—makes them more stressed.

Until more research becomes available about the effect of perceived control on stress, I think I’ll stick to simply being able to identify the different types of stress in my life, and aim for a happy medium on the amount of control I try to exert. Tell me about the last time you overcame stress in the comment section below!

(This post was a follow-up to last week’s “research decoded” on the relationship between stress and overeating. You can check it out here!)

References:

1. S. Folkman, Personal control and stress and coping processes: A theoretical analysis. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 46, 839–852 (1984).
2. J. H. Geer, G. C. Davison, R. I. Gatchel, Reduction of stress in humans through nonveridical perceived control of aversive stimulation. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 16, 731–738 (1970).
3. J. R. Averill, Personal control over aversive stimuli and its relationship to stress. Psychol. Bull. 80, 286–303 (1973).