Stress theory
Various theories of stress have tried to show the connection between stressors and stress reactions. The models have become more complex with increasing knowledge. In some respects they simply represent different attempts to define the extensive complex of terms “ stress ”. Examples can be named:
Stress theories
Emergency response
According to Walter Cannon (1914, 1932): According to this model, the body reacts in a flash by creating a "flight or readiness to attack".
General adaptation syndrome
According to Hans Selye (1936): This model is the original stress concept. It shows the consequences of punctual and chronic stress. With the perception of (every) stressor, an adaptive reaction follows. It has been proven that every tension must be followed by a relaxation phase, as a constant level between rest and excitement can only be maintained with sufficient recovery. If further stressors follow at short intervals, the level of arousal continues to rise.
Allostasis - stability through change
According to P. Sterling (1988): Stress mainly serves the psychological and physical adjustment to changing living and environmental conditions. The central stress organ is the brain, which is mainly activated and partly modified via the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis. Permanent activation leads to an allostatic load , which increases the risk of many diseases. The current biopsychological stress model is the allostasis model.
Henry's stress model
This model differentiates between specific physiological reactions depending on the stressful situation: Fear (flight) leads to an increase in adrenaline ; Anger (fight) to norepinephrine and testosterone spikes; Depression (loss of control, subordination) to rise in cortisol and drop in testosterone.
Transactional (or cognitive) stress model
According to Lazarus (1974): In addition to the models mentioned above, personal evaluation levels are inserted. According to this, stress is largely determined by cognitive evaluation processes. Stress is thus an interaction between the (individual) person and the environment. It has been shown that stress can be influenced by attitude and experience.
Resource Conservation Theory
According to Stevan Hobfoll (1988, 1998; Hobfoll & Buchwald, 2004): The theory of resource conservation enables a more comprehensive and more socially context-related understanding of stress. The central assumption is that people want to protect their own resources and strive to build new ones. Stress is defined as a reaction to the environment in which (1) there is a threat of the loss of resources, (2) the actual loss of resources occurs and / or (3) the adequate gain of resources after a resource investment fails in the sense of a bad investment .
Model by Karasek
The job demands-resources model ( . Engl demand-control model ) of Robert A. Karasek turns out two components: the work request on the one hand and the scope for decision making on the other. According to this model, stress arises above all when the requirements are high and the scope for decision-making is small.
SOS concept
The theoretical framework “Stress as Offence to Self” (SOS concept), which was created by Semmer and his working group at the University of Bern, puts the threat to the self as the cause of stress at the center of the stress process. The central elements of the SOS concept are either stress caused by a threat to the self due to one's own failure ("Stress through insufficiency", for short: SIN) or by the disrespect of other people ("Stress as disrespect", for short: SAD).
ISR model
A model that was very influential for stress research was the theoretical framework by Kahn and Byosiere (1992, quoted from Lehmann, 2012). The basis for this model was the Model of Social Environment and Mental Health (French & Kahn, 1962, quoted from Lehmann, 2012), which provided a general basis for models for stress research. But the model has also stimulated further research; other stress models such as the person environment fit model were designed based on this model.
The main message of the model is that certain configurations of stressors can lead to certain stress reactions, with third-party variables influencing the relationship (characteristics of the individual and the situation) as mediators. The side of the prerequisites for stress includes organizational elements (division of work, working hours), whereby a distinction is made between physical (noise, vibrations) and psychosocial (role ambiguity, role conflict) stressors (French and Kahn, 1962, quoted from Lehmann, 2012). On the stress reaction side, there are psychological reactions (depression, anxiety, job satisfaction), physiological reactions (heart and circulatory system, stomach / intestines, biochemical, muscular), which in the long term can reduce health, well-being and performance in the private and organizational area. In between, mediators (mediating factors) are characteristics of the person (self-worth, demographic variables) and characteristics of the situation (supervisor support, social support). The assessment of the individual and any attempts to master the situation (coping) have also been placed as mediators between the stimulus and reaction side (Lazarus & Folkmann, 1984, Kahn and Byosiere, 1992, quoted from Lehmann, 2012).
literature
- G Hüther: Biology of Fear - How Stress Becomes Feelings. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen, 1997. ISBN 3525014392
- Lehmann, J. (2012): The threat to the self as a cause of stress - an experimental operationalization of the SOS concept. Institute for Psychology. University of Bern.
swell
- ^ P. Sterling, J. Eyer: Allostasis: a new paradigm to explain arousal pathology. In: S. Fisher, J. Reason (Eds.): Handbook of life stress, cognition and health , Wiley & Sons, New York, 1988, pp. 631-651.
- ↑ BS McEwen: Stress, sex, and neural adaptation to a changing environment: mechanisms of neuronal remodeling. Ann NY Acad Sci, 1204 Suppl (2010) E38-59. doi : 10.1111 / j.1749-6632.2010.05568.x
- ↑ P. Sterling: Allostasis: a model of predictive regulation. Physiol Behav, 106 (2012) 5-15. doi : 10.1016 / j.physbeh.2011.06.004
- ↑ Hermann Faller; Herrmann Lang: Medical Psychology and Sociology. Heidelberg: Springer 2006, ISBN 3-540-29995-5
- ↑ Margarete Edelmann: Health resources in the job , 2002, ISBN 3-621-27526-6 p. 6 ff