Among the theories of stress are the following:
- Stimulus-based are those that determine aversive stimuli as stressors and their effects. Stressors influence the quality of incoming information, its processing, and performance. They are classified into environmental, social, and task-related stimuli. The latter include time pressure and excessive information which affect our decision-making process.
- Response-based theories are oriented toward physiological, behavioral, or subjective response. They explain why an expert skier has better management of stressful situations by acting faster and more confidently than a beginner.
- Theories based on the interaction between potential stressors and cognitive evaluation of the situation indicate that stress may be generated when we perceive that the situation requires greater coping skills.
The Yerkes-Dodson Law or Inverted ‘U’ Theory postulates how performance, whether recreational or competitive, is affected by stress. For example, a beginner about to take his first steps may have a stress optimal level which aids his concentration. If he experiences excessive anxiety, it can affect not only his ability to concentrate on the performance but also to remember the instructions he is receiving. Likewise, it can happen with an athlete in the lead-up to a competition if he is overly stressed. On the other hand, if the stress level is too low or non-existent, we lack the energy to take action.
The impact of pre-event stress is complex and this theory considers the following influencing factors: skill level will directly influence performance, and personality will also in terms of both extroverted and introverted characteristics.
Stress and its phases
Hans Selye proposed that stress is divided into three phases:
- The alarm phase refers to when our body detects the stressor (the threatening situation). It constitutes the development of physiological and psychological alterations in the face of the perception of a stressful situation that predisposes to coping. In doing so we experience a state of physiological alertness assuming an attitude of avoidance or confrontation.
- In the resistance phase the reactions of the previous phase are maintained but decrease in intensity. Our body reacts to the stressor, attributed to our adaptation to the stressful environment through cognitive, physiological, emotional, and behavioral processes with the aim of managing it in the least harmful way possible. Then, we try to regain mental and physiological balance by accommodating to the stressor.
- In the exhaustion phase our defenses begin to be exhausted due to the duration or intensity of the stressors. It appears when the resistance phase fails due to the ineffectiveness of the adaptation mechanisms. If the stressor is prolonged and we are not able to adapt, exhaustion will occur and the symptoms of the initial phase will return.
There is another similar classification that follows from Selye’s proposal and is divided into:
- The recognition of environmental demand: each unforeseen event generates a certain impact on us, some of these being predictable and others not.
- The evaluation of the demand: the events themselves are not stressful but our automatic evaluation makes them so, then, an event will be stressful for some but not for others. We generally evaluate a context by asking ourselves whether it presents a threat and whether we have the resources to deal with it. If the answer is positive on the first question and negative on the second, then we will experience stress.
- The activation of the nervous system: if we evaluate the situation as pressing, this system will activate preparing our body for action (coping or avoidance).
- The response to the threat: when our body is prepared then we can respond physically to the generated demand. If we face it, we neutralize the feeling of stress and if we avoid it, we eliminate it. A third possibility is that of immobilization, i.e., remaining paralyzed without knowing how to act.
According to Lazarus, the evaluation of the context is a determining factor in the generation of stress. This author considers that the evaluation of conditions is divided into three parts:
- In the primary evaluation we consider the significance of the situation (irrelevant, beneficial, or stressful). If it is stressful we may estimate it as a threat represented as a harm that we believe to be immediate but has not occurred. If it occurred, we may believe we will experience it again, or we may interpret it as stressful but a challenge that we are able to overcome using our resources as well as considering the possibility of learning.
- In the secondary assessment we evaluate our resources to cope with the context and ask ourselves whether or not we will be successful. The greater the discrepancy between our resources and those demanded by the situation, the greater the stress we will experience and, conversely, it will be reduced if we have a high sense of self-efficacy.
- In the re-evaluation phase we use feedback to make corrections on previous evaluations of the coping process to the stressful situation. At this stage, new information plays a significant role.
