Which of the following gives the correct sequence of the stages of Selye's General Adaptation Syndrome?

Alarm reaction, resistance, exhaustion

Resistance, alarm reaction, exhaustion

Alarm reaction, exhaustion, resistance

Alarm reaction, resistance, exhaustion

Exhaustion, alarm reaction, resistance

Assertion (A): Biofeedback can help a person reduce the physiological symptoms of stress. Reason (R): In biofeedback a person receives feedback on responses such as heart rate, learns to control them in quiet conditions and then transfers that control to everyday life.

Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A

Both A and R are true, but R is not the correct explanation of A

Meeting Life Challenges — Stress, Coping and Positive Health

Examinations, a move to a new city, an illness in the family, a long commute every day — life keeps making demands, and whether a demand becomes stress depends on how a person reads it and what resources he or she brings to it. This chapter explains what stress is, how the body responds to it in Selye's three stages, and why two people can appraise the same event differently. It then sets out the kinds and sources of stress, its effects on mind and body, the ways people cope, the techniques that help manage it, and the qualities and skills that keep people well.

The Nature of Stress

The word stress comes from the Latin strictus, meaning tight or narrow, and stringere, to tighten — capturing the feeling of constriction people describe. Stress is best understood as the pattern of responses an organism makes to a stimulus event that disturbs its equilibrium and exceeds its ability to cope. The events that cause it are stressors. Not all stress is harmful: eustress is the level of stress that is good for us and drives effort and performance, while distress is the harmful kind that wears the body down.

Hans Selye, often called the father of modern stress research, defined stress as the non-specific response of the body to any demand. Studying animals exposed to stressors such as high temperature, X-rays and insulin, he observed a common pattern of bodily responses, which he called the General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS). It has three stages. In the alarm reaction, the presence of a stressor activates the adrenal-pituitary-cortex system, releasing hormones that ready the body for fight or flight. In resistance, if the stress is prolonged, the parasympathetic nervous system calls for more cautious use of the body's resources and the organism makes efforts to cope. In exhaustion, continued exposure to the same or additional stressors drains the body's resources, and the vulnerability to stress-related diseases such as high blood pressure rises. The model has been criticised for giving very little weight to psychological factors.

Richard Lazarus put the psychological factor back in with his cognitive theory of stress: the response to a stressor depends on how it is appraised. Primary appraisal is the perception of a new or changing environment as positive, neutral or negative in its consequences; negative events are further assessed for harm (damage already done), threat (possible future damage) or challenge (the expectation of coping and even gaining from the event). Secondary appraisal is the assessment of one's own coping abilities and resources — whether they are enough to meet the harm, threat or challenge. Because appraisals depend on past experience and on whether the person feels in control, the same event can be a crisis for one person and a manageable task for another.

⚠️ Primary judges the event; secondary judges yourself

"Is this exam a threat to me?" is primary appraisal. "Have I got the time and preparation to handle it?" is secondary appraisal. The order of Selye's stages is the other fixed point: alarm, resistance, exhaustion — never resistance first.

Signs, Types and Sources of Stress

Stress shows itself in physical, emotional and behavioural signs, and people differ in which they show. The book groups stress into three types. Physical and environmental stress: physical stresses are demands that change the state of the body — overexertion, lack of nutritious food, injury, lack of sleep; environmental stresses are aspects of the surroundings that are often unavoidable — air pollution, crowding, noise, heat, and natural disasters such as floods and earthquakes. Psychological stress is generated in our own minds, and its main sources are listed below. Social stress arises from interaction with others — the death or illness of a family member, strained relationships, or troubles with neighbours.

Sources of psychological stress
Source	What it is
Frustration	The blocking of needs and motives by something or someone that stops us reaching a goal
Conflict	Two or more incompatible needs or motives — whether to study dance or psychology
Internal pressures	Beliefs based on our own expectations of ourselves — "I must always do everything perfectly"
Social pressures	People who make excessive demands on us, or with whom we have interpersonal difficulties

The book names three sources of stress in daily life. Life events are changes, big or small, sudden or planned, that disrupt routine — moving house, marriage, the birth of a child, the loss of a job; rating scales of life events, such as the one developed by Holmes and Rahe, give each event a weight, with the death of a spouse rated the most stressful. Hassles are the personal stresses of everyday life — noisy surroundings, commuting, quarrelsome neighbours, household chores — and the more hassles people report, the poorer their psychological well-being tends to be. Traumatic events are extreme events such as a fire, a train or road accident, a robbery or an earthquake; their effects may persist as anxiety, flashbacks, dreams and intrusive thoughts.

Effects of Stress on Functioning and Health

Emotional effects: mood swings, erratic behaviour, feelings of alienation, and increasing anxiety and depression.
Physiological effects: release of the hormones epinephrine and norepinephrine, slowing of the digestive system, expansion of air passages in the lungs, increased heart rate and constriction of blood vessels.
Cognitive effects: poor concentration, reduced short-term memory capacity, and errors of judgement under sustained pressure.
Behavioural effects: disrupted sleep, increased absenteeism, reduced work performance, poor eating habits, and more use of stimulants such as caffeine.

Prolonged stress can end in burnout, a state of physical, emotional and psychological exhaustion. It also affects health through the immune system. Psychoneuroimmunology studies the links between the mind, the brain and the immune system. The immune system guards the body through white blood cells, or leucocytes: T cells destroy invaders, and helper T cells increase immunological activity; B cells produce antibodies; and natural killer cells fight viruses and tumours. Stress can weaken the immune system — studies have linked it to reduced natural killer cell activity — and so raise vulnerability to illness. An unhealthy lifestyle under stress, with poor diet, little exercise and too little sleep, adds to the risk.

Coping with Stress

Coping is a dynamic, situation-specific reaction to stress — a set of concrete responses to stressful situations intended to resolve the problem and reduce stress. Two classifications are in the book, and they should be kept under their own authors.

Two classifications of coping
Classification	Strategy	What it involves
Endler and Parker	Task-oriented	Obtaining information about the situation, thinking of alternatives and taking direct action
Endler and Parker	Emotion-oriented	Efforts to keep hope and control one's emotions; venting feelings of anger and frustration
Endler and Parker	Avoidance-oriented	Denying or minimising the seriousness of the situation; distracting oneself by watching television, phoning friends, being with others
Lazarus and Folkman	Problem-focused	Attacking the problem itself, with behaviours designed to gain information, change the event and change one's beliefs and commitments
Lazarus and Folkman	Emotion-focused	Changing one's own emotional reaction to the problem rather than the problem — "I tried to make myself feel better"

🎯 Why there is no single best strategy

Problem-focused coping works when something can be changed; emotion-focused coping helps when nothing can, as after a loss. People who cope well tend to use a mix of strategies and to match them to the situation. Avoidance can bring short-term relief but leaves the problem in place.

Stress Management Techniques

Techniques the book describes
Technique	How it works
Relaxation techniques	Reduce symptoms of stress by relaxing the muscles progressively, often from the lower part of the body up to the face, combined with deep breathing
Meditation procedures	Yogic methods of learning to refocus attention, through breathing or a word or image, to achieve a calm state
Biofeedback	Monitoring and reducing physiological aspects of stress, such as heart rate, by feedback about them: developing awareness, learning to control in quiet conditions, then transferring control to everyday life
Creative visualisation	Using imagination and imagery to picture a desired outcome; easiest when the mind is quiet, the body relaxed and the eyes closed
Cognitive behavioural techniques	Stress inoculation training (Meichenbaum) replaces negative and irrational thoughts with positive and rational ones, in three phases: assessment, stress-reduction techniques, and application and follow-through
Exercise	Regular physical activity — walking, swimming, cycling, yoga — makes the body better able to withstand the effects of stress

Promoting Positive Health and Well-being

Some people remain healthy under heavy stress. Suzanne Kobasa described this stress-resistant personality as hardiness, made of the "three Cs": commitment to work, family and other activities; a sense of control over one's life; and seeing change as a challenge rather than a threat. Resilience can also be built through life skills — abilities for adaptive and positive behaviour that help people deal with the demands of everyday life. The book names assertiveness, time management, rational thinking, improving relationships, self-care, and overcoming unhelpful habits such as perfectionism, avoidance and procrastination.

Positive health is more than the absence of illness: it includes a healthy body, good-quality personal relationships, a sense of purpose in life, self-regard, mastery of life's tasks, and resilience to stress, trauma and change. The factors that promote it include a balanced diet, regular exercise, a positive attitude, positive thinking or optimism, and social support — the existence and availability of people on whom we can rely. Social support takes three forms: tangible support, material aid such as money, goods or services; informational support, information about the stressful situation and how to handle it; and emotional support, reassurance that the person is loved, valued and cared for.

Key takeaways

Eustress is the helpful level of stress, distress the harmful one; stressors are the events that cause stress.
Selye's General Adaptation Syndrome: alarm reaction, resistance, exhaustion — criticised for neglecting psychological factors.
Lazarus: primary appraisal judges the event (harm, threat, challenge); secondary appraisal judges one's coping resources.
Psychological stress comes from frustration, conflict, internal pressures and social pressures; daily sources are life events, hassles and traumatic events.
Endler and Parker: task-, emotion- and avoidance-oriented coping. Lazarus and Folkman: problem-focused and emotion-focused coping.
Techniques: relaxation, meditation, biofeedback, creative visualisation, stress inoculation training, exercise.
Kobasa's hardiness is commitment, control and challenge; social support is tangible, informational or emotional.

Practice questions (8)

Attempt each one before opening the answer. Every explanation names the tempting wrong option as well as the right one, because that is where marks are lost.

Which of the following gives the correct sequence of the stages of Selye's General Adaptation Syndrome?
1. Resistance, alarm reaction, exhaustion
2. Alarm reaction, exhaustion, resistance
3. Alarm reaction, resistance, exhaustion
4. Exhaustion, alarm reaction, resistance
Show answer
Answer: C — Alarm reaction, resistance, exhaustion
The stressor first triggers the alarm reaction, readying the body for fight or flight; if the stress continues the body enters resistance and tries to cope; and continued exposure drains its resources in exhaustion. Exhaustion can only come last, because it is the result of resistance being worn down.
In Lazarus's cognitive theory of stress, a person's assessment of whether his or her own abilities and resources are enough to deal with a harm, threat or challenge is called:
1. Primary appraisal
2. Secondary appraisal
3. Alarm reaction
4. Burnout
Show answer
Answer: B — Secondary appraisal
Secondary appraisal is the assessment of one's own coping abilities and resources. Primary appraisal comes first and judges the event itself — positive, neutral or negative, and if negative, whether harm, threat or challenge. The alarm reaction is a stage of Selye's GAS, a bodily response rather than an appraisal.
Match the source of psychological stress with its description. A. Frustration B. Conflict C. Internal pressure D. Social pressure — 1. Two or more incompatible needs or motives 2. Excessive demands made by other people 3. The blocking of needs and motives 4. Beliefs based on one's own expectations, such as "I must be perfect"
1. A-1, B-3, C-4, D-2
2. A-3, B-1, C-2, D-4
3. A-3, B-4, C-1, D-2
4. A-3, B-1, C-4, D-2
Show answer
Answer: D — A-3, B-1, C-4, D-2
Frustration is the blocking of needs and motives; conflict is a clash between incompatible needs or motives; internal pressure comes from one's own expectations of oneself; and social pressure from the excessive demands of others. Swapping internal and social pressure is the usual error, because both are felt as "pressure" — the difference is whether it comes from inside or from other people.
Kobasa described the stress-resistant, "hardy" personality in terms of three Cs. Which of the following is NOT one of them?
1. Competence
2. Commitment
3. Control
4. Challenge
Show answer
Answer: A — Competence
Hardiness consists of commitment to one's work, family and activities, a sense of control over one's life, and treating change as a challenge rather than a threat. Competence also begins with C and sounds like a strength, which is what makes it tempting, but it is not part of Kobasa's model.
Two days before her examinations, Asha spends her evenings watching films and phoning friends, telling herself that the exams do not really matter much. In Endler and Parker's terms, her coping is:
1. Task-oriented
2. Emotion-oriented
3. Avoidance-oriented
4. Problem-focused
Show answer
Answer: C — Avoidance-oriented
Minimising the seriousness of the situation and distracting oneself by watching television or phoning friends is avoidance-oriented coping. A task-oriented strategy would mean making a revision plan and acting on it; problem-focused coping is Lazarus and Folkman's term, not part of Endler and Parker's classification.
Assertion (A): Biofeedback can help a person reduce the physiological symptoms of stress. Reason (R): In biofeedback a person receives feedback on responses such as heart rate, learns to control them in quiet conditions and then transfers that control to everyday life.
1. Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A
2. Both A and R are true, but R is not the correct explanation of A
3. A is true, but R is false
4. A is false, but R is true
Show answer
Answer: A — Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A
Biofeedback is a procedure to monitor and reduce the physiological aspects of stress, and R describes exactly how it does so — awareness through feedback, control in quiet conditions, then transfer to daily life. Because the three stages are the mechanism by which symptoms are reduced, R explains A rather than being a separate true fact.
The field that studies the links between the mind, the brain and the immune system — and so how stress can weaken the body's defences against illness — is called:
1. Psychophysics
2. Psychoneuroimmunology
3. Neuropsychology
4. Endocrinology
Show answer
Answer: B — Psychoneuroimmunology
Psychoneuroimmunology joins psychology, neuroscience and immunology to study how mental states affect immune functioning, including the effect of stress on cells such as natural killer cells. Neuropsychology studies brain and behaviour but not the immune system, and psychophysics deals with the relation between physical stimuli and sensation.
Consider the statements. I. Eustress is the level of stress that is good for us. II. Selye defined stress as the non-specific response of the body to any demand. III. Problem-focused coping tries to change one's emotional reaction rather than the problem. IV. Stress inoculation training replaces negative, irrational thoughts with positive, rational ones. Which are correct?
1. I and II only
2. II, III and IV only
3. I, II, III and IV
4. I, II and IV only
Show answer
Answer: D — I, II and IV only
I, II and IV are accurate statements of eustress, Selye's definition and Meichenbaum's stress inoculation training. III is false: it describes emotion-focused coping; problem-focused coping attacks the problem itself. Choosing only I and II leaves out the correct description of stress inoculation.