|
What
This Section Gives You
This section helps you to understand the
current state of research into stress. We
look at this so that you understand how
soundly some of these ideas have been examined.
It also introduces you to the fundamental
principles behind stress management. While
the techniques on this site cover the most
common sources of stress, a good understanding
of the fundamentals will help you to adapt
these tools and create new ones to handle
unique situations.
Explaining the fundamentals...
Much research has been conducted into stress
over the last hundred years. Some of the
theories are settled and accepted; others
are still being researched and debated.
This section helps you understand some of
the key concepts and theories from current
psychological research. These are the foundation
on which this site and the tools and techniques
within it have been designed.
We start by defining stress. We then look
at the underlying mechanisms that cause
it.
Stress and its impact on you...
Next, we look at the nature of stress and
consider the relationships between stress
and health, and between stress and work
performance.
We see how stress can have very negative
effects on your short- and long-term health,
performance and career success, as well
as on your personal happiness. This emphasizes
the importance of good stress management.
Introducing stress management
Finally, we look at the three types of
approach to managing stress:
- action oriented (reducing stress by
taking action);
- perception oriented (dealing with attitudes
and emotional responses to stress);
- and survival oriented (living and coping
with stresses that cannot be otherwise
resolved).
The concepts introduced here lie behind
the tools and techniques that you will encounter
elsewhere on the site, helping you to manage
stress constructively.
Note: This site focuses on the sort
of stress people can expect to experience
as a normal part of a business or public
service career. It does not consider in
any depth the intense stress experienced
in life-threatening situations. Nor does
it look at handling the effects of, for
example, Depression or Post-Traumatic Stress
Disorder. These are very real issues; however,
they are outside the scope of this site.
The next
article explains what stress is.
|
