Cognitive Activation Theory of Stress: An Integrative Theoretical Approach to Work Stress

Abstract

Workplace stress consistently has received a substantial amount of attention from practitioners and researchers alike. Many occupational health scholars have developed or contributed to our understanding of models detailing theoretical approaches to an individual’s experience of stress. Although these theories have improved our understanding of occupational stress, these conceptualizations of stress and much of the subsequent stress research based on these models have been limited in their ability to fully explain individual experience. Organizational stress research could benefit from an integrative approach that seeks to incorporate both the positive aspects and the more traditional negative aspects of the stress experience. Organizational stress researchers should look to a recently elaborated stress theory developed outside of the organizational sciences (i.e., cognitive activation theory of stress) to provide the theoretical framing necessary for such research. The implications of integrating this theory into the organizational sciences are discussed and several avenues for future occupational stress research are provided based on this new conceptualization.