Abstract
The question of whether stress positively or negatively influences people’s life is controversial. Based on previous studies, this paper argues that stress can be categorized into different types and whether stress is friend or enemy to people is determined by objective conditions and subjective factors including temperament type, personality and values. This study provides implications for future researches to view stress from a comprehensive and dialectical perspective. DOI: 10.5901/jesr.2014.v4n6p275
Highlights
The term “stress”, which was first appeared in psychological abstract in 1944 (Jones, Bright, & Clow, 2001), is recently used by common people in a wide range of ways to describe their mental state or current situation, etc.In an academic sense, stress can be defined from both biological and psychological perspective, and there is no unanimous definition for it among researchers
Different classifications of stress types according to three different theories and the stress causes based on stress types and Weiner’s Attribution Theory will be presented
Apart from the objective conditions, subjective factors such as temperament type, personality, personal value are more significant in determining the effect of certain stress
Summary
The term “stress”, which was first appeared in psychological abstract in 1944 (Jones, Bright, & Clow, 2001), is recently used by common people in a wide range of ways to describe their mental state or current situation, etc. Stress can be defined from both biological and psychological perspective, and there is no unanimous definition for it among researchers. One of the controversies focuses on whether stress is positive, negative or neutral. Some regard stress as a source of negative conditions experienced by people and a basis for headaches, back pain and poor performance (Robert-Macomb & Young, 2012), in contrast, some consider stress as positive process rather than a threat which leads to positive outcomes (Folkman & Moskowitz, 2000). This paper will pay attention to what causes stress, in what circumstances stress is friend or enemy (positive or negative), and how we can transform stress into opportunities
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