Talk:Eustress

Comment
If the body cannot discern between distress and eustress as the article "stresses" (pun intended) then why does distress lead to much more severe health problems (also cited by the article)? There must be positive health benefits to eustress. I believe eustress generally results in positive outcomes which enhances well-being, and the body reacts to that (generally positively).

Here is my example: I am doing a chore - not something I prefer to do but something that needs to be done. I'm using my lawn mower to cut the grass, getting some exercise, getting some fresh air and touring the environment. As well as I am comfortable doing it (e.g. its not 100F outside) then I have a sense of accomplishment at the end. I consider that eustress.

But in the middle of cutting the grass my lawn mower breaks down. I can't get it started again. My sense of accomplishment is now lost and now I get to spend time (maybe money too) getting my lawn mower fixed - plus the grass still needs cut! I consider that distress. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.245.164.83 (talk) 00:22, 1 July 2010 (UTC)

Student edit timeline, Spring 2012
As a senior capstone project, students are working improve the content of selected articles. More details are on the course page. Student first edits are due April 20, then we'll spend a week reviewing. Final project is due by May 14, 2012. Thanks for your encouragement and support. Greta Munger (talk) 15:16, 19 April 2012 (UTC)

APS Project References and Brief Outline
Hi everyone interested in Eustress! Below is a list of the references I am planning on using to update the eustress page for a class project. The references that are indented are ones that I have not received yet from interlibrary loan, and may not get to use for my first draft of the update.

Anderson, C. R. (1976). Coping behaviors as intervening mechanisms in the inverted-U stress-performance relationship. Journal Of Applied Psychology, 61(1), 30-34. doi:10.1037/0021-9010.61.1.30

Cohen, J. A., Tarule, J., Rambur, B. A., & Vallett, C. (2012). Stress and the workplace: Theories and models of organizational stress. In V. Rice, V. Rice (Eds.), Handbook of stress, coping, and health: Implications for nursing research, theory, and practice (2nd ed.) (pp. 310-331). Thousand Oaks, CA US: Sage Publications, Inc.

Edwards, J. R., & Cooper, C. L. (1988). The impacts of positive psychological states on physical health: A review and theoretical framework. Social Science & Medicine, 27(12), 1447-1459. doi:10.1016/0277-9536(88)90212-2

Gibbons, C., Dempster, M., & Moutray, M. (2008). Stress and eustress in nursing students. Journal Of Advanced Nursing, 61(3), 282-290.

Lazarus, R. S. (1995). Psychological stress in the workplace. In R. Crandall, P. L. Perrewé, R. Crandall, P. L. Perrewé (Eds.), Occupational stress: A handbook (pp. 3-14). Philadelphia, PA US: Taylor & Francis. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Maxwellshaw (talk • contribs) 17:42, 20 April 2012 (UTC)

Le Fevre, M., Kolt, G. S., & Matheny, J. (2006). Eustress, distress and their interpretation in primary and secondary occupational stress management interventions: Which way first?. Journal Of Managerial Psychology, 21(6), 547-565. doi:10.1108/02683940610684391

McGowan, J., Gardner, D., & Fletcher, R. (2006). Positive and Negative Affective Outcomes of Occupational Stress. New Zealand Journal Of Psychology, 35(2), 92-98.

Nelson, D., & Cooper, C. (2005). Guest editorial: Stress and health: A positive direction. Stress And Health: Journal Of The International Society For The Investigation Of Stress, 21(2), 73-75. doi:10.1002/smi.1053

Debra L Nelson, Bret L Simmons (2003), Eustress: An elusive construct, an engaging pursuit, in Pamela L. Perrewe and Daniel C. Ganster (ed.) Emotional and Physiological Processes and Positive Intervention Strategies (Research in Occupational Stress and Well-being, Volume 3), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, pp.265-322. doi: 10.1016/S1479-3555(03)03007-5

O’Sullivan, G. (2011). The relationship between hope, stress, self-efficacy, and life satisfaction among undergraduates. Social Indicators Research, 101(1), 155-172. doi:10.1007/s11205-010-9662-z

Saksvik, I., & Hetland, H. (2011). The role of personality in stress perception across different vocational types. Journal Of Employment Counseling, 48(1), 3-16. doi:10.1002/j.2161-1920.2011.tb00106.x

Selye, H. (1974). Stress without distress. Philadelphia: Lippincott.

Selye, H. (1975). Confusion and controversy in the stress field. Journal Of Human Stress, 1(2), 37-44.

Suedfeld, P. (1997). Reactions to societal trauma: Distress and/or eustress. Political Psychology, 18(4), 849-861. doi:10.1111/0162-895X.00082

Swanson, S. R., Davis, J., & Zhao, Y. (2007). Motivations and relationship outcomes: The mediating role of trust and satisfaction. Journal Of Nonprofit & Public Sector Marketing, 18(2), 1-25. doi:10.1300/J054v18n02_01

Verhaeghe, R., Vlerick, P., Gemmel, P., Van Maele, G., & De Backer, G. (2006). Impact of recurrent changes in the work environment on nurses' psychological well-being and sickness absence. Journal Of Advanced Nursing, 56(6), 646-656. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2648.2006.04058.x

Brief Outline: 1. Improve opening definition. Add detail and references 2. Create section on eustress and physical health and well-being 3. Create section outlining correlations between personality and eustress 4. Create section on eustress in the work place with a focus on the nursing jobs. -comment added by Maxwellshaw (talk • contribs) 01:28, 20 April 2012 (UTC)

Peer Edit #1
I recommend the following changes/edits:

-In the introduction section, the opening clause before the comma in sentence 3 seems a bit redundant from the previous sentence. In sentence 4, the word 'potential' is throwing me off a bit, perhaps you are looking for 'possible' ?

-I might suggest switching the Methods and Occupational Eustress sections

-I think the encyclopedia entry could be enhanced from a section talking about how to promote eustress in the real world, if that research exists.

-The examples at the end seem randomly created, are there any empirical/review articles that provide real-world examples?

Overall, good job! I like all of the links that you have to other pages, it gives the reader the opportunity to explore and grow in their knowledge. You do a good job of guiding the reader through the understanding of the concept, the etymology section was especially helpful. You also bolded words in helpful places! Good luck in your edits!

--Laura Renaud (talk) 02:25, 25 April 2012 (UTC)

Peer Edit #2
Here are my suggestions:

--I agree with Laura that the methods section could be moved around, but I would suggest placing it after the section on "origins" since it would follow logically after your discussion about Selye's seminal research.

--i would add more detail to the "origins" section discussing Selye's experiment. For example, who were the participants? what specific interventions did he use? What motivated his theoretical distinction between distress and eustress?

--In the section about "distress" you discuss how the body can't physically differentiate between eustress and distress, rather differentiation depends on one's perception of the stress. Is there any research you could discuss about personality or other factors that might affect one's perception of a stressor?

--In the section on "occupational eustress" you mention the SMI technique. I think the reader would benefit form a little more information about how SMI creates positive reactions to stress. What are the principles of the technique? How does it work? etc

In general, I think your off to a great start! I especially liked your opening paragraph, and I think it provides a complete and clear picture of the topic, which allows the reader to quickly understand the gist of eustress. I also think you have chosen interesting and useful areas for expansion with the methods, occupational, and distress sections. With a little more detail in some of these sections, I think you will have a fantastic article! Keep up the good work Max!

--saplumer (talk) 16:09, 27 April 2012 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.156.95.226 (talk)

APS Project Update: References and Changes
Hello Eustress editors, I have almost completely overhauled the eustress page and wanted to let anyone interested know about the changes and additions I have made. Most importantly I added 15 new references, which are all the references except 4 and 13. Also I have added the sections "Methods" and "Occupational Eustress". I almost completely rewrote the "introduction", "compared to distress", and "examples" sections. I also placed the "etymology" section into "introduction" and placed some of the "origins" writing into the "compared to distress" section. Below I will explain my reasoning for these changes.

Additions

-I added the "methods" section to give the reader a broad overview of how researchers can go about studying eustress using objective, subjective, and physiological examples. I also demonstrated how this research has led to new models for understanding eustress and its relationship with distress.

-I added the "occupational eustress" section to discuss the largest applied branch of eustress research. This area seemed to have the most research, particularly in methodology.

Rewrites and reorganizing

-I rewrote most of the introduction section to match references supporting the statements and to make sure the major information about eustress was at the beginning of the page. I didn't believe "etymology" needed its own section and it fit nicely at the end to the introduction so I consolidated the two. I wanted the information in the introduction section to reflect the empirical research conducted to understand what eustress is to try to give the eustress page more of a scientific backing.

-I rewrote the "compared to distress" section for very much the same reason. The previous information was correct but lacked citations and some other basic research. I supported the past claims with empirical citations, expanded on the contextual basis for the two stress reactions, and added a basic figure (the inverted U) to help the reader visually grasp the concept of stress perception better. I also compiled the most important information from "origins" into this section. Much of the "origins" section was repeated information from other sections and took away from the scientific feel I wanted the page to have. I kept the point about Selye's 1975 article because it was critical information and tied in well with differences between eustress and distress.

-I rewrote the examples section to make them more accurate and clearly related to eustress. I tried to keep the same basic examples as the previous author but used them in more general terms. I also wanted to reiterate to the reader that the examples are not guaranteed moments of eustress, but are examples where eustress is quite common.

Final Comments

My goal for this page was to reorganize it in a more logical pattern that gives the reader an understandable, general overview of eustress. I also wanted the page to be citation heavy so readers interested in learning more about specific points have easy access to do so. While I overhauled much of the page I tried to keep all the major points previous authors have made. Often I was able to reword/add to these sentences and support them with a citation or two. Also, if future authors are interested I believe I have left plenty of room to add more detailed descriptions and further research to the sections. If anyone has further questions, please feel free to post them on this talk page and I will try to respond promptly.

--Maxwellshaw (talk) 05:36, 11 May 2012 (UTC)

Too narrow?
The article seems to be almost entirely about psychological eustress, but the term has also been used in relation to hormesis (see that article), and the fact that it was invented by an endocrinologist suggests he may have had other biological processes in mind too. I expanded the definition in the intro accordingly, but haven't amended the rest of the article. Ben Finn (talk) 08:37, 2 August 2015 (UTC)

Wim Hof
I disagree that the Wim Hof reference to his method is anti-stress. There are numerous cases of people trying the breathing method raising their heart rates, fainting, etc. see for example https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wim_Hof#Controversies. The method is the opposite of calming and relaxing, it is activating. LS (talk) 15:11, 5 April 2019 (UTC)

Source for "Eustress is uncomfortable, but leads to personal growth"
Is there a source for the statement that "Eustress is uncomfortable, but leads to personal growth"? Austona (talk) 13:36, 25 June 2019 (UTC) Austona

Wikipedia Ambassador Program course assignment
This article is the subject of an educational assignment at Davidson College supported by WikiProject Psychology and the Wikipedia Ambassador Program&#32;during the 2012 Q1 term. Further details are available on the course page.

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