Strategy and Methods of Managing Stress Resistance in School Principals - Research Paper Example

Scholars in the social sciences have long been interested in the way that stress invades the lives of everyday people. The actual word ‘stress’ is derived from the Latin “stringer, which means to draw tight. Selye (1974) was a medical student who became one of the most renowned scholars in the area of modern stress theory. He began his research by conducting experiments with rats and found that their reaction to various situations was quite similar to human reaction (Selye, 1974).

In one experiment, the reactions exhibited by the rats included bleeding ulcers and the activation of the entire lymphatic system. He ended up termine these particular reactions as ‘stress’. Stress can further be defined as a nonspecific response that the body has to most any demand that is placed upon it (Selye, 1974). This basically means that stress can cause the body to respond in an abnormal manner when any such demand is placed upon it. Make (2006) did agree with Selye in this regard, but he also worked to create an awareness that stress mirrors numerous body compensations.

Among these are included responses, conditions, and experiences. In other words, as the body experiences these various conditions that bring on stress, and it attempts to respond in kind, the body gradually learns how to react in those specific stress situations. During the initial encounter, the body can often manage the stress appropriately, but at some point, research indicates that a breaking point may be reached whereby the stress simply becomes too much to handle. In addition, Style discovered that stress does have a direct effect on the body.

Associate with the physiological part of the body, four common themes have arisen. These in the reality that stress is a state or condition of being, stress invokes peculiar changes to the body, stress is caused by a variety and change agent, and stress does affect the entire body. He also notes three stages of adaption, labeling the theory the General Adaption Syndrome.