Predicting the content

Trying to predict what information will be in a text before you read is a good habit. It motivates you to read the text carefully to find out if your predictions were correct.

Read the following situations (described in the text) and predict how the questions that accompany them will be answered in the text. Compare your answers in groups.

1. Imagine two young lawyers who are told on a Friday that they have only the week­end to prepare a report on a complex case. Their chances of promotion may depend on how well they do. One feels threatened and fears that she might fail. The other feels challenged and excited at the opportunity of proving her worth. Which lawyer do you think prepares a better report?

A the lawyer who feels threatened and anxious

B the lawyer who feels challenged and excited

2. Two rats are given exactly the same amount of electric shock. One rat is able to turn off the shock; the other can only be passive and must wait for the shock to stop. Which rat do you think has a worse physical reaction to the shock?

A the rat that could turn off the electricity

В the rat that was passive

3. Two rats are given exactly the same amount of electric shock. However, one rat hears a buzzer ten seconds before each shock, the other hears nothing. Which rat do you think has a worse physical reaction to the electric shock?

А the rat who heard the buzzer before the shock

В the rat who got no warning that the shock was coming

4. Sometimes the death of a loved one is expected, as after a long illness. In other cases it comes without warning. Which do you think is usually easier to cope with?

А the expected death of a loved one

В the sudden death of a loved one

5. Usually professors tell you when they are going to give a test or a quiz. It is sched­uled for a particular day. But sometimes professors come into class and give sur­prise quizzes. Which do you think most students prefer?

А scheduled quizzes

В surprise quizzes

Coping With Stress

It is Friday evening and two young lawyers get phone calls at home. The trial date for an important case has been moved up. Both of the lawyers will now have to prepare a reportfor the case by Monday morning. It is a threatening situation for both. Each must do extensive research and write a complex document of some forty pages all in a single weekend. Furthermore, each knows that her work will be evaluated by the firm's partners, and how well she does may greatly influence her future in the firm. One of the lawyers finds the situation extremely stressful; she feels tremendous anxiety, experiences headaches and stomach upsets, and has difficulty working. She somehow manages to produce a report, but she is not at all happy with it. The other lawyer, although she too feels the pressure of the situation, sees it not so much as a threat but as a challenge - an opportunity to show how good she is. She moves into the firm's offices for the weekend and, sleeping only three hours a night, completes a brilliant report with a clear mind and a surge of energy.

As this example helps illustrate, stress is caused not so much by events themselves as by the ways in which people perceive and react to events. As the Greek philosopher Epicetus declared almost 2,000 years ago, "Weare not disturbed by things, but our opinions about things." To cope with stress effectively, we often need to redefine the situation from one of threat to one of challenge or opportunity.

Degree of Control.

An important influence on people's ability to cope with stressful situa­tions is the degree of control they feel they can exercise over the situation. Both animals and humans have been found to cope better with painful or threatening stimuli when they feel that they can exercise some degree of control rather than being passive and helpless victims (Thompson, 1981). Such a sense of control can help minimize the negative conse­quences of stress, both psychological and physical. In one well-known experiment, Jay Weiss (1972) administered electric shocks to pairs of rats. In each pair, one of the two animals was given a degree of control over the situation; it could reach through a hole in the cage and press a panel that would turn off the shock both for itself and for its partner. Thus, the two rats received exactly the same number of shocks, but one was pas­sive and helpless, and the other was in control. After a continuous 21-hour session, the animals were sacrificed and their stomachs examined for ulcers. Those rats who could exert control had much less ulceration than their helpless partners.

The ability to control painful stimuli often benefits humans, too. For example, the loud music coming from your stereo is probably not stress­ful; in fact, it's quite enjoyable. But the same music coming from the place next door can be terribly irritating and stressful. Merely knowing that one can control a noise makes it less bothersome. That's one reason why yourblaring stereo dote not bother you - you know you can alwaysturn it off.

Predictability.

Even when you cannot control them unpleasant events tend to be less stressful if they are predictable - if you at least know when they will occur. This was demonstrated by Weiss (1972) in another study with rats.

One group of rats heard a buzzer about ten seconds before they would receive a shock; although the animals could not escape the shock, at least they had a chance to prepare themselves for the expected pain. A second group of rats received no such warnings; the shocks came unpredictably. Weiss found that the rats who were forewarned of the shocks developed fewer ulcers than the rats who were not forewarned. This finding, too, has parallels in human life. The death of a loved one, for example, is usually less traumatic when it is anticipated than when it is unexpected. On a less tragic level, many students find surprise quizzes to be more upset­ting than scheduled quizzes that they can prepare for.

Personality Factors.

Are some people generally better than others at coping with stress? Recent research suggests that the answer is yes - that there is a certain land of person who has a relatively stress-resistant personality*. Suzanne Kobasa (1982) has found that people who cope well with stress tend to be "committed" to what they are doing (rather than alienated), to feel in control (rather than powerless), and to welcome moderate amounts of
change and challenge. In studies of people facing stressful situations, Kobasa and her associates have found that those with stress-resistant personalities - that is, those who are high in commitment, control, and challenge - experience fewer physical illnesses than those whose personalities are less hardy.

Until recently it was generally believed that to maintain good health people should strive to avoid stressors in their lives. Sucha strategy can be quite limiting, however. The desire to avoid stress may also lead peo­ple to avoid potentially beneficial changes in their lives, such as job changes or promotions. Moreover, the attempt to avoid stress is often unrealistic. How, for example, can a person avoid such shocks as a parent's death? In fact, if people do not confront a certain amount of stress in their lives, they will end up being bored and unstimulated, which can also be physically harmful. In the last analysis, each person needs to come to terms with stress in his or her own way, sometimes trying to avoid it, but sometimes accepting it or even seeking it out as a challenge so to be mastered.

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