Eustress means beneficial stress - either psychological, physical or
biochemical/radiological. The term was coined by endocrinologist
Hans Selye, consisting of the Greek prefix eu- meaning "good", and stress,
literally meaning "good stress". Eustress was originally explored in a
stress model by Richard Lazarus, it is the positive cognitive response to
stress that is healthy, or gives one a feeling of fulfilment or other positive
feelings. Selye created the term as a subgroup of stress to differentiate the
wide variety of stressors and manifestations of stress.
Eustress is not defined by the stressor type, but rather how one perceives that
stressor. Eustress refers to a positive response one has to a stressor, which
can depend on one's current feelings of control, desirability, location, and
timing of the stressor. Potential indicators of eustress may include
responding to a stressor with a sense of meaning, hope, or vigor. Eustress has
also been positively correlated with life satisfaction and well-being.
Definition Eustress occurs when the gap between
what one has and what one wants is slightly pushed, but not overwhelmed.
The goal is not too far out of reach but is still slightly more than one can
handle. This fosters challenge and motivation since the goal is in sight.
The function of challenge is to motivate a person toward improvement and a goal.
Challenge is an opportunity-related emotion that allows people to achieve
unmet goals. Eustress is indicated by hope and active engagement. Eustress has
a significantly positive correlation with life satisfaction and hope.
However, experiencing chronic stress, either in the form of distress or
eustress, is negative. Measurement
Occupational eustress may be measured on subjective levels such as of quality of
life or work life, job pressure, psychological coping resources,
complaints, overall stress level, and mental health. Other subjective
methodological practices have included interviews with focus groups asking
about stressors and stress level. In one study participants were asked to
remember a past stressful event and then answer questionnaires on coping skills,
job well-being, and appraisal of the situation. Common subjective
methodologies were incorporated in a holistic stress model created in 2007 to
acknowledge the importance of eustress, particularly in the workplace. This
model uses hope, positive affect, meaningfulness, and manageability as a
measure of eustress, and negative psychological states, negative affect,
anxiety, and anger as a measure of distress. Objective measures have also
been used and include blood pressure rate, muscle tension, and absenteeism
rates. Further physiological research has looked for neuroendocrine changes as
a result of eustress and distress. Research has shown that catecholamines
change rapidly to pleasurable stimuli. Studies have demonstrated that eustress
and distress produce different responses in the neuroendocrine system,
particularly dependent on the amount of personal control one feels over a
stressor. Compared with distress
Distress is the most commonly referred to type of stress, having negative
implications, whereas eustress is usually related to desirable events in a
person's life. Selye first differentiated the two in an article he
wrote in 1975. In this article Selye argued that persistent stress that is
not resolved through coping or adaptation should be known as distress,
and may lead to anxiety, withdrawal, and depressive behavior. In contrast, if
stress enhances one's functioning it may be considered eustress. Both can be
equally taxing on the body, and are cumulative in nature, depending on a
person's way of adapting to the stressor that caused it. The body itself cannot
physically discern between distress or eustress. Differentiation between the
two is dependent on one's perception of the stress, but it is believed that the
same stressor may cause both eustress and distress. One context that this may
occur in is societal trauma which may cause great distress, but also eustress
in the form of hardiness, coping, and fostering a sense of community. The
Yerkes–Dodson model demonstrates the optimum balance of stress with a bell
curve. This model is supported by research demonstrating emotional-coping
and behavioral-coping strategies are related to changes in perceived stress
level on the Yerkes–Dodson Curve. Occupational
Much of the research on eustress has focused on its presence in the
workplace. In the workplace, stress can often be interpreted as a challenge,
which generally denotes positive eustress, or as a hindrance, which
refers to distress that interferes with one's ability to accomplish a job or
task. Research has focused on increasing
eustress in the workplace, in an effort to promote positive reactions to an
inevitably stressful environment. Companies are interested in learning
more about eustress and its positive effects to increase productivity.
Eustress creates a better environment for employees, which makes them perform
better and cost less. Occupational stress costs the United States somewhere
in between 200 and 300 billion dollars per year. If this were eustress instead
of distress, these companies would retain this money and the U.S. economy
could improve as well. Stress has also been linked to the six leading causes of
death: “disease, accidents, cancer, liver disease, lung ailments, suicide.”
If workers get sick and/or die, there is obviously a cost to the company in sick
time and training new employees. It is better to have productive, happy
employees. Eustress is necessary for achievement. Eustress is related to
well-being and positive attitudes and thus increases work performance.
Techniques such as Stress Management Interventions have been employed to
increase occupational eustress. SMI's often incorporate exercise, meditation,
and relaxation techniques to decrease distress and increase positive
perceptions of stress in the workplace. Rather than decrease stress in the
workplace, SMI techniques attempt to increase eustress with positive
reactions to stressful stimuli. Self-efficacy
Eustress is primarily based on perceptions. It is how you perceive your
given situation and how you perceive your given task. It is not what is
actually happening, but a person’s perception of what is happening.
Eustress is thus related to self-efficacy. Self-efficacy is one’s
judgment of how they can carry out a required task, action or role. Some
contributing factors are a person’s beliefs about the effectiveness about
their options for courses of action and their ability to perform those actions.
If a person has low self-efficacy, they will see the demand as more distressful
than eustressful because the perceived level of what the person has is lower.
When a person has high self-efficacy, they can set goals higher and be
motivated to achieve them. The goal then is to increase self-efficacy and skill
in order to enable people to increase eustress.
Flow When an individual appraises a situation
as stressful, they add the label for distress or eustress to the issue at
hand. If a situation induces eustress, the person may feel motivated and can
experience flow. Positive psychologist, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, created this
concept which is described as the moments when one is completely absorbed
into an enjoyable activity with no awareness of surroundings. Flow is an
extremely productive state in which an individual experiences their prime
performance. The core elements are absorption, enjoyment and intrinsic
motivation. Flow is the “ultimate eustress
experience – the epitome of eustress”. Hargrove, Nelson and Cooper described
eustress as being focused on a challenge, fully present and
exhilarated, which almost exactly mirrors the definition of flow. Flow is
considered a peak experience or “the single most joyous, happiest, most
blissful moment of your life.” Factors
There are several factors that may increase or decrease one’s chances of
experiencing eustress and, through eustress, experiencing flow.
Stress is also influenced by hereditary predispositions and expectations of
society. Thus, a person could already be at a certain advantage or disadvantage
toward experiencing eustress. If a person enjoys experiencing new
things and believes they have importance in the world, they are more likely to
experience flow. Flow is negatively related to
self-directedness, or an extreme sense of autonomy.
Persistence is positively related to flow and closely related to intrinsic
motivation. People with an internal locus of
control, or high levels of self-control, have an increased chance of flow because
they believe they can increase their skill level to match the challenge.
Perfectionism, however, is negatively related to flow. A person downplays
their skill levels therefore making the gap too big, and they perceive the
challenge to be too large to experience flow. On the opposite end of
perfectionism, however, there are increased chances of flow.
Active procrastination is positively related to flow. By actively delaying
work, the person increases the challenge. Then once the challenge is
matched with the person’s high skill levels, the person can experience flow.
Those who passively procrastinate or do not procrastinate do not have these same
experiences. It is only with the purposeful procrastination that a person
is able to increase the challenge. Mindset is a significant factor in
determining distress versus eustress. Optimistic people and those with high
self-esteem contribute to eustress experiences. The positive mindset
increases the chances of eustress and a positive response to stressors.
Currently, the predominant mindset toward stress is that stress is
debilitating. However, mindsets toward stress can be changed.
Examples Eustress is common in the examples
below. However, the examples depend on how an individual perceives the stress.
The examples below are most often perceived as eustress
Meeting or engaging in a challenge Desired physical exercise
Playing sports Watching a suspenseful or scary movie
Riding a roller coaster Competing in a tournament
Gambling See also
Distress, the opposite of eustress. Hans Selye, who founded the theory of
stress. For more general information on stress
visit the American Psychological Association's site here.
References External links
Eustress at Whole Health Stress Management Lecture