The General Adaptation Syndrome
Dr. Hans H.B. Selye, MD did a lot of the ground-breaking studies of stress. Dr. Selye described a three-stage response to stress which he called the General Adaptation Syndrome, or GAS for short.(1) Its stages are: Alarm, Adaptation, and Exhaustion.
ALARM — This is the initial reaction to the stressor. Both the SAM System and the HPA Axis are activated so that the mind can focus on the stressor and the body move and do the work needed to deal with the stressor.
ADAPTATION — During this phase, the mind and body make adaptations to deal with the stressor and work towards returning the body to its normal state, to homeostasis. If the stressor is a ringing fire bell, your initial alarm reaction will get you ready to get out of the building quickly. An announcement that it is only a test of the system will calm you down, even though the bell keeps ringing. The continued bell ringing is no longer an urgent alarm, just an annoying sound. You have almost returned to normal. I say “almost” because you still have to deal with that annoying sound. You have calmed down and are no longer alarmed. That is adaptation.
EXHAUSTION — If the stress hormones keep circulating for a long time, harmful effects set in ranging from an upset stomach to heart problems or worse. Burnout is also known as Selye’s syndrome since all the damage from burnout is a result of the prolonged exposure to stress hormones.
Hans Selye also identified that a stress could be the result of positive events, such as a surprise party or a wedding, or of negative events, such as a death in the family or being fired. He called the positive stress eustress and the negative stress distress.
As with most physiological and psychological processes, our response to stress and how we cope with stress is more complicated than the simplified process I’ve outlined. It is a reasonable description for limited-time physical stressors such as an animal chasing you or getting out of a burning building or having to fight an attacker.
And then there are the complications of psychological stressors and of our psychological response to both physical and psychological stressors.
Coping
Our personal meaning about what is happening is crucial to how we respond to stress and what our reactions will be.
Dr. Richard S. Lazarus did a great deal of research into and work with the psychological aspects of stress. This section outlines his findings. Dr. Lazarus raised a very strong point about the importance of our awareness of what’s going on — our appraisal of the stressor’s threat — to the impact stressors have on us.
. . . there is also an old study by Symington et al. (1955), which suggests that unconsciousness eliminates the adrenal effects of physical stressors. As long as patients remained unconscious while they were dying of injury or disease, they showed a normal adrenal cortical level — that is, as assessed during autopsy, their corticosteroids were not elevated. In contrast, those who were conscious during the death process, and were presumably aware of what was happening, showed elevated adrenal cortical changes. It would seem, therefore, that some psychological awareness — akin to a conscious perception or appraisal — of the psychological significance of what is happening may be necessary to produce the adrenal cortical changes of the GAS.(2) [emphasis added]
The implications of this are huge. Obviously, the people who were unconscious could not have had a psychological response to the stresses of dying. It may very well be that physiologically, their bodies had adapted to the stresses so that adrenaline and noradrenaline weren’t being released, and the amount of cortisol that was being released wasn’t enough to show up in significant levels in the bloodstream. This particular puzzle is another one for the many highly qualified experts to sort out.
Nevertheless, it is still a key finding that our personal meaning about what is happening is crucial to how we respond to stress and what our reactions will be. We all know that major life changes and major events are stressful. A parent or child dying is highly stressful. Being in a car accident is highly stressful, and so is dealing with all the insurance adjusters and lawyers. We can understand that the car crash itself is bound to get both your SAM System and HPA Axis in high gear. Any medical operation will be stressful. Going to trial is stressful. Yet, we tend to overlook the chronic stress that is caused by filling out all those forms — again — and having to retell what happened — again — and having to disrupt your regular routine and go visit your doctor — again — and make sure that your lawyer gets a copy of the doctor’s report — again. We may dismiss each incident as merely irritating, and it’s not until we snap at our children or slam a door that we realize that our stress levels are higher than we had thought.
Dr. Lazarus identified the following factors form part of our appraisal process and affect our appraisal.
Environmental Variables of Appraisal
- Demands
We face many different types of demands. At work, for example, there are demands to work harder, to take on extra work, to work overtime. Most will put in the extra effort, take on that extra work and work overtime to avoid being passed over for promotion or to avoid being laid off. Their personal life and other personal goals are put in direct conflict with work demands. If long hours are expected as part of the way to get ahead, long hours will be put in, and their personal life and other goals will take second place to the work demands
We face social pressures to conform to social conventions, that is, to act in certain ways and to display socially correct attitudes. We also have our own demands to meet — to succeed, to be kind, to take care of our children. When a social demand or and internal demand conflicts with one of our goals, it can be difficult to sort out whether a demand is truly our own or whether it’s just what we think is expected of us.
- Constraints
These are the social demands about what we should not do, usually backed up with some form of punishment for breaking a constraint. Fundamental social constraints are found in our criminal and civil law. If you cause a car accident, not only will you face a civil law suit for causing the accident, you may also face criminal charges if you were driving while impaired, or if you drove recklessly.
- Opportunities
Taking advantage of opportunities means doing the right thing at the right time. You may not be certain that this is the opportunity you’ve been looking for, or that you have the qualifications and resources to take advantage of it. Planning for opportunities helps reduce stress. For example, knowing that you meet any educational or technical qualifications will remove part of the uncertainty.
- Culture
Departing from a cultural norm or value causes stress for the person. The degree of stress depends on how that person appraises or interprets the variation. Culture is a complex phenomenon. How each person understands the cultural norms they are supposed to follow is important because they will experience stress not only when they don’t follow the cultural norms, but also when they feel compelled to follow a social norm that they don’t agree with.
Culture is a set of social paradigms. As Drs. Geert and Gert Hofstede put it, “Culture consists of the unwritten rules of the social game.”(3) These unwritten rules deal with social relations, how we relate to other people and how we, as people, relate to the world (for example, how we understand time).
Personal Variables of Appraisal
- Goals and Goal Hierarchies
Events are appraised as stressful on the basis of whether they will help or hurt the person’s goal and how important that goal is to the person.
- Beliefs About Self and the World
When we assess whether we will be able to cope with the situation, how we see ourselves and how we see ourselves in the world are a significant factor.
- Personal Resources
Personal resources include tangibles such as how much money we have, what kind of home we have, the kind of car we drive, etc. Also included are intangibles and personal attributes such as how intelligent we are, how resilient we are, our social skills, whether our family and friends are supportive, how healthy we are, how energetic we are, etc. These are part of our assessment of whether we will be able to cope with the situation.
As you can see from this brief description, appraisal is a complex process. It is the appraisal process that effectively tells us what our chances of dealing with the stressor are. It’s important that the information that goes into the appraisal is realistic, that it isn’t skewed — or skewered — by our emotional memories of previous experiences. This is where Checking It Out with a friend or a counsellor helps.
Notes
- Hans H.B. Selye, M.D., Ph.D., D.Sc. (1907-1982) is known as “the father of stress” in recognition of his pioneering work studying the mechanisms and effects of stress. He first described the General Adaptation Response in a 1936 article, “A Syndrome Produced by Diverse Nocuous Agents” (1936) 138 Nature 32 which can be found at http://adaptometry.narod.ru/Selye1stPaper.pdf and https://doi/10.1176/jnp.10.2.230a (accessed January 5, 2021). He is also known for his landmark book, The Stress of Life (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1956). He began his career in 1932 at McGill University, was the Director of the Institute of Experimental Medicine and Surgery at the Université de Montreal from 1945-1976, and was a co-founder of the Canadian Institute of Stress, www.stresscanada.org.
- Richard S. Lazarus, Ph.D., Stress and Emotion: A New Synthesis (New York: Springer Publishing Company, Inc., 1999), pp. 47-48. (on amazon.com at https://amzn.to/3bhkMHT).
- Geert Hofstede and Gert Jan Hofstede, Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2005), p. 4 (on amazon.com at https://amzn.to/3rZeaDF).
