Coping with Stress

Jobs often are exhausting, whether the work involves ditch digging, child care, public school teaching, computer programming, carpentry, or surgery.  Perseverance in the face of those stressful circumstances demands an intensity that psychologists called “regulatory effort” designed to minimize “resource depletion.”  The fancy jargon makes little difference to a person—layperson or psychologist—who is being depleted.  But psychologists have used the jargon-infused concepts to achieve insights that can be applied to help all of us better cope with job strain.  I will review one such insight.

Klaus-Helmut Schmidt  and his colleagues (2016) wondered whether and how physical fitness might fortify us against stress.  To find out, they evaluated 819 German employees who sold financial products and who also provided customer service.  The participants worked an average of 40 hours per week with a range of 10 to 65 hours.  Results showed:  First, the physically fit had healthier blood glucose levels that helped bolster their recovery from stressful events.  Second, the fit were psychologically more resilient as well—less emotionally overwhelmed.  And third, self-control was found to be a personality trait such that those higher in trait self-control demonstrated more efficient and effective ability to plan, coordinate, and monitor their self-control efforts that did those with low trait self-control.

Studies such as Schmidt’s sharply underscore the interrelationship between the components of our physical and mental selves.  Since glucose fuels both body and mind, adequate glucose certainly is necessary for both physical and mental action.  But stress is not purely physical, so adequate glucose is not enough. 

Certain personality constituents enable us to resist stressors and to recuperate from the stressors that do penetrate our defenses.  The constituents are: positive interpersonal relationships, effective problem solving skills, avoiding catastrophizing thoughts, finding reasons to be grateful, and learning to challenge negativistic beliefs (Fletcher & Sarkar, 2013).

Every day we all endure physical and mental stress.  Accordingly, we all must act daily to counter stressors by improving our physical and mental conditioning.  We either improve or deteriorate over time; there truly is no middle ground.  When we speak about health, doing nothing enables deterioration. 

References: 

Fletcher, D. & Sarkar, M. (2013).  Psychological Resilience: A Review and Critique of Definitions, Concepts, and Theory.  European Psychologist, 18, 1, 12-23.

Schmidt, K., Beck, R., Rivkin, W. & Diestel, S. (2016).  Self-Control Demands at Work and Psychological Strain: The Moderating Role of Physical Fitness.  International Journal of Stress Management. No Pagination Specified.  doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/str0000012.