Confusion and controversy in the stress field

Potency: a stress-buffering link in the coping-stress-disease relationship

A study carried out among a representative sample of Israeli adults was aimed at elucidating the factors which facilitate maintaining an individual's emotional homeostasis despite occasional failures in initially coping with stressors due to resource inadequacy. A feeling of potency, comprising confidence both in one's own capacities and in society which is perceived as basically ordered, predictable and meaningful, has been suggested as a stress-buffering intervening mechanism in the coping-stress-disease relationship. Data support the hypothesis that potency fulfils a tension-bounding function by weakening the association among the components of the coping-stress-health relationship, thus moderating the deleterious effect of occasional failures in coping on homeostasis and health. Data further alluded to potency being enhanced both by accumulation of successful coping experiences, and by social support.

Working conditions and health: social epidemiology, patterns of stress and change

This paper does not attempt to review stress research but to highlight contrary positions. Arguments about central questions such as exposure vs disposition, social factors vs the constitutional make-up has lead to refinements in methodology. However, investigations seldom do justice to these ideals discussed. It should be a conditio sine qua non when estimating the effects of dispositional factors to consider exposure which could change dispositions or interact with them. Also it becomes obvious that when investigating working life a limited view of risks factors only must faile because job latitudes and support are of salient importance. Concerning changes in working life our methodological flights of fancy are confronted with the limited horizon and world of a mole.

Occupational stress: review and reappraisal

This article presents an overview of the topic of occupational stress. Although its framework is somewhat conceptual, the article is intended to alert researchers to the practical considerations relevant to this topic. The authors attempt to arrive at a workable definition of stress, and then proceed to review the literature in this area, focusing on the measurement, sources, and management of stress, as well as the relationship between stress and coronary heart disease. Concepts related to stress (mental load, fatigue, and arousal) are defined and differentiated. Throughout, the effects of individual attributes are emphasized, as are the implications of investigating stress in the laboratory as opposed to the work environment.

Geophagia in response to stress and arthritis

Geophagia, the consumption of nonnutritive dirt, has previously been shown to be increased when rats have been made acutely ill. The present paper reports two experiments in which geophagia in response to stress and arthritis was measured. In the first experiment, experimental rats were injected with Freund's Complete Adjuvant (FCA), a mineral oil suspension of killed Mycobacterium butyricum. They ate significantly more kaolin (a nonnutritive substance) than controls, suggesting that geophagia is a behavioral measure of illness. In a second study, kaolin consumption was similarly elevated in stressed and/or arthritic animals as well as in control rats living in the same room. Nonstressed controls housed in a remote room ate significantly less kaolin than rats in all other groups. It was concluded that geophagia may occur in response to any homeostatic alteration (stress state). Furthermore, this state can presumably be communicated to naive rats from adjacently-housed stressed animals. Geophagia was postulated to occur in animals who experience a generalized stress reponse since this state may involve gastro-intestinal malaise.