CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
This chapter discusses the related literature of
this paperwork, about the definition of stress, facts that human beings never suffer
from stress, and facts that stress is just a word.
2.1
What is Stress
Stress is something that actually
exists, and always happened to everyone, also happened to freshmen.
Meanwhile, while scientists argued
about what stress really was, members of the general public began to use the
term in a variety of ways. Some people in this world defined stress as having
too many pressures, responsibilities, or demands in their lives. Some other
people in this world used the term to refer to internal states, such as feeling
tense, nervous, tired, or exhausted, or considered stress to be the inability
to concentrate or focus mentally. Some people in this world used the term to
refer to any negative mood or emotion, such as anger, frustration, guilt, or
anxiety, or to a host of stress-related physical problems, such as headaches,
muscle tension, sleep disturbances, and high blood pressure. (Orman,1991)
Stress is a psycho-physiologic
arousal response occurring in the body as a result of a stimulus which becomes
a "stressor" by virtue of the cognitive interpretation of the
individual. (Orman,1991)
Orman stated that no one can live
without experiencing some degree of stress all the time. You may think that
only serious disease or intensive physical or mental injury can cause stress.
This is false. Crossing a busy intersection, exposure to a draft, or even sheer
joy are enough to activate the body's stress-mechanism to some extent. Stress
is not even necessarily bad for you; it is also the spice of life, for any
emotion, any activity causes stress.
Based from that, someone’s body
will react if that person experiences stress.
2.2 Human Beings Never Suffer from Stress
However,
freshmen are human beings too, so freshmen actually experience stress while
they still live and interact with other people. Problems that caused stress always
exists.
Each of these problems is highly
specific. Despite this, each is generally referred to by the same general term:
"stress." Also, all of the problems listed above can be divided into
two major sub- groups:
1. Problems that occur outside our
bodies (such as traffic jams, family problems, financial problems, and noisy
neighbors);
2. Problems that occur inside our
bodies (feeling nervous, feeling angry, tense muscles, and upset stomach).
Thus, "stress" is a word
that stands for problems and conflicts that occur either outside or inside our
bodies.
Many experts endorse the original
definition proposed by Hans Selye in 1926: Stress is the non-specific response
of the body to any demand placed upon it.
No one can live without
experiencing some degree of stress all the time. You may think that only
serious disease or intensive physical or mental injury can cause stress. This
is false. Crossing a busy intersection, exposure to a draft, or even sheer joy
are enough to activate the body's stress-mechanism to some extent. Stress is
not even necessarily bad for you; it is also the spice of life, for any
emotion, any activity causes stress. (Orman,1991:7)
2.3. Stress is Just
A Word
While the same could be said about
any term in the English language (or any other language), there are several
important advantages to thinking of stress in this way. One advantage is that
this definition will remind you that stress does not exist. It also can remind
you that it is not really possible to cope or deal with your stress directly.
These two points are intimately
connected. The reason neither you, nor I, nor anyone else can cope with stress
directly is because stress does not
truly exist in the world. It is not some "thing" that occurs in space
or time or that "afflicts" us like a disease. It is merely a word
that we use--an abstract linguistic device--that stands for hundreds of
specific problems and difficulties which do really exist and which trouble us
from time to time. (Orman,1991)
Stress
= Problems In Our Lives
Why do I say that stress is just a
word? I do so because that's what it is--an abstract concept that has no real
existence outside of human language. Selye himself admitted this point. In The
Stress Of Life (1956), he acknowledged that stress is an abstraction, but that
it is necessary to have some operational definition in order to study it
scientifically: If we are to use this
concept in a strictly scientific manner, it is important to keep in mind that
stress is an abstraction; it has no independent existence. (Selve,1956:43)
Stress = Problems Inside And Outside Our Body
Whenever I conduct a seminar or
workshop on this subject, I start by asking participants to name some of the
problems they are having whenever they say they are suffering from
"stress."
(Orman,1991)