Article Critique:
“How Some Stress Can Actually Be Good for You”
Kathy Oh Tiangco
Westcoast University—Ontario
Psychology 160
Dr. Muldong
13 December 2018
Abstract
The article being critiqued is from TIME magazine, titled, “How Some Stress Can Actually Be Good for You”, by Elaine Selna. The author quotes various professors from different universities that talk about how stress can be beneficial for individuals in moderate, small dosage. Academic journal articles that were peer reviewed will be used to contradict or support the view of “How Some Stress Can Actually Be Good for You”. I have read three different journal articles where one talks about the benefits of stress and category learning performance, another talks about physiological benefits associated with stress, and how eustress is promoted during though times in nursing students and how it helps build and promote relationships. I will attempt to see if the article by TIME magazine is legitimate in what it is stating or see if the article is a misinformation. I will present my stand for the article through my own personal experience and dive further in with the evidences I have found through my research. I will conclude my critique at the end with my thought on what I have discovered through my readings.
Summary of My Article
The article from TIME magazine, titled, “How Some Stress Can Actually Be Good for You” where the author, Elaine Selna, quotes various professors from different universities to talk about how stress can be beneficial for individuals in moderate, small dosage. One of the professors that was quoted, Kathleen Gunthert, professor of psychology at the American University, gives us an insight to ‘eustress’ which is good stress, and how it gives us the push to make it throughout daily lives, school, and professional lives. She states that it is a motivator that kicks us into gear to get things done; she refers to this motivator as our fight or flight response. Professor Gunthert also dives into how stress can build relationships and promote bonding. She states that by talking about your stress, problems, situations with another can promote physical and psychological health. Another processor that was quoted by Selna, Peter Vitalino, states that managed stress helps people to problem-solve and build skills and confidence in individuals. He states that eustress give individual not only confidence to feel less threatened in stressful situations, but resilience.
Evidence and Critical Evaluation
My Personal Experiences That Helped Me Critique This Article
While reading, “How Some Stress Can Actually Be Good for You” I agreed with many of the points that the author has identified. I believe that without stress, I would not be able to push through my day-to-day life. I do feel the slight elevated stress helps me to stay motivated and makes me feel the need to get tasks completed. If I was completely relaxed with nothing to give me a jump-start, I would not be productive at all. I probably would have lounge around all day and have no urgency to get to work on time, or finish to meet deadlines. Many of the scenarios written by Selna, helped me remember my personal experiences with the stress and how it helped me.
I am a true definition of an introvert. The small amount of stress gives me the confidence to face new patients at my workplace and be able to confidently get through each patient giving them the customer/patient care that they need. When I am stuck in a position where I have to deal with a customer/patient complaint, or being talked to about a mistake at work, the slight elevation puts me into fight or flight mode which allows me to comprehend the situation and helps me clear my head to problem solve accordingly to what is happening. The small dose of stress also aids me to make it past other tough circumstances and give me the confidence to deal with the problem. The stress also helps me get through school and meet my deadlines for assignments. The stress of wanting to provide for my family and the future financial stability also assisted me to enroll back into school to pursue a nursing degree. I believe that if stress was completely out of the picture, I would not have been able to achieve the things I have achieved and get life tasks done to get to where I am now.
In the article, the author mentions that small amounts of stress increase resilience and confidence (Selna 2018). Selna said that people feel less threatened in situation and feel more confident to pull through certain circumstances through eustress. Professor Kathleen Gunthert from American University states, “The things that we are most proud of and bring the most meaning in our lives are hard. If we wipe out the stress, we’d also likely wipe away a lot of the meaning in our lives.” (Selna 2018). I agree with this statement because when I look back at my proudest moments, I don’t think I would have make it through without the stress kicking me in the behind to get me to get things done, to prioritize my life, telling me that the struggle is just momentary, and that at the end of the struggle there is a self-reward waiting for me. I like how the author mentions that with “moderate levels of daily, manageable stress – can have positive effects.” (Selna 2018). She quotes professor Gunthert, “We have all had the experience saying. ‘Oh! I’ve got to get such and such done’ but not being able to find the motivation to do it until we are stressed because it is due the next day and all of a sudden the motivation is there.” (Selna 2019). She states that is our fight or flight response kicking in to get us to stay motivated. The author also depicts about how the small dosage of stress can help boost immune system, that it may help us protect again oxidative damages. I agree with the author in many of the statements that she makes and I have listed my evidence backing my thought on the article and why I agree with the author below.
When bad stress goes good: increased threat reactivity predicts improved category learning performance
In this academic journal article by Shawn E Ell, Brandon Cosley, and Shannon K. McCoy, they examine the link to stress in relation to improved learning performance. The authors talk about two different stressors known as adaptive (considering a stressor as a challenge), and maladaptive (considering a stressor as a threat) (Ell et al. 2010). Throughout my article critique I’ll be using eustress and distress (except for this section of the evidence). In this article, the authors focus on the adaptive stressor and the benefits to cognitive performance in their experiment. They go on to explain how “performance situations in which we are evaluated by others in a domain of personal importance, and are motivated to do well, elicit a physiological and psychological stress response.” (Ell et al. 2010). The surprising part of their research was that they discovered that maladaptive threat response also enhanced cognitive performance. The last part was not a focus of my article but I still found it interesting that even some good can come out of maladaptive stress.
Stress and Eustress in Nursing Students
In the article written by Chris Gibbons, Martin Dempster, Marianne Moutray titled, “Stress and Eustress in Nursing Student,” eustress in nursing students are describes in several different ways. The authors talk about how intense the nursing program is and how it can turn into distress when not managed well, but there are many factors to nursing school that can turn these stressful environments into eustress. One factor is having the support group throughout the school and through your fellow nursing peers. Of course, every school differs in the support that is provided, however it is mentioned with useful support, it promotes eustress in these students. Peer support is another important factor in the article that stimulates eustress in the students studied. “Students drew on each other’s understanding with assignments, in sharing clinical experiences, for friendship and laughter.”(Gibbons et al. 2008). The article also states the coping mechanisms shared amongst senior students to junior students also helps alleviate the distress by turning it into eustress. Just like how it was said in the TIME Magazine article by Kathleen Gunthert, eustress can promote bonding through support groups and strengthen relationships with friends and family. Gibbons and associates also said that eustress comes from the hands-on learning of patient-care; it gives the students a positive perspective on their program and allows the students to do something they enjoy.
Effects of stress on immune function: the good, the bad, and the beautiful
In this article by Firdaus S. Dhabhar (2014), Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Institute for Immunity, Transplantation, and Infection, Neurosciences Institute, Cancer Institute, Stanford University, focuses on stress in association with our immunoprotective (wound healing, vaccination, anti-infectious agent, anti-tumor) and/or immune-pathological (pro-inflammatory, autoimmune) responses. Dhabhar (2014) mentions that short-term means lasting for minutes to hours, stress experienced during immune activation enhances innate/primary and adaptive/secondary immune responses. The author states that prolonged stress that is not managed can cause immune dysregulation, but like the other authors, states that short-term, managed stress can boost the immune system and promote survival during fight or flight. The author has a couple diagrams modeling the short-term and long-term stress with its immune response end effects and potential health outcomes. In short-term stress, Immuno-protection increases and the benefits include efficacy of vaccination and wound healing, along with resistance to infection and cancer (Dhabhar 2014). In another diagram, Dhabhar models that along with good stress (short-term), an individual should also incorporate a resting zone, with includes lifestyle factors such as sleep, nutrition, and exercise. In the resting zone, it also includes a psychosocial buffer, which contains coping, social support, and compassion (Dhabhar 2014), like Gunthert has mentioned in her article. By optimizing “good” stress and maximizing resting zone, the author states that it increases protective immunity, increases cognitive functions like Ell et al. has mentioned, increase physical performance, and also increase health.
Conclusion
Stress is everywhere. Stress whether it be short-term, long-term, managed, or not, stress is inevitable in our daily lives. In the article, it talks about how small amount of stress can enhance motivation, build resilience, encourage growth in a person and promote bonding. Overall, I agree with the author because I perform better under stress at work, at school, and even at home. For me the stress gives me a little push to clean my room, do my chores, and keep my house/room looking clean and organized. When I am at school with a deadline or a test coming up, the stress gives me to motivation and the alertness to get my study on. At work, it gives me the confidence to pace the different personalities of patients and co-workers I work with and helps me to stay alert throughout my shift. Not only is my personal experience being my own testament to my opinion to this article, but the researches also support my stand. The three articles all states the positives effects of eustress. It helps with promoting healthy work/school relationships, building support groups, giving the push to pull through the day by using fight or flight responses, improves cognitive learning, and can boost our immune system.
References
Dhabhar, F. S. (2014). Effects of stress on immune function: The good, the bad, and the beautiful. Immunologic Research, 58(2-3), 193-210. doi:http://dx.doi.org.westcoastuniversity.idm.oclc.org/10.1007/s12026-014-8517-0
Ell, S., Cosley, B., & McCoy, S. (2011). When bad stress goes good: increased threat reactivity predicts improved category learning performance. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 18(1), 96–102. https://doi-org.westcoastuniversity.idm.oclc.org/10.3758/s13423-010-0018-0
Gibbons, C., Dempster, M., and Moutray, M. (2008), Stress and eustress in nursing students. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 61: 282-290. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2648.2007.04497.x
Selna, E. (2018, November 20). How Some Stress Can Be Good For You, According to Experts. Retrieved November 28, 2018, from http://time.com/5434826/stress-good-health/