The Role of Activity in Anticipating and Confronting Stressful Stuations

Gal, Reuven; Lazarus, Richard S.

doi:10.1080/0097840x.1975.9939548

Cited by 117 publications

(41 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…Indeed, empirical evidence indicates that rather than continuing to experience uncertainty, people find it more reassuring to take some sort of action, even if there is little that can be done (Gal & Lazarus, 1975). Extending this reasoning, we argue that anxiety can initiate behaviors that reestablish a sense of control, address the problem, and/or prevent future issues.…”

Section: H3: Anger Is Positively Associated With Counterproductive Womentioning

confidence: 99%

In the Aftermath of Unfair Events: Understanding the Differential Effects of Anxiety and Anger

Barclay

Kiefer

2017

Journal of Management

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After decades of domination by social exchange theory and its focus on a manager-centered perspective, fairness scholars have recently issued numerous calls to shift attention toward understanding employees’ subjective “lived-through” experiences and in situ responses to unfair events. Using appraisal theories, we argue that focusing on the employee’s perspective highlights the importance of emotions in fairness experiences. Further, this emphasis creates opportunities for novel insights regarding the emotions that are likely to be relevant, the constructive responses that can emerge from unfairness, and the interplay between unfair events and entity fairness judgments. Using a daily diary study with event sampling, we highlight the importance of anger and anxiety in understanding how individuals experience and react to unfair events. Results indicated that anger elicited counterproductive work behaviors, whereas anxiety initiated problem prevention behaviors (i.e., a subdimension of proactive work behavior). Further, by engaging in problem prevention behaviors, employees can positively influence their subsequent overall fairness judgments. Experiences of an unfair event can also be shaped by individuals’ preexisting overall fairness judgments, such that preexisting overall fairness judgments are negatively associated with anger but positively associated with anxiety. Implications for theory and practice are discussed, including the influential role of emotions for fairness experiences, how employees’ own behaviors can influence subsequent overall fairness judgments, the interplay between unfair events and entity judgments, and ensuring that fairness is effectively managed on a daily basis.

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Section: H3: Anger Is Positively Associated With Counterproductive Womentioning

confidence: 99%

In the Aftermath of Unfair Events: Understanding the Differential Effects of Anxiety and Anger

Barclay

Kiefer

2017

Journal of Management

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“…This primarily applies to all forms of stereotyped behavior having a quite definite forecast of results. The role of activity in anticipating and confronting stressful situations was emphasized by Gal and Lazarus (1975) however they do not propose the notion of search activity and do not discriminate search activity from any other forms of subject's activity. On the other hand, panicky behavior at first glance may seem to imitate search behavior but differ from it by the disturbance of the feedback between the outcome of activity and its regulation.…”

Section: Search Activity Concept: An Experi-mental Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…2) According to Dienstbier (1989), naturally evoked peripheral catecholamines never seem to be too high for optimal performance. In addition, when methods of coping were available, even very high arousal levels failed to elicit discomfort and negative emotions (Gal & Lazarus, 1975). Figure 2.…”

Section: Clinical Applications Of the Search Activity Concept: Adaptimentioning

confidence: 99%

Search Activity Concept: Relationship between Behavior, Health and Brain Functions

Rotenberg

2009

Act Nerv Super

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Search activity concept provides a new classification of the behavior which distinguishes search activity (activity in the uncertain situation with the constant feedback between behavior and its outcome), stereotyped behavior with a definite probability forecast, panic (activity without feedback between activity and its outcome) and renunciation of search. Only search activity which includes fight, flight, orienting behavior and creativity raises the body's resistance to stress, to natural and experimentally induced pathology whereas renunciation of search which display itself in freezing, helplessness and depression forms a nonspecific predisposition to somatic disturbances (e.g. psychosomatic diseases). Dreams in REM sleep are regarded as a specific form of search activity aimed at compensating for the lack of search in waking. REM sleep deprivation on a small as well as on rotating platform raises the requirement in REM sleep by frustrating search activity. It is suggested that in wakefulness characterized by the prominent search activity the inhibitory alpha-2-adrenoreceptors became less sensitive to stimulation and consequently in this state the activity of the brain monoamine neurons is less limited by the level of brain monoamines. During renunciation of search brain monoamine synthesis is not stimulated by monoamine exhaustion. In REM sleep the critical level of brain monoamines for search activity to start is lower than in wakefulness and alpha-2-adrenoreceptors are less sensitive than in the state of renunciation of search although more sensitive than during search behavior in waking. REM sleep indirectly contributes to memory consolidation by carrying out its main function -restoration of search activity. A functionally sufficient REM sleep contains search activity in dreams (subject is active in his/her own dream scenario) while in functionally insufficient REM sleep dreams are characterized by subject's passive position and feeling of helplessness. REM sleep insufficiency is an obligate condition for mental and somatic disorders to appear. The difference between normal (adaptive) and pathological (maladaptive) emotional tension is determined by the presence or absence of search activity in the structure of emotional tension. Repression of the unacceptable motive causing neurotic anxiety is a human variant of renunciation of search. Hypochondriac symptoms are in negative relationships with psychosomatic disorders and they, as well as positive symptoms in schizophrenia and anorectic behavior in anorexia nervosa, represent a pathological misdirected search activity.

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“…The question of negative emotional responses to high arousal (b) was addressed in part by Gal and Lazarus (1975), who noted that when methods of coping were available (challenge/threat situations), even very high arousal levels failed to elicit discomfort and negative emotion. Conversely, negative emotional responses occur in high-arousal situations in which active coping methods are not available (harm-loss).…”

Section: Interactions Of Physiological and Psychological Copingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Arousal and physiological toughness: Implications for mental and physical health.

Dienstbier

1989

Psychological Review

801

585

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From W. B. Cannon's identification of adrenaline with "ftght or flight" to modern views of stress, negative views of peripheral physiological arousal predominate. Sympathetic nervous system (SNS) arousal is associated with anxiety, neuroticism, the Type A personality, cardiovascular disease, and immune system suppression; illness susceptibility is associated with life events requiring adjustments. "Stress control" has become almost synonymous with arousal reduction. A contrary positive view of peripheral arousal follows from studies of subjects exposed to intermittent stressors. Such exposure leads to low SNS arousal base rates, but to strong and responsive challenge-or stressinduced SNS-adrenal-medullary arousal, with resistance to brain catecholamine depletion and with suppression of pituitary adrenal-cortical responses. That pattern of arousal defines physiological toughness and, in interaction with psychological coping, corresponds with positive performance in even complex tasks, with emotional stability, and with immune system enhancement. The toughness concept suggests an opposition between effective short-and long-term coping, with implications for effective therapies and stress-inoculating life-styles.Confrontations with stressors and challenges evoke central and peripheral physiological arousal. Characterizations of that peripheral arousal traditionally have been negative, but some modern views are more positive. After providing some definitions, I discuss the apparent contradictions between literatures whose basis is an assumption of the harmfulness of peripheral physiological arousal and those whose basis is not. DefinitionsAccording to Folkman and Lazarus (1985), the term stress implies "a relationship between the person and the environment that is appraised by the person as relevant to his or her well-being and in which the person's resources are taxed or exceeded" (p. 152). As components of stress, Folkman and Lazarus described threat as "potential for harm or loss," challenge as "potential for growth," and harm-loss as "injury already done" (p. 152). However, because I often emphasize the differences between challenge, on the one hand, and threat and loss, on the other, I use the term challenge separately, using stress to capture only the components of the concept associated with threat and harm/loss.

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The Role of Activity in Anticipating and Confronting Stressful Stuations

Cited by 117 publications

References 42 publications

In the Aftermath of Unfair Events: Understanding the Differential Effects of Anxiety and Anger

In the Aftermath of Unfair Events: Understanding the Differential Effects of Anxiety and Anger

Search Activity Concept: Relationship between Behavior, Health and Brain Functions

Arousal and physiological toughness: Implications for mental and physical health.

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