Origins of Stress Among Police Officers Research
Stress accompanies every-day life of police officers. To cope with it one should first know its definition and distinguish different types of this phenomenon.
Notion of Stress
Stress refers to the response of our body and mind to external stressors that we come across (Stevens, 2008). External stressors can appear in form of physical, chemical, emotional or environmental changes. Meanwhile a response is an internal reaction of the organism. According to Benson (1992), this reaction is automatic and physiological and requires some modifications in person’s demeanor. Thus, external factors cause a person to go out of his/her habitual state and adapt to new circumstances.
Positive and negative stress
Depending on the reasons resulting into stress and its consequences scholars distinguish good stress (eustress) and bad stress (distress). On one hand, the former one provides an individual with motivation that influences his/her performance. For instance, during various sport competitions athletes are put under a lot of stress. However, it makes them do their best and increases efficiency of their attempts. It is worth mentioning that stress should not exceed certain level to bring out the best performance out of a person. Otherwise, it can decrease productivity and impact one’s health or result.
On the other hand, distress is caused by excessive demands leading to either physical or mental damages (Stevens, 2008). So bad stress does harm to an individual’s body or mind and can even induce diseases. Consequently negative stressors should be avoided or successfully dealt with. Witnessing of a hit-and-run car accident can serve as an example of distress because it may so affect the witness that he/she would have panic attacks remembering that scene.
Conclusion
Stress is an internal reaction to external activities. Eustress and distress illustrate that while always being present in daily life stress can contribute to success or hinder it.
Books
Benson, H. and Stuart, E. (1992). Wellness book: The comprehensive guide to maintaining health and treating stress related illness. New York: Simon&Schuster.
Stevens, D. J. (2008). Police officer stress. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Education, p. …
