Anthropological Look at Stress

Stress: Public Opinion

Looking at how the individual views stress under the

Westernized medical system

Rochelle C. C.

SUNY Plattsburgh

ABSTRACT

This research is focused on identifying how people define stress. Stress, in Westernized medicine, has been defined as a result of emotional imbalance which could cause some harm to the individual. People have different opinions on stress and therefore there cannot be simply one definition for it.

This paper addresses some of these questions:-

i. Do different factors (gender, age, etc.) affect stress levels?

ii. How does American society define stress?

iii. What opinions do people have on the Western medical system?

iv. Do males and females have different methods of coping with stress?

Stress is very common in modern life and different groups have their respective ways of dealing with it. This paper looks at scholarly works on stress and people’s opinion, opinions of an experimental group, and interpretations about the data.

INTRODUCTION

At some point in life all people have experienced stress. Many of us have said, “this is stressing me out” or “I really feel stressed” or “I have too much stress” but what does it mean? The term stress is used so frequently in American’s everyday language and, most times, is interpreted differently. Stress is a very common issue in our society with various meanings.

Stress, in medical terms, is some physiological response to some strong external conflict. This conflict can be physiological, psychological or both. Everyone experiences stress to some degree and often the symptoms are different from one individual to another. The medical world sees stress as normal; however, when stress exceeds normal degrees it can be problematic. Such examples would be those that suffer with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and chronic stress.

Time management seems to be a contributor to how much stress an individual would have. There are seminars and meetings on...