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Definition of stress
 There has been no definition of stress that everyone accepts. Therefore, it's difficult to measure stress if there is no agreement on what the definition of stress should be.
People have very different ideas with respect to their definition of stress. Probably the most common is, "physical, mental, or emotional strain or tension". Another popular definition of stress is, "a condition or feeling experienced when a person perceives that demands exceed the personal and social resources the individual is able to mobilize."
Most people consider the definition of stress to be something that causes distress. However, stress is not always harmful since increased stress results in increased productivity. A definition of stress should also embrace this type of healthy stress, which is usually ignored when you ask someone about their definition of stress.
Any definition of stress should also include good stress, or eustress. For example, winning a race or election is just as stressful as losing, or more so. A passionate kiss and contemplating what might follow is stressful, but hardly the same as having root canal work. Any definition of stress should similarly explain the difference between eustress and distress.
The definition of stress for most people tends to focus on the negative feelings and emotions it produces. Almost every definition of stress also discusses certain resultant physical, physiological or biochemical responses that are experienced or observed. A very comprehensive definition of stress that includes these and more is the biopsychosocial model, which, as it name suggests, has three components. This definition of stress distinguishes between an external element, another that is internal, as well as a third that represents the interaction between these two factors.
In the biopsychosocial definition of stress the external component is made up of elements in the external environment. The internal component in this definition of stress consists of physiological and biochemical factors in the internal environment or body. The interaction between these two components in this definition of stress represents the cognitive processes that result from the interaction between external and internal components. Some of the physical reactions experienced during stress include hypertension, headaches, gastrointestinal and skin complaints, etc. Any definition of stress that does include these potentially dangerous physical responses is incomplete.
A definition of stress that does not refer to the role of the hypothalamic-pituitary- adrenal axis or stimulation of the sympathetic nervous system and adrenalin secretion in the "fight or flight" response should also be considered to be a deficient definition of stress. Since stress is such a subjective phenomenon that differs for each of us, there really is no satisfactory definition of stress that all scientists agree on. The original definition of stress by Hans Selye, who coined the term as it is presently used, was, "the non-specific response of the body to any demand for change". This definition of stress was confusing when Selye's experimental animal results were extrapolated to humans and stress became a buzzword. For some, the definition of stress was something external, like a bad boss, for others the definition of stress referred to chest or stomach pain or some other disturbing reaction you experienced, but the definition of stress could also be the end result of these responses such as a heart attack or peptic ulcer. Selye subsequently had to create a new word, stressor, to distinguish between stimulus and response. He struggled unsuccessfully to find a satisfactory definition of stress and in his later years suggested that the best definition of stress was "the rate of wear and tear on the body". He was also unaware that the definition of stress in physics that had been in use for several centuries was the degree of distortion in a malleable metal when it was subjected to an external load. Thus, his original definition of stress was really a description of strain.
Regardless of what definition of stress you find relevant, reducing stress can provide considerable health rewards. You can find out much more about this and the definition of stress in Topics Of Interest and other www.stress.org or sites such as Reminiscences of Hans Selye.
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