Psychology

Stress reaction is a psychological concept defining how individuals react in stressful environments. People react differently to different factors in the environment. Similar factors in the environment are therefore capable of producing varied reactions from different people. Thus individual attributes plays a great role in how people react to the various situations within their social environment.

Stress reaction can be described as any physiological or psychological response to any kind of stress that may be affecting the homeostatic balance of individuals. Stress is said to be a subjective experience and that what leads to stress in one individual is not necessarily what will cause the stress to other individuals. However, in general, there are two main factors that may influence stress reaction and these include the perception of the situation and the general state of physical health of the individual. This paper will look at how pressure, control, predictability, repetition, and intensity have impacted on my previous stress reaction.

Stress reaction
Reaction to stress may be different as per the individuals due to both the intrinsic and outside factors found within the context of the stressing issue. Though individuals react differently towards stress, threatening situations usually produces some anxiety which the body has to deal with. Faced with a stressing situation, much pressure is bound to worsen the situation and may add to the stressing condition (Chapman, 2010). Control of the situation will provide a denial response to the stress and will only act to suppress the condition at that particular moment (Coon, Mitterer, Talbot,  Vanchella, 2010). Predictability of the situation would however positively reduce the stress level as the body is allowed to psychologically be prepared for the stressing condition. Thus the body will be able to set a mechanism in advance on how to handle the stress. Repetition on the other hand will impact on stress reaction in such a way that the body knows what to expect and thus is partially prepared to handle the stress. The intensity of the stressing elements will also impact on the level of stress being experienced. High intensity is usually associated with a highly reactive stress response whereas low intensity is associated with less reactive stress response (West, 2010).

Conclusion
Responding to stress is a challenging aspect to be measured. This is due to the fact that different individuals react in different ways towards stress. Nevertheless, stress is affected by the various factors that are found in the social environment in addition to the internal attributes within the individual.