Lesson One - How Stress Affects Your Life
Factors that Influence Stress
It is not only the stressor that affects your stress level; there are also factors that influence the level of stress experienced. This course will look at and explain four main factors.
- Intensity–this is how ‘strong’ the stress is; the intensity can also change with context. For example, a dead cell phone battery is a relatively low stress situation when a person has access to a charger. However, the stress level can increase dramatically if a person is lost in the woods and has a dead cell phone battery.
- Duration–this factor has to do with how long a particular stressor lasts. The longer a stressor is in a person’s life, the more impact it has on the person and their mental health.
- Number–refers to how many stressors a person is dealing with at a particular time. A certain stressor may not seem like anything particularly difficult to deal with, but paired with multiple other stressors, it can become overwhelming.
- Coping Strategies–this factor has to do with how skilled a person is with their coping strategies, and how many actual strategies they have to utilize. The larger variety of strategies and abilities to use these strategies, the less impact the stress will have on the person.
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