ZeePedia

PERSONALITY AND STRESS:Personality, PERSONAL TOOLS TO CONTROL STRESS

<< CULTURE AND PERSONALITY:Definition of sub culture, Definition of Personality, Types of Persons
PERCEPTION AND INDIVIDUAL BEHAVIOUR:Three concepts of personality, Bias in Perception >>
img
Human Relations­ MGMT611
VU
Lesson 03
PERSONALITY AND STRESS
There is a deep relationship between "personality and stress". In the present world these two concepts
have attained a very important role. Stress plays a very important role in every day life of an individual and is
present in one form or another. Stress affects the personality as well as the performance of a person. If we
understand the relation between stress and the personality, how they affect each other we will be able to
channalize and manage stress in a better way. Stress won't affect individual's personality in a negative way.
Due to the relationship between personality and stress you come to know that how personality affects the
stress and how stress affects the personality, how it affects your work, your relationship with other people,
personal life, peace of mind, are influenced. If you will understand this dynamic relationship you will lead a
successful life. You will be able to perform better and would receive appreciation and should give a boost to
your self esteem, by dynamic, it is meant that personality affects stress and stress affects personality.
Personality:
Personality is the product of a culture to do different things in different situations; it is affected by the environment,
family, norms and values, society. The society produces different types of people or individuals. These
individuals perform different tasks at different times under different situations. In other words the
culture/society/environment produces a different person in an army man, in a teacher, in a student and in a
sweeper etc. these individuals have to perform different tasks in the society.
This aspect of personality is linked with stress. Stress is situation where there are demands on a person.
1. Social demands:
To act or, perform in a certain way, if the person is unable to perform according to the demands of a
situation, the pressure emerges. If that pressure is chanalized and the person is able to perform the task then
that pressure is normal stress, positive stress or u-stress, or we may say it is something good that out of the
pressure or stress the person is able to perform better. There is so much demand on the individual to do
few things that if a person is not capable of doing, then the person starts feeling the stress or the pressure.
If this pressure is prolonged it may transform into stress. If a stress is putting some thing positive on you to
do something in a given period of time it is called u-stress and u-stress is some thing good because it makes
you able to achieve something. And if you achieve some thing you feel good about it. But if the stress is too
much you will have negative consequences on your health, on your person as a whole, and on your work
performance. The same situation may be stressful for one person but may not be stressful for the other
person, depending on the personality type. People handle stress differently. This leads to two types of stress.
Two types of stress
a. Positive stress-it is called u-stress; you perform well due to this stress.e.g. Stress in exams makes you
achieve better marks in the examination.
b. Negative stress: if you can't adjust to the demands of the situation then the stress is prolonged then this
negative stress affects on your performance, your health and your over all personality.
2. Organizational demands:
The organizations have certain expectations; they require their employees to fulfill certain tasks. This also
puts stress on the employees and the workers. If the organization demands some sort of work from the
employee which he knows he will not be able to perform well. The person should say no rather than putting
extra stress on himself for something he can not do, or if some one has to do some thing too challenging
for them then they should first attempt to divide the work into smaller tasks, do the first part of it. If he
succeeds then go on to the next part. In this way he will be able to manage the tasks.
3.  Situational demands:
Stress emerges out of expectations, situational expectations, cultural expectations, organizational
expectations, and family expectations all these expectations make you work. If you work according to the
situation there should be no stress. Suppose if a person from Pakistani culture travels to Europe, there are
6
img
Human Relations­ MGMT611
VU
different expectations of that society for you to act in a particular way. Your training, potential, socialization
is from your Pakistani culture but the demands of the immigrant society are different. You do not know the
every day routines and norms of that society and the demands and expectations of that society are different.
Such a situation can even have another aspect let's say if a person is well adjusted in an organization, is
performing well, knows the hierarchy of commands etc but if he is transferred to another company or if he
changes his job he may not fit in as the expectations of that organization may be different but you are
trained in different organizations. What is the reason that you are good in one organization but miss fit in
the other organization? Disconnect or dissonance between the personality and expectations of that
organization, results into some sort of stress. If you learn and adjust quickly to the new environment the
stress is chanalized. Then it is positive stress. Your own expectations are a major source of stress. They give
pressure to you and if your expectations are too high to achieve those success and you don't have the
sources. Your expectations should be according to your capabilities. When you achieve your targets you feel
happy about it. Stress is a natural outcome to achieve your goals. Balance between your capabilities and your
expectations.
To sum up this discussion it is stated that the greater the capacity of an individual, lesser are the chances of
the stress. Match or this relationship needs to be understood. If you feel that you are capable and confident
to do certain thing, only then take the challenge, but if you feel you can't succeed then you may say that you
won't be able to do this. That is how you will actually gain more and more confidence in yourself, and you
will perform better and better in future. So this dynamism needs to be understood very well, to succeed in
your life in your work place, in your friends, and in your relations. This relation ship between stress and
personality remains important for you to understand.
PERSONAL TOOLS TO CONTROL STRESS
Tools of stress and personality enhance the work performance of a person. It is your self confidence to do
things.
Self perception
One of those tools is self perception. How do you value and evaluate yourself? It is probably the most
important psychological factor. Self perception is the picture you hold about your self. Feel that you are good, strong
and best but this self perception should be realistic as this is very important that how this picture does
comes to your head? How it emerges out of your relations with other people, your family members, your
friends, your work mates' etc.When you perform well they appreciate you and gives you feed back that you
perform excellently. It gives you a picture of yourself which you attain by interacting with others.
Self perception is very important because it is an important tool in your hand to act according to the
expectations of the others. Self perception in a way gives you self confidence.e.g. A boy was working in
technical department the management found out he is an excellent and honest worker in the technical
department they send him to the purchase department for the financial benefits of the organization. His
honest brought him from one department to another department so it shows that there is a good match
between quality of a person and need of the situation. On account of that there was a win-win situation "the
person earned more money and the organization benefited more from him and his honesty". The picture of
yours as an honest person and being acknowledged as an honest person is the self perception of that
individual. Organizations value those individuals. Self perception is an important tool of an individual to do
few things. Organizations value those individuals who know themselves, their self worth. Self perception
contributes towards self confidence and can be improved by a systematic strategy and that is taking
realistic challenges.
Self awareness:
Knowing your self is self awareness. If you know your self you know your capabilities and on the basis of
these capabilities you can accomplish a task. And ultimately you will feel successful and your organization
will reward you. If you know how to judge your self you can judge others also.e.g. suppose you know your
leadership qualities and the strengths and weaknesses of your team members you are more likely to
7
img
Human Relations­ MGMT611
VU
accomplish your task. So, self awareness is an important tool in your own hands with the help of which you
can do your self analysis or can get feedback from others.
Self worth:
You should know your own worth and value of your work. Basically it is marketing of your self as well as
your capabilities. The potentiality and the Power to do things are important. If you don't know yourself it
means you can not market your abilities, if you know your worth and what you are giving to the
organization you can tell them what you have helped the organization to accomplished, then you will valued
by the organization and its members. When the organization will reward you, it will give a boost to your
self-confidence, and will make you perform better.
Self love:
You should appreciate your self and your personality. If you don't love your self you have negative feelings
about yourself which creates negative stress. Many a time your family, work mates, friends may comment on
you, and if these comments are negative you feel dejected. Feelings of dejection can pull you down. You
should avoid such feelings coming from any where. Feelings of dejection/failure can make you fail in life.
Reject the negative comments of the others and feel good about your personality. The negative feelings can
use up your energy to do positive things successfully in life. One has to make sacrifices in personal and
work life.e.g. One may have to sacrifice his leisure time to do something for a loved one but these sacrifices
should be realistic and too much sacrifice will be hazardous to the self.
Self esteem:
Self esteem is earned through success and is very important. Taking responsibility and accomplishing the
task will help to built up self esteem. If a person is successful in life other people tell him that he is
successful it will boost his self esteem giving him more confidence to take up new endeavors and to
accomplish them successfully, so self esteem and success affect one another positively.
Every one, all humans make mistakes, but it is natural. One should accept one's mistakes and work on them
to improve them; this will improve your self esteem. Intuition is an important source, if you feel some thing
is worth doing again work towards it, if one succeeds it again enhances self esteem.
Self respect:
Your own feelings about your self are self respect; emotion is a respectable energy and a powerful source.
Emotions are a powerful source of self respect. Emotions and passionate feelings makes a lot of things get
done.
If you bring all the above mentioned concepts together it sums up into "self confidence". Self confidence is the
totality of your personality. Enhanced self concept increases our potentiality and capabilities and makes us work
in a better way.
8
Table of Contents:
  1. HUMAN RELATIONS:Some Guidelines for Effective Human Relations, Communication has 3meanings
  2. CULTURE AND PERSONALITY:Definition of sub culture, Definition of Personality, Types of Persons
  3. PERSONALITY AND STRESS:Personality, PERSONAL TOOLS TO CONTROL STRESS
  4. PERCEPTION AND INDIVIDUAL BEHAVIOUR:Three concepts of personality, Bias in Perception
  5. PERCEPTION AND GROUP BEHAVIOR:Characteristics of Groups, Individual and Group Behavior
  6. ATTITUDE AND BEHAVIOUR:Types of Attitudes, Steps to turn attitude into action
  7. PERSONAL MOTIVATION AND ACHIEVEMENT:Needs and Motivation, Self-discipline and motivation
  8. SOLVING PROBLEMS SKILLFULLY:Problem solving and cognition, Ways to solve problems
  9. CREATIVITY IN PROBLEM SOLVING:Barriers to creativity, Tips to solve problems creatively
  10. HANDLING PERSONAL ISSUES:Self-Defeating Behaviour, Positive attitude to tackle personal problems
  11. CONFLICT RESOLUTION:WHY SO MUCH CONFLICT EXISTS, TECHNIQUES FOR RESOLVING CONFLICTS
  12. COMMUNICATION AND HUMAN RELATIONS:Process of communication, Improving gender barriers to communication
  13. ORGANIZATIONAL COMMUNICATION:To improve listening skills, Types of organizational communication
  14. UNDERSTANDING COMMUNICATION STYLES:Modeling communication style, Sociability continuum
  15. SELF-ESTEEM:Building process of self-esteem, Self-esteem and public image
  16. BUILDING SELF-CONFIDENCE:The importance of self-confidence and self-efficacy, Balanced Self-Confidence:
  17. BECOMING A LEADER-1:Assessing leadership role, Traits and Characteristics of Effective Leaders
  18. BECOMING A LEADER-II:Theories of leadership, Developing leadership potential
  19. GLOBALIZATION AND CROSS-CULTURAL DIFFERENCES:Religious Values and Bicultural Identities
  20. IMPROVING CROSS-CULTURAL COMPETENCE:Strategies to improve cross-cultural relations, More steps to improve Cultural Relations
  21. BUILDING GOOD RELATIONS WITH MANAGERS:Impressing your manager, Coping with a problem manager
  22. BUILDING GOOD RELATIONS WITH CO-WORKERS:Make Co-workers feel important, Maintain Honest and Open Relationships
  23. BUILDING GOOD RELATIONS WITH CUSTOMERS:Salesperson Represents the Business, Approaching the Customer, Excuses vs. Objections
  24. CHOOSING A CAREER-1:Ten Myths about Choosing a Career, Attitude toward and Perceptions about Myself
  25. CHOOSING A CAREER-II:Choosing a career and developing a portfolio Career, Suggestions for career Preparation
  26. FINDING A JOB:Targeting your job search, The Internet and Résumé Database Services, Extreme Job Hunting
  27. SIGNIFICANCE OF RESUME:Major types of resumes, Electronic Submission of the Résumé
  28. IMPROVING INTERVIEW SKILLS:Successful interview, Knowing the employer or Organization
  29. IMPROVING WORK HABITS-1:Reasons of procrastination, Techniques for Reducing Procrastination
  30. IMPROVING WORK HABITS-2:Developing the proper attitudes and values, Time-management techniques
  31. NEW MODEL OF CAREER ADVANCEMENT:Career portability, HUMAN RELATIONS SELF-ASSESSMENT
  32. TAKING CONTROL OF YOURSELF:Develop Outstanding Interpersonal Skills, Business etiquettes
  33. EXERTING CONTROL ON OUTSIDE ENVIRONMENT:Important communication tip, Exerting control over the outside world
  34. MANAGING PERSONAL FINANCES-1:Your personal financial plan, Steps in budget making
  35. MANAGING PERSONAL FINANCES-2:Basic investment principles, Tolerance for Investment Risks, Types of investments
  36. ACHIEVING HAPPINESS-1:Finding happiness and enhancing your personal life, The key to happiness
  37. ACHIEVING HAPPINESS-2:The Five Principles of Psychological Functioning, Your mind and Happiness
  38. ACHIEVING HAPPINESS-3:Need for intimacy, Working out issues with relationships
  39. APATHY AND ITS REMEDIES:Let us try to understand the various definitions of apathy, Coping strategies for apathy
  40. ENHANCING PERSONAL ETHICS-1:Influence of Culture, Common ethical problems
  41. ENHANCING PERSONAL ETHICS-2:Common ethical problems, Guidelines for Behaving Ethically
  42. HELPING OTHERS GROW:Being a Nurturing, Positive Person, A list of mentoring behaviour, Coaching skills and techniques
  43. REVIEW-I:What is a Human Relation?, Meanings of Communication, Two types of stress, Some personal problem, Communication style
  44. REVIEW-II:Steps to build self-confidence, Globalization, Building Good Relations with Co-workers, Good work habits
  45. REVIEW-III:New model of career advancement, Choosing your investment, Tactics for Dealing with Difficult People