Why investigate stress?Stress……. „is barely out of the headlines“
(The Telegraph, 17 May 2005)
….produced costs of 200 billions USD in 2006 (WHO)
….is an important market segment Wellness boom, Health consumerism (Economist, 4 January 2007)
….“is widely used in many languages as part of daily discourse“ (Encyclopedia of Stress 2000:158)
Stress and CDA?
• „Health Consumerism“Can health be consumed?
• „Stress management“Is management entering private life?
• „We all experience stress in our daily lives“
Is stress really part of modern life?
What is stress?Various definitions and concepts
• Hans Seyle (1936): General Adaption Syndrome„Stress is a non-specific result of any demand on the body”
• Lazarus (1974): Cognitive Model Stress depends on whether the individual thinks he/she can cope
with a situation or not
• Encyclopedia of Stress (2000): „Stress is a real or interpreted threat to the physiological or psychological integrity of an individual that results in physiological and/or behavioural responses.”
Stressor Stress response
External stimuli: Release of hormones
Injury, physical exertion, (adrenals, glucocortoids)
noise, pollution, time pressue
trauma, overload
Internal stimuli: joy, excitement Body: blood pressure, heart rate, metabolism
Cognition
Information Processing
Behaviour
Emotions
Stress: Necessary & natural without stress: lethargy, no ‚drive‘
My analysis: Data, Methods, Approach
• Data: Corpus analysis of 55 online guides on stress management
(Stress management as a possible interface between private life and business)
• Methods: Large scale examination of text populations and nouns, textual events and descriptors
• Approach: Social Constructionism In how far is stress discursively construced as a lifestyle phenomenon?
My hypotheses
• Are stress and, perhaps, other aspects of life, represented as quantifiable?
• Colonizing tendency of words from the world of business?
Do texts on stress management construct the addressee in terms of (lacking) managerial qualities?
• Do these texts construct stress and the need to manage it as a collective problem and is stress thus represented as a normal part of modern life?
My analysis1. The word stress and its companyCollocations with the word stress
2. Text Populations2.1.Nouns2.2.Coordination
3. Textual EventsDominant Process TypesAgent Roles
4. DescriptorsPredicative descriptors for most frequent participantsAdjectives in general
Hypothesis 1: Quantification•Collocations with the word ‚stress‘ (~2000)
•Results were assigned to different semantic categories
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
Quantification
DeliberateReaction
Causes
Level of stress reduce stress chronic stress
Amount of stress relieve stress less stress
A lot/lots of stress eliminate stress much stress
Relief from stressalleviate stress some stress
Short doses of stress remove stress high stress
Reduction of stress minimize stress long-term stress
A load of stress measure stress excessive stress
A big alley of stress intensify stress intense stress
A great deal of stress raise stress levels increased stress
Times of stress add stress frequent stress
Interpretation & Ideological Implications
• Quantification and grading of material and immaterial aspects of life
Materialization of health, personal wellbeing, feelings and emotions
Pragmatic, rational concept of life what counts is what can be measured
Grading of immaterial values such as health and wellbeing (comparatives/superlatives): Establishes a need for improvement and a market for wellness-related products
Hypothesis 2: Management & Business as Colonizers
Example: Coordination
Take positive and efficient steps
Stress can be productive and motivating
Reduce stress and improve productivity
Productivity falls and sickness rates rise
Productivity and over-all wellbeing
More productive and less stressful
Life more positive and productive
Helping patients cope and function better
Function effectively and enjoy life
Interpretation and Ideological Implications
• Productivity and measurable output as values of life
Evaluation of people on the basis of their economic function?
• Management of all aspects of lifeLife is ‚business‘ capitalist idealsControl over body and mind Functionalization of
human beings?
Hypothesis 3: Stress as a collective ‚lifestyle‘ problem
• Analysis of text populationDominant semantic field ‚general society‘ (674 tokens)
people, family, person, children, friends, individuals, women, team, members, groups,society, humans, teenagers, community….
Many collective, rather unspecific nouns
286 of 325 we‘s inclusive: The problem stress as a common ground
• Analysis of textual events/agent rolesMany impersonal constructions, e.g.
It is important to recognise and address the underlying causes of stress, or else the experience of stress will never go away.
Today it is virtually impossible to avoid stress.
It is important to note that most of the stress that most of us have is actually self-generated.
It is now possible to implement solutions to the problem of stress.
It is also important for a woman, as a part of your stress management plan, to spend time alone with your spouse.
Interpretation & Ideological Implications
• Stress as a collective problem Stress as a general, common sense problem,
generally valid stress management techniquesPathogenization of lifeDiscursive creation of a new market segment with a
huge target group: general society
• Stress a lifestyle phenomenonNaturalization of stressBeing stressed is fashionable because it shows that
you are trying to be productive
1. Stress and its company• Collocations with the word ‚stress‘ (~2000)• E.g. stress relief, combat stress, levels of stress,
excessive stress…• Results were assigned to different semantic categories
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
Quantification
DeliberateReaction
Causes
Interpretation & Evaluation
Quantification of stress:• Stress can be reduced, increased, measured• ‚Materialization‘ of immaterial aspects of life (health &
wellbeing)
Deliberate reactions to stress:• Recipients can deliberately control stress • Control of bodies and minds functionality of humans?
• Recipients are• Empowered because they learn how to manage their lives• Constrained because they are told how to do so
Common nouns
• Collective nouns for institutional bodies & persons involved in these institutions (e.g. school, supervisor)(271)
• (Mainly collective) nouns with very general meaning (e.g. people, community)(674)
Pronouns• YOU (1358 occurrences)• WE (325 occurrences, 286 of which are inclusive)
Practically no proper names
2. Text Population
Stress management: very broad, unspecific target group
YOU are part of this target group
WE ALL share the problem stress
Semantic domains work and general life
2.1. Nouns• Analysis of most frequent nouns ( 4 occurences;
approx. 500 types)• Two main semantic fields:
Health & Stress Business
•Body/Health/Wellness
•Mind/Feelings/Emotions
•Stress- Causes/Effects
•Work / Institutions
•Incentives for Acting
•Order / Logic
•Tools for Goal-Achievement
•Manager Skills / Success
• Results / Goals
Others:
•Time
•Communication / Interaction
• Large-scale opposition health: business
• Many terms for illnesses and therapies stress as pathological rather than natural
• Many nouns relating to mental & emotional states stress management also involves control of feelings and emotions
• Stress management reminds successful entrepreneurship colonizing tendency
• Time as manageable ‚good‘
• Interaction/Communication: Counselling is needed to manage stress
• Coordination of private and non-private realms (e.g. family life and work)
Work as a salient part of life
Separation of work and life
• Coordination of productivity and happiness (e.g. happier, more efficient and more productive)Capitalist values merge with personal values
Colonizing tendency
Emphasizes functionality of human beings
4. Textual Events
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
3500
TextualEvents
Material: 3034Mental: 1842Verbal: 283Relational: 37
4.1. Agent RolesAnalysis of agent roles in:• Material Processes (help, cause, deal with, manage, reduce,
take)
• Mental Processes (understand, feel, need, learn, know, think, see)
• Verbal Processes (talk, say, ask and write)
Results: You (601) People (41)Impersonal (94) I (40)We (88)
• Dominance of you in agent roles: Empowerment of addressee
• 52 of 59 verbal processes with you as the sayer: imperatives or with deontic modality, e.g. you should talk to an expert Recipients are agents, but only within constraints!
• High number of impersonal constructions: Representation of stress management techniques as generally valid, e.g. it helps to talk to an expert
Stress as a collective experience which can be fought through stereotypical management techniques
5. Descriptors• Analysis of predicative descriptors of you, we, people
• Most frequent positive descriptor: better
• Comparatives and superlatives important in stress management texts (227=4 per text!)
• Texts are not neutral, but highly evaluative
Comparatives & Superlatives: grading of immaterial factors of life such as health
implication of need for improvement
Results of my analysis1. Construction of stress as a collective phenomenonDominance of collective nouns for participantsMainly inclusive wesHigh number of impersonal constructions implying a
generalization of stress and stress management techniques
2. Colonizing tendencies from business discourseTwo main semantic fields: Work and HealthSemantic fields in stress management guides remind of
a step-by-step guide to successful entrepreneurshipProductivity as a key value of personal wellbeing
3. Quantification of stress and other aspects of lifeDominance of quantifiers in collocations with stressGenerally high number of quantifiers (10 quantifying
adjectives per text on average!)High number of comparatives and superlatives: grading
of immaterial aspects of life such as health, happiness, wellbeing
4. Power Individuals only empowered on the surfaceConstraints for individuals through imperative forms, deontic modality instructions how to control their emotions their functionalization for capitalist purposes (main aims:
efficiency, producivity, health)