The article I found was very interesting. It was about
stress. The article pretty much states that work stress, how satisfied you are
with your job, as well as health problems because of stress have to do more
with genes than the actual job itself. His study included looking at about 600
twins, with some of them being identical twins and some of them fraternal. They
were all raised together, but then put apart later in life. He found that when
they were raised in the same environment, it had little to no effect on
personality, stress, and health. His results showed that shared genes were more
strongly represented than shared environment. He stated that there is not point in changing jobs because of how stressful it is because your response to stress goes with you no matter what job you take.
So in general, the conductor of the study found that your stress at school, work, and anything that you do in life has to do with your genes. It's not that stress is made from your genes, but it is how you respond and react to stress which is determined by your genes. I'm going to say I have to agree with this article. You can see it really clearly. How come some people can do some jobs while others can't? Though one point I have to disagree on is that I believe nurture does at least have to do a little bit of how we respond to stress. Even though genes determine most of the responses to stress, our environment and where we grew up has to play a factor in it as well. What do you guys think? Does how you handle stress relate more to your genes than to how difficult the task is itself? Have you guys ever been in a stressful situation and yet you see someone else doing the same thing with a lot less stress?
I completely disagree with this article. Stress may be affected by our genes, but environmental or social factors as well as our cognitive appraisals have a significant effect on our stress levels. We all have different preferences as well, which accounts for my some people may be able to do a job with not as much stress as another.
ReplyDeleteI disagree with this article. I think that the idea of "stress goes with you no matter what job you take" is true, but not at all determinant in the level of stress itself. To me that is saying that a person may be easily stressed so no matter what job they take they are always going to be stressed. True, but the level of stress could very tremendously. A job may be more 10 times more stressful then a "new" job, so taking the new job may still be stressful but it will be 10 times less stressful than the first job. This being said I think that stress may have a correlation to your genetic make-up, but is much more strongly influenced by the environment that is presenting itself.
ReplyDeleteAlong with this thought individuals enjoy different things in life and are better at some things than others. Therefore each individual will have a different stress level based on the environment that is presented to him or her. If one has to work doing something that they dislike or are not good at their stress will be much higher than if they are at a job where they are good at what they do or enjoy it. However a different individual may be completely opposite. So again yes genetic make-up has a role in our stress levels, but I think it is much more dependent on the environment individuals are presented with.
I wouldn't completely disagree with the article. I think you bring up a good point, Vivian. Some people are more apt to deal with stress of certain jobs than others. This may be a product of genes. However, I think a lot of it has to do with the interpretation or appraisal of each individual. I have seen people in classes become extremely stressed out about an assignment while others are not worried at all. BUT both people believed the assignment to be of equal difficulty. Some people really do just deal with stress better than others. I think everyone can see that in their daily lives. I agree with the fact that everyone is saying the environment plays an important role. The environment that people are placed in can greatly influence your stress level. Think about someone who works in a day spa compared to someone in a cubicle. The person at the day spa is surrounded by calming music and lighting while the cubicle is very harsh and most likely lit with fluorescent lighting. I think everyone can agree that someone in a spa would naturally be less stressed than the person in the cubicle (without considering the people/actual work involved).
ReplyDeleteOne question I have one question that no one has brought up yet: Is it true that some people's personalities are more easy-going and these people are able to deal with stress better than people who are more uptight and high-strung?
I don't disagree that anxiety/stress has many biological causes including a heritability for a predisposition to be anxious. There are many studies that show genes play a large role in pretty much everything we do.
ReplyDeleteI also know that environmental factors such as watching someone else as they respond to the environment in a stressful way can model your behavior and response. Similar to what Kelly mentioned in her comment, jobs vary quite a bit. Sniper, police officer, teacher, secretary, fire fighter, accountant, bus driver, etc. All of these bring a different imagined picture of stress to your head as your read them. Within each of these individual responses to the stressful situations vary.
Each individual is unique so to say that it is mainly genes for all would undermine environmental influences and personality influences that could also contribute to stress in one's life.
-Morgan Eary
Hmmm...I definitely have mixed feelings about this article. I can agree that our genes have a lot to do with our stress level. However, I definitely think stress is a much more situational matter than anything. Some things stress you out, some things don't. That's all there is to it. I think your genes have a factor on the KIND of things that cause stress. For example, some people are really stressed when they have multiple things to get done others perform better that way. But in that same regard, some things that happen at work cause you to be stressed. Some things that happen at work do not require a stress response. Therfore, it doesn't make sense to say that you're stressed out at your job just because it is in your genetics and there is no point in changing jobs because you will still be stressed. It is quite possible that another job will not have as many factors that create stress for you, personally. Interesting article.
ReplyDeleteI think the genetic approach is very interesting in how different people handle stress. There are many times when a group of people is faced with a challenge, and every individual person probably has individual stress about that challenge. I think the real question is whether this is because of nature or nurture. I personally believe that genes play more of a role in the matter. This is evidenced in cases of siblings that have grown up in the same household, just like the twins in the article. It just seems that some people are more inclined to be laid back and others are more inclined to be high strung. I think this is very important in relation to stress in the workplace. You bring up a valid point when you said that if you're thinking about leaving your job for a new one because of stress, it would be pointless. I wonder how behavior would change in the workplace if more people were aware of the role of genes in stress.
ReplyDeleteMy initial reaction is to completely disagree with this article. However, after reading it, I am a little confused as to weather the "environment" the researcher is talking about is the one in which the subject grew up, or the environment specific to the job.
ReplyDeleteThe researcher's example makes me lean a little more to the factors associated with the job rather than the environment in which he or she was raised. If that is the case, I agree. I honestly think that while some jobs are, of course, more stressful than others, the stress you feel is largely based on how you have learned to react to stress. For instance, I know someone who works in a fast-paced medical office who experiences very large amounts of stress. This person is always frustrated when she returns from work and takes a long time to wind down enough to relax. However, her best friend is very different. If he was in that same job, he would be much better at removing himself from that stress. He would take in what was going on around him and then figure out a plan of action to reduce the craziness and stress at the office. This is just how he reacts to stress.
I think that while these differences in the ways we react to stress might be influenced somewhat by genes, I am much more inclined to accept a hypothesis that our models in life play a much bigger role. I have seen people who respond very badly to stress. They will hyperventilate, cry, yell, throw things, etc. When I met their parents, however, they were the calmest people I've met. Based on my own experiences, some of which are included here, I would have to disagree with this article IF the environment that is referred to is one in which the test subject was raised.