Positive Stress: Review of Relevant Theories and an Alternative Conceptualization

Stress Management has been a long cherished topic for academic debate and discussion of behavioral sciences. There are theories defining stress in two broad categories, namely Eustress and Distress. The literature concerning the 'stress' does talk about the negative as well as positive aspects of stress, however the aspects concerning positive stress have not been given due attention. Eustress, as a concept has been susceptible to many different interpretations, largely because of widely acceptable negative undertone associated with the Stress. Therefore, through this paper an attempt has been made to develop a theoretical understanding of Positive Stress by exploring the concept qualitatively. An incidental sample of fifty five (55) MBA students, who had chosen Stress Management as an elective course in the second year of their MBA program, was taken for the proposed qualitative assessment. Students' answers to the theoretical question on 'Positive Stress' in their examination paper were analyzed through qualitative content analysis&thematic analysis methods, leading to identifying perceived theoretical meaning of the concept of 'Positive Stress' and its relationship with other theoretical constructs. Qualitative assessment suggests that response to stressors by an individual is ever evolving, hence a model is proposed based on the idea of 'rejuvenated response' of an individual to stressors in subsequent stress-cycles in life-time, leading to an alternative view of 'positive stress path' to explain 'Positive Stress', which is subject to further empirical testing.