yerkes dodson stress and performance

Yerkes Dodson Law: How stress can affect performance positively

Today is national stress awareness day. Much of what is available on the internet about stress is about how to avoid it. The assumption is that stress = bad. But is that really the case?

For some people of course an overload of stress is unhelpful. But the focus on stress always being bad is in itself bad. There is such a thing as good stress, called eustress. Have you ever heard that being talked about? The term eustress was first coined by endocrinologist Hans Selye and can be helpful in differentiating between different types of stress.

A certain amount of stress, eustress, is good for you. Eustress can be a great motivator, provide challenge and purpose, both at work and in our home lives. The difficult thing is defining how much is good for you. It is different for different people. The level of stress I may be able to endure could be significantly different from the level you can cope with. It is also situational; we have different coping abilities and mechanisms in different situations. For instance a shouty work colleague may upset someone far more on one day than on another depending on what is going on elsewhere in their lives. Or the computer failing to pick up emails may be a blessing on one day allowing you to get on with other tasks, but a high stressor on another day when you are expecting an important contract to come through electronically.

The strategies for coping with stress, whether eustress or distress, are also varied. Mindfulness, meditation, playing squash (or other sport), walking or talking are all useful strategies. And there are many more. But remember, some stress is good for you and can help you achieve your goals. As can be seen in the Yerkes–Dodson curve when dealing with a difficult task, there is an optimum performance level. How will you achieve yours?

We use cookies to personalise content and ads, to provide social media features and to analyse our traffic. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. View more
Cookies settings
Accept
Privacy & Cookie policy
Privacy & Cookies policy
Cookie name Active

In line with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) on 25 May 2018 we have provided the following information about the personal data we collect from this website and how we store it:

What is personal data?

Any information that is related to a person, or that can be used directly or indirectly to identify that person including names, photographs, email addresses, posts on social network sites and IP address.

What personal data do we collect?

We collect information used for the day to day running of our business. Your data is never sold to any 3rd party.

We collect the information that you send to us via our contact form:

  • Name
  • Email address
  • Telephone number

We collect information you share with us, so that we may provide services for you, this includes:

  • Address / Location
  • Details of any services that you provide us with that you wish us to access on your behalf

The information we collect is for legitimate business use that is involved in the day to day running of our business.

Accessing or Removing Your Data

You have the right to find out what data we hold on you and to request that this personal data is removed. Please email us to ask to view personal data stored about you or to ask for all personal data to be removed. We will aim to remove this data within 28 days.

We may change this policy from time to time by updating this page. You should check this page from time to time to ensure that you are happy with any changes. This policy was last updated in May 2023.

Cookies

This site uses cookies, these are small text files that are placed on your machine to help us provide a better user experience.

We use cookies to retain user preferences and provide anonymised tracking data to third party applications like Google Analytics. As a rule, cookies will make your browsing experience better.

However, you may prefer to disable cookies on this site and on others. The most effective way to do this is to disable cookies in your browser. We suggest consulting the Help section of your browser or taking a look at the About Cookies website which offers guidance for all modern browsers.

Save settings
Cookies settings