GAS - General Adaptations Syndrome

GAS

GENERAL ADAPTATION SYNDROME

GAS, General Adaptation Syndrome, was created by a Hungarian medical doctor and researcher, Hans Selye. In Montreal University, during an experiment with lab rats, he discovered some psychological changes after submitting the rats in stressful events. After some in-depth researches, he established three different stages for the stress: Alarm, Resistance and Exhaustion. 

At the first stage, Alarm, your body reacts as if you were in a dangerous scenario, your adrenal gland releases cortisol, your body's main stress hormone. It prepares you for the "fight-or-flight" response, the reaction that occurs in response to an adverse event. The second stage, Resistance, your body still aware of some kind of attack that may occur, then cortisol continues to be released and your blood pressure remains elevated. Your body starts to adapt and learn how to live in this situation. But, if it continues too long of a period, you start to show some symptoms, like irritability and poor concentration. After a long period of time, the third stage appears, the exhaustion. At the last stage, your body does not have more energy to fight. You may give up or feel your situation is hopeless. Some symptoms that may appear are depression and anxiety.

It is important to be aware of your stress level. Your body could work well and productive in the second stage but after prolonged stress, your yield decrease and you put yourself at risk for health. You should make pauses during the work to meditate, listen to some music and relax. Otherwise, you may not live long.

References:

• Selye H. The Stress of Life (rev.edn.). New York: McGraw-Hill, 1976.

Pickle Jar Theory

PICKLE JAR THEORY

The Pickle jar theory is a time management theory developed by Simon Willison in 2002.  The theory shows in a simple way how to better schedule your daily activities from the most important to the unimportant things.

Basically, the theory uses a pickle jar as a metaphor for our daily life. Inside this jar, you can find three elements: Sands (less important tasks), the Pebbles (tasks with average importance), and the rocks (the important tasks). 

If you try to put all the sands first, then the pebbles and finally the rocks, probably all the rocks will not fit. It means that if you spend a lot of your day time with unimportant tasks, like WhatsApp messages and social media, you would not have time to achieve all the most important tasks you have to do on that day, the rock tasks. Otherwise, if you fill the jar with the rocks first, then the pebbles and finally the sand, the sand will fit in the lack spaces between the rocks and the pebbles.

This theory serves to make us aware of time management importance. It allows you to accomplish more with less effort, deliver work on time and reduce stress. 

Reference:

• Mulder, P. (2017). Pickle Jar Theory. Retrieved from ToolsHero: https://www.toolshero.com/time-management/pickle-jar-theory/
• Mathew, M.B.E. (n.d.). The importance of Time Management to become efficient in the Workplace.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

MASLOW'S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS

The Hierarchy of Needs is a theory developed by the American psychologist Abraham Maslow, first published in 1943 in an article entitled "Theory of Human Motivation". Maslow, as a humanist, focused his studies on what motivates people's behavior. For him, there are 5 correlated needs that people need to fulfill to achieve self-actualization. He designed his hierarchy of needs in a pyramid form, as you see below.

To better understand each section:

1. Physiological: The most basic needs of a human body. Without them, you can not survive.
2. Safety: People need to feel safe in their lives, through financial security, health care, and saving accounting.
3. Love and Belonging: The third level is related to social needs. People need to be part of a group and family. The need for emotional relationships drives human behavior.
4.  Esteem: Appreciation and respect of others. The lack of self-esteem can develop a feeling of inferiority.
5. Self-actualization: There is a Maslow's quote that describes perfectly this level: "What a man can be, he must be". At this level, people are able to achieve their full potential as human beings. 

The four first sections (physiological, safety, belonging and esteem) are considered the human being basic needs and the top one (self-actualization) is considered by Maslow as the highest level of a human need. Needs lower in the hierarchy must be satisfied before people can attend to needs higher up. But, this is not rigid, even if you do not fulfill some basic needs section you can achieve levels up. As well as individuals who have different needs. For example, the necessity to be esteem could be strongest than the belonging need.

The pyramid is also divided into two categories, Deficiency Needs, and Growth Needs. Deficiency Needs emerge due to the lack of some of the first four basic levels of need. For example, the longer a person goes without water, the more thirsty they will become. The Growth Need or Self-actualization emerges from the human desire to grow as a person and achieve a higher potential.

References: 

• Hoffman, E. (1988). The right to be human: A biography of Abraham Maslow. Jeremy P. Tarcher, Inc.
• McLeod, S.A. (2018, May 21). Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Retrieved from https://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html

The Inverted-U Theory

THE INVERTED-U THEORY

How productive are you under pressure? A theory called The Inverted-U showed that the right amount of pressure can be an important factor to motivates you.

The inverted-U Theory, also known as Yerkes-Dodson Law was created in 1908 by 2 psychologists, Robert Yerkes, and John Dodson. The theory makes a relationship between pressure and performance. No pressure, people do not feel challenged to work hard to achieve a task, too much pressure, they crumble and the task becomes stressful. But, on the other hand, It shows that by using the pressure wisely, people can do their best work with a highly productive state.

The inverted-U theory is present in every productive field, from education to work. When the student has an expansive deadline to make a task, he will procrastinate. It happens in an office too. Otherwise, if the same student is under too much pressure to produce and he has a tight deadline, he will not make good work. As you can see in the graph above, there is a thin line between the boredom and the high-stress performance. This area is exactly where a manager or a teacher wants his employees or his students to be.

It is important to understand the inverted-U for better task distribution. If you know the person you are dealing with, you know their limits and the best way to manage your performance. It will be good for the project at all. Being aware of it, you can allocate the right tasks and projects to the right people.

As a manager, using the inverted-U theory you can manage better your workforce and have better results. If you are an employee, it is important to be aware of your limits to know your area of best performance.

Important reference:

• Yerkes, R.M. and Dodson, J.D. (1908). "A Relation of Strength of Stimulus to Rapidity of Habit-Formation". Retrieved from https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/inverted-u.htm

Who am I

PRESENTATION

Hello, my name is Daniel and I am from Brazil. Now, let me tell you a bit about my background. I have a bachelor's degree in Cinema and MBA in Journalism. I worked for 1 year at Brazil's Ministry of Culture and 5 years for the Brazilian Space Agency. Now, I am studying Business Communication at Greystone College. I created this blog to insert contents about Personal Development and spread knowledge about it.

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