STRESS

A modern lifestyle phenomenon?

…a CDA analysis of online guides on stress management

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

..and you say YOU have stress?

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

Quantifying adjectives

541 tokens= 10 per text!

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

..and you say YOU have stress?

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

2.2.Coordination

• 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

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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)

..and you say YOU have stress?