Cox and Mackay, in "A psychological model of occupational stress" stated that the human being has an ideal state of stress in which his performance is maximised. Below this state, there would be underperformance due to boredom, and, more obviously, above that level, the person would be too stressed to perform well.
Over the past week or so, i've tested this theory, and found it holds very true. Usually, i am unstressed. At least compared to my counterparts, because i'm lazy and unambitiious. Mainly the latter. I usually suppress (or at least attempt to suppress) the competitive edge for fear of stress. Then i noticed that my performance had dropped. So i gradually started to increase the stress level, turning the knob slowly but steadily.
Now, if i had paid heed to Cox and Mackay, or perhaps had a better understanding of where that idealised stress level within myself lay, i would have been better able to estimate when i should have stopped turning that knob.
Fortunately, turning that knob up just before my mid terms meant that my mid terms (generally) outperformed last year's. Unfortunately nt knowing when to stop increasing the stress meant that eventually (for my last test) i just got too tired to even do the paper.
Looking back at that test, the extent of this phenomenon of lethargy had caused me to not even think during the test. I would really be surprised if i passed that test.
True failure is when you dont learn from your mistakes. Hence lets take failure and turn it into a learning experience. Do not mess with Cox and Mackay. They were right...
- Stress Theory-
benp
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