LEARNING OBJECTIVES
By the end of this section, you will be able to:
- Differentiate between stimulus-based and response-based definitions of stress
- Define stress as a process
- Differentiate between good stress and bad stress
- Describe the early contributions of Walter Cannon and Hans Selye to the stress research field
- Understand the physiological basis of stress and describe the general adaptation syndrome
The term stress as it relates to the human condition first emerged in scientific literature in the 1930s, but it did not enter the popular vernacular until the 1970s (Lyon, 2012). Today, we often use the term loosely in describing a variety of unpleasant feeling states; for example, we often say we are stressed out when we feel frustrated, angry, conflicted, overwhelmed, or fatigued. Despite the widespread use of the term, stress is a fairly vague concept that is difficult to define with precision.
Researchers have had a difficult time agreeing on an acceptable definition of stress. Some have conceptualized stress as a demanding or threatening event or situation (e.g., a high-stress job, overcrowding, and long commutes to work). Such conceptualizations are known as stimulus-based definitions because they characterize stress as a stimulus that causes certain reactions. Stimulus-based definitions of stress are problematic, however, because they fail to recognize that people differ in how they view and react to challenging life events and situations. For example, a conscientious student who has studied diligently all semester would likely experience less stress during final exams week than would a less responsible, unprepared student.
Others have conceptualized stress in ways that emphasize the physiological responses that occur when faced with demanding or threatening situations (e.g., increased arousal). These conceptualizations are referred to as response-based definitions because they describe stress as a response to environmental conditions. For example, the endocrinologist Hans Selye , a famous stress researcher, once defined stress as the “response of the body to any demand, whether it is caused by, or results in, pleasant or unpleasant conditions” (Selye, 1976, p. 74). Selye’s definition of stress is response-based in that it conceptualizes stress chiefly in terms of the body’s physiological reaction to any demand that is placed on it. Neither stimulus-based nor response-based definitions provide a complete definition of stress. Many of the physiological reactions that occur when faced with demanding situations (e.g., accelerated heart rate) can also occur in response to things that most people would not consider to be genuinely stressful, such as receiving unanticipated good news: an unexpected promotion or raise.
A useful way to conceptualize stress is to view it as a process whereby an individual perceives and responds to events that he appraises as overwhelming or threatening to his well-being (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984). A critical element of this definition is that it emphasizes the importance of how we appraise—that is, judge—demanding or threatening events (often referred to as stressors); these appraisals, in turn, influence our reactions to such events. Two kinds of appraisals of a stressor are especially important in this regard: primary and secondary appraisals. A primary appraisal involves judgment about the degree of potential harm or threat to well-being that a stressor might entail. A stressor would likely be appraised as a threat if one anticipates that it could lead to some kind of harm, loss, or other negative consequence; conversely, a stressor would likely be appraised as a challenge if one believes that it carries the potential for gain or personal growth. For example, an employee who is promoted to a leadership position would likely perceive the promotion as a much greater threat if she believed the promotion would lead to excessive work demands than if she viewed it as an opportunity to gain new skills and grow professionally. Similarly, a college student on the cusp of graduation may face the change as a threat or a challenge ( [link] ).
The perception of a threat triggers a secondary appraisal: judgment of the options available to cope with a stressor, as well as perceptions of how effective such options will be (Lyon, 2012) ( [link] ). As you may recall from what you learned about self-efficacy, an individual’s belief in his ability to complete a task is important (Bandura, 1994). A threat tends to be viewed as less catastrophic if one believes something can be done about it (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984). Imagine that two middle-aged women, Robin and Maria, perform breast self-examinations one morning and each woman notices a lump on the lower region of her left breast. Although both women view the breast lump as a potential threat (primary appraisal), their secondary appraisals differ considerably. In considering the breast lump, some of the thoughts racing through Robin’s mind are, “Oh my God, I could have breast cancer! What if the cancer has spread to the rest of my body and I cannot recover? What if I have to go through chemotherapy? I’ve heard that experience is awful! What if I have to quit my job? My husband and I won’t have enough money to pay the mortgage. Oh, this is just horrible…I can’t deal with it!” On the other hand, Maria thinks, “Hmm, this may not be good. Although most times these things turn out to be benign, I need to have it checked out. If it turns out to be breast cancer, there are doctors who can take care of it because the medical technology today is quite advanced. I’ll have a lot of different options, and I’ll be just fine.” Clearly, Robin and Maria have different outlooks on what might turn out to be a very serious situation: Robin seems to think that little could be done about it, whereas Maria believes that, worst case scenario, a number of options that are likely to be effective would be available. As such, Robin would clearly experience greater stress than would Maria.
To be sure, some stressors are inherently more stressful than others in that they are more threatening and leave less potential for variation in cognitive appraisals (e.g., objective threats to one’s health or safety). Nevertheless, appraisal will still play a role in augmenting or diminishing our reactions to such events (Everly & Lating, 2002).
If a person appraises an event as harmful and believes that the demands imposed by the event exceed the available resources to manage or adapt to it, the person will subjectively experience a state of stress. In contrast, if one does not appraise the same event as harmful or threatening, she is unlikely to experience stress. According to this definition, environmental events trigger stress reactions by the way they are interpreted and the meanings they are assigned. In short, stress is largely in the eye of the beholder: it’s not so much what happens to you as it is how you respond (Selye, 1976).
GOOD STRESS?
Although stress carries a negative connotation, at times it may be of some benefit. Stress can motivate us to do things in our best interests, such as study for exams, visit the doctor regularly, exercise, and perform to the best of our ability at work. Indeed, Selye (1974) pointed out that not all stress is harmful. He argued that stress can sometimes be a positive, motivating force that can improve the quality of our lives. This kind of stress, which Selye called eustress (from the Greek eu = “good”), is a good kind of stress associated with positive feelings, optimal health, and performance. A moderate amount of stress can be beneficial in challenging situations. For example, athletes may be motivated and energized by pregame stress, and students may experience similar beneficial stress before a major exam. Indeed, research shows that moderate stress can enhance both immediate and delayed recall of educational material. Male participants in one study who memorized a scientific text passage showed improved memory of the passage immediately after exposure to a mild stressor as well as one day following exposure to the stressor (Hupbach & Fieman, 2012).
Increasing one’s level of stress will cause performance to change in a predictable way. As shown in [link] , as stress increases, so do performance and general well-being (eustress); when stress levels reach an optimal level (the highest point of the curve), performance reaches its peak. A person at this stress level is colloquially at the top of his game, meaning he feels fully energized, focused, and can work with minimal effort and maximum efficiency. But when stress exceeds this optimal level, it is no longer a positive force—it becomes excessive and debilitating, or what Selye termed distress (from the Latin dis = “bad”). People who reach this level of stress feel burned out; they are fatigued, exhausted, and their performance begins to decline. If the stress remains excessive, health may begin to erode as well (Everly & Lating, 2002).
THE PREVALENCE OF STRESS
Stress is everywhere and, as shown in [link] , it has been on the rise over the last several years. Each of us is acquainted with stress—some are more familiar than others. In many ways, stress feels like a load you just can’t carry—a feeling you experience when, for example, you have to drive somewhere in a crippling blizzard, when you wake up late the morning of an important job interview, when you run out of money before the next pay period, and before taking an important exam for which you realize you are not fully prepared.
Stress is an experience that evokes a variety of responses, including those that are physiological (e.g., accelerated heart rate, headaches, or gastrointestinal problems), cognitive (e.g., difficulty concentrating or making decisions), and behavioral (e.g., drinking alcohol, smoking, or taking actions directed at eliminating the cause of the stress). Although stress can be positive at times, it can have deleterious health implications, contributing to the onset and progression of a variety of physical illnesses and diseases (Cohen & Herbert, 1996).
The scientific study of how stress and other psychological factors impact health falls within the realm of health psychology, a subfield of psychology devoted to understanding the importance of psychological influences on health, illness, and how people respond when they become ill (Taylor, 1999). Health psychology emerged as a discipline in the 1970s, a time during which there was increasing awareness of the role behavioral and lifestyle factors play in the development of illnesses and diseases (Straub, 2007). In addition to studying the connection between stress and illness, health psychologists investigate issues such as why people make certain lifestyle choices (e.g., smoking or eating unhealthy food despite knowing the potential adverse health implications of such behaviors). Health psychologists also design and investigate the effectiveness of interventions aimed at changing unhealthy behaviors. Perhaps one of the more fundamental tasks of health psychologists is to identify which groups of people are especially at risk for negative health outcomes, based on psychological or behavioral factors. For example, measuring differences in stress levels among demographic groups and how these levels change over time can help identify populations who may have an increased risk for illness or disease.
[link] depicts the results of three national surveys in which several thousand individuals from different demographic groups completed a brief stress questionnaire; the surveys were administered in 1983, 2006, and 2009 (Cohen & Janicki-Deverts, 2012). All three surveys demonstrated higher stress in women than in men. Unemployed individuals reported high levels of stress in all three surveys, as did those with less education and income; retired persons reported the lowest stress levels. However, from 2006 to 2009 the greatest increase in stress levels occurred among men, Whites, people aged 45–64, college graduates, and those with full-time employment. One interpretation of these findings is that concerns surrounding the 2008–2009 economic downturn (e.g., threat of or actual job loss and substantial loss of retirement savings) may have been especially stressful to White, college-educated, employed men with limited time remaining in their working careers.
EARLY CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE STUDY OF STRESS
As previously stated, scientific interest in stress goes back nearly a century. One of the early pioneers in the study of stress was Walter Cannon , an eminent American physiologist at Harvard Medical School ( [link] ). In the early part of the 20th century, Cannon was the first to identify the body’s physiological reactions to stress.
Cannon and the Fight-or-Flight Response
Imagine that you are hiking in the beautiful mountains of Colorado on a warm and sunny spring day. At one point during your hike, a large, frightening-looking black bear appears from behind a stand of trees and sits about 50 yards from you. The bear notices you, sits up, and begins to lumber in your direction. In addition to thinking, “This is definitely not good,” a constellation of physiological reactions begins to take place inside you. Prompted by a deluge of epinephrine (adrenaline) and norepinephrine (noradrenaline) from your adrenal glands, your pupils begin to dilate. Your heart starts to pound and speeds up, you begin to breathe heavily and perspire, you get butterflies in your stomach, and your muscles become tense, preparing you to take some kind of direct action. Cannon proposed that this reaction, which he called the fight-or-flight response, occurs when a person experiences very strong emotions—especially those associated with a perceived threat (Cannon, 1932). During the fight-or-flight response, the body is rapidly aroused by activation of both the sympathetic nervous system and the endocrine system ( [link] ). This arousal helps prepare the person to either fight or flee from a perceived threat.
According to Cannon, the fight-or-flight response is a built-in mechanism that assists in maintaining homeostasis—an internal environment in which physiological variables such as blood pressure, respiration, digestion, and temperature are stabilized at levels optimal for survival. Thus, Cannon viewed the fight-or-flight response as adaptive because it enables us to adjust internally and externally to changes in our surroundings, which is helpful in species survival.
Selye and the General Adaptation Syndrome
Another important early contributor to the stress field was Hans Selye , mentioned earlier. He would eventually become one of the world’s foremost experts in the study of stress ( [link] ). As a young assistant in the biochemistry department at McGill University in the 1930s, Selye was engaged in research involving sex hormones in rats. Although he was unable to find an answer for what he was initially researching, he incidentally discovered that when exposed to prolonged negative stimulation (stressors)—such as extreme cold, surgical injury, excessive muscular exercise, and shock—the rats showed signs of adrenal enlargement, thymus and lymph node shrinkage, and stomach ulceration. Selye realized that these responses were triggered by a coordinated series of physiological reactions that unfold over time during continued exposure to a stressor. These physiological reactions were nonspecific, which means that regardless of the type of stressor, the same pattern of reactions would occur. What Selye discovered was the general adaptation syndrome, the body’s nonspecific physiological response to stress.
The general adaptation syndrome, shown in [link] , consists of three stages: (1) alarm reaction, (2) stage of resistance, and (3) stage of exhaustion (Selye, 1936; 1976). Alarm reaction describes the body’s immediate reaction upon facing a threatening situation or emergency, and it is roughly analogous to the fight-or-flight response described by Cannon. During an alarm reaction, you are alerted to a stressor, and your body alarms you with a cascade of physiological reactions that provide you with the energy to manage the situation. A person who wakes up in the middle of the night to discover her house is on fire, for example, is experiencing an alarm reaction.
If exposure to a stressor is prolonged, the organism will enter the stage of resistance. During this stage, the initial shock of alarm reaction has worn off and the body has adapted to the stressor. Nevertheless, the body also remains on alert and is prepared to respond as it did during the alarm reaction, although with less intensity. For example, suppose a child who went missing is still missing 72 hours later. Although the parents would obviously remain extremely disturbed, the magnitude of physiological reactions would likely have diminished over the 72 intervening hours due to some adaptation to this event.
If exposure to a stressor continues over a longer period of time, the stage of exhaustion ensues. At this stage, the person is no longer able to adapt to the stressor: the body’s ability to resist becomes depleted as physical wear takes its toll on the body’s tissues and organs. As a result, illness, disease, and other permanent damage to the body—even death—may occur. If a missing child still remained missing after three months, the long-term stress associated with this situation may cause a parent to literally faint with exhaustion at some point or even to develop a serious and irreversible illness.
In short, Selye’s general adaptation syndrome suggests that stressors tax the body via a three-phase process—an initial jolt, subsequent readjustment, and a later depletion of all physical resources—that ultimately lays the groundwork for serious health problems and even death. It should be pointed out, however, that this model is a response-based conceptualization of stress, focusing exclusively on the body’s physical responses while largely ignoring psychological factors such as appraisal and interpretation of threats. Nevertheless, Selye’s model has had an enormous impact on the field of stress because it offers a general explanation for how stress can lead to physical damage and, thus, disease. As we shall discuss later, prolonged or repeated stress has been implicated in development of a number of disorders such as hypertension and coronary artery disease.
THE PHYSIOLOGICAL BASIS OF STRESS
What goes on inside our bodies when we experience stress? The physiological mechanisms of stress are extremely complex, but they generally involve the work of two systems—the sympathetic nervous system and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. When a person first perceives something as stressful (Selye’s alarm reaction), the sympathetic nervous system triggers arousal via the release of adrenaline from the adrenal glands. Release of these hormones activates the fight-or-flight responses to stress, such as accelerated heart rate and respiration. At the same time, the HPA axis, which is primarily endocrine in nature, becomes especially active, although it works much more slowly than the sympathetic nervous system. In response to stress, the hypothalamus (one of the limbic structures in the brain) releases corticotrophin-releasing factor, a hormone that causes the pituitary gland to release adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) ( [link] ). The ACTH then activates the adrenal glands to secrete a number of hormones into the bloodstream; an important one is cortisol, which can affect virtually every organ within the body. Cortisol is commonly known as a stress hormone and helps provide that boost of energy when we first encounter a stressor, preparing us to run away or fight. However, sustained elevated levels of cortisol weaken the immune system.
In short bursts, this process can have some favorable effects, such as providing extra energy, improving immune system functioning temporarily, and decreasing pain sensitivity. However, extended release of cortisol—as would happen with prolonged or chronic stress—often comes at a high price. High levels of cortisol have been shown to produce a number of harmful effects. For example, increases in cortisol can significantly weaken our immune system (Glaser & Kiecolt-Glaser, 2005), and high levels are frequently observed among depressed individuals (Geoffroy, Hertzman, Li, & Power, 2013). In summary, a stressful event causes a variety of physiological reactions that activate the adrenal glands, which in turn release epinephrine, norepinephrine, and cortisol. These hormones affect a number of bodily processes in ways that prepare the stressed person to take direct action, but also in ways that may heighten the potential for illness.
When stress is extreme or chronic, it can have profoundly negative consequences. For example, stress often contributes to the development of certain psychological disorders, including post-traumatic stress disorder, major depressive disorder, and other serious psychiatric conditions. Additionally, we noted earlier that stress is linked to the development and progression of a variety of physical illnesses and diseases. For example, researchers in one study found that people injured during the September 11, 2001, World Trade Center disaster or who developed post-traumatic stress symptoms afterward later suffered significantly elevated rates of heart disease (Jordan, Miller-Archie, Cone, Morabia, & Stellman, 2011). Another investigation yielded that self-reported stress symptoms among aging and retired Finnish food industry workers were associated with morbidity 11 years later. This study also predicted the onset of musculoskeletal, nervous system, and endocrine and metabolic disorders (Salonen, Arola, Nygård, & Huhtala, 2008). Another study reported that male South Korean manufacturing employees who reported high levels of work-related stress were more likely to catch the common cold over the next several months than were those employees who reported lower work-related stress levels (Park et al., 2011). Later, you will explore the mechanisms through which stress can produce physical illness and disease.
Summary
Stress is a process whereby an individual perceives and responds to events appraised as overwhelming or threatening to one’s well-being. The scientific study of how stress and emotional factors impact health and well-being is called health psychology, a field devoted to studying the general impact of psychological factors on health. The body’s primary physiological response during stress, the fight-or-flight response, was first identified in the early 20th century by Walter Cannon. The fight-or-flight response involves the coordinated activity of both the sympathetic nervous system and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. Hans Selye, a noted endocrinologist, referred to these physiological reactions to stress as part of general adaptation syndrome, which occurs in three stages: alarm reaction (fight-or-flight reactions begin), resistance (the body begins to adapt to continuing stress), and exhaustion (adaptive energy is depleted, and stress begins to take a physical toll).
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SELF CHECK QUESTIONS
Critical Thinking Questions
1. Provide an example (other than the one described earlier) of a situation or event that could be appraised as either threatening or challenging.
2. Provide an example of a stressful situation that may cause a person to become seriously ill. How would Selye’s general adaptation syndrome explain this occurrence?
Personal Application Question
3. Think of a time in which you and others you know (family members, friends, and classmates) experienced an event that some viewed as threatening and others viewed as challenging. What were some of the differences in the reactions of those who experienced the event as threatening compared to those who viewed the event as challenging? Why do you think there were differences in how these individuals judged the same event?
AnswerS
1. Answers will vary. One example is divorce. People may perceive a divorce as a threat if they believe it will result in loneliness, change of lifestyle (due to loss of additional income), or humiliation in the eyes of their family. However, divorce may be perceived as a challenge if they view it as an opportunity to find somebody more compatible, and if they consider the process of finding a new partner a pleasant one, perhaps involving mystery and excitement.
2. Answers will vary. One example is when somebody’s spouse dies or is unexpectedly diagnosed with a fatal disease. In both cases, the stress experienced by the surviving spouse would be intense, continuous, and—according the general adaptation syndrome—would eventually increase vulnerability to illness or disease (exhaustion stage).


1.5: Behavior Change and Goal Setting
Transtheoretical Model (Stages of Change)
The transtheoretical model of behavior change, developed by Prochaska and DiClemente, assesses an individual’s readiness to implement a healthier behavior, and provides insight into the decision making process that leads to action. For many people, changing or modifying a behavior that is unhealthy or potentially harmful can be quite challenging. Here are the stages that lead to behavior change:
- Precontemplation (Not Ready) – You are not intending to take action in the foreseeable future, and can be unaware that your behavior is problematic
- Contemplation (Getting Ready) – You are beginning to recognize that your behavior is problematic, and start to look at the pros and cons of your continued actions
- Preparation (Ready) – You are intending to take action in the immediate future, and may begin taking small steps toward behavior change
- Action – You are making actual changes to your problem behavior by incorporating healthy choices/behaviors into your life
- Maintenance – You have been able to sustain action for at least six months and are working to prevent relapse into previous unhealthy behaviors
Check out this supplemental video to review the main concepts of the Transtheoretical Model:
YouTube Video: Improve Your Life Using the Stages of Change (Transtheoretical) Model - Dr Wendy Guess ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Twlow2pXsv0 )
SMART Goal Setting
Have you ever said to yourself that you need to “eat healthier” or “exercise more” to improve your overall health? How well did that work for you? In most cases, probably not very well. That’s because these statements are too vague and do not give us any direction for what truly needs to be done to achieve such goals. To have a better chance at being successful, try using the SMART acronym for setting your goals (S= Specific, M= Measurable, A=Attainable, R= Realistic, T= Time-oriented):
Specific – Create a goal that has a focused and clear path for what you actually need to do. Examples:
- I will drink 8 ounces of water 3 times per day
- I will walk briskly for 30 minutes, 5 times per week
- I will reduce my soda intake to no more than 2 cans of soda per week
Do you see how that is more helpful than just saying you will eat healthier or exercise more? It gives you direction.
Measurable – This enables you to track your progress, and ties in with the “specific” component. The above examples all have actual numbers associated with the behavior change that let you know whether or not it has been met.
Attainable – Make sure that your goal is within your capabilities and not too far out of reach. For example, if you have not been physically active for a number of years, it would be highly unlikely that you would be able to achieve a goal of running a marathon within the next month.
Realistic – Try to ensure that your goal is something you will be able to continue doing and incorporate as part of your regular routine/lifestyle. For example, if you made a goal to kayak 2 times each week, but don’t have the financial resources to purchase or rent the equipment, no way to transport it, or are not close enough to a body of water in which to partake in kayaking, then this is not going to be feasible.
Time-oriented
– Give yourself a target date or deadline in which the goal needs to be met. This will keep you on track and motivated to reach the goal, while also evaluating your progress.
Contributors and Attributions
CC licensed content, Shared previously
- Stages of Change. Authored by : Boundless. Located at : www.boundless.com/psychology...ors-324-12859/. License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
- Goal Setting. Authored by : Boundless. Located at : www.boundless.com/management...oals-244-5338/. License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
All rights reserved content
- Supplemental Video - Stages of Change. Authored by : Dr. Wendy Guess. Located at : https://youtu.be/Twlow2pXsv0 . License : Other . License Terms : Standard YouTube License


2.3: Stress and Coping
Learning Objectives
- Understand what stress is and the different forms people can experience
- Understand what coping is, what coping strategies are, and coping styles
- Understand how individuals and communities become resilient
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WHAT IS STRESS?
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So what is stress ? This shouldn’t be a trick question, but why is it so hard to answer? Stress can be three things: a stimulus event (i.e., a stressor), a process for understanding the stimulus and its context , and a reaction we have to this event . Essentially, to be stressful the event has to become an overload of incoming information into our system. Stress can cause biological responses such as sweaty palms or a racing heart, as well as psychological responses such as nervousness. It is known to have effects on our behavior causing us to avoid others, and it also affects cognitive performance causing us to have difficulty concentrating.
Major Life Events (e.g., experiencing a breakup, getting married, or having a baby), Life Transitions (e.g., puberty or transition into high school), Daily Hassles (e.g., family arguments or waiting in a long line at a security checkpoint of an airport) and Disasters (e.g., experiencing a car accident or a computer crashing causing loss of important information). These types of environmental stressors can cause you to be fearful and have a racing heartbeat. And our perceptions of these responses can actually make the symptoms worse. It is also important to note that these stressors can be perceived differently by different people. For instance, two people can get stuck in the same elevator and while one would find the experience to be a nuisance, another will tell you it was the worse situation they have ever been in. Here is a poll about the role of stresses and stress responses in the natural world. This supplementary article explores what is the right amount of stress .
PHYSIOLOGICAL VS PSYCHOLOGICAL STRESS
While most of the time we think about stress in a negative way, some stress is adaptive and can even give us an edge. Part of the stress reaction involves the secretion of hormones, which in turn will stimulate the cardiovascular system, which includes your heart. In this way, the right amount of stress may release hormones and increase our ability to focus better on an exam or to quickly maneuver our car when we are trying to avoid an accident. Most stressors in our daily life are psychological in nature—dating, exams, presentations, and deadlines, so the adrenaline and cortisol (i.e., stress hormones) released into the bloodstream do not get burned off. These types of psychological stressors can initiate an over-activation with a tendency to make the stress response worse. So, a response to an environmental stressor may start as fear and turn into a panic attack.
Acute vs Chronic Stress
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One of the goals of our body is to maintain stability (i.e., homeostasis ). We can, therefore, define stress as an actual or perceived threat capable of throwing our homeostasis off balance. Stress exposure starts the responses. When a person is exposed to prolonged stress, overload may occur. When the stress response is triggered too often and/or remains active too long, it can cause “wear and tear” on the body from lowering your immune system and bone density, to hypertension, to heart attack.
Acute stressors are observable stressful events that are time-limited such as an upcoming test or a family gathering. An acute stressor brings activation to our neuroendocrine system and makes us ready to act (i.e., “fight or flight”).  Chronic stressors , in contrast, are persistent demands on you; they are typically open-ended, using up your resources in coping but not having any resolution. Here is a short article and podcast on stress effects on health and suggestions for stress preventive activities.
Everyday Hassles
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Robert Service , a Canadian Poet, cautioned, “Be master of your petty annoyances and conserve your energies for the big, worthwhile things. It isn’t the mountain ahead that wears you out—it’s the grain of sand in your shoe.”
In addition to many stressors in our lives being psychological and chronic in nature, we should pay attention to everyday hassles, which can be as harmful, if not more harmful than life-changing events. Everyday hassles may include things like worrying about one’s weight, having too much work with too little time, or a stressful commute to school or work. Major life changes usually bring about more hassles, which may lead to more physical stress symptoms.
In summary, stress can be adaptive—in a fearful or stress-causing situation, we can run away to save our lives, or we can concentrate better on a test. Biologists might even say it is necessary. But, stress can also be maladaptive. This is especially true if it is prolonged (i.e., chronic stress) because it increases our risk of illness and health problems. Thus, reducing stress, especially prolonged stress, is essential to healthcare. This video explains the effects of daily hassles on our health.
COPING AND STRESS
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To deal with stress in your life, it is important to figure out where that stress originates and notice how you tend to react to it. Later in this chapter, we will show you how community psychologists consider the environment and ecological perspectives as intertwined in stress and coping. Lazarus and Folkman (1984) have been among the most influential psychologists in the stress and coping field, and they defined coping as efforts to manage demands that could exceed our resources. It is important to highlight from this definition that when a person perceives a life circumstance as taxing and exceeding the resources they have, this person will experience stress. Therefore, coping involves your efforts to manage stress, which is illustrated in Figure 1.
Coping Defined
Lazarus and Folkman (1984) felt that when humans perceive a life circumstance as taxing and exceeding their resources, stress will be experienced, which we have already defined in the prior section as an overload of incoming information into a system. Therefore, coping involves persons’ efforts to manage stress, whether the process of dealing with stress is adaptive or not (Lazarus, 1993). When we talk about coping, we will need to consider the intensity of the stressor, the context of coping, and an individual’s appraisal of coping expectations.
Coping Types
Research on coping has usually found five types of coping styles (Clarke, 2006; Skinner, et al., 2003; Folkman & Moskowitz, 2005). These include the following: (1) problem-focused coping style involves addressing the problem situation by taking direct acting, planning or thinking of ways to solve the problem, (2) emotion-focused coping style involves expressing feelings or engaging in emotional release activities such as exercising or practicing meditation, (3) seeking-understanding coping style refers to finding understanding of the problem and looking for a meaning of the experience, and (4) seeking help involves using others as a resource to solve the problem. Finally, people might respond to stressors by (5) avoiding the problem and trying to stay away from the problem or potential solution to the problem.
Coping Strategies
Coping strategies are the choices that a person makes in order to respond to a stressor. A strategy can be adaptive (effective) or maladaptive (ineffective or harmful). The ideal adaptive coping strategy varies depending on the context, as well as the personality traits of the person responding. The coping strategies can be problem-solving or active strategies, emotional expression and regulation strategies, seeking understanding strategies, help or support-seeking strategies, and problem avoidance or distraction strategies.
Shift-and-Persist (Chen & Miller, 2012), and it requires individuals to first shift views of the problem. To shift, you need to (1) recognize and accept the presence of stress, (2) engage in emotional regulation and control negative emotions, and (3) practice self-distancing from the stressor to gain an outsider’s perspective of the stressful context. To persist, you would need to (1) plan for the future through goal setting, (2) recognize a broader perspective when obstacles arise, (3) determine what brings meaning to your life, and (4) become flexible to determine new pathways to goals. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Heart Association offer other coping strategies. Two more discussions on coping strategies are found in these two Ted Talk Videos here and here .
Table 1 below presents a list of coping strategies and is a summary of strategies reported in Clarke, 2006; Skinner, et al., 2003; Folkman & Moskowitz, 2005. Although completed lists are more extensive, this table presents styles reported across the three studies that presented similar types of responses.
To understand coping as a process, we need to understand people’s reaction to stress in context. This includes assessing whether the coping thoughts or actions are good or bad for that given challenge and given context. In addition, the process of coping includes the particular person, the particular encounters with the stressor, the time of the person’s reactions, and the outcome being examined. Practical Application 13.1 can help you examine your reaction to stress and understand your coping process .
Practical Application 13.1
Understanding Stress in Your Life
- What was stressful about it for you?
- Was it a short-term or a long-term situation?
- What thing did you do to cope with this experience?
- What resources helped you cope with this stressful experience?
- How did your experience affect you as a person?
- What did you learn or how did you grow through this experience?
COPING AND CONTEXT
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Community psychologists try to understand coping beyond individual perceptions and reactions to stress. In general, new coping models are looking into what the characteristics of people that will elicit a given coping style are. In addition, it is important to learn more about the effectiveness of different coping styles when used across different contexts (which includes the environment and nature of the stressors). A community psychologist is interested in understanding the contextual element that produces or reduces a given stressor, so they create interventions to help people cope with their stressors. Finding the best fitting coping strategy may improve people’s experiences and outcomes when confronted with challenging/stressful life transitions .
All people are exposed to transitions, with youth being even more likely (e.g., starting elementary/middle school, finishing high school, first job, etc.), and the experience of mastery of these situations might help school-age youth successfully cope with future transitions. The following Case Study 13.1 highlights how community psychologists might use preventive strategies to help youth deal with these types of natural stressors that they will encounter in life.
Case Study 13.1
Preparing Students for High School Graduation
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Leonard Jason and Betty Burrows (1983) provided youth about to graduate from high school with practice crisis experiences to work through, so that they could generate successful outcomes for stressful situations. The youth were first informed that during times of transition, heightened levels of emotions are often experienced. These elevated levels of arousal can become maladaptive if experienced over a prolonged period of time. They then had a chance to practice techniques to effectively reduce excessive arousal or anxiety such as progressive muscle relaxation, meditation, or listening to quiet music. The youth were then given anxiety-promoting transitions to imagine. They were asked to try one of these strategies to alleviate the anxiety of this crisis situation.
The seniors also had a chance to discuss how personal beliefs and self-statements can affect one’s mood. When difficult transitions are encountered, irrational beliefs or negative self-statements might arise. An example of an irrational belief is that it is a necessity for us to be loved and approved by everyone we know. The seniors were provided with situations involving transitions to role-play. Within each of these scenes, one actor adopted an irrational belief; the other attempted to show a more rational way of thinking. Following each role-play, the participants had a chance to discuss how the adoption of a rational or irrational belief might affect their ability to successfully handle transitions. Following the role-plays, all the students discussed how effective the various coping strategies might have been in resolving transitional events.
This study found that seniors about to graduate from high school can profit from being provided a preventive intervention that prepares them for dealing with transitions. Here are some of the students’ comments: “You really helped me to really think out all my problems and how to answer them. Thanks!! …. It helped me to help other people who are in difficult situations.” “I think that problem solving is the most helpful to people at my age because we face problems every day.” “I feel that I have benefited from the sessions as I have gone through a lot as my mother has been divorced twice and is married for the third time and I just moved from a small town to a large city.”
But sometimes, crises occur, and then we need to find ways to deal with those situations. Case Study 13.2 will provide an example of helping individuals and communities with dealing with a natural disaster, Hurricane Maria.
Case Study 13.2
Coping with Hurricane Maria
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On September 20th, 2017, Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico. Watching the compounding difficulties over the course of that fall, Melissa Ponce-Rodas and a team of 20 members, four faculty, one alumna, 13 students, and two other staff members with backgrounds in undergraduate and graduate psychology, community and international development, and social work decided to spend their Spring break helping with the recovery. The ultimate goal of the mission was to “Accept, Talk, Heal,” providing mental health training in churches and communities to give those affected by the disaster the tools they needed to help them through the trauma of the aftereffect of the hurricane and to help them recover beyond the physical reconstruction of their community. This intervention was about more than cleaning up debris or restoring a school, it was about empowering a community to overcome trauma.
Prior to the intervention, the team contacted local church agencies and asked about their experiences and what was truly needed. This process of inquiry resulted in another group of people with expertise in the community to be invited into the collaborative process. The local collaborators included social workers, police officers, certified nursing assistants, staff from the four schools, church groups, and others who were directly affected by the natural disaster. It is not surprising that the team was quickly accepted and trusted by the community. Ponce-Rodas believes one contributor to this is her Puerto Rican heritage that helped bridge the intervention team to the community and facilitate connections between community members and those from the mainland.
Understanding the complexity of the coping process was one of the reasons Dr. Ponce-Rodas drew on her Community Psychology experience to partner with existing agencies on the island. Because so many community members had experienced symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder the intervention aimed at normalizing the emotional reactions affecting the individuals. The team reminded the community members participating in the intervention that the whole community was going through this and no one should feel isolated in their experience, and that it is normal to seek help from others when faced with adversity. The team emphasized this with the “Healing is a Process” slogan, highlighting the dynamic nature of this concept.
The team also agreed that a strength-based approach fits this intervention well. To help combat the loss and desperation, the community participants were encouraged to turn to the strengths the community still had. The message across the island was “Puerto Rico Se Levanta” (Puerto Rico Will Rise). Many heroic stories of selflessness and self-sacrifices emphasized resilience in the wake of such massive destruction and highlighted the power and strength in the community. The community members also often commented on their faith, which meant that the team included faith in their intervention. The team firmly believed that the best way the community could get help was by understanding the community’s background, by recognizing the dynamic process of coping, by alleviating the stigma of help-seeking, by drawing on their own strengths, and by helping themselves.
Coping and Support
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Coping can be aided by asking others for support to help overcome problems. Support-seeking strategies include seeking advice or information or direct assistance. Individuals who engage in these types of help-seeking strategies are more likely to obtain social support. Seeking help from relatives may prove to be successful, which might contribute to it becoming a frequently employed coping mechanism. Barker (2007) suggests that youth’s help-seeking behaviors set up the conditions to create a rich supportive network for them, and the feeling that there is available support. Case Study 13.3 illustrates how one can go about studying supports using multiple points of view.
Case Study 13.3
Support Seeking Behavior
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Having at least one friend in a recovery home was found to be about the best predictor among residents of recovery homes of having a good outcome, which involves not using drugs or engaging in illegal activities. To better understand what seeking support might be about, several community psychologists used focus groups to better understand natural friendship and mentoring relationships. For example, participants were asked about how they determined who they would go to in the house for support, the type of support they received from housemates, and the characteristics that those individuals have. The findings from the focus groups had a theme of promoting social support within their recovery homes, as one female participant explained:
“When I come in this door and I’ve got something to talk about, I don’t care which of these girls is here, I’m just going to talk about it. And that’s because they play a positive mentor or role model in my life. I don’t have to pick out two or three or one to say who I want to talk to.”
Instrumental supports were often related to the ability of other house members to provide tangible support for residents. As one female participant described:
“I have not been employed . . . I’ve always been concerned about if my rent’s going to get paid on time. These sisters came together and told me if you can’t get your rent paid, we know what you’re doing and we know that you want to be here and they were willing to go into their own pockets to help me pay my rent.”
Focus-group themes indicated that men were also able to form supportive relationships within the recovery home settings, but not as quickly as the females (Lawlor et al., 2014).
RESILIENCE
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Individuals who experience significant and chronic stressors are often referred to as being “ at-risk ” of something, whether it be poor school performance, problems with alcohol or drugs, or engaging in illegal activities. However, not all individuals “at risk” of negative outcomes end up struggling with the outcomes. Some people are able to avoid negative outcomes and even thrive despite the adversity they face. Why is it that some people are successful in spite of seemingly insurmountable obstacles?
This question was at the heart of early studies of resilience. Resilience is a dynamic process characterized by positive outcomes despite adversity or stress (Luthar, Crossman, & Small, 2015). In other words, resilience refers to how people maintain, or in some cases develop, healthy and positive outcomes in spite of stressful situations. The study of resilience stemmed from researchers who began to notice that a subset of their participants, often children facing significant adversity, did well despite their difficult circumstances. For example, Garmezy (1974) studied children of parents with schizophrenia. Among this group of at-risk children, all were expected to struggle in various aspects of life and likely develop schizophrenia. But a subset of children exhibited surprisingly positive and adaptive behavioral patterns despite their level of risk. Another large-scale study recruited all of the children born on the island of Kauai, Hawaii (Werner, 1996). The original goal of the study was to assess the long-term consequences of stressful living environments (e.g., family discord, divorce, parental alcoholism, mental illness). Most of the children living in these stressful environments struggled academically and behaviorally. However, one-third of these “high-risk” children did not develop learning or behavioral problems; in fact, many of them thrived. Studies like these helped to shift our focus from a deficits-only approach to one more able to consider both deficits and strengths.
“Resilience does not come from the rare and special qualities, but from the everyday magic or ordinary, normative human resources in … children, in their families and relationships, and in their communities.” (Masten, 2001, pp. 235)
Resilient children were thought to have been invulnerable and able to weather any storm. Traits found to characterize resilience include high creativity, effectiveness, competence, and ability to relate well to others. Now, resilience is viewed as the interaction between the person and their environment, and given the right combination of individual and environmental supports, it might be possible for anyone to be resilient. From a Community Psychology perspective, research had found that these children are positively affected by their immediate and extended family networks and religious organizations (Wright et al., 2013).
So far, we have considered resilience as an individual construct. Individuals can be resilient to adversity. However, it is also possible to apply this idea of resilience to groups of people. Community resilience is the collective ability of a defined group of people to deal with change or adversity effectively (Aldrich & Meyer, 2015). When adversity, like a disaster, financial struggle, or war strikes a community, will the community as a whole be able to overcome and bounce back?
Resilient communities often have many characteristics in common. Communities that are resilient frequently have access to both resources and relationships that support resilient outcomes. An important element of community resilience includes members’ knowledge of their own community, both its weaknesses and strengths. In addition, resilient communities have strong community social networks in which people work together to achieve goals, with competent governance and leadership. Often there is also an economic investment, both before and after adversity strikes. Another important factor is individual, family, and government preparedness. And finally, resilient communities have positive attitudes and an acceptance of change (Patel et al., 2017). Both research and community work is now being done to help communities build these resources and relationships to protect against adversity.
Case Study 13.4
Promoting Community Resilience
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From 2000 to 2010, poverty rates in the Belmont Cragin neighborhood in Chicago doubled. Consisting of 80% Latino residents, Belmont Cragin residents have experienced soaring poverty rates associated with the gentrification of nearby neighborhoods. In addition, many residents in the neighborhood experienced significant trauma when they were younger. These adverse childhood experiences include living in extreme poverty; suffering physical, sexual, or emotional abuse; being exposed to community violence; having a parent struggling with substance abuse, or many other potentially traumatic experiences. Having adverse childhood experiences can be detrimental to emotional and physical health, and individuals who have experienced them are more likely to experience additional negative emotional or behavioral outcomes. In recognition of the increasing poverty in the neighborhood and the trauma experienced by many residents, community leaders formed the Resilient Belmont Cragin Community Collaborative . Community Psychologists Suzette Fromm Reed and Judith Kent worked with Belmont Cragin leaders to help residents cope with adverse childhood experiences by facilitating trauma-informed programming at schools using mentoring, tutoring, and counseling to help at-risk youth stay on track. They also helped train police to de-escalate the conflict. The Resilient Belmont Cragin Community Collaborative utilized existing community resources and established partnerships with resources outside of the community to ensure collective healing and growth. It brought together members of the community, from schools, health care settings, businesses, police departments, families, faith leaders, and others, to help residents address these traumatic experiences and thrive. Programs like these exemplify community resilience and help individuals, and the community as a whole, grow and heal together.
SUMMING UP
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We all experience stress. However, we respond to this stress in different ways. Sometimes low levels of stress can actually be helpful as it could motivate you to study for an exam. Although the experience of stress is very subjective, stress elicits physiological, emotional, and cognitive reactions in us all. To deal with these stressors, we mobilize resources for coping with the problems confronting us. The success of our coping efforts will depend on ourselves as well as the environmental challenge. For example, most of us have the resources to deal with the stress of a thunderstorm, but we might really be challenged if we are confronted with a tornado that comes through our neighborhood. So there are different levels of stressors that we face. In this chapter, we examined the relationship between stressors and coping, and we reviewed the different coping styles and the relationship between individual and context and coping outcomes, including resilience. We hope that this review of stress has provided you with some new insights about how you might use a variety of coping strategies to deal with stress and to work toward the reduction of stress among others.
Critical Thought Questions
- What are the most difficult stressors for you?
- With these most difficult stressors, what are the best ways you have found to cope with them?
- Are there people you go to when you are having problems at college? What are the ways they are helpful and what are the ways they might change to be even more helpful to you?
Take the Chapter 13 Quiz
View the Chapter 13 Lecture Slides
____________________________________________________________________
REFERENCES
Aldrich, D. P., & Meyer, M. A. (2015). Social capital and community resilience. American Behavioral Scientist , 59 (2), 254–269. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764214550299
Barker, G. (2007). Adolescents, social support and help-seeking behavior . An international literature review and programme consultation with recommendations for action . Geneva, Switzerland: Instituto Promundo, Brazil.
Chen, E., & Miller, G. E. (2012). “Shift-and-Persist” strategies: Why low socioeconomic status isn’t always bad for health. Perspectives on Psychological Science , 7 (2), 135-158.
Clarke, A. T. (2006). Coping with interpersonal stress and psychosocial health among children and adolescents: A meta-analysis. Journal of Youth and Adolescence , 35 (1), 11-24.
Folkman, S., & Moskowitz, J. T. (2005). Coping: Pitfalls and promise. Annual Review of Psychology , 55 , 745-774.
Garmezy, N. (1974). Children at risk: The search for the antecedents of schizophrenia. Part I. Conceptual model and research methods. Schizophrenia Bulletin , 1 (8), 14- 90.
Jason, L.A., Glantsman, O., O’Brien, J. F., & Ramian, K. N. (2019). Introduction to the field of Community Psychology. In L. A. Jason, O. Glantsman, J. F. O’Brien, & K. N. Ramian (Eds.), Introduction to Community Psychology: Becoming an agent of change. Retrieved from https://press.rebus.community/introductiontocommunitypsychology/chapter/intro-to-community-psychology/
Jason, L. A., & Burrows, B. (1983). Transition training for high school seniors. Cognitive Therapy and Research , 7 (1), 79-92.
Luthar, S. S., Crossman, E. J., & Small, P. J. (2015). Resilience and adversity. In R. M. Lerner, & M. E. Lamb (Eds.), Handbook of Child Psychology and Developmental Science (7th ed., Vol. 3, pp. 247-286). New York, NY: Wiley.
Lawlor, J. A., Hunter, B. A., Jason. L. A., & Rosing, H. B. (2014). Natural mentoring in Oxford House recovery homes: A preliminary analysis. Journal of Groups in Addiction Recovery , 52 , 126–142.
Lazarus, R. S. (1993) Coping theory and research: Past, present, and future. Psychometric Medicine , 55 , 234-247.
Lazarus, R. S., & Folkman, S. (1984). Stress, Appraisal, and Coping . New York: Springer.
Masten, A. S. (2001). Ordinary magic: Resilience processes in development. American Psychologist , 56 , 227-238.
Patel, S. S., Rogers, M. B., Amlôt, R., & Rubin, G. J. (2017). What do we mean by ‘community resilience’? A systematic literature review of how it is defined in the literature. PLoS currents , 9 , ecurrents.dis.db775aff25efc5ac4f0660ad9c9f7db2.
Wright M. O., Masten A. S., & Narayan A. J. (2013). Resilience processes in development: Four waves of research on positive adaptation in the context of adversity. In S. Goldstein, & R. Brooks (Eds.), Handbook of Resilience in Children . Springer, Boston, MA
Skinner E. A., Edge, K., Altman, J., & Sherwood, H. (2003). Searching for the structure of coping: A Review and critique of category systems for classifying ways of coping. Psychological Bulletin , 129 (2), 216-269.
Werner, E. E. (1996). How children become resilient: Observations and causations. Resiliency in Action , 1 (1), 18-28.


3.4: Bases and Heights of Triangles
Lesson
Let's use different base-height pairs to find the area of a triangle.
Exercise \(\PageIndex{1}\): An Area of 12
Draw one triangle with an area of 12 square units. Try to draw a non-right triangle. Be prepared to explain how you know the area of your triangle is 12 square units.
Exercise \(\PageIndex{2}\): Hunting for Heights
- Here are three copies of the same triangle. The triangle is rotated so that the side chosen as the base is at the bottom and is horizontal. Draw a height that corresponds to each base. Use an index card to help you.
Side \(a\) as the base:
Side \(b\) as the base:
Side \(c\) as the base:
Pause for your teacher’s instructions before moving to the next question.
- Draw a line segment to show the height for the chosen base in each triangle.
Exercise \(\PageIndex{3}\): Some Bases Are Better Than Others
For each triangle, identify and label a base and height. If needed, draw a line segment to show the height.
Then, find the area of the triangle. Show your reasoning. (The side length of each square on the grid is 1 unit.)
Are you ready for more?
Find the area of this triangle. Show your reasoning.
Summary
A height of a triangle is a perpendicular segment between the side chosen as the base and the opposite vertex. We can use tools with right angles to help us draw height segments.
An index card (or any stiff paper with a right angle) is a handy tool for drawing a line that is perpendicular to another line.
- Choose a side of a triangle as the base. Identify its opposite vertex.
- Line up one edge of the index card with that base.
- Slide the card along the base until a perpendicular edge of the card meets the opposite vertex.
- Use the card edge to draw a line from the vertex to the base. That segment represents the height.
Sometimes we may need to extend the line of the base to identify the height, such as when finding the height of an obtuse triangle, or whenever the opposite vertex is not directly over the base. In these cases, the height segment is typically drawn outside of the triangle.
Even though any side of a triangle can be a base, some base-height pairs can be more easily determined than others, so it helps to choose strategically.
For example, when dealing with a right triangle, it often makes sense to use the two sides that make the right angle as the base and the height because one side is already perpendicular to the other.
If a triangle is on a grid and has a horizontal or a vertical side, you can use that side as a base and use the grid to find the height, as in these examples:
Glossary Entries
Definition: Edge
Each straight side of a polygon is called an edge.
For example, the edges of this polygon are segments \(AB\), \(BC\), \(CD\), \(DE\), and \(EA\).
Definition: Opposite Vertex
For each side of a triangle, there is one vertex that is not on that side. This is the opposite vertex.
For example, point \(A\) is the opposite vertex to side \(BC\).
Definition: Vertex
A vertex is a point where two or more edges meet. When we have more than one vertex, we call them vertices.
The vertices in this polygon are labeled \(A\), \(B\), \(C\), \(D\), and \(E\).
Practice
Exercise \(\PageIndex{4}\)
For each triangle, a base is labeled \(b\). Draw a line segment that shows its corresponding height. Use an index card to help you draw a straight line.
Exercise \(\PageIndex{5}\)
Select all triangles that have an area of 8 square units. Explain how you know.
Exercise \(\PageIndex{6}\)
Find the area of the triangle. Show your reasoning.
If you get stuck, carefully consider which side of the triangle to use as the base.
Exercise \(\PageIndex{7}\)
Can side \(d\) be the base for this triangle? If so, which length would be the corresponding height? If not, explain why not.
Exercise \(\PageIndex{8}\)
Find the area of this shape. Show your reasoning.
(From Unit 1.1.3)
Exercise \(\PageIndex{9}\)
On the grid, sketch two different parallelograms that have equal area. Label a base and height of each and explain how you know the areas are the same.
(From Unit 1.2.3)


2.14: Chapter Homework Solutions
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40 .
-
# flossing per week Frequency Relative frequency Cumulative relative frequency 0 27 0.4500 0.4500 1 18 0.3000 0.7500 3 11 0.1833 0.9333 6 3 0.0500 0.9833 7 1 0.0167 1 Table 1.19 - 5.00%
- 93.33%
42 .
The sum of the travel times is 1,173.1. Divide the sum by 50 to calculate the mean value: 23.462. Because each state’s travel time was measured to the nearest tenth, round this calculation to the nearest hundredth: 23.46.
44 .
b
1 .
3 .
5 .
7 .
9 .
65
11 .
The relative frequency shows the proportion of data points that have each value. The frequency tells the number of data points that have each value.
13 .
Answers will vary. One possible histogram is shown:
15 .
Find the midpoint for each class. These will be graphed on the x -axis. The frequency values will be graphed on the y -axis values.
17 .
19 .
- The 40 th percentile is 37 years.
- The 78 th percentile is 70 years.
21 .
Jesse graduated 37 th out of a class of 180 students. There are 180 – 37 = 143 students ranked below Jesse. There is one rank of 37.
\(x = 143\) and \(y = 1\). \(\frac{x+0.5 y}{n}(100)=\frac{143+0.5(1)}{180}(100) = 79.72\). Jesse’s rank of 37 puts him at the 80 th percentile.
23 .
- For runners in a race it is more desirable to have a high percentile for speed. A high percentile means a higher speed which is faster.
- 40% of runners ran at speeds of 7.5 miles per hour or less (slower). 60% of runners ran at speeds of 7.5 miles per hour or more (faster).
25 .
When waiting in line at the DMV, the 85 th percentile would be a long wait time compared to the other people waiting. 85% of people had shorter wait times than Mina. In this context, Mina would prefer a wait time corresponding to a lower percentile. 85% of people at the DMV waited 32 minutes or less. 15% of people at the DMV waited 32 minutes or longer.
27 .
The manufacturer and the consumer would be upset. This is a large repair cost for the damages, compared to the other cars in the sample. INTERPRETATION: 90% of the crash tested cars had damage repair costs of $1700 or less; only 10% had damage repair costs of $1700 or more.
29 .
You can afford 34% of houses. 66% of the houses are too expensive for your budget. INTERPRETATION: 34% of houses cost $240,000 or less. 66% of houses cost $240,000 or more.
31 .
4
33 .
\(6 – 4 = 2\)
35 .
6
37 .
Mean: \(16 + 17 + 19 + 20 + 20 + 21 + 23 + 24 + 25 + 25 + 25 + 26 + 26 + 27 + 27 + 27 + 28 + 29 + 30 + 32 + 33 + 33 + 34 + 35 + 37 + 39 + 40 = 738\);
\(\frac{738}{27} = 27.33\)
39 .
The most frequent lengths are 25 and 27, which occur three times. Mode = 25, 27
41 .
4
44 .
39.48 in.
45 .
$21,574
46 .
15.98 ounces
47 .
81.56
48 .
4 hours
49 .
2.01 inches
50 .
18.25
51 .
10
52 .
14.15
53 .
14
54 .
14.78
55 .
44%
56 .
100%
57 .
6%
58 .
33%
59 .
The data are symmetrical. The median is 3 and the mean is 2.85. They are close, and the mode lies close to the middle of the data, so the data are symmetrical.
61 .
The data are skewed right. The median is 87.5 and the mean is 88.2. Even though they are close, the mode lies to the left of the middle of the data, and there are many more instances of 87 than any other number, so the data are skewed right.
63 .
When the data are symmetrical, the mean and median are close or the same.
65 .
The distribution is skewed right because it looks pulled out to the right.
67 .
The mean is 4.1 and is slightly greater than the median, which is four.
69 .
The mode and the median are the same. In this case, they are both five.
71 .
The distribution is skewed left because it looks pulled out to the left.
73 .
The mean and the median are both six.
75 .
The mode is 12, the median is 12.5, and the mean is 15.1. The mean is the largest.
77 .
The mean tends to reflect skewing the most because it is affected the most by outliers.
79 .
\(s = 34.5\)
81 .
For Fredo: \(z=\frac{0.158-0.166}{0.012} = –0.67\)
For Karl: \(z=\frac{0.177-0.189}{0.015}=-0.8\)
Fredo’s z -score of –0.67 is higher than Karl’s z -score of –0.8. For batting average, higher values are better, so Fredo has a better batting average compared to his team.
83 .
- \(s_{x}=\sqrt{\frac{\sum f m^{2}}{n}-\overline{x}^{2}}=\sqrt{\frac{193157.45}{30}-79.5^{2}}=10.88\)
- \(s_{x}=\sqrt{\frac{\sum f m^{2}}{n}-\overline{x}^{2}}=\sqrt{\frac{38045.3}{101}-60.94^{2}}=7.62\)
- \(s_{x}=\sqrt{\frac{\sum f m^{2}}{n}-\overline{x}^{2}}=\sqrt{\frac{440051.5}{86}-70.66^{2}}=11.14\)
84 .
-
Example solution for using the random number generator for the TI-84+ to generate a simple random sample of 8 states. Instructions are as follows.
- Number the entries in the table 1–51 (Includes Washington, DC; Numbered vertically)
- Press MATH
- Arrow over to PRB
- Press 5:randInt(
- Enter 51,1,8)
Eight numbers are generated (use the right arrow key to scroll through the numbers). The numbers correspond to the numbered states (for this example: {47 21 9 23 51 13 25 4}. If any numbers are repeated, generate a different number by using 5:randInt(51,1)). Here, the states (and Washington DC) are {Arkansas, Washington DC, Idaho, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Virginia, Wyoming}.
Corresponding percents are \(\{30.1, 22.2, 26.5, 27.1, 30.9, 34.0, 26.0, 25.1\}\).
86 .
| Amount($) | Frequency | Relative frequency |
|---|---|---|
| 51–100 | 5 | 0.08 |
| 101–150 | 10 | 0.17 |
| 151–200 | 15 | 0.25 |
| 201–250 | 15 | 0.25 |
| 251–300 | 10 | 0.17 |
| 301–350 | 5 | 0.08 |
| Amount($) | Frequency | Relative frequency |
|---|---|---|
| 100–150 | 5 | 0.07 |
| 201–250 | 5 | 0.07 |
| 251–300 | 5 | 0.07 |
| 301–350 | 5 | 0.07 |
| 351–400 | 10 | 0.14 |
| 401–450 | 10 | 0.14 |
| 451–500 | 10 | 0.14 |
| 501–550 | 10 | 0.14 |
| 551–600 | 5 | 0.07 |
| 601–650 | 5 | 0.07 |
- See Table \(\PageIndex{87}\) and Table \(\PageIndex{88}\).
- In the following histogram data values that fall on the right boundary are counted in the class interval, while values that fall on the left boundary are not counted (with the exception of the first interval where both boundary values are included).
- In the following histogram, the data values that fall on the right boundary are counted in the class interval, while values that fall on the left boundary are not counted (with the exception of the first interval where values on both boundaries are included).
-
Compare the two graphs:
-
Answers may vary. Possible answers include:
- Both graphs have a single peak.
- Both graphs use class intervals with width equal to $50.
-
Answers may vary. Possible answers include:
- The couples graph has a class interval with no values.
- It takes almost twice as many class intervals to display the data for couples.
- Answers may vary. Possible answers include: The graphs are more similar than different because the overall patterns for the graphs are the same.
-
Answers may vary. Possible answers include:
- Check student's solution.
-
Compare the graph for the Singles with the new graph for the Couples:
-
- Both graphs have a single peak.
- Both graphs display 6 class intervals.
- Both graphs show the same general pattern.
- Answers may vary. Possible answers include: Although the width of the class intervals for couples is double that of the class intervals for singles, the graphs are more similar than they are different.
-
- Answers may vary. Possible answers include: You are able to compare the graphs interval by interval. It is easier to compare the overall patterns with the new scale on the Couples graph. Because a couple represents two individuals, the new scale leads to a more accurate comparison.
- Answers may vary. Possible answers include: Based on the histograms, it seems that spending does not vary much from singles to individuals who are part of a couple. The overall patterns are the same. The range of spending for couples is approximately double the range for individuals.
88 .
c
90 .
Answers will vary.
92 .
- \(1 – (0.02+0.09+0.19+0.26+0.18+0.17+0.02+0.01) = 0.06\)
- \(0.19+0.26+0.18 = 0.63\)
- Check student’s solution.
-
40
th
percentile will fall between 30,000 and 40,000
80 th percentile will fall between 50,000 and 75,000
- Check student’s solution.
94 .
The mean percentage, \(\overline{x}=\frac{1328.65}{50}=26.75\)
95 .
- Yes
- The sample is 0.5 higher.
96 .
- 20
- No
97 .
51
98 .
- 42
- 99
99 .
$10.19
100 .
17%
101 .
$30,772.48
102 .
4.4%
103 .
7.24%
104 .
-1.27%
106 .
The median value is the middle value in the ordered list of data values. The median value of a set of 11 will be the 6th number in order. Six years will have totals at or below the median.
108 .
474 FTES
110 .
919
112 .
- mean = 1,809.3
- median = 1,812.5
- standard deviation = 151.2
- first quartile = 1,690
- third quartile = 1,935
- \(IQR = 245\)
113 .
Hint: Think about the number of years covered by each time period and what happened to higher education during those periods.
115 .
For pianos, the cost of the piano is 0.4 standard deviations BELOW the mean. For guitars, the cost of the guitar is 0.25 standard deviations ABOVE the mean. For drums, the cost of the drum set is 1.0 standard deviations BELOW the mean. Of the three, the drums cost the lowest in comparison to the cost of other instruments of the same type. The guitar costs the most in comparison to the cost of other instruments of the same type.
117 .
- \(\overline{x}=23.32\)
- Using the TI 83/84, we obtain a standard deviation of: \(s_{x}=12.95\).
- The obesity rate of the United States is 10.58% higher than the average obesity rate.
- Since the standard deviation is 12.95, we see that \(23.32 + 12.95 = 36.27\) is the obesity percentage that is one standard deviation from the mean. The United States obesity rate is slightly less than one standard deviation from the mean. Therefore, we can assume that the United States, while 34% obese, does not hav e an unusually high percentage of obese people.
120 .
a
122 .
b
123 .
- 1.48
- 1.12
125 .
- 174; 177; 178; 184; 185; 185; 185; 185; 188; 190; 200; 205; 205; 206; 210; 210; 210; 212; 212; 215; 215; 220; 223; 228; 230; 232; 241; 241; 242; 245; 247; 250; 250; 259; 260; 260; 265; 265; 270; 272; 273; 275; 276; 278; 280; 280; 285; 285; 286; 290; 290; 295; 302
- 241
- 205.5
- 272.5
- 205.5, 272.5
- sample
- population
-
- 236.34
- 37.50
- 161.34
- 0.84 std. dev. below the mean
- Young
127 .
- True
- True
- True
- False
129 .
-
Enrollment Frequency 1000-5000 10 5000-10000 16 10000-15000 3 15000-20000 3 20000-25000 1 25000-30000 2 Table \(\PageIndex{89}\) - Check student’s solution.
- mode
- 8628.74
- 6943.88
- –0.09
131 .
a


18.6: Finding the Percentage
Lesson
Let's find percentages in general.
Exercise \(\PageIndex{1}\): True or False: Percentages
Is each statement true or false? Be prepared to explain your reasoning.
- 25% of 512 is equal to \(\frac{1}{4}\cdot 500\).
- 90% of 133 is equal to \((0.9)\cdot 133\).
- 30% of 44 is equal to 3% of 440.
- The percentage 21 is of 28 is equal to the percentage 30 is of 40.
Exercise \(\PageIndex{2}\): Jumping Rope
A school held a jump-roping contest. Diego jumped rope for 20 minutes.
- Jada jumped rope for 15 minutes. What percentage of Diego’s time is that?
- Lin jumped rope for 24 minutes. What percentage of Diego’s time is that?
- Noah jumped rope for 9 minutes. What percentage of Diego’s time is that?
-
Record your answers in this table. Write the quotients in the last column as decimals.
time (minutes) percentage time \(\div 20\) Diego \(20\) \(100\) \(\frac{20}{20}=1\) Jada \(15\) \(\frac{15}{20}=\) Lin \(24\) \(\frac{24}{20}=\) Noah \(9\) \(\frac{9}{20}=\) Table \(\PageIndex{1}\) - What do you notice about the numbers in the last two columns of the table?
Exercise \(\PageIndex{3}\): Restaurant Cpacity
A restaurant has a sign by the front door that says, “Maximum occupancy: 75 people.” Answer each question and explain or show your reasoning.
- What percentage of its capacity is 9 people?
- What percentage of its capacity is 51 people?
- What percentage of its capacity is 84 people?
Are you ready for more?
Water makes up about 71% of Earth’s surface, while the other 29% consists of continents and islands. 96% of all Earth’s water is contained within the oceans as salt water, while the remaining 4% is fresh water located in lakes, rivers, glaciers, and the polar ice caps.
If the total volume of water on Earth is 1,386 million cubic kilometers, what is the volume of salt water? What is the volume of fresh water?
Summary
What percentage of 90 kg is 36 kg? One way to solve this problem is to first find what percentage 1 kg is of 90, and then multiply by 36.
From the table we can see that 1 kg is \(\left(\frac{1}{90}\cdot 100\right)\)%, so 36 kg is \(\left(\frac{36}{90}\cdot 100\right)\)% or 40% of 90. We can confirm this on a double number line:
In general, to find what percentage a number \(C\) is of another number \(B\) is to calculate \(\frac{C}{B}\) of 100%. We can find do that by multiplying: \(\frac{C}{B}\cdot 100\)
Suppose a school club has raised $88 for a project but needs a total of $160. What percentage of its goal has the club raised?
To find what percentage $88 is of $160, we find \(\frac{88}{160}\) of 100% or \(\frac{88}{160}\cdot 100\), which equals \(\frac{11}{20}\cdot 100\) or 55. The club has raised 55% of its goal.
Glossary Entries
Definition: Percent
The word percent means “for each 100.” The symbol for percent is %.
For example, a quarter is worth 25 cents, and a dollar is worth 100 cents. We can say that a quarter is worth 25% of a dollar.
Definition: Percentage
A percentage is a rate per 100.
For example, a fish tank can hold 36 liters. Right now there is 27 liters of water in the tank. The percentage of the tank that is full is 75%.
Practice
Exercise \(\PageIndex{4}\)
A sign in front of a roller coaster says "You must be 40 inches tall to ride." What percentage of this height is:
- \(34\) inches?
- \(54\) inches?
Exercise \(\PageIndex{5}\)
At a hardware store, a tool set normally costs $80. During a sale this week, the tool set costs $12 less than usual. What percentage of the usual price is the savings? Explain or show your reasoning.
Exercise \(\PageIndex{6}\)
A bathtub can hold 80 gallons of water. The faucet flows at a rate of 4 gallons per minute. What percentage of the tub will be filled after 6 minutes?
Exercise \(\PageIndex{7}\)
The sale price of every item in a store is 85% of its usual price.
- The usual price of a backpack is $30, what is its sale price?
- The usual price of a sweatshirt is $18, what is its sale price?
- The usual price of a soccer ball is $24.80, what is its sale price?
(From Unit 3.4.6)
Exercise \(\PageIndex{8}\)
A shopper needs 48 hot dogs. The store sells identical hot dogs in 2 differently sized packages. They sell a six-pack of hot dogs for $2.10, and an eight-pack of hot dogs for $3.12. Should the shopper buy 8 six-packs, or 6 eight-packs? Explain your reasoning.
(From Unit 3.3.5)
Exercise \(\PageIndex{9}\)
Elena is 56 inches tall.
- What is her height in centimeters? (Note: 100 inches = 254 centimeters)
- What is her height in meters?
(From Unit 3.2.3)


9.8: Works Consulted and Further Reading
Binns, Tony, et al. Geographies of Development: An Introduction to Development Studies, 3rd ed. Harlow: Pearson Education, 2008.
Bremmer, Ian. “The Mixed Fortunes in the BRICS countries in 5 Facts.” Time Magazine Online , September 1, 2017. https://time.com/4923837/brics-summi...ixed-fortunes/
Budkin, Yanina. “Understanding Poverty.” World Bank , April 11, 2018. https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/poverty/overview
“Country Comparison of Real GDP (PPP).” In CIA World Factbook , 2017. https://www.cia.gov/library/publicat.../2001rank.html
Geary, Kate. “Learning Hard Lessons: AIIB and the Tarbela Dam in Pakistan.” The Wire , May 9, 2017. https://thewire.in/environment/learn...a-dam-pakistan
Gregory, Derek, ed. The Dictionary of Human Geography , 5th ed. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2009.
Good, Keith. “House Ag Committee Examines NAFTA – Trade Issues.” Farm Policy News, July 27, 2017. https://farmpolicynews.illinois.edu/...-trade-issues/
“Human Development Reports Table 2: Trends in the Human Development Index, 1990- 2015.” United Nations Development Programme, accessed January 17, 2018, http://hdr.undp.org/en/composite/trends
Kelly, Annie. “Gross national happiness in Bhutan: the big idea from a tiny state that could change the world.” The Guardian: US Edition , Dec 1, 2012. https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...ppiness-counts
Kiev, C.W. “What Dutch disease is, and why it’s bad.” The Economis , November 5, 2014. https://www.economist.com/the-econom...nd-why-its-bad
“LDC’s in Facts and Figures.” United Nations, accessed December 1, 2017, http://unohrlls.org/about-ldcs/facts-and-figures-2/
Long, Heather. “Reality check: U.S. manufacturing jobs at 1940s levels.” CNN Money Online. U.S. Version , April 7, 2017. https://money.cnn.com/2017/04/07/new...obs/index.html
Lopez, Ditas and Karl M Yap. “Donald Trump Has Call Centers in the Philippines Worried.” Bloomberg News, March 9, 2017. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...-seek-lobbyist
McMichael, Philip. Development and Social Change: A Global Perspective , 3rd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press, 2005.
Neate, Rupert. “Richest 1% own half the world’s wealth, study finds.” The Guardian (US Edition) , November 14, 2017. https://www.theguardian.com/inequali...-credit-suisse
Peet, Robert, and Ellen Hartwick. Theories of Development : Contentions, arguments, alternatives, 2 nd ed. New York: Guilford Press, 2009.
“Population Reference Bureau Data Finder.” United Nations Population Reference Bureau, accessed February 11, 2018. https://www.prb.org/data/
Reuters Staff. “Mexican agency finds irregularities in Pemex, Odebrecht contract.” Reuters Online , September 11, 2017. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-m...-idUSKCN1BN08D
Simoes, Alexander. “South Korea.” The Observatory of Economic Complexity , Accessed January 17, 2018. https://oec.world/en/profile/country/kor/
Stanton, Elizabeth. “The Human Development Index: A History.” Working Paper Series Number 127. Political Economy Research Institute . University of Massachusetts Amherst. February 2007. https://scholarworks.umass.edu/cgi/v..._workingpapers
Stephenson, Wesley. “Have 1,200 World Cup workers really died in Qatar?” BBC News Magazine , June 6, 2017. https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-33019838
Yueh, Linda. “Can de-industrialisation be reversed?” BBC News , February 16, 2015. https://www.bbc.com/news/business-31495851


14.1: Introduction
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The study of food has a long history in anthropology and weaves together various subfields of the discipline. Among other things, food connects to nutrition and health, rituals and behaviors regarding production and consumption, and worldwide trade networks and the related diffusion of plants, animals, and artifacts. Distinguishing between what is and what is not food is a major concern within and across most human cultures. Food varies not only from one society to another but also across genders, classes, family groups, and seasons. As both a source of sustenance for the body and a means of establishing or advertising one’s social status, food plays a major role in personal and cultural identity. In globalized Western culture, people regularly eat foods that originated in other cultures—such as sushi, gyros, tacos, spaghetti, and crepes, to name just a few—but practices such as avoiding certain foods (food prohibitions) and even eating one’s family members or enemies (forms of cannibalism) are cross-cultural food traditions that are likely less familiar.
Culturally appropriate preparation and consumption of food requires a vast array of knowledge, artifacts, and rituals. In Figure 14.2, an Indigenous woman in Mexico is making tortillas, using a grinder and grindstone to transform corn into flour, which she then mixes with water to create a batter. Preparing flour in this traditional manner typically requires the cook to navigate various stages of food preparation, including choosing the best dried grains, nuts, spices, or herbs; assessing when a flour has reached the desired consistency; and physically being able to use the grindstone. The food utensils that the woman is using are not only tools but also symbols associated with the women who own and use them. Within families, these utensils may be passed down through generations. In some cultures, it is common for Indigenous women to inherit the grindstones of their mothers and grandmothers.


12.27: States in the Late Middle Ages and Renaissance
As Europe transitioned into the fifteenth century, two of Europe’s most organized states remained locked in destructive warfare. England’s king Henry V (r. 1413 – 1422) came close to conquering all of France, aided largely by the fact that France itself was riven by a civil war between two powerful houses of nobles, the Armagnacs and Burgundians. Eventually, however, when France’s rival houses ended their differences, the unified nation was able to expel English troops, using trained and disciplined infantry funded by a centralized apparatus of taxation. The Hundred Years’ War thus ended in 1453. England’s loss in France was followed by a civil war (usually known as the Wars of the Roses because the rival factions used a red and a white rose, respectively, as their emblems) that lasted from 1455 to 1485.
In Northern Italy, at the same time as the brilliant artistic achievements of the Italian Renaissance, the city-states of Italy were locked in near-continual warfare until the 1454 Treaty of Lodi brought almost half a century of peace to the Italian peninsula. That peace would come to an end, however, in 1494, when King Charles VIII of France (r. 1483 – 1498) turned the power of the newly consolidated French state to an invasion of Italy. In the wars that followed, the cannons used by the French army were able to effortlessly batter down the Italian cities’ and castles’ medieval walls. A new era of warfare was beginning.


8.7: References
Adler, R. B., Rosenfeld, L. B., & Ii, R. P. F. (2020). Interplay: The process of interpersonal communication (15th ed.). Oxford University Press.
Bishop, S.C., Hill, P.S., & Yang, L. (2012). Use of aggressive humor: Aggressive humor style, verbal aggressiveness and social dominance orientation. Ohio Communication Journal, 50, 73-82.
Cohn, A. (2017). In praise of positive feedback . Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisacohn/2017/07/21/in-praise-of-positive-feedback/
Danielson, R. (n.d.) Remaining professional when you're frustrated. Lumen Learning. https://courses.lumenlearning.com/wm-businesscommunicationmgrs/chapter/remaining-professional-when-youre-frustrated/
Eurich, T. (2018, August 6). The right way to respond to negative feedback. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2018/05/the-right-way-to-respond-to-negative-feedback
Finkelstein, S. R., & Fishbach, A. (2012). Tell me what I did wrong: Experts seek and respond to negative feedback. Journal of Consumer Research, 39 (1), 22-38. https://doi.org/10.1086/661934
Foreign Service Institute, (n.d.). Context is everything: Communicating in high- and low- context cultures. US Department of State. https://www.state.gov/courses/answeringdifficultquestions/html/app.htm?p=module3_p3.htm
Furlan, J., & Schneider, C. M. (2021, September 2). Receiving feedback doesn't have to be scary. here's how you can get most out of it. WBUR. https://www.wbur.org/npr/1030659507/receiving-feedback-doesnt-have-to-be-scary-heres-how-you-can-get-most-out-of-it
Gibb, J. R. (1965). Defensive communication. Etc: A Review of General Semantics , 22 (2), 221–229. www.jstor.org/stable/42574118
Grant, H. (2013, January 28). Sometimes negative feedback is best. Harvard Business Review. hbr.org/2013/01/sometimes-negative-feedback-is
Hall, E. T. (1976). Beyond culture (1st ed). Anchor Press.
Kelly, L., Miller-Ott, A.E., & Duran, R.L. (2019). Pubbing friends: Understanding face threats from, and response to, friends’ cell phone usage through the lens of politeness theory. Communication Quarterly, 67, 540-559.
Kwantlen Polytechnic University Learning Centres. (2018). Learning to learn online . Kwantlen Polytechnic University.
Mayo Clinic Staff. (2022, February 3). Positive thinking: Stop negative self-talk to reduce stress. Mayo Clinic. www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/stress-management/in-depth/positive-thinking/art-20043950?reDate=14052022
National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities. (2022, October 28). Disability impacts all of us. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/disabilityandhealth/infographic-disability-impacts-all.html
Parramore, L. S. (2014, June 5). The social death penalty: Why being ostracized hurts even more than bullying. Truthout. https://truthout.org/articles/the-social-death-penalty-why-being-ostracized-hurts-even-more-than-bullying/
Philippot, P., Chapelle, G., & Blairy, S. (2002). Respiratory feedback in the generation of emotion. Cognition & Emotion, 16 (5), 605-627. www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02699930143000392?journalCode=pcem20
Rockwell, D. (2015, March 19). Seven Positive Responses to Negative Feedback. Leadership Freak. Retrieved October 18, 2021, from https://leadershipfreak.blog/2013/11/13/seven-positive-responses-to-negative-feedback/
Suler, J. (2004). The online disinhibition effect. Cyberpsychology & Behavior, 7 (3). doi.org/10.1089/1094931041291295
University of Regina. (n.d). 5.3 Giving and Receiving Feedback. Pressbooks. opentextbooks.uregina.ca/learningtolearnonlineatfanshawe/chapter/give-and-receive-feedback/
US Department of Health and Human Services. (2021, November 5). What is cyberbullying. StopBullying.Gov. https://www.stopbullying.gov/cyberbullying/what-is-it
US Department of Health and Human Services. (2022, June 30). What is bullying. StopBullying.Gov. https://www.stopbullying.gov/bullying/what-is-bullying
Wood, J. T. (2015). Interpersonal communication: Everyday encounters (8th ed.). Cengage Learning.


21.1: Urethra
The urethra transports urine from the bladder to the outside of the body for disposal. The urethra is the only urologic organ that shows any significant anatomic difference between males and females; all other urine transport structures are identical (Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\)). The urethra in both males and females begins inferior and central to the two ureteral openings forming the three points of a triangular-shaped area at the base of the bladder called the trigone (Greek tri- = “triangle” and the root of the word “trigonometry”). The urethra tracks posterior and inferior to the pubic symphysis (see Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\)). In both males and females, the proximal urethra is lined by transitional epithelium, whereas the terminal portion is a nonkeratinized, stratified squamous epithelium. In the male, pseudostratified columnar epithelium lines the urethra between these two cell types. Voiding is regulated by an involuntary autonomic nervous system-controlled internal urinary sphincter , consisting of smooth muscle and voluntary skeletal muscle that forms the external urinary sphincter below it


10.19: Reading- Diffusion of Innovation
Just as the product life cycle has a typical bell-shaped pattern, there is a predictable—and similar-shaped—pattern of buying, or adoption, when it comes to new products. This customer adoption pattern is important because it can be used to inform marketing decisions.
Diffusion-of-Innovation Theory
Common sense suggests that not everyone will buy a new product at the same time. Some will rush out and buy first or try to get an early version of a product before it is widely available. Others will wait until many people have adopted a product before they reluctantly consider the purchase. As early as 1962, Everett Rogers recognized this phenomenon and described it as the “diffusion of innovation.” He developed a theory to support it, explaining how, why, and at what rate an innovation will be adopted by participants in a social system. The theory divides adopters into different groups with shared characteristics, as shown in Figure 1, below:
The purple line on the graph indicates the percentage of the market that will buy a new product in each phase of product adoption. You can see from the graph that there is a small number of innovators, and a large number of early majority and late majority adopters. The yellow line on the graph shows the cumulative market share gained. In other words, the yellow line shows the total of the market share gained at the end of each phase, adding together the share from each prior phase.
Consumer Adoption Patterns
Innovators
Innovators are willing to take risks and are viewed by their peers as risk takers. Innovators’ risk tolerance enables them to adopt technologies that may ultimately fail, and they typically need sufficient financial resources to absorb these failures. Innovators tend to be very tuned into market leaders and the latest developments. To stay on top of current trends, they research products thoroughly using “in-the-know” sources such as expert blogs and product forums. Innovators are willing to pay a premium to be the first to try a new offering. Although this is the smallest segment in the diffusion-of-innovation theory, if innovators approve of a product, it marks an important gateway toward generating broader market acceptance.
Early Adopters
Early adopters have a high degree of opinion leadership among the adopter categories. Others look to this group to road-test and validate new products. As a significantly larger segment than innovators, early adopters are influential in shaping the opinions of later adopters. Therefore it is essential to achieve high customer satisfaction with this segment. Early adopters are more aggressive than later adopters, but they are judicious about their adoption choices. Early adopters don’t look to be first at any cost, so they actively consider risk as part of the decision-making process. To illustrate, classic innovator behavior is to camp out overnight for the first showing of a new film, while early adopters read the reviews before deciding to see a film during the opening weekend.
Early Majority
Early majority adopters are more risk averse than early adopters, so they wait for the wrinkles to be ironed out of new products before making a purchase. Early majority buyers tend to seek a lot of opinion and validation to guide their choices: they want to know that the early adopters and innovators have had a good experience before they invest. The window of early majority purchasing spans a longer period of time than the innovators’ and early adopters.’ Early majority buyers generally have more choices in terms of quality, features, and price because competition tends to peak when this group’s buying cycle is in full swing. Like the early adopters, the early majority’s opinions and decisions carry weight across the adopter categories.
Late Majority
Late majority adopters arrive after the “average” participant has embraced an innovation. These individuals approach innovations reluctantly and with more skepticism than their predecessors. Late majority buyers are less likely to conduct extensive research about a purchase; instead they tend simply to follow the buying behaviors of earlier-adopting segments.
Laggards
Laggards are the last to adopt an innovation. Often they are older and less educated than buyers in the other diffusion of innovation segments. Laggards typically have little or no opinion leadership and are averse to things they perceive as “agents of change.” Laggards tend to be focused on traditions. They are less connected socially, less involved with media, and harder to reach than the other groups.
Marketing an Innovation
Figure 1, above, shows a tipping point between the early majority and the late majority adopters. A tipping point is the point at which small changes are enough to cause a larger, more substantial change. The challenge for the marketer is to encourage the adoption of a product by early adopters and the early majority in order to reach that tipping point. Once these groups are on board, their momentum helps drive the product from the introduction stage of the life cycle into the growth stage.
Often marketers are tempted to focus their marketing efforts on the innovators. Innovators are game to try the product, which makes them an easier target than risk-averse consumers. In all but the most unusual, extreme cases, though, this will be a flawed strategy. The early adopters are actually in a much better position to influence broad opinion of the product and to draw in the early majority. By the same token, aggressive marketing to laggards is unlikely to influence their pattern of adoption.
Understanding the patterns of adoption and adjusting the marketing strategy to address changes in adoption profiles is a challenge that marketers of new products need to understand and face.
Contributors and Attributions
- Diffusion of Innovation. Provided by : Lumen Learning. License : CC BY: Attribution
- Early Adopter. Authored by : Quinn Dombrowski. Located at : https://www.flickr.com/photos/quinnanya/3813741958/ . License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike