This paper will discuss the topic of stress. Special emphasis will be placed on job-related stress as it pertains to police officers. In the 1950s, Dr. Hans Selye was among the first scientists to arrive at a definition of the term "stress." Selye described stress as "the state manifested by a specific syndrome which consists of all the nonspecifically induced changes within a biological system" (Frew, 1977, p. 56). In everyday terms, this refers to "the effects of all outside forces on your body, whether they be psychological or physical, and the body's resultant change due to those forces" (Sorrentino and Hausman, 1986, p. 133). Selye's definition refers to "nonspecifically induced changes," which means that stress is "caused by many different and changing agents" (Frew, p. 57). Therefore, it can be seen that there are a variety of potential elements which may act as stressors within a particular person's environment.
It is interesting to note that stress within the human organism has positive as well as negative effects. In particular, stress is positive at times because it "elevates blood pressure and speeds up body functions so that we can be more aware and alert" (Sorrentino and Hausman, p. 133). This is obviously a vital factor in responding to an emergency, for example. However, whenever the body fails to calm down following such a stress reaction, a number of physiological and psychological problems may result. Many researchers in the field have referred to this process as the fight-or-flight syndrome. Whenever the human brain "perceives a threat of any sort, it begins to mobilize the entire body for action" (Payne, 1984, p. 64). This mobilization of the body's nervous resources causes the increased blood pressure, which is characteristic of the stress response. The fight-or-flight response is regarded as an appropriate reaction to most environ-mental stresses; however, it has been noted that "if stressful circumstances...