1950) eventually came to consider the possibility that a variety of damaging influences, or stressors, could produce the same reactions, or stress outcomes, within an organism. He theorized that, if it could be shown that the "organism had a general nonspecific reaction pattern with which it could meet damage caused by a variety of . . . disease producers," this reponse on the part of the organism "would lend itself to a strictly objective, . . . scientific analysis" (Selye, 1950, p. 31).
Another significant contribution by Selye to stress research involved the impact of stress on organisms. He was the first to publicly hold that, while excessive stress may be
damaging to an organism, (1) an absence of stress was not desirable, and (2) moderate stress may have beneficial effects (Selye, 1950). Viewed in this broader perspective, stress is "the nonspecific response of the body to any demand" (Selye, 1950, p. 472).
Selye's expanded concept of stress contained three levels: (1) the environment; (2) the organism's appraisal and evalua tion of the environment; and (3) the organism's reaction to the environment (Woolfolk, & Richardson, 1988). An organism appraises and evaluates the environment as threatening, help ful, or neutral. Responses on the part of an organism may be psychological, physiological, or both (Woolfolk, & Richardson, 1988). This perception of stress was significant in several ways. One of the most important was the recognition that it was not the actual harmfulness of a stressor which was the only way in which a stressor could cause damage. The percep tion of harmfulness could also cause damage.
In the 1960s, the idea was introduced that the quantity of stress, as well as the quality of stress (perceived or actual), affects both the probability and the extent of damage from stress (Langner, & Michael, 1963). It was reported that the "risk of impairment bears a linear . . . r...