CREW RESOURCE MANAGEMENT (continued)

STRESS MANAGEMENT

The growing interest in stress reflects the widespread awareness that stress is related to many physical and mental disorders, and to a large number of accidents in the home and on the job.
Simply recognizing the involvement of stress does not necessarily solve the problem.
We must try to understand how to cope with it.

For these reason, the aviator must have an understanding of Stress Management in order to improve his Human-Crew Resource Management techniques, He must also understands it’s relationship to decision making.

Stress and Decision Making

What does stress have to do with making decisions?

Stress is one of the greatest factors affecting our ability to make logical decisions.
It causes us to have “tunnel vision” or “a narrow focus”.
In its most dangerous form it is called panic during which we may even lose control of our motor coordination.

Decision making, or rather the lack thereof, is one of the leading causes of stress.
The simple commitment to undertake a complex task, whether self‑imposed or forced on us by others, can cause a great deal of mental stress that can lead to all of the problems mentioned above.
Such pressure is one of the leading causes of workload in the workplace and can cause us to fail to allocate the necessary attention to the task of doing our job efficiently.

What is Stress?

Stress is the term we use to describe the body's nonspecific response to demands placed upon it, for example, could be an unexpected mechanical problem while flying an aircraft, driving a vehicle, losing your wallet, or cutting your finger.
Our bodies will respond to these and all other demands in three stages:

First, there will be an alarm reaction; then resistance; and finally if the demand continues, exhaustion.

This three‑stage response is part of our primitive biological coping mechanism which prepared our ancestors for flight.

Alarm Reaction: In the alarm stage, the body recognizes the stressor and prepares for flight by activating a part of the brain which stimulates the pituitary gland to release hormones, which trigger the adrenal gland to pour out adrenaline. Adrenaline increases heartbeat and rate of breathing, raises blood sugar levels, increases perspiration, dilates the pupils, and slows digestion. If the alarm results in fear, the body reacts with low blood pressure resulting in a pale face. The process results in a huge burst of energy, greater muscular strength, and better hearing and vision. You may recall experiencing an alarm reaction the first time you performed a night autorotation.

The short term solution to an immediate problem the production of adrenaline causes a greater level of alertness (to a certain point) which provides a greater ability to find a solution.

The long term results are not harmful unless they are very severe and lasting.

These two types of stress should be kept in mind.

Resistance: In the resistance stage, the body repairs any damage caused by the stress and may adapt to some stresses such as extreme cold, hard physical labor, or worries. Fortunately, most physical and emotional stressors are of brief duration and our bodies cope with the physiological demands of the stress. During our lifetime, we go through the first two stages many times. We need these response mechanisms to react to the many demands and threats of daily living.

Exhaustion: However, if the stress continues (for example, if you were placed in a survival situation, after a crash, or with an enemy close at your heels), the body will remain in a constant state of readiness for flight. It will be unable to keep up with the demands, leading to the final stage of exhaustion.

The effects that personality has relative to a person’s reaction to stress.

The Effects of Personality:

There is no question that personality influences the way we react to stress. Some people have personality styles that may contribute to stress‑related disorders. They may feel so fearful of making mistakes, of being criticized, of doing less than a perfect job, that they will withdraw from challenging situations or avoid confrontation. This may result in feeling frustrated, incompetent, or in the worst case result in an accident.

Cardiologists have described two personality behavior types which have been linked with certain diseases.

Type A behavior has been seen as a major contributor to coronary heart disease and is characterized by a competitive, aggressive, achievement‑oriented, time‑dominated view of life.
Type A people are usually unaware that their behavior creates problems for others or is detrimental to their health, since this behavior is condoned and applauded by our achievement‑oriented society.

Type B individuals have a behavior exactly different from Type A and have found a comfortable, more relaxed pace. Type B’s work more slowly and thoughtfully, which can permit greater creativity. They allow themselves the leisure to develop more fully as people, and have a number of outside interests, activities, and friendships. Many Type B people have plenty of drive and achievements, but time is scheduled with a calendar, not a stopwatch.

Time and Stress

The urgency of time drives most of us. Multiple tasks must be performed simultaneously to complete them all. Demands often exceed the time available and overloading means that stress response is aroused, possibly to dangerous levels. This is of crucial concern to those who operate complex machinery where one person must often make all of the decisions and perform all of the tasks.

A frequent reaction to time pressure is juggling, attempting to cram several activities into insufficient time. The human brain seems to lack the capacity to perform many simultaneous conscious operations efficiently because one task may interfere with another.

Stress and performance

Stress has a cumulative effect; some degree of stress can be of assistance in certain situations, and stressors which persist over a long period can severely affect our performance and health.
· Moderate levels of stress can have a positive effect on performance.
· Performance will peak at some optimum level of stress and then decline as stress continues to increase.
· Complex or unfamiliar tasks require a higher level of attention than simple or well learned tasks.
· Similarly the performance of these complex and unfamiliar tasks are adversely affected by increasing levels of stress.

The relationship between stress and performance has been verified in numerous experiments.
· At very low levels of stress, motivation and attention are minimal and performance is poor.
· As the level of stress increases so do the levels of attention, motivation, and performance.
· However, at very high levels of stress, panic may occur and performance deteriorates dramatically.

Coping with Stress

Up to this point, we have focused upon what stress is, and how it can affect us. Now, we turn out attention to how we might best cope with stress. By learning the goals and principles of coping, you can use stress constructively to promote good health, self‑development, and operational safety.

· Stress is the product of an entire lifestyle. It is not just the product of an occasional crisis. Consequently, each person must learn to monitor personal stress levels and find ways to relieve excessive pressures and stressors. Health can be protected by using constructive coping responses to balance stress. For example, you can simply take a five‑minute break and relax.

· Behaviors consistent with good health and low stress are:

Minimize or stopping activities detrimental to your health such as smoking or drinking to excess.

Increase health enhancing behaviors such as relaxing at regular intervals and engaging in physical fitness activities.

Use self‑regulation and self‑control information such as appropriate time management and thought stopping (deliberately stopping yourself from thinking negatively).

Accept responsibility for your own health, by developing a stress reduction program.

· Additional methods for reducing stress in the workplace include working on how the job is approached. The most effective of these methods are:

Discuss problems among co‑workers.

Review procedures for accomplishing difficult tasks.

Perform detailed planning before undertaking a task.

Delegate responsibility for part of the workload to others.

Anticipate situations that could cause problems.

Learn to manage priorities.

Stress can be either good or bad. By being aware of the mechanics and causes of stress in our lives we can understand our own personal reactions to stress. By undertaking steps to reduce stress in our lives, stress can be controlled from having a detrimental effect on our performance and health.