220706968-Stress

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Section 1

Stress has been used as one reason to explain the existence of violence because prolonged stress reduces people’s ability to cope with difficult or threatening situations. As people we are equipped with cardiovascular and immune systems that help us react to stressful events in ways that help us cope and deal with life (Alvarez & Bachman, 2008). However stress over an extended period of time can have seriously negative effects on our bodies and minds because stress puts an immense amount of tension on our system and organs that are responsible for helping us deal with stress (Alvarez &Bachman, 2008). In other words, people’s bodies can handle stress for a short period of time but stress over a long period of time breaks down a person’s body’s ability to respond to demanding events.

People that live stressful lives, such those in poor areas, often live in communities where they must endure the daily struggles and embarrassment of living with few resources within a society which largely pays no attention to their suffering, must struggle to survive and to make ends meet, and must constantly be on guard and react to possibly threatening situations (Alvarez & Bachman, 2008). Therefore stress is often given as an explanation for violence because in poor communities, which have many factors that can lead to stress, there is the most concentration of violence.

There is evidence to support that there is large amount of violence in poor communities. Minority communities such as African Americans, Latinos, and American Indians are among the leaders of perpetrators and victims of violent crimes. (Alvarez & Bachman, 2008). This overrepresentation is believed to be due to mainly these minority communities being among the ranks of the poor (Alvarez & Bachman, 2008). As indicated above, people in poor communities often encounter chronic stress which can reduce their ability to cope so the stress in these people’s lives is considered one of the reasons for their violent crimes. Of course other explanations like social learning and economic depravation are possible explanations for the overrepresentation of these minority groups in violent crime statistics as well because these groups could have learned that violence is an appropriate response to certain situations or simply commit violent crimes for economic gain. Still these other explanations do not appear to discount stress as a possible explanation for violence; they seem to make the explanation of violence clearer by giving a broader picture of the explanation of violence in these situations.

The inability to deal with stress is not limited to influencing violence in cases that involve only the economic disenfranchised; it has been found to be a factor in intimate partner violence as well. A study from the University of Mississippi that examined the risk factors of intimate partner violence of 634 newly married couples over the first four years of marriage found that stress and coping were mediating factors between intimate partner violence and excessive alcohol intake (Schumacher et. al., 2008). Before the study, alcohol was well-known as a risk factor for intimate partner violence but the study discovered that high levels of avoidance coping and difficulty dealing with daily hassles was correlated with excessive drinking and partner violence (Schumacher et. al., 2008). The researchers concluded that factors like hostility, difficulty coping with stress and daily hassles, and alcohol are targets for partner violence prevention strategies for young married couples (Schumacher et. al., 2008).

This study offers another example of how stress can contribute to violence. It illustrates that the inability to cope stress can work as a mediating factor with violence and also that stress can be explanation for violence in conjunction with other explanations for violence as well; as in this study hostility and alcohol intake were given as for risk factors for violence as well.

Another study that explores the relationship of violence with stress is a journal article from Employee Responsibilities and Journal that examines workplace violence. The article reviews numerous cases of workplace violence and comes up with who is likely to be perpetrators of workplace violence, causes for workplace violence, and some recommended methods that can be used to prevent workplace violence (Paul & Townsend, 1998). Some characteristics of the typical perpetrator of workplace violence that were found included someone who has just been recently fired, someone who was let go in an insensitive manner and someone who may already be under stress from a divorce or death that is compounded by a job loss (Paul & Townsend, 1998). A few causes for workplace violence that were uncovered were related mainly to stress such as organizational factors that resulted in stress like firings, layoffs, intense competitions for promotions and overly controlling managers (Paul & Townsend, 1998). Some methods to prevent workplace violence that were presented in the article included training managers in ways that allow them to detect if an employee is experiencing too much stress, identifying potential problem employees with testing and interviewing before hiring them, counseling at work that deals with issues at work and home, and creating a stress free environment where employees can discuss their problems at work (Paul & Townsend, 1998).

In addition to providing more evidence that stress is related to violence, this research article offers ways violence can be reduced when dealing with stress. Although the article offers specific ways to deal with stress in a work environment and reduce stress these methods could be generalized to other areas of society as well. Individual people might find it useful to seek counseling in order to learn to better deal with stress. Also organizations such as schools could use similar screening interviews and tests to determine if someone is at risk for potential violence due stress. This might be controversial because it could lead to the exclusion of many people from organizations that normally would have access to certain organizations but it still might be an effective method for preventing violence. Based on what was discussed earlier, another apparent way to reduce violence is to reduce stress that results from being poor. If there is less poverty there most likely would be less violence because people’s coping abilities would be much more able to deal with stressors because their might not be as much of a strain on their systems constantly from the realities of being poor and not to mention there would be less crime for economic gain. Also a reduction or obliteration of poverty would reduce the amount of demanding events that can lead to violence. But reducing poverty is extremely difficult and many people have worked throughout history to do so and still poverty exists today. Even if poverty could be done away with or dramatically decreased there would still be stress that in people’s lives that arrives from ordinary things like work or weather. Therefore in order to reduce violence it appears that the best way to reduce violence that is related to stress is to take a broad approach that involves teaching people to be able cope with stress and provide outlets for treatment of stress in addition to reducing poverty.

Section 2

An example of violence that is probably due to stress can be seen in article on the CBS news website that reports that children hospitals across the nation are seeing a rise in incidents involving child abuse as well an increase in the severity of those child abuse cases within the last couple of years (cbsnews.com). One reason the article notes for the sudden spike in child abuse incidents is that hospitals are becoming better at reporting incidents of reporting child abuse but the article claims that child abuse increase is mainly due to the fact that many families are experiencing stress due to the economic recession the country has experienced recently (cbsnews.com). The article claims that parents in cities like Phoenix, which have been hit hard by foreclosures and unemployment, have been overreacting or losing control when disciplining their children because the parents are experiencing extreme amounts of stress from the poor economic situation of the nation in the last few years.

Section 3

Stress in the above example is given as explanation for violence in the form of child abuse because the parents are experiencing stress due to the recent economic recession. The research on violence and stress offers two possible explanations for why the violence in this article occurred. First, research suggests that stress from living in poverty results in a reduced ability to cope that can lead to violence in threatening or demanding situations (Alvarez & Bachman, 2008). This also appears to be the case with the parents in the CBS news article. Although the parents in the article may not have been poor, they did however recently lose their jobs and homes. Much like those who have been poor for a while, the parents in the article probably experienced embarrassment and stress from not having enough economic resources to support their families. The parents apparently overreacted and used abuse when disciplining their children; which can be a demanding situation. Because their systems were under extreme amounts from stress for probably an extended period of time because of their economic situation the parents overreacted. A second explanation for violence that can be seen is in the research on violence and stress that comes from the research journal from the Employee Responsibilities and Journal. The article claims that those who have been recently fired are at risk for workplace violence (Paul & Townsend, 1998). The parents in the example did not commit violence at their workplace but the explanation given in the journal article could be used to explain the child abuse by the parents. Those who have recently been fired are at risk for work place violence because they must deal with the stress of being of fired and looking for a new job. Also being fired presents economic problem as well. The parents in the example probably experienced similar problems and instead of not being able to cope in their former workplace environment they had problem coping at home and abused their children.

The prevention of violence in the child abuse example could probably be accomplished by using the research on workplace violence as well. One of the methods suggested to reduce workplace violence is counseling at work that deals with stress ((Paul & Townsend, 1998). If the parents in the example had experienced treatment from their jobs for their stress from being fired they might have been able to cope with the stress of unemployment and foreclosure and would respond have responded appropriately to a demanding situation like disciplining a child.

Section 4

Stress seems to maybe explain the violence of the shooters in the Columbine shootings ten years ago as well. Some of the factors that contributed to the shootings in Columbine that were explored were the social climate and the bullying of the two students who ended up shooting up their classmates (www.wikepedia.org). One theory was that the two shooters felt isolated from the rest of their classmates and that they might have been bullied or made fun of which led to the shooters feeling helpless, insecure, and depressed (www.wikepdia.org). This suggests that the students believed their lives to be stressful while they attended school at Columbine. It is possible that the continuous stress of their life at high school resulted in the students taking out their frustration on the rest of the school. However it is important to note that bullying and the social climate are not always accepted as reasons for the Columbine shootings. The psychological problems of the shooters are often given as a reason for the shootings. So while it is conceivable that stress might be an explanation for violence in the Columbine shootings it is also possible that other explanations like personality and psychological factors could better explain the reasons for the shootings.

If stress is accepted as an explanation for the shootings in Columbine then there are some possible prevention methods that might have prevented violence. Some of the procedures used to prevent workplace violence might have worked as well. Perhaps an extreme solution could have been used to screen every one before they entered high school to see if they were at risk for committing stress-related violence or violence in general. This might have resulted in the two shooters never attending Columbine because they might have been identified as being a threat for committing violence. Another possible prevention method that could have been used if the teachers or school officials identified that the students were under stress or experiencing problems and gave them treatment that helped them better cope with their problems. This is similar to how managers are trained to identify employees are under stress and recommend that they receive treatment offered by the company they work for.

So while stress is a good explanation of violence in poor communities, workplace violence, and intimate partner violence it may not explain all forms of violence. Nevertheless it seems to be a powerful explanation of violence because it reduces people’s ability to cope in stressful situations which can lead to violence. Still it is encouraging that violence is sometimes preventable when related to stress when there is treatment that helps people cope or identifies individuals who may be at risk for stress related violence.

References

Alvarez, A. & Bachman, R. (2008). Violence: The enduring problem: Thousand Oaks: Sage Publishing

Columbine high school massacre. Retirieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbine_High_School_massacre

Hughes, S. (2009, May). Child abuse spikes during recession. Retrieved from http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/05/20/business/childofrecession/main5029133.shtml

Paul, R., & Townsend, J. (1998, March). Violence in the workplace: A review with recommendations. Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal, 11(1), 1-14. Retrieved June 12, 2009, doi:10.1023/A:1027367831655

Schumacher, J., Homish, G., Leonard, K., Quigley, B., & Kearns-Bodkin, J. (2008, December). Longitudinal moderators of the relationship between excessive drinking and intimate partner violence in the early years of marriage. Journal of Family Psychology, 22(6), 894-904.

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