[0:06]Civil Aerospace Medical Institute, Human Factors series presents stress in the aviation environment.
[0:32]Stress. It seems like a pretty straightforward concept. We toss the word around in conversations, but do we know what it really means? Is it physiological, is it psychological, is it workload related, is it a myth?
[0:49]We've got to get there and back before the close of business today, make it happen. You will be there to give me away, won't you, daddy? Life is a process of continuing change, and with change comes a demand that we adapt. For example, starting a new job can be just as stressful as losing a job. How we perceive change influences how we manage adapting to it. If we perceive that the change is positive, then it's welcomed. On the other hand, if we perceive it to be negative or threatening, our body will respond dramatically with a variety of physiological and emotional responses. What do you think happens when a person has compound stress, dealing with issues separate from the aviation environment, problems that one faces prior to getting into the cockpit. I know this is partially out of your work parameters, but I would really like your help in evaluating some of our products. You're just like the average consumer, so your input would be really beneficial. Unfortunately, I need your input prior to our conference tomorrow. We've done what we could, now let's wait for the test results prior to jumping to any conclusions. What do you mean I can't have the keys? You never around long enough to let me show you how I drive. I can't believe you don't trust me. Whoa. It's easy to see how things can escalate and aggravate rather quickly. Clinically, stress is defined as the sum of biological reactions to any adverse stimulus, physical, mental, emotional, internal or external that tends to disturb the body's natural balance. As you can see, we're somewhat sensitive creatures and stress directly affects the way we process information and contributes to our ability or inability to make decisions. Fortunately, there are certain work-related factors that help predict stress. These characteristics are universal, and as humans, when these factors exist, it is likely that one will feel stressed. When one is fatigued or exhausted, a certain amount of stress can be expected. Time pressures contribute to one making one feel distressed in meeting a deadline or feel urgency towards something demanding attention. Life is dynamic, so it's hard to possibly anticipate everything you could potentially encounter. Unexpected situations are part of life. Personal problems can develop when one is perplexed or distressed and questions continually remain unanswered.
[3:35]Stress can exist in all kinds of states, predominantly, two types of stress are prevalent, acute and chronic stress. Acute stress is the most common form of stress. It's important to remember that we are more prone to handling acute stress as opposed to chronic stress. Acute stress is experienced in response to an immediate perceived threat, either physical, emotional, or psychological. The threat can be real or imagined. It's the perception of a threat that triggers the stress response. During an acute threat response, the sympathetic nervous system or SNS is activated and the body experiences increased levels of cortisol, adrenaline, and other hormones that produce an increased heart rate, high blood pressure, and quicken breathing. Blood is shunted from the extremities to the larger muscles, thus preparing the body for the fight or flight response. People who experience acute stress in their lives may display a variety of symptoms. Heart rate and blood pressure increase, perspiration increases, hearing and vision become more acute, blood will be taken from the extremities and redirected to the large muscles. All these physiological changes are in response to SNS and the fight or flight mode. Acute stress affects all human beings. It's part of our physiological makeup. Fortunately for all of us, it's highly treatable and manageable. Chronic stress response occurs all too frequently from our modern lifestyle. When everything from high pressure jobs to loneliness to hectic traffic can keep the body in a constant state of perceived threat and chronic stress. In this case, our fight or flight response, which is designed to help us ward off immediate threats based out over long periods of time, becomes a constant state and wears down our body and causes us to suffer physically and emotionally. In fact, it's been estimated that up to 90% of doctor visits are for conditions that are stress-related. That's why it's so important to learn stress management techniques and make healthy lifestyle changes to safeguard yourself from the negative impact of chronic stress. Chronic stress is not all that unfamiliar to people who get way behind in payments and deal with creditors on a weekly basis. Individuals you live or work with may be part of a dysfunctional environment and can eventually wear away one's ability to cope effectively. Unhappy marriages, jobs or careers in which one is discontent can also lead to chronic stress. When life presents unrelenting demands and the pressures seem overpowering, chronic stress can manifest itself in a person having a stroke, heart attack, being violent, even having suicidal tendencies. The worst feature of chronic stress is that people get accustomed to it. It becomes too familiar, and at times, strangely comfortable.
[6:58]Undeniably, managing stress can be complicated and confusing. There are three types of stressors that can impact a person. They are physical stressors, physiological stressors, and psychological stressors. Let's look at each of these in a little more detail, as they are reviewed, think about the factors that, to a degree, can be controlled. Physical stressors are those influences that affect one's bodily senses. Aircraft noise and vibration, temperature extremes, G-load, weather, and failing or failed aircraft instrumentation are prime examples of physical stressors. Physiological stressors are those factors that can affect functioning life activities. Alcohol and drugs, sleep loss, fatigue, pain and injury, poor diet, and dehydration are common examples of physiological stressors. Psychological stressors are those that can affect mind and behavior. Fear and anxiety, uncertainty, consequence of events, self-esteem, career advancement, workload, and time pressure are just a few examples. As pilots, our jobs are not without stress, that's just the nature of the business. Now let's imagine that we are a victim of chronic stress. Could you imagine trying to safely pilot your aircraft while you are in a constant fight or flight mode? It's easy to see how chronic stress can detract from optimum performance.
[8:52]When looking at the relationship between stress and performance, everyone responds to stress in an individual manner. As previously mentioned, stress is often influenced by the way we perceive it, either as being a positive change or a threatening one. In some cases, stress can have a positive energizing effect. It can help to increase motivation and rejuvenate one from boredom. The reverse of this is that stress can cause performance to suffer. The ability to become calm, rational, and controlled becomes lost. When a person becomes stressed, their thoughts become easily distracted and concentration becomes difficult. Anxiety and negative thinking can easily cloud one's thinking, causing less information to be processed. Some define stress as occurring when a person perceives that demands exceed the personal and social resources that the individual is able to mobilize. In other words, there's a false perception of no hope and being beyond our control. Being highly stressed reduces one's ability to process a large amount of information, thus impairing decision-making and creativity. People that are highly stressed will continue toward a course of action even when other, better alternatives are available.
[10:29]Harvard scholars, Robert Yerkes and John Dodson, described the relationship between stress and performance in 1908. The Yerkes-Dodson Principle suggests that to a certain degree, a specific amount of stress is healthy and useful. This usefulness can be translated to one's performance, as well as health and well-being. Using an inverted U-shaped curve, one can see how levels of arousal can increase and decrease. Different tasks require different levels of arousal. The curve illustrates that to a point, stress or arousal can increase performance. When stress exceeds one's ability to cope, this overload contributes to diminished performance, inefficiency, and even health problems. When one is feeling bored or complacent, the far left part of the curve is likely to represent the performance level. The right side of the curve indicates potential performance levels when one gets stressed and experiences tunnel vision, confusion, or panic. For peak performance, one would want to stay at the top of the curve, representing an acceptable level of arousal for critical tasks. It would be simple if this optimal level was the same for everyone, but unfortunately, it is not. It's imperative to be able to recognize your own individual optimal level of stress so that you can use it to your advantage. Task complexity should also be a consideration. As the difficulty of the task becomes complex and moves toward the upward part of the inverted U, the task is considered to have an energizing effect of arousal. However, with too much complexity or overload, the curve turns downward to the right and can have negative effects on arousal, like inattention, lack of memory, an inability to problem solve. The higher the workload, the more likely it is that a person will work faster and force work to be completed into a shorter timeframe. When this happens, items are likely to be omitted and there's an opportunity for an increase in errors. High stress levels may contribute to low information processing, where there's certain closed-mindedness and bias in the information a person uses to find a solution. The person will typically only use information that supports their solution and omits all other information that could lead to a more viable option. During periods of high stress, one could fall into the trap of defensive avoidance. This is where a person ignores or avoids a potential situation or scenario in order to avoid its associated stress. The awareness of serious potential losses, coupled with the false perception of no hope in finding a viable solution, are the two major components that lead to this frame of mind. Confusion is common when a person is subjected to high stress levels as the selectively biased information they use doesn't lead to their desired solution. Hyper-vigilance is the most likely coping strategy when one believes that there's a satisfactory solution, but there's a perception of not having enough time for research or deliberation. As a consequence, they become overwhelmed and could panic due to indecision.
[14:25]There is a correlation between stress and accident proneness. Stress contributes to accidents and slows recovery time. Work related stressful events may immediately precede automobile, domestic, and industrial accidents. Automobile drivers who experienced recent social stress, including job stress, are five times more likely to cause a fatal accident. There are six tips for managing stress so that one can work at their optimum level. Hold discussions among crew members. Open communication among all team members is very important. Crew resource management, known as CRM, emphasizes the importance of being able to communicate well and make quick, sound decisions. If you are flying alone without a crew, you can verbalize aloud your plan and talk through the system. It's a good idea to make friends or family members aware of your specific flying intentions. Review standard operating procedures, SOP. Even the most experienced individual gains an edge by reviewing SOPs. Besides being in place to legally protect the user, procedures help reaffirm expectations and answer the question, where am I going? Use a checklist. A checklist helps in determining risk and the significance of impact. A checklist gives consistency to the process and it helps the user in making sound decisions. This becomes one's guidance under stress. Use constant crosschecks. Cross-checking instruments, your flight plan, etc. is understandably added work. It is a preventative measure that only comes into play when something goes horribly wrong. Recognizing a failure and coping with a failure are two entirely different things. Constantly cross-checking your equipment gives you an advantage, should something fail. Rehearsal. In show business, practice makes perfect, and in aviation, the story is no different. Preparing oneself prior to the event to ensure that all details are in place makes for a more safe performance. You should be able to answer questions like, where are we going? What are we going to do? What is our preparation? What are our time factors, etc. What if planning involves going over what if scenarios. Planning for the worst but hoping for the best. This might be an appropriate mantra for flying. Planning helps the pilot see the big picture and then put procedures into place should original expectations not be met. While it's obvious that no one can escape stress, there are proven ways to effectively cope with stress. A few proven recommendations are to get physical exercise, get adequate rest, eat properly, as getting proper nutrition helps one's body to function better.
[17:43]While these might seem minor, executing such behaviors can help provide relief for acute stress.
[18:00]So let's review some of the main components of understanding this thing called stress. Stress has been defined as the sum of biological reactions to any adverse stimuli, be it physical, mental, emotional, internal, or external that can disturb the body's natural balance. Different situations can cause stress and stress has been compartmentalized into two different categories, acute and chronic. Three different types of stressors typically impact a person, physical, physiological, and or psychological stress. Stress manifests itself in different ways, especially when working aviation or a cockpit environment. Stress can be experienced at different levels, low, moderate, or high. As discussed, there is a relationship between stress and performance and there are ways that stress can be put to optimal use for the individual. Different strategies do exist for managing stress. It's up to each of us to explore our stress tolerances and what may or may not be effective ways for coping. Using the inverted U-shaped model, one can see how arousal levels are increased and decreased, and that there is a way to optimize one's stress level to obtain peak performance. The six tips for managing stress in the cockpit include, communicate with crew members, or if flying alone, make others aware of your flying intentions. Review procedures, use a checklist, use constant crosschecks, rehearse, and conduct what if planning. One final thought. Try to create time and space whenever you feel stressed. The thinking process needs time and wiggle space. These should be factored into your flight plan.
[20:15]The Civil Aerospace Medical Institute has developed a video series for operational human factors. Subjects such as fatigue, situational awareness, vision, and risk management are among several modules available for viewing. For more information, visit www.faa.gov and type in the keywords Airman Education in the search box.
