Some degree of stress is essential in any place of work. Without it employees would lack motivation and interest in their work. In fact, Hans Selye, differentiated between two types of stress: distress, which is caused by negative stressors; and eustress, which refers to stress caused by positive stressors. People experience eustress, for example, when they make achievements or get promoted. Nevertheless, when stress levels in a workplace are high, organisations can become less productive; and the health-costs to individuals can be even greater.

In Selye's experiments stress was inflicted on rats, either by injecting them with hormones or chemicals, making surgical incisions or exposing them to extreme temperatures.

When Hans Selye was conducting research on rats by injecting them with extracts of various glands of the body, he noticed that the rats were all displaying the same group of symptoms. At first he believed that he had discovered a new hormone; however, after several years of further testing by injecting the rats with other substances, such as formaldehyde revealed the same results. Even exposure to cold, cutting their spinal cords and forced exercise produced the same effects. The effects occurred in a predictable sequence that is now known as the General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS).

According to Meichenbaum (2007), “Like beauty, stress is in large part, ‘in the eye of the beholder’”; his Stress Inoculation Training aims to manage stress using a cognitive-behavioural method of providing clients with the strategies and skills to deal with the particular stressors in their lives. Stress Inoculation Training is based on Lazarus and Folkman’s (1984) model, which views stress as occurring when the perceived demands of a situation exceed the person’s perceived coping resources.