“Stress is like spice – in the right proportion, it enhances the flavour of a dish. Too little produces
a bland, dull meal; too much may choke you.”
—Donald Tubesing
Sometimes, dealing with some pressure or stress can be a good thing. A little bit of pressure and stress can push you forward. It can inspire you to perform better than what you thought you could do.
However, too much pressure or stress can be a bad thing. Too much pressure and stress can cause you to perform worse than expected.
And we can thank a couple of psychologists and a few mice for teaching us this lesson.
Mice, Electric Shock, and Learning
Around 1907, two psychologists – Robert Yerkes and John Dodson – wanted to know if pressure, stress, or arousal would influence task performance.
For their experiment, the researchers set on training mice to select a white box instead of a black box. The mice received a mild electric shock when they entered the white box. When they entered the black box, there was no shock.
The researchers found that distinguishing between the boxes took the mice a long time. So, they increased the level of shock to see if it would influence the learning speed.
When the mice received a more intense shock and became more aroused, they learned the task more quickly. In other words, their performance improved due to increased pressure and arousal.
They conducted additional experiments, often varying the intensity of the shock (e.g., mild, moderate, severe) and the complexity of the task (e.g., choosing between two boxes vs. navigating a simple maze vs. navigating a complex maze).
When Yerkes and Dodson varied the complexity of the task, they discovered that different degrees of shock also influenced performance.
You can see their findings on the inverted U curve below:
Yerkes-Dodson Law. Image copied from www.simplypsychology.org
Applying These Lessons to Your Life
All these experiments led the researchers to conclude that a bit of pressure can boost performance when learning a simple task. But if the task is more complex, pressure needs to be adjusted. Otherwise, it can make the performance even worse.
What I’ve found over the years is that you can apply the inverted U curve to many situations.
Here are a few examples of when I’ve incorporated the inverted U curve into a counselling session and my life.
School or Work
You feel slightly anxious about a test, exam, presentation, or project. A little bit of anxiety can motivate you to work harder, heightening your ability to focus and concentrate a little more intensely. But if you put too much pressure on yourself, you could perform worse on tasks or assignments you typically know how to do.
Parenting
You pressure your kids to do their chores, complete their homework, or engage with you at the dinner table, and it seems to work (well, most of the time). But they become more resistant when you put too much pressure.
Relationships
You bring up a conversation with your partner that could elicit stress. Afterward, though, the conversation leads to greater understanding and a deeper connection between you. But when these conversations become frequent yelling matches (i.e., higher arousal levels), it creates more tension and discomfort in the relationship.
Everyone is Motivated By Different Things
The Yerkes-Dodson Law helps us understand how pressure and stress can affect behaviour. But their theory doesn’t explain why some people are better at handling pressure than others (e.g., an athlete who performs well in competition vs someone who chokes under pressure.)
The point is that everyone responds to pressure differently. What motivates and inspires you to perform at your best may not be the same for your child, friend, co-worker, or partner.
What matters is that you become familiar with the amount of pressure you need to reach optimal performance.
Get to know yourself and the factors that bring out the best in you.
And just because you’re stressed and under pressure doesn’t mean you’re doomed to fail. You probably handle pressure and stress better than you think.
Richard