Effects of Stress on Performance

• Stress is a state of mental and physical tension that arises when demands exceed one’s resources.
• Many studies show that high or prolonged stress generally reduces performance in studies, work, and daily activities.

• Experimental and field studies report that people performing tests under high anxiety and stress usually score lower than those performing the same tests in a relatively calm, normal state.
• These findings support the common observation that when stress is high, efficiency, accuracy, and output decrease.

(a) Effect on attention and concentration

• Stress narrows and disturbs attention; part of the mind remains occupied with worry and negative thoughts.
• Because of poor concentration, the person may miss important details, forget learned material, and commit more mistakes.

(b) Effect on mental energy and efficiency

• To cope with stress, the person spends a lot of psychological and physical energy in trying to control tension and manage emotions.
• As a result, less energy is available for the main task, so speed, accuracy, and performance quality go down.

(c) Effect on organisation and decision-making

• Under stress, thinking becomes hurried and scattered, which makes it difficult to organise ideas logically.
• Decision-making becomes confused, and the person may not use available information properly during exams, interviews, or important work.

• A student who is very anxious before an exam may forget answers, make careless mistakes, and not complete the paper in time.
• A person under stress may even perform routine tasks (household work, driving, simple office tasks) less efficiently and with more errors.
• Thus, both the quality (accuracy, clarity) and quantity (amount of work done, speed) of performance are usually reduced under high stress.

• High or prolonged stress generally reduces performance in studies, work, and daily life.
• Stress interferes with attention, concentration, organisation of thoughts, and decision-making.
• A lot of energy is spent coping with stress, leaving less for the main task.
• Under stress, both quality and quantity of performance tend to suffer.
• Managing stress is important for maintaining effective and consistent performance.