Stress of artists before a performance: a study based on materials from the Institute of Psychology at the University of Leipzig

In the last decades the concept of resilience was described to characterize a person, who has higher stability to resist against negative threats of the environment. Purpose of the research: 1. To show key contributions from the Leipzig University’s Institute of Psychology for research on stress and. 2. To summarize some theoretical point of views for the further assessment and research of stress. Methods. Theoretical and methodological analysis of stress, logical and structural research method. Results. More dangerous and more harmful can be chronic stress. Stressors are objective and hinder people’s need fulfillment. Stress coping should have always two starting points, external and directed to the stressing environment: to be informed, to seek solutions to problems and to collect friends and technics to become able to act and internal: the feelings, excitement, to bring activism into self-control. Conclusions. Stress is only in this one way positive, because it’s possible to collect experiences in the coping process of stress and have new abilities to cope with stress. Stress – is a normal reaction even among artists. A stress-related paraclinical disorder is podium anxiety. Even a negative evaluation by other people can threaten the positive view of oneself and abilities – the self-esteem. Today, stress is a recognized risk factor for the development of diseases and many disorders. Stress is closely linked to negative performance parameters, operational errors and reduced performance. Stress mediates the biopsychosocial chain of causation between health and disease. Extreme forms of stress can be stressful for all people. However, many stressors are effective individually, resource-dependent, individual or populationspecific. The relation of stress and coping is essential for stressmanagement activities of humans. Resilience is generally viewed as a quality of character, personality, and coping ability which is a resource contra stress and can reduce the stress reactivity and sensitivity for stress. Our Research provides some guidelines for intervention, adaptation and prevention of stress.