Shelley E. Taylor, Ph.D., is one of the world's greatest social psychologists. She's been called a "pioneer," a "sculptor of thought and theory for three decades," and "an uncommonly thoughtful and creative scientist." But her many insights aren't just of interest to academics -- they have tremendous practical value to anyone who leads a workgroup or an organization.

A professor of social psychology at UCLA, Dr. Taylor has been elected to the Institute of Medicine in the National Academies of Science. She's written more than 300 papers and books, and she has received many highly prestigious honors, including the Donald Campbell Award for Distinguished Scientific Contribution to the Field of Social Psychology, the Outstanding Scientific Contribution Award in Health Psychology and the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award from the American Psychological Association, and Yale University's Wilbur Lucius Cross Medal. Her most recent award was the inaugural Clifton Strengths Prize.

The Clifton Strengths Prize, which will be presented every two years, recognizes groundbreaking theory, research, and practice in strengths-based psychology -- an area of growing interest to business leaders. The $250,000 award, the largest in the field, is intended to recognize an individual's enduring influence on the field of strengths-based psychology. Dr. Taylor received this recognition because her research into positive psychology has resulted in an innovative integration of social and biological sciences, because her findings have provided much-needed insights into adversity and recovery, and because a number of people who point to her as a mentor have since become leaders in their own fields.

Dr. Taylor is an impressive scientist, researcher, and teacher. She's also a compelling conversationalist. In this interview, Dr. Taylor discusses the intersection of health and positive psychology and the toll chronic workplace stress takes on people. She also explains why the typical male response to stress can be deadly, and why you should never assume that workplace norms are universal.

GMJ: Tell me about your research into stress and socio-emotional resources.

Dr. Taylor: Socio-emotional resources include positive illusions: a sense of hope and optimism, both personal and general; a belief in personal control, that you have some degree of control over the things that go on around you; and self esteem, the feeling that you are a person of worth who is able to do good things. People who are able to develop or maintain these socio-emotional resources cope much better.

These resources not only reduce anxiety and depression, which are two common side effects of stress, but they reduce biological stress responses too. And that offsets or prevents wear and tear on biological regulatory systems. People stay healthier longer. Nurturant environments in childhood and adulthood help promote these beliefs and guard against the ravages of stress. And to some degree, a current supportive environment can offset factors early in life that may have an adverse effect.

GMJ: What are "the ravages of stress"?

Taylor: There are several. Anxiety and depression are the most common psychological symptoms. But a big toll is taken on biological stress regulatory systems; people who have been through a lot of stress tend to lose their resiliency. Signs of that include insulin resistance, which leads to the propensity to put on weight and the increased likelihood of adult diabetes. Cells in the hippocampus can atrophy, which leads to problems in cognitive function and memory loss. Heart rate and blood pressure go up, and the hypothalamic pituitary adrenalcortical system gets activated so that you have glucocorticoids like cortisol streaming through your system. In the short term, these responses are protective, but long term, they erode health and put you at risk for heart disease and other chronic disorders.

GMJ: What can managers do to prevent this? It can't be good for people, let alone productivity.

Taylor: The best thing is to reduce chronic stress. That's the most debilitating kind -- chronic, unrelenting, grinding stress. Every time people encounter a stressful event, there's a jump in their stress responses. They eventually lose some of their resiliency if they have lots of jumps. Getting startled once or twice a day isn't going to do anything to them, but if they have the kind of job where it's always something, that can erode health.

GMJ: But some people gravitate to high-stress jobs because they find that stress motivates them.

Taylor: There are a lot of people who get off on that adrenaline rush, but people burn out of these jobs. They don't typically stay in them as long as people who have less stressful jobs. And the evidence that health is compromised is quite good.

Copyright Ó 2007 The Gallup Organization, Princeton, NJ.  All rights reserved.  Reprinted with permission.  Visit The Gallup Management Journal at http://gmj.gallup.com/

Article from The Gallup Management Journal