Unleash Your Peak Performance with the Yerkes-Dodson Law!
Keep stress in your favour and increase your productivity.
Have you ever been in a scenario where you are under a lot of stress and yet discover that you are more productive because the tension helps you focus on your work? Additionally, there have been times when you were aware that you might have performed far better but were unable to manage your tension and anxiety, and this time the stress has a detrimental effect on you.
A model of the connection between stress and performance is called Yerkes-Dodson Law.
What is the Yerkes-Dodson Law?
According to the law, a person’s highest level of performance is associated with a specific amount of stress, or arousal. Poor performance is caused by either too little or too much stress or arousal.
The notion was created in the early twentieth century, specifically around 1908, when psychologists Robert Yerkes and John Dillingham Dodson conducted mouse tests. The Yerkes-Dodson law is a psychological idea rather than a scientific rule.
The term “arousal” refers to stress or motivation in the Yerkes-Dodson Law.
During the experiment, it was discovered that administering small electric shocks was a faster way to educate the mice to acquire a task, which they named “habit.” However, when the intensity of the shocks increased, the mice took longer to learn the task. Maybe it was because the mice were now more concerned with avoiding the shock than with finishing the assignment.
Through this, it was concluded that when arousal, i.e., stress or motivation, increases, so does the ability to create a habit or complete a task, but only when the arousal is at a particular limit; otherwise, the outcomes are really poor since you are too stressed to do your best.
What level of stress is optimal for best performance?
Just the right amount of stress is required to motivate you, but not so much that you become overwhelmed.
Each person experiences stress at a different level.
You will achieve the best performance and outcomes under mild to moderate short-term stress. A person must learn to find their sweet spot if they want to maximize their potential.
If your arousal levels are too low, you may notice that you lose focus, fall asleep, or get easily disturbed and distracted. The inability to concentrate on the work may be an issue even if the arousal levels are excessively high.
What needs to be done to keep things in your favour?
You must have certain abilities if you want to keep the arousal under control.
I don’t mean professional talents specific to your line of work when I say skills. You must acquire psychological abilities that advance your attitude. No matter how serious a situation is, your mindset will influence how you approach it.
How can I maintain my composure? How can one increase confidence? How can self-concept be improved? How can one increase productivity in any task?
Look up the response to these questions. Don’t know how? I’ll help you!
Any challenge you may encounter will be easier to overcome if you develop a positive mindset and gain confidence.
Thank you for sparing me time to read! Do check my other articles as well! I’m sure they’ll be worth your time!
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