1. Challenge appraisals are associated with more confident expectations of the ability to cope with the stressful event - the potential to overcome and even profit from the event. 2. The word stress has its origin in the Latin words 'strictus' - meaning tight or narrow and 'stringere' - the verb meaning to tighten. 3. These root words reflect the internal feelings oftightness and constriction of the muscles and breathing reported by many people under stress. 4. Stress is often explained in terms of characteristics ofthe environment that are disruptive to the individual. 5. Stressors are events that cause our body to give the stress response.