276 ■ NOTES
goals and rules become autonomous from their original purposes, and
begin to be pursued for intrinsic reasons—because they are fun to do.
This was recognized by Weber himself, who complained that capitalism,
which originated as a religious vocation, had in time become a mere
“sport” for entrepreneurs—and an “iron cage” for everyone else. See
also Csikszentmihalyi & Rochberg-Halton (1981, chapter 9).CHAPTER 9
page This entire section to p. 198 draws heavily on interview transcripts
193 made available to me by Professor Massimini. 1 translated the Italian
answers into English.The quote by Franz Alexander was cited in Siegel (1986, p. 1 ). Norman
Cousins’s strategy for controlling his illness is described in his Anatomy
of an Illness (1979).198 “When a man knows. •is from Johnson’s Letters to Bosu/ell, Sept.
19, 1777.
Stress. Hans Selye, who began studying the physiology of stress in 1934,
defined it as the generalized result, whether mental or physical, of any
demand on the body (1956 [1978]). An important breakthrough in the
investigation of psychological effects of such demands was the develop
ment of a scale that attempts to measure their severity (Holmes &. Rahe
1967). On this scale the highest stress is caused by “Death of spouse”
with a value of 100; “Marriage” has a value of 50, and “Christmas” a
value of 12. In other words, the impact of four Christmases is almost
equal to the stress of getting married. It is to be noted that both negative
and positive events can cause stress, since they both present “demands”
one must adapt to.Supports. Of the various resources that mitigate the effects of stressful
events, social supports, or social networks, have been studied the most
extensively (Lieberman et al. 1979). Family and friends often provide
material help, emotional support, and needed information (Schaefer,
Coyne, & Lazarus 1981). But even interest in other people seems to
alleviate stress: “Those who have a concern for other people and con
cerns beyond the self have fewer stressful experiences, and stress has less
effect on anxiety, depression, and hostility; they make more active at
tempts to cope with their problems” (Crandall 1984, p. 172).199 Coping styles. The experience of stress is mediated by a person’s coping
style. The same event might have positive or negative psychological
outcomes, depending on the person’s inner resources. Hardiness is a
term coined by Salvatore Maddi and Suzanne Kobasa to describe the
tendency of certain people to respond to threats by transforming them
into manageable challenges. The three main components of hardiness