Stress and fear in extreme situations

Abstract

Based on the analysis of foreign sources, the article examines the issues of functional interaction between states of fear and stress in an extreme situation. These experiences or states determine important aspects of personality behavior in extreme situations. The paper shows ambiguity and some confusion about understanding the hierarchical functional development of these states: sometimes stress is called the cause of the development of fears, which, in turn, begins to increase stress, or fear acts a source of stress response in a particular situation. Studies by foreign stress specialists show some return to the original (long-known) data regarding understanding the development of stress and methods of relieving its effects. In addition, in foreign literature, the problem of mutual impact of fear and stress in an extreme situation is not sufficiently informative, which allows national studies to fill the gap, and, in a sense, to implement a «pioneering» work.