PUB TYPE Information Analyses (070) Opinion Papers (120)

This essay proposes that stress has been misused in traditional adventure education and presents a new model of risk taking based on the literature on stress and feminist perspectives in adventure education. Proponents of the traditional adventure perspective state that the intentional use of stress is central to the change process in wilderness therapy, and that raising stress by exaggerating the level of risk sets the stage for a potentially transformative experience. On the other hand, practitioners working from a feminist perspective seek to minimize stress, engage in dialogue about risk, and promote personal power and choice in order to create the necessary conditions to encourage "authentic risk taking " and facilitate "eustress " (psychologically beneficial stress). Eustress is not dependent on task completion but rather, is manifested through an individual's subjective experience. The nine conditions promoting eustress include self-awareness, self-determination, and taking pleasure in th