A comfort zone is a
psychological state in which things feel familiar to a person and they are at ease and (perceive they are) in control of their environment, experiencing low levels of
anxiety
Anxiety is an emotion which is characterized by an unpleasant state of inner turmoil
Turmoil may refer to:
* ''Turmoil'' (1984 video game), a 1984 video game released by Bug-Byte
* ''Turmoil'' (2016 video game), a 2016 indie oil tycoon video ...
and
stress.
Bardwick defines the term as "a behavioral state where a person operates in an anxiety-neutral position."
describes it as "Where our uncertainty, scarcity and vulnerability are minimized—where we believe we'll have access to enough love, food, talent, time, admiration. Where we feel we have some control."
Performance management
White (2009) refers to the "optimal performance zone", in which performance can be enhanced by some amount of stress.
Beyond the optimum performance zone, lies the "danger zone" in which performance declines rapidly under the influence of greater anxiety.
However, stress in general can have an adverse effect on decision making: fewer alternatives are tried out
[Staal, Mark A]
"Stress, cognition, and human performance: A literature review and conceptual framework."
(2004), NASA/TM-2004-212824, IH-054 and more familiar strategies are used, even if they are not helpful anymore.
Optimal
performance management
Performance management (PM) is the process of ensuring that a set of activities and outputs meets an organization's goals in an effective and efficient manner. Performance management can focus on the performance of a whole organization, a d ...
requires maximizing time in the optimum performance zone. The main target should be expanding the comfort zone and optimal performance zone.
See also
*
Flow (psychology)
*
Personal boundaries
*
Yerkes–Dodson law
The Yerkes–Dodson law is an empirical relationship between pressure and performance, originally developed by psychologists Robert M. Yerkes and John Dillingham Dodson in 1908. The law dictates that performance increases with physiological or ...
References
{{Reflist
Personality
Sociological theories