Stress
In 2014, Allushi defined stress as the psychological (emotional) and physiological (physical) responses that occur when the environmental requirements surpass the resources available for an individual to cope with in a determined situation (Allushi, 2014: 34). As Kurz mentioned in her study, working conditions and an individual's personality traits go hand in hand regarding stress (Kurz, 2003: 55). Evidently, stress occurs differently depending on the person. In other words, what may seem as a stressful situation for someone, may not be for the other. The author briefly explains that the body reacts through a "fight or flight response" which is when stress sends the brain a warning and the body arranges a defensive act causing the nervous system to arouse and hormones are then released (Kurz, 2003: 52). It is commonly known that interpretation is a stressful occupation due to several reasons. This profession requires prolonged periods of maximum concentration and attention, the need to cope with different speakers and accents, working conditions, and situations that could result in complete failure (Kurz, 2003: 53). Studies planned to find out the exact environmental, psychological and physiological stress which interpreters go through when they perform their tasks. Environmental stress involves the temperature, humidity, air quality, and CO2 levels inside a booth. Kurz and Kolmer's studies (1981-1984) concluded that mobile booths contain unacceptable working conditions and that the average in-booth temperature was 26.4oC, contrary to the recommended temperature of 18-22oC (Kurz, 2003: 54). Psychological stress is influenced by personality factors such as self-confidence or the way an individual handles a situation. Some circumstances require more effort than usual and this is considered as highly stressful for several interpreters, whether they are professionals or novices. A study performed by Peter Moser (1995) revealed that interpreters find the high concentration demand to be the most stressful factor of this occupation (Kurz, 2003: 55). Physiological stress is determined by the reaction of the body in situations where stress is most likely to be a part of. Studies performed by Mackintosh in 2001, recorded the interpreters' heart rate and blood pressure over 24 hours which showed that the rates were highest when the interpreters were performing their tasks (Kurz, 2003: 56). Experts and Novices Kurz and Allushi both mentioned a brief definition provided by Moser-Mercer (2000) in which he defines experts as "someone who has a high level of performance which is the result of many years of experience" whereas novices have "little or no experience" (Kurz, 2003:58; Allushi, 2014: 41). Simultaneous interpreting (SI) is a complex activity and even the most experienced interpreters face difficult challenges. Two of the evident distinctions between experts and novices are the extensive knowledge they posses which allows them to organize and interpret the information given and the ability they have to remember, reason and/or solve a problem. All of this means that experts tend to recognize features and meaningful patterns of information that novices cannot even notice, they know how to organize and apply specific chunks of information in a determined context and they have the capability to retrieve information with flexibility and with little attentional effort (Kurz, 2003: 59). Stress in Experts and Novices It is important to indicate that stress …show more content…
Being able to understand the speaker and his accent, to deliver the appropriate translation and content, to manage uncomfortable or unpleasant working conditions and distractions are a few of the many requisites of an interpreter. Many of the studies presented by both authors have concluded that being an interpreter is not easy because they have to face extremely difficult tasks; therefore, it is quite difficult to disagree with this conclusion. In fact, Allushi states that the interpreter undergoes through rapid actions. These rapid actions are clarified as receiving, decoding, encoding and emitting a message. It is easy to grasp that interpreters go through heavy loads of cognitive