Conservation of Resources: A New Attempt at Conceptualizing Stress

Proposes that people strive to retain, protect, and build resources — and that resource loss is disproportionately more impactful than resource gain. Stress occurs when resources are threatened, lost, or fail to return after investment.

Directly supports MN's distinction between capacity and sustenance. COR explains why competent people burn out: high capacity does not mean low resource cost. Sustained engagement in mismatched modes drains resources faster than they replenish.

When someone operates outside their natural engagement mode, they deplete resources faster than they recover. COR provides the theoretical mechanism for MN's observation that people can be skilled at something that quietly exhausts them.

COR defines resources broadly (objects, conditions, personal characteristics, energies). MN narrows 'energies' to nine specific engagement modes, which COR does not validate.