RESEARCH_FILE
Stevan E. Hobfoll
Rush University Medical Center
Known for:Developer of Conservation of Resources (COR) theory, the dominant mechanistic framework explaining why resource loss — not just high demands — drives burnout and stress spirals
Key findings
- 1989
Hobfoll proposed that people strive to acquire and retain resources (objects, personal characteristics, conditions, energies) and that stress arises primarily from the threat of loss or actual loss of these resources — reframing burnout from a symptom of insufficient willpower to a predictable consequence of resource depletion outpacing replenishment. Conservation of resources: A new attempt at conceptualizing stress ↗