Now stress and pressure can be internal and external. If you were led to believe that there would be rewards for completing a task, that is external, and if no reward is forthcoming, that is stress caused by external forces. If, on the other hand, you believed that you were to be rewarded and no rewards were forthcoming, that is inteernal stress. Well, it's sufficient dissatisfaction to lead to stress. I don't know if individuals are capable of really lowering expectations.
Hope springs eternal.
We may be wrong is our definition of what's fair. We may never have heeded the axiom that life's not fair. We may be cockeyed optimists. But internally we're disappointed. Stress makes us sweat.