Three environmental elements--messages, events, and perceived consequences of choices--cause varying amounts of stress on an individual and affect his capacity to deal with his environment. There is a nonmonotonic relationship between environmental pressures ("event press") and persuasibility in that the number and importance of stressing events that a person experiences affects his cognitive capacities to process and accept new ideas. People who have experienced low amounts of "event press" tend to have cognitive inertia and are less prepared to respond to persuasive communication than those who have learned to function at higher cognitive capacities. However, those who have experienced very high amounts of "event press" are not able to process persuasive communication because of exhaustion of their cognitive capacities. The development of an "Environmental Stability Scale" to provide an estimate for the amount of adjustment to "event press" required for balanced information processing and a pilot experiment to test the effects of a persuasive message on subjects of high, moderate, or low "event press" show promise in understanding these phenomena. (Research data are included.) (RN)