The Assessment of Stress

Abstract

In psychology, stress is defined as the state that ensues when there is a perceived imbalance between the demands of the environment and one’s estimated capacity to deal adequately with these demands. This state may manifest itself at four levels: (1) at the subjective, emotional level; (2) at the cognitive level; (3) at the behavioural level; and (4) at the biological or somatic level. At the biological level, the focus can be on (electro-) physiological variables (cardiovascular, dermal), on endocrine measures, or on immune parameters. In this contribution, it will be demonstrated that measuring “stress” at the biological level is complex because the biological stress response may vary dramatically depending on (1) the nature of the psychological, emotional stress response; (2) the duration of the Stressor; and (3) the sex of the respondent.