Temperament Risk Factor: The Contribution of Temperament to the Consequences of the State of Stress

Abstract

An individual differences approach may be applied to the phenomena of: stressors, the state of stress, coping with stress, and consequences of stress as expressed in psychophysiological and psychological costs. There exists an enormous number of factors that, in interaction with each other, determine the individual-specific components of stress. A list of some of them has been presented elsewhere (Strelau, 1989a). Among the many determinants of individual differences, considerable attention has been devoted to personality characteristics. The latter have been mostly considered as moderators of stress. Considerable research has been devoted to such more or less stable characteristics as: hardiness (e.g., Kobasa, 1979; Kobasa & Puccetti, 1983), repression-sensitization (e.g., Krohne, 1986), self-esteem (e.g., Chan, 1977; Ormel & Schaufeli, 1991), locus of control (e.g., Ormel & Schaufeli, 1991; Parkes, 1984), self-confidence (e.g., Holohan & Moos, 1986), and sense of coherence (Antonovsky, 1987). Among personality attributes a special place in research on stress should be given to temperament to which this chapter refers.