IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0173188.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Re-conceptualizing stress: Shifting views on the consequences of stress and its effects on stress reactivity

Author

Listed:
  • Jenny J W Liu
  • Kristin Vickers
  • Maureen Reed
  • Marilyn Hadad

Abstract

Background: The consequences of stress are typically regarded from a deficit-oriented approach, conceptualizing stress to be entirely negative in its outcomes. This approach is unbalanced, and may further hinder individuals from engaging in adaptive coping. In the current study, we explored whether negative views and beliefs regarding stress interacted with a stress framing manipulation (positive, neutral and negative) on measures of stress reactivity for both psychosocial and physiological stressors. Method: Ninety participants were randomized into one of three framing conditions that conceptualized the experience of stress in balanced, unbalanced-negative or unbalanced-positive ways. After watching a video on stress, participants underwent a psychosocial (Trier Social Stress Test), or a physiological (CO2 challenge) method of stress-induction. Subjective and objective markers of stress were assessed. Results: Most of the sampled population regarded stress as negative prior to framing. Further, subjective and objective reactivity were greater to the TSST compared to the CO2 challenge. Additionally, significant cubic trends were observed in the interactions of stress framing and stress-induction methodologies on heart rate and blood pressure. Balanced framing conditions in the TSST group had a significantly larger decrease in heart rate and diastolic blood pressure following stress compared to the positive and negative framing conditions. Conclusion: Findings confirmed a deficit-orientation of stress within the sampled population. In addition, results highlighted the relative efficacy of the TSST compared to CO2 as a method of stress provocation. Finally, individuals in framing conditions that posited stress outcomes in unbalanced manners responded to stressors less efficiently. This suggests that unbalanced framing of stress may have set forth unrealistic expectations regarding stress that later hindered individuals from adaptive responses to stress. Potential benefits of alternative conceptualizations of stress on stress reactivity are discussed, and suggestions for future research are made.

Suggested Citation

  • Jenny J W Liu & Kristin Vickers & Maureen Reed & Marilyn Hadad, 2017. "Re-conceptualizing stress: Shifting views on the consequences of stress and its effects on stress reactivity," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(3), pages 1-14, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0173188
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0173188
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0173188
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0173188&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0173188?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jenny J W Liu & Natalie Ein & Julia Gervasio & Kristin Vickers, 2019. "The efficacy of stress reappraisal interventions on stress responsivity: A meta-analysis and systematic review of existing evidence," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(2), pages 1-22, February.
    2. Flávia Vitorino Freitas & Wagner Miranda Barbosa & Laíz Aparecida Azevedo Silva & Marianna Junger de Oliveira Garozi & Júlia de Assis Pinheiro & Aline Ribeiro Borçoi & Catarine Lima Conti & Juliana Kr, 2018. "Psychosocial stress and central adiposity: A Brazilian study with a representative sample of the public health system users," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(7), pages 1-14, July.
    3. Jimmy Stephen Munobwa & Fereshteh Ahmadi & Saeid Zandi & Natalie Davidsson & Sharareh Akhavan, 2022. "Coping Methods and Satisfaction with Working from Home in Academic Settings during the COVID-19 Pandemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(19), pages 1-13, October.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0173188. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.