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A case for the usefulness of laboratory social stressors

  • Published:
Annals of Behavioral Medicine

Abstract

Althrough laboratory, stress research is a popular and vibrant area of research activity, there is surprisingly little evidence that laboratory stress models are clinically useful (i.e. that they can explain and predict the development of disease). This article summarizes evidence that the usefulness of lab stress research can be improved with the use of social stressors. Two lines of evidence are presented in support of this argument: (a) studies comparing physiological reactivity to different lab stressors with ambulatory activity, and (b) a meta-analysis of investigations of cortisol responses to laboratory stressors. Further issues of importance in understanding social stressors are gender differences and the vulnerability (i.e. weak reliability) of social stressor impact to relatively small changes in the experimental protocol itself.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, 2136 West Mall, V6T 1Z4, Vancouver, B.C., Canada

    Wolfgang Linden, Thomas Rutledge & Andrea Con

Authors
  1. Wolfgang Linden
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  2. Thomas Rutledge
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  3. Andrea Con
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Additional information

Preparation of this manuscript was supported in part by financial support awarded to the first author by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada as well as the British Columbia and Yukon Heart and Stroke Foundation.

This paper is based on symposia presentations at the Annual Meetings of the American Psychological Association, Toronto, Canada, August 1996 and of the Society for Psychophysiological Research, Vancouver, Canada, October 1996.

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Linden, W., Rutledge, T. & Con, A. A case for the usefulness of laboratory social stressors. ann. behav. med. 20, 310–316 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02886380

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02886380

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