Computing Components of Everyday Stress Responses: Exploring Conceptual Challenges and New Opportunities

Repeated assessments in everyday life enables collecting ecologically valid data on dynamic, within-persons processes. These methods have widespread utility and application and have been extensively used for the study of stressors and stress responses. Enhanced conceptual sophistication of character...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Perspectives on psychological science Vol. 18; no. 1; pp. 110 - 124
Main Authors: Smyth, Joshua M., Zawadzki, Matthew J., Marcusson-Clavertz, David, Scott, Stacey B., Johnson, Jillian A., Kim, Jinhyuk, Toledo, Meynard J., Stawski, Robert S., Sliwinski, Martin J., Almeida, David M.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.01.2023
SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
Subjects:
ambulatory assessment
Anatomical systems
Clustering
ecological momentary assessment
Everyday life
Exercise - psychology
experience-sampling methodology
Feedback (Response)
Humans
Life stress
Physical activity
Physical fitness
Physiological processes
Psychology
Psykologi
Reactivity
Recovery
Resting
Sophistication
Stress
Stress response
Stress, Psychological - psychology
stressors
Subjective states
Subjectivity
experience-sampling methodology
stress
stressors
ambulatory assessment
ecological momentary assessment
ISSN:1745-6916, 1745-6924, 1745-6924
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Repeated assessments in everyday life enables collecting ecologically valid data on dynamic, within-persons processes. These methods have widespread utility and application and have been extensively used for the study of stressors and stress responses. Enhanced conceptual sophistication of characterizing intraindividual stress responses in everyday life would help advance the field. This article provides a pragmatic overview of approaches, opportunities, and challenges when intensive ambulatory methods are applied to study everyday stress responses in “real time.” We distinguish between three stress-response components (i.e., reactivity, recovery, and pileup) and focus on several fundamental questions: (a) What is the appropriate stress-free resting state (or “baseline”) for an individual in everyday life? (b) How does one index the magnitude of the initial response to a stressor (reactivity)? (c) Following a stressor, how can recovery be identified (e.g., when the stress response has completed)? and (d) Because stressors may not occur in isolation, how can one capture the temporal clustering of stressors and/or stress responses (pileup)? We also present initial ideas on applying this approach to intervention research. Although we focus on stress responses, these issues may inform many other dynamic intraindividual constructs and behaviors (e.g., physical activity, physiological processes, other subjective states) captured in ambulatory assessment.
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ISSN:1745-6916
1745-6924
1745-6924
DOI:10.1177/17456916221082108