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The search for stress markers
Author(s) -
URSIN H.
Publication year - 1982
Publication title -
scandinavian journal of psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.743
H-Index - 72
eISSN - 1467-9450
pISSN - 0036-5564
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9450.1982.tb00467.x
Subject(s) - psychology , personality , population , stress (linguistics) , disease , clinical psychology , developmental psychology , social psychology , cognitive psychology , medicine , linguistics , philosophy , environmental health
The “stress” response is identical to the activation response, and produces pathology only if it is sustained over prolonged periods of time. This occurs when the individual is in a conflict which he or she cannot cope with or defend him‐or herself against. Short‐lasting activations may only have training effects. Physiological measurements of indicators of activation at one point in time do not give a reliable or valid indicator of the “stress‐level”, if that is to be a meaningful measurement of disease risk. Repeated measurements combined with psychological measurements represent an improvement, but we still do not have any valid disease risk indicator. Immunoglobulins may represent a valid stress marker, since they react slowly and for a long time. Therefore, they may represent an integrated function of sustained activation over prolonged time. Low levels of immuno‐globulins have been found to relate to personality and subjectively experienced stress‐levels in an otherwise healthy population.