Question

What constitutes a stressor? What are 4-5 different types of stressors? (Behavioral Neuroendocrinology)

Answer 1

Stress is a particular response to a stimulus, it can be physical, mental, emotional. A stressor is an environmental condition or event or biological factors that lead to stress. Examples: Workplace stress ( Job demand, excursion etc); Environment ( Crowd, Noise levels); Daily stress (Traffic), Chemical stressor (Alcohol, Smoke, Drugs) many more.

Characteristic of Stress:

- Stress can affect mental function as well as the performance of the individual.

- Stress is individualistic in nature.

- Stress can be negative as well as positive. We generally consider Stress as a negative side or bad side. Negative Stress is which it goes beyond the threshold of control and lead to visible symptoms. However, when we exposed to the mild stress, we are actually able to experience good side of the stress.

There are different kinds of stressors:

1. Chronic Stressor ( forces an individual to change their identity or social role)

2. Naturalistic Stressor (Occurs naturally in individual environment)

3. Distant Stressor (happened a long time ago but continue to affect your immune system negatively because of emotional and cognitive issues eg Child abuse)

4. Stressful Event stressor (happens when there is a traumatic event that causes additional stressors)