Definition
Individual differences in reactivity to stress.
Introduction
Even though we generally do our best to avoid them, stressful life events are an inevitable part of life. However, the extent to which we are impacted by stress varies from person to person, such that the same stressor experienced by one person as little more than a trivial annoyance may be perceived as highly distressing by the next. The ways in which we respond to stress and how sensitive we are to its effects can be understood and studied via multiple perspectives, including emotional, cognitive, psychophysiological, and neural sensitivity.
Hypersensitivity to Stress
Psychologists and other scientists who study human behavior have long been interested in understanding stress sensitivity. This is important not just for understanding typical reactions to stress but because stress sensitivity is linked to many mental health problems (Harkness et...
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Vandermeer, M.R.J., Hayden, E.P. (2017). Hypersensitivity. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_764-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_764-1
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