The Effects of Psychosocial Factors in the Stress Process

Chang, Sei Jin

Abstract

For the past three decades, considerable attentions have been paid to the search for stressors, stress outcomes and stress modifiers that may reduce the impact of exposure to environmental stressors. Especially medical sociologists and psychologists in medical parts, had an intellectual contribution to the development of stress research. They have presented an excellent opportunity to examine how deeply well-being is affected by the socially structured arrangements of people's lives and by the continuous experiences that result from these arrangements. The predominant concern has been with the role of coping resources, especially social support, coping and so on. The majority of studies report modest but significant positive association between life event levels and physical and mental symtomatology. In particular, the importance of considering psychosocial factors that may modify the effects of stressors on the risk factors for diseases or onset of illness has been emphasized increasingly. Clearly, stress is a complex process in which social, psychological and physiological environments simultaneously affect well-being. This study was performed to document the effect of psychosocial factors such social support, coping, personality traits which had been well known as stress modifiers in the stress process.