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A Comparison of Two Stressors

DONALD OKEN, MD; HELEN HEATH, PhD; WILLIAM SHIPMAN, PhD; IRIS GOLDSTEIN, PhD; ROY R. GRINKER, SR., MD; JAMES FISCH, MD

Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1966;15(6):624-634.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

THE IMPORTANCE of the psychological stress response makes necessary a detailed knowledge of its psychological and physiological properties. Because of the well-known difficulties of research in natural settings, a number of laboratory approaches have utilized artificial stimuli to produce what is thought to be psychological stress. Relatively simple sensory stimuli (eg, sound) or intellectually demanding tasks (eg, mental arithmetic) often are so used. Such stimuli can be well defined in terms of their physical parameters; they are easy to produce; they have a sharply delimited onset and termination; and they can be brief in duration. This affords much greater simplicity of experimental design as well as uniformity for repetition.

Simple stimuli, however, lack the quality of threat and the capacity to produce overt affective arousal. Clinically oriented investigators have tended to prefer the use of more complex stimuli which have qualities more like meaningful real-life psychological stress situations (eg, anxiety-inducing . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
CHICAGO

From the Institute for Psychosomatic and Psychiatric Research and Training, Michael Reese Hospital and Medical Center, Chicago. Dr. Oken is now at the Clinical Research Branch, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, Md.

Footnotes
Submitted for publication April 20, 1966.

Reprint requests to 29th & Ellis Aves, Chicago 60616 (Dr. Heath).

One exception, the cold-pressor test, is disregarded here because of its complicating, direct physiological effects.

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