Cortisol Response to Various Stressful Situations: Relationship to Personality Variables and Coping Styles

Abstract

Studies on personality traits and coping styles as determinants of interindividual differences in neuroendocrine responses to stress have not yet yielded conclusive results. In a previous investigation, strong hints to distinct interindividual differences in the susceptibility of the HP A axis of 12 male volunteers aged 27 ± 5 years exposed to five different stress situations were found. In the present report, psychometric variables (personality traits and coping styles) assessed in the same subjects before the study were analyzed to test whether specific psychometric variables were related to the interindividual differences in the susceptibility of the HPA axis. The results revealed that interindividual differences in the frequency of cortisol responses to stress situations could not be predicted by any of the psychometric variables investigated. The question if psychological factors contribute to neuroendocrine stress response and to what degree warrants further interest. These preliminary findings suggest, however, that nonpsychological factors should be considered more seriously as determinants of interindividual differences in neuroendocrine stress responses in healthy subjects as well as in psychiatric patients.

Psychological Stress and Neuroendocrine Function in Humans: The Last Two Decades of Research

“…Bossert et al [138]and Berger et al [14]studied cortisol responses to three different psychological stressors and two physical stressors in a sample of 12 healthy male volunteers (mean age 27 years). The stressors were a video-recorded quiz, an arithmetic test, a stressful and upsetting film, a prolonged version of the cold pressor test and bicycle exercise.…”

“…All five stressors induced a significant increase in plasma cortisol levels, albeit with a considerable interindividual variability of adrenocortical responsiveness. This marked interindividual variability in the frequency of cortisol responses to stress situations was unrelated to any personality trait or coping style [14, 138]. …”

“…However, the only association that seems fairly consistent is that between catecholamine hyperreactivity to psychological stressors and type A behavior in the male sex. Furthermore, it should be emphasized that more than one study reported that psychoendocrine reactivity was unrelated to any personality trait or coping style, at least as far as adrenocortical response is concerned [138, 139]. As will be discussed in more detail in a subsequent section, constructs such as personality trait or coping style seem not powerful enough to fully explain either the marked differences between individuals in psychoendocrine reactivity to the same stressor or the individual variability in reactivity to different psychological stressors.…”

Coping and health: A comparison of the stress and trauma literatures.

“…In these often unpublished studies, defensiveness, avoidance, and repression are typically associated with higher cortisol levels (Biondi & Picardi, 1999). Bossert et al (1988) found no relationship between coping styles and cortisol, but their sample size was very small (12 men). Van Eck, Nicholson, Berkhof, & Sulon (1996), using a larger sample, also found no relationship between coping style and salivary cortisol.…”

Lifestyle, stress and cortisol response: Review II

“…Lower cortisol stress responses have been consistently shown in females compared to males 105) . Personality and other traits may influence how stressful situations are appraised and may, thus, have predictive value for understanding individual differences in emotional and physiological responses to apparently identical situations [106][107][108] . More insight into individual differences in cortisol reactivity is needed.…”