Stressor Effects in Lab and Life: Correspondences between the Effects of the Accident at Three Mile Island and Stress Responses in the Laboratory.

摘要

The present research project is concerned with stressor effects on a number of measures of task performance and satisfaction. Such research must necessarily be concerned with the question whether intended stressors are indeed present in the independent variable manipulations. Further, one must be concerned whether stressors occur at sufficiently high levels, are of an equivalent or comparable nature to those occurring naturally in real world settings, and have effects which are sufficiently stable over time (since research has shown that the experience of simulated stress may diminish where real world stress shows lesser or no adaptation, c.f. Krahenbuhl, 1980). Insufficient stressor levels or inappropriate stressors would likely result in a mismatch between observed stressor effects in lab and life and would certainly reduce the value of laboratory data. The efforts reported in this technical report are concerned with an evaluation of stressor effects in the laboratory as compared with the effects of naturally occurring stressor events.