Abstract:

Psychosocial stress has been defined as a state of threatened homeostasis by the psychosocial threat. Acute stress can alter numerous biological functions, such as the neuroendocrine system, the immune system and the autonomic nerves system. Previous studies have indicated that personality traits, such as self-esteem, trait anxiety and the big five personality, play a key role in modulating the psychosocial stress responses, and the patterns of the modulation effect are contradictory in different cultures. However, these inconsistent results may be caused either by the different biological markers or by the different stress protocols, which hinder the direct comparisons. Future research should try to explore the impact of personality traits on the psychosocial stress response in a cross-culture view, while control these unrelated variables.

Key words: psychosocial stress, individual difference, personality traits, cultural context