Psychology Department, Columbia University in the City of New York.
J Pers Soc Psychol. 2021 Sep;121(3):722-746. doi: 10.1037/pspp0000396.
Prior research shows that daily stressors lead to greater psychological distress. A separate body of research links daily stressors to physical symptoms such as backaches and stomach problems. We integrate these literatures by positing an interconnected causal system, whereby stressors lead to psychological distress which, in turn, leads to physical symptoms. Our integrated approach also includes causal effects in the opposing directions: Psychological distress can increase physical symptoms and physical symptoms can increase psychological distress. Put simply, causal effects are bidirectional. This finding illuminates the concept of feedback loops, which have never been investigated in the stress literature until now. We find that reverberating feedback between stressors and distress equilibrates after just one and a half loops and that feedback between stressors and physical symptoms does not actually reach a full loop. Because of this, feedback loops have only minor consequences for physical symptoms by the end of the day. Finally, we discuss the aforementioned phenomena with between-person differences at the forefront, showing how some people are as much as four times as reactive as the average person, some people are not reactive at all, and other people are reactive in reverse directions (e.g., distress leads to fewer physical symptoms). We empirically support these claims using daily diary data from three separate studies that together represent diverse ages, geographic regions, relationship statuses, and racial identities. Once established, we consider the implications of our integrated causal feedback system in relation to existing knowledge and highlight critical areas for future study. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).
先前的研究表明，日常压力源会导致更大的心理困扰。另一部分研究将日常压力源与背部疼痛和胃部问题等身体症状联系起来。我们通过假设一个相互关联的因果系统来整合这些文献，在这个系统中，压力源会导致心理困扰，而心理困扰反过来又会导致身体症状。我们的综合方法还包括相反方向的因果效应：心理困扰会增加身体症状，身体症状也会增加心理困扰。简单地说，因果效应是双向的。这一发现阐明了反馈循环的概念，直到现在，这一概念在压力文献中从未被研究过。我们发现，压力源和困扰之间的反复反馈在仅仅一个半循环后就达到平衡，而压力源和身体症状之间的反馈实际上并没有达到一个完整的循环。正因为如此，到一天结束时，反馈循环对身体症状的影响很小。最后，我们讨论了上述现象，将个体间差异置于首位，表明有些人的反应程度是平均水平的四倍之多，有些人根本没有反应，而另一些人的反应方向则相反（例如，困扰会导致身体症状减少）。我们使用来自三个独立研究的日常日记数据来实证支持这些说法，这些研究代表了不同的年龄、地理位置、关系状况和种族身份。一旦建立，我们就会考虑我们的综合因果反馈系统对现有知识的影响，并强调未来研究的关键领域。（PsycInfo 数据库记录（c）2021 APA，保留所有权利）。
