Stress is an umbrella term for many experiences we face in life. We intuitively know what it means but, at the same time, we don’t fully understand it. Is then the term ‘’stress” too vague to actually explain anything about health and disease? Stress is the leading cause of global burden on healthcare, so how can we better define and understand it? These questions are explored by our guest dr. Bertus Jeronimus, a clinical and developmental psychologist and researcher at the University of Groningen. As he is currently working on a theory of daily life stress, Bertus explains that precision is key to sort out all the aspects that make up the sometimes confusing concept of stress. We talk about the adaptive function of stress throughout life, the way stress is understood in different fields, and the role of personality types. We also examine the importance of how one interprets and handles stressful experiences (i.e., appraisal and coping). As always, a complex yet fascinating topic. We hope you enjoy  it.

Stress is complex and multifaceted and we all experience it in our daily lives. In this podcast we talk to various experts about stress. We talk about the latest developments in stress research and approach stress from various angles: physiology, emotion, cognition, behaviour and context. Stress Navigation is part of the 10-year research project Stress in Action. Marcos Ross is a PhD candidate at Amsterdam UMC and interviews our guests in the English episodes.