This new podcast episode of Core Concepts explores what “stressors” really are. In the Stress in Action research programme we distinguish stress between stressors and stress responses. Stressors are the stressful experiences in everyday life.

Malin Meyer (PhD candidate, University Medical Center Groningen) explains: “If somebody says, I’m really stressed, then basically my research is about the question, what is stressing you? So what is the stressor?”.

Malin explains how everyday stressors differ from major life events. She introduces four “puzzle pieces” that shape how we define stressors: their type (event vs. ongoing state or condition), function (demands, constraints, or even opportunities), time (present experiences vs. anticipated or remembered ones), and source (external events vs. internal thoughts, pain, or imagery). She also shows how these definitions directly influence how researchers measure stress—and therefore what they can ultimately discover: “What you measure is what you find.”