Welcome back to the Stress Puzzle! For our second episode, I was joined by Dr. George Slavich who is an expert on the conceptualization, assessment, and management of life stress. In this conversation, we talked about the history of how stress has been thought of and measured, the limitations of many of these approaches, and the kind of research we need moving forward to really be able to translate the science to be actionable in people's lives. Dr. George Slavich is a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at UCLA where he is the Founding Director of the Laboratory for Stress Assessment and Research. He is an expert with enthusiasm for bettering the conceptualization, assessment, and management of life stress and for identifying psychological and biological mechanisms that link stress to mental and physical health. He has received numerous awards for his research, mentorship, and teaching, and he brings this experience and passion for precision stress science to his role as an Associate Director of the Stress Measurement Network. Learn more about his research: https://www.uclastresslab.org/ Topics Discussed: History of Stress ScienceStress Conceptualization Across TimeNotable Figures in Stress ScienceChallenges in Measuring StressTheories of Life StressStressnologyMuti-omics Research Mentioned: Charles Darwin: Darwin CR. (1859). On the origin of species. London: John Murray Sir Clifford Allbutt: Allbutt C. (1895). Nervous diseases and modern life. Contemp. Rev. 67:210–217. Walter Bradford Cannon: Bodily Changes in Pain, Hunger, Fear and Rage: An Account of Recent Researches into the Function of Emotional Excitement (1915)Cannon WB. (1929). Organization for physiological homeostasis. Physiol. Rev. 9:399–431.The Wisdom of the Body (1932) Hans Selye: Selye, H. (1936). A Syndrome produced by Diverse Nocuous Agents. Nature, 138(3479), 32–32. https://doi.org/10.1038/138032a0Selye, H. (1973). The Evolution of the Stress Concept: The originator of the concept traces its development from the discovery in 1936 of the alarm reaction to modern therapeutic applications of syntoxic and catatoxic hormones. American Scientist, 61(6), 692–699. George Slavich: Slavich, G. M. (2019). Stressnology: The primitive (and problematic) study of life stress exposure and pressing need for better measurement. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, 75, 3-5. https://www.uclastresslab.org/pubs/Slavich_BBI_2019.pdfSlavich, G. M., & Shields, G. S. (2018). Assessing lifetime stress exposure using the Stress and Adversity Inventory for Adults (Adult STRAIN): An overview and initial validation. Psychosomatic Medicine, 80, 17-27. https://www.uclastresslab.org/pubs/Slavich_PsychosomaticMedicine_2018.pdfSlavich, G. M., Stewart, J. G., Esposito, E. C., Shields, G. S., & Auerbach, R. P. (2019). The Stress and Adversity Inventory for Adolescents (Adolescent STRAIN): associations with mental and physical health, risky behaviors, and psychiatric diagnoses in youth seeking treatment. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 60, 998-1009. https://www.uclastresslab.org/pubs/Slavich_JCPP_2019.pdfSlavich, G. M., & Irwin, M. R. (2014). From stress to inflammation and major depressive disorder: A social signal transduction theory of depression. Psychological Bulletin, 140, 774-815. https://www.uclastresslab.org/pubs/Slavich_Irwin_PsychBull_2014.pdfSlavich, G. M. (2020). Social safety theory: A biologically based evolutionary perspective on life stress, health, and behavior. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 16, 265-295. https://www.uclastresslab.org/pubs/Slavich_AnnualReview_2020.pdfSlavich, G. M., Roos, L. G., Mengelkoch, S., Webb, C. A., Shattuck, E. C., Moriarity, D. P., & Alley, J. C. (2023). Social Safety Theory: Conceptual foundation, underlying mechanisms, and future directions. Health Psychology Review, 17, 5-59. https://www.uclastresslab.org/pubs/Slavich_HealthPsychReview_2023.pdf Keely Muscatell: Muscatell KA, Inagaki TK. (2021). Beyond social withdrawal: New perspectives on the effects of inflammation on social behavior. Brain Behav Immun Health, 16:100302. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8474589/pdf/main.pdfFeldman MJ, Jolink TA, Alvarez GM, Fendinger NJ, Gaudier-Diaz MM, Lindquist KA, Muscatell KA. The roles of inflammation, affect, and interoception in predicting social perception. Brain Behav Immun. 2023, 112:246-253. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10528976/pdf/nihms-1914636.pdf Holmes and Rahe: Life Change Stress Test: https://www.dartmouth.edu/eap/library/lifechangestresstest.pdf Holmes, T. H., & Rahe, R. H. (1967). The social readjustment rating scale. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 11(2), 213–218. https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-3999(67)90010-4 ME Seligman: Maier SF, Seligman ME. (2016). Learned helplessness at fifty: insights from neuroscience. Psychol.Rev. 123:34967. Lazarus and Folkman: Lazarus R. S., Folkman S. (1984). Stress, Appraisal and Coping. ...
