Here, stress is split into two conc

Here, stress is split into two concepts, namely objective, environmental “stressors” and the individual’s stress response. But simultaneously—and this tension is what this paper focuses on—much of this research also readily acknowledges that “stressors” are only “stressors” insofar as the individual perceives or appraises them to be so.In the following, I will explore this paradoxical binary between the objectivity of “stressors,” and the subjectivity of “perception,” showing how it is deeply rooted in mainstream stress research. I am not the first to raise this criticism. More than 30 years ago, Pollock (1988) argued that the many studies that used the concept of stress to explain the relationships between life events (such as losing one’s job) and ill health (such as depression) were problematic because they fail