The Insidious Influence of Stress: An Integrated Model of Stress, Executive Control, and Psychopathology

Abstract

Although exposure to acute stress undoubtedly contributes to psychopathology, most individuals do not develop psychopathology following stress exposure. To explain this, scholars have implicated biological, emotional, and cognitive responses to stress, but individual differences in executive control (i.e., top-down control of cognition and behavior) measured in response to stress has only recently emerged as a potential factor contributing to psychopathology. In this review, we introduce a model—the integrated model of stress, executive control, and psychopathology—positing that the impairing effects of acute stress on executive control can contribute to psychopathology. We link to research on biological, emotional, and cognitive processes, all of which can be impacted by executive control, to propose a framework for how poorer executive control under conditions of acute stress can contribute to psychopathology. This integrated model is intended to further our understanding of who is more susceptible to the negative consequences of stress.