Abstract
The study of stress is seen as an investigation of the interaction between physiological and behavioural compensatory reactions to physical and symbolic stressors. A conceptual approach is developed and an attempt made to integrate the effects of informational overloads, emotion provoking stimuli, and the effects of the physical environment into one psychophysiological context. This is done by postulating interregulatory controls among activating mechanisms and data-processing mechanisms with corresponding changes in the strength and direction of physiological and behavioural reactions.