Dimensions of Stressful Situations: A Comparison Between a Response Analytical and a Stimulus Analytical Approach

The congruence between two different approaches for the isolation of situational dimensions was studied. For each of the two approaches, data were obtained from an inventory consisting of 24 stressful situations. In the first study (the response analytical approach), 77 youn male Ss rated the unpleasantness of each of the stressful situations. A principal components analysis was employed for the isolation of the situational factors. In the second study (the stimulus analytical approach), another 24 young male Ss rated the degree of experienced similarity of the same situations. A multidimensional scaling method was employed for the isolation of the situational dimensions. The factorial congruence between the two approaches was considerable.