Stress states, personality and cognitive functioning: A review of research with the Dundee Stress State Questionnaire

Abstract Individuals performing cognitive tasks experience a range of subjective states including stress, excitement, and fatigue. This article reviews research based on a multidimensional assessment of state dimensions in the performance context, the Dundee Stress State Questionnaire (DSSQ). Various types of evidence for validity support differentiating task engagement, distress, and worry dimensions as indices of the dynamic transaction between the performer and the task environment. The article aims to illustrate different uses of the scale in theory-based and applied studies of individual differences in performance. One usage is investigating relationships between personality traits, resilience, and stress reactivity. Subjective states reflect cognitive stress processes (appraisal and coping), which may be biased by traits. A second usage is testing theories of stress effects on attention and performance; research findings link task engagement to resources for sustained and focused attention, and distress to impairments in working memory and executive control. A third usage is testing states as mediators of personality-performance associations. Individual differences in human performance may reflect biological, cognitive, and self-regulative processes, so that interpretation of subjective state scores requires an explicit theoretical orientation. Practical applications of the multidimensional model include support for stress mitigation, training, personnel selection and team performance.

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