Psychological Science Behind Stress

Feeling a little stressed out? Whether it’s impending final exams, a business presentation, family troubles or just your daily commute stress consumes many of us. Check out this video about the human stress response featuring Robert Sapolsky, Professor of Neurology and Neurological Sciences at Stanford University.

As we’ve evolved, the human stress response has saved our lives. Today, we turn on the same life-saving physical reaction to cope with intense, ongoing stressors – and we can’t seem to turn it off. Sapolsky reveals just how dangerous prolonged exposure to stress can be in clips from the National Geographic documentary, “Stress: Portrait of a Killer.”


APS regularly opens certain online articles for discussion on our website. Effective February 2021, you must be a logged-in APS member to post comments. By posting a comment, you agree to our Community Guidelines and the display of your profile information, including your name and affiliation. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations present in article comments are those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the views of APS or the article’s author. For more information, please see our Community Guidelines.

Please login with your APS account to comment.