Figure 1.

Framework for studying psychobiological stress phenotypes. Future empirical research would document the inter-related affective, behavioral, cognitive, and somatic changes in response to acute stress for each individual using large samples, and aim to uncover the biological substrates for these effects. We hypothesize variability in individual stress phenotypes (i.e., profiles) of stress responses. Acknowledging that there are multiple elements within each domain, this figure presents a simplified representation for explanatory purposes. As hypothetical examples, Person X might show a high increase in negative affect, social withdrawal, cognitive deficits, and somatic symptoms such as fatigue post-stress, which may predispose them to developing elevated internalizing symptoms over time. Person Y might show stress-related increases in negative affect, aggressive behaviors, cognitive deficits, and insomnia, a profile which over time may become crystallized into elevated externalizing symptoms. Finally, Person Z may show a large change in the behavioral domain, specifically an increase in reward seeking and social-affiliative behavior, which would buffer their endocrine stress response and attenuate the negative affective, cognitive, and somatic effects of the stressor, leading to a profile of resilience to psychopathology. Person-centered analytic methods could identify these and other profiles that characterize biobehavioral subgroups within a population that are prone toward distinct mental health trajectories. This would be particularly fruitful within populations exposed to childhood adversity, who may show different or accentuated stress-response profiles within and across affective, behavioral, cognitive, and somatic domains. Figure created with BioRender.com.