title: Social stress models in rodents: Towards enhanced validity.
abstract: Understanding the role of the social environment in the development of stress related diseases requires a more fundamental understanding of stress. Stress includes not only the stimulus and the response but also the individual appraisal of the situation. The social environment is not only essential for survival it is at the same time an important source of stressors. This review discusses the social stress concept, how it has been studied in rodents in the course of time and some more recent insights into the appraisal process. In addition to the factors controllability and predictability, outcome expectancy and feedback of the victim's own actions during the social stress are suggested to be important factors in the development of stress related disease. It is hypothesized that individual differences in the way in which these factors are used in the appraisal of everyday life situations may explain individual vulnerability.
authors.affiliation: Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences, Neurobiology, University Groningen, P.O.Box 11103, Groningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Koolhaas
authors.affiliation: Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences, Neurobiology, University Groningen, P.O.Box 11103, Groningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: S F
authors.initials: SF
authors.lastname: de Boer
authors.affiliation: Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences, Neurobiology, University Groningen, P.O.Box 11103, Groningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Buwalda
authors.affiliation: Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences, Neurobiology, University Groningen, P.O.Box 11103, Groningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Meerlo
keywords: Adrenaline; Appraisal stress; Controllability; Corticosterone; Expectancy; Feedback; Noradrenaline; Predictability