A somewhat personal odyssey in studying the stress process

Abstract The reader is taken on a journey spanning some 25 years devoted to the author's involvement in stress research as a sociologist of health. The starting point is work on life stressors, moving to the distinction between tension and stress and the concept of generalized resistance resources. In the course of the story, consideration is given to the difference between the study of diseases and of dis–ease. The next step taken is the formulation of the salutogenic problem and its implications for health research, in contrast to the traditional study of pathogenesis. Finally, the meaning of the sense of coherence, an orientation to the world as comprehensible, manageable and meaningful, and hypothesized to be a core variable in shaping coping with stressors and thereby influencing health status, is discussed.