Intra-individual Associations of Perceived Stress, Affective Valence, and Affective Arousal with Momentary Cortisol in a Sample of Working Adults.

Momentary perceived stress and affective valence, but not affective arousal, were associated with naturalistic cortisol. Cortisol was more robustly associated with affective valence than perceived stress or affective arousal. These findings extend our understanding of how moments of stress and particular characteristics of affective states (i.e., valence but not arousal) may "get under the skin" in daily life.