Effect of compressive pre-stress and biased electrical field on the uniaxial electromechanical behavior of a soft ferroelectric ceramic PZT-53 is investigated. The emphasis is on the effect of electric and mechanical loading history upon the response of PZT-53 to external loading and on the effect of pre-stress and biased electrical field upon the electro-mechanical coupling behavior. It is found that the uniaxial behavior of the PZT-53 is sensitive to the compressive pre-stress and biased electrical field, and is less sensitive to the loading history. Obtained results are expected to shed insightful light on developing reliable constitutive model for ferroelectric ceramics. (c) 2006 Springer Science + Business Media, Inc.