Most of the available laboratory methods for the evaluation of the in situ horizontal stresses are usually applicable only to normally consolidated or slightly overconsolidated soils. The assessment of the in situ effective stresses state of rigid, overconsolidated soils, and consequently of their stress-strain performance , involves a considerable degree of uncertainty due to the difficulty in the determination of the field lateral stresses . This thesis presents the results of an experimental study performed in the laboratory to gather information on compressibility and undrained stress-strain characteristics, and to determine the in situ effective lateral stress of a soil from the Guabirotuba Formation, at the Curitiba Sedimentary Basin, in the South of Brasil. The first stage of the study comprised characterization tests, mineralogical analysis and electronic microscopy evaluations. After the physical characterization of the material, it was carried out the study on the stress-strain-strength behaviour through undrained triaxial tests and oedometric tests with constant rate of deformation. Unweathred and latherized soil samples from the Guabirotuba formation were used in such investigations. As the methodologies presented in the literature are not appropriate for rigid, overconsolidated soils, a new experimental technique for the determination of the in situ lateral stress was proposed. The proposed method is based on the concept of yield surfaces. The stress history of a soil is related to its stress-strain behaviour and, therefore, can be inferred through monitoring changes of the soil rigidity under a given stress path. Following the proposed methodology, stress-path controlled triaxial tests with internal measurement of axial strains were performed in undisturbed samples of the Guabirotuba Formation, providing an assessment of the field lateral stress of the material.