Daily hassles (sos)

• Daily hassles as a source of stress

  • DHs are frequent and everyday irritations and frustrations
  • According to Lazarus et al, DH range from:
  • Minor inconveniences (eg can’t find keys)
  • Greater pressures and difficulties (eg not enough time)
  • Each hassle on its own does not have the impact of a significant life change - but their added effects leave us feeling stressed
• Psychologist appraisal = primary + secondary appraisal

  • Primary appraisal = at the start we work out subjectively how threatening an experience is to psychological health
  • Secondary appraisal = if we deem that the hassle is threatening we subjectively consider how well equipped we are to cope with the hassle
• DH measured with HSUP

  • hassles and uplifts scale (HSUP) is a self-report measure of:
  • Hassles = how many experienced and how severe they are (eg losing things, not having enough time)
  • Uplifts = small, daily pleasant and enjoyable things that offset stress of hassles ( eg getting on well with friends)
• DHs have direct effects

  • DHs have direct and immediate effects on our everyday lives = they are proximal sources of stress
• Kanner et al hassles and psychological symptoms study (procedure)

  • 100 pps completed several scales:
  • Hassles scale = every month for 9 consecutive months
  • Life changes scale = one month before study (thinking back over 2 1/2 years)and again at end of study
  • Hopkins symptom checklist = to measure psychological symptoms of anxiety and depression
• Kanner et al hassles and psychological symptoms study (findings/conclusions)

  • Researchers found significant positive correlations between hassle frequency and psychological symptoms at start and end of study
  • The more hassles a pp experience, the most severe were the psychological symptoms of depression and anxiety
  • Hassles were a stronger predictor of psychological symptoms than life changes
• strength = research support for the effects of DHs

  • Ivancevich = used the HSUP and found that DH were strong predictors of poor health, poor job performance and work absenteeism
  • In terms of work-related stress = it seems that minor day-in-day-out stressors can accumulate and have significant effects
  • Suggests that DH is a valid explanation of stress experienced by many people
• counterpoint to research support

  • Ivancevich’s study depends on retrospective recall of DH and LCs over previous month - hassles are more minor and easy to forget than life changes
  • Means that the validity of researchers may be doubtful
• strength = hassles approach explains individual differences

  • People differ in their understanding of hassles = the stress of a hassle depends on how someone interprets it
  • One person perceives losing their keys as a disaster, another does not (primary appraisal)
  • One person believes they can cope, another does not (secondary appraisal)
  • => the DH approach can explain individual differences in how stress affects our health and behaviour
• limitation = hassles research is mostly correlational

  • even the strongest correlation does not show causation, so we can’t necessarily conclude that hassles cause stress
  • Another (unmeasured) factor may be causal = eg depression may cause someone to experience hassles more intensely and at the same time caused them to feel stressed
  • This suggests that the link between hassles and stress may be indirect and depends on other factors
• extra evaluation = DH vs LC

  • DH are stressful because they happen a lot and their effects are cumulative - they make LC seem worse
  • LC may be more stressful because they are major vents with powerful effects - going through one creates more DH
  • => it could be LCs that contribute most to stress because they have the biggest impact and lead to the DH