Measuring stress

• Self-report measures of stress

  • Social readjustment rating scale (SRRS)
  • life change unit (LCU)
  • Hassles and uplifts scale (HSUP) = hassle scale and uplifts scale
• physiological measures of stress

  • Skin conductance response (SCR)
  • Increase adrenaline/cortisol
• social readjustment rating scale (SRRS)

  • Created by Holmes and Rahe
  • Used medical records to identify events in patients’ lives that happened before they came ill
  • 43 life events linked to change (major positive an d negative life changes)
• life change unit (LCU)

  • Calculated for each life event by asking a group of people to estimate readjustment required for each, using marriage (50 units) as a baseline
  • pps indicate which life events they have experienced in the past 12 months = LCUs for these are added to give an overall (global) stress score
• hassles and uplifts scale (HSUP)

  • Kanner et al = created HSUP to measure daily hassles and uplifts as indicators of stress
• hassles scale

  • has 117 items selected from categories such as ‘work’, ‘health’ and ‘environment‘
  • eg ‘troublesome neighbours’, ‘too much responsibility‘
  • measures severity of each hassle on a 3-point scale: somewhat, moderately, extremely severe
• uplifts scale

  • 135 uplifts scale items were produced from the same categories as the hassles scale
  • Uplifts include = getting enough sleep, liking fellow workers
  • Individual identifies al the uplifts that apply and indicates their frequency over a specific time period (eg that day)
• strength = valid way to measure stress (self-report)

  • Stress is personal so the best way to understand it is to ask people about their experiences
  • Asking questions about experiences ‘makes sense’ to people as a way to measure stress, so people are more honest
  • => the findings of studies based on self-reports measures are true reflections of the stress pps feel
• counterpoint to self-report being a valid measure (self-report)

  • Dohrenwend et al = found that the most stressed people made the most negative interpretations of scale items 9eg ‘serious illness’)
  • Means there is an inbuilt bias that inflates stress scores and reduces the validity of self-report measures
• Limitation = self-report scales mix causes and effects of stress (self-report)

  • SRRS and HSUP items (causes of stress) overlap with symptoms (effects of stress) = eg ‘personal injury or illness‘
  • Like saying = ‘you have a stress-related illness because you are experiencing a personal illness‘ - scales reflect illness, not predict it
  • This is why self-report measures should be abandoned and replaced by direct observations of behaviour
• extra evaluation = subjective vs objective (self-report)

  • Self-report measures are subjective = they are prone to biases (social desirability) but stress is a deeply subjective experience
  • Physiological measure are objective = they are not affected by personal biases but similar physiological responses are linked to different experiences
  • => in terms of validity, the subjective approach is probably beast as it informs us of the stress experience
• Skin conductance response (SCR)

  • Stress creates arousal in autonomic nervous system (ANS) and we sweat more
  • Human skin is a good conductor of electricity and sweat enhances that
  • To measure conductance:
  • Electrodes are attached to index and middle fingers
  • Tiny current is applied to electrodes
  • Conductance measured (in micro Siemens) = the signal is amplified and displayed on a screen
  • Tonic conductance = when we are not experiencing a stinmulus (used as baseline)
  • Phasic conductance = occurs when something happens (eg asked a question) - produces SCR
• other physiological measures

  • Increased adrenaline (sign of acute stress), increased cortisol (chronic stress)
  • Measured in urine and blood (also saliva for cortisol)
  • Baseline measures taken for comparison because levels vary naturally during the day
• limit = people differ systematically in their SCRs (physiological measure)

  • SCR measurement takes a baseline because people have individual patterns, but people can be divided into 2 groups based on their SCRs
  • stabiles = have SCRs that vary little at rest and are not much affect by thoughts or events
  • labiles = produce many SCRs even at rest
  • => SCR measurement is not a straightforward matter of comparing baseline (tonic) SCRs against stimulated (phasic) SCRs
• strength = physiological measures are scientific

  • Physiological indicators are reliably associated with stress, but researchers must take into account that they all have a baseline varying between people
  • These measures are free of biases that affect self-reports, eg cortisol levels are not affected by social desirability
  • Means that physiological measures are considered more scientific measures of the body‘s physiological stress response