daily hassles

• Daily hassles


  Very different from life changes - frequent and predictable, opposite of life changes (unexpected and rare)
• Daily hassles


  Direct causes of stress, whereas life changes can be considered indirect or underlying causes of stress
• Daily hassles from life change of being married


  • Arguments over finances
  • Learning partner is very untidy
  • Changing social arrangements
• Lazarus' two processes when experiencing a daily hassle

  1. Primary appraisal: assessing the severity of the hassle

  2. Secondary appraisal: considering ability to cope with the hassle
• Kanner et al (1981) investigated whether daily hassles were a larger or smaller source of stress compared to major life changes
• 100 participants independently completed the Hassles Scale every month for three-quarters of a year, and then self-reported any major life changes one month before and after the main study, using a measure similar to the SRRS
• Any signs of mental illness or disturbance were then measured using the Hopkins Symptoms Checklist
• The researchers reported that despite there being a positive correlation between daily hassles and stress, daily hassles proved to be significantly more stressful than major life changes
• The cumulative effect of many 'minor' daily hassles

  More difficult to adjust to, and therefore more stressful, compared to life changes
• Adopting an interactionist approach to explaining the sources of stress


  May be more beneficial than looking at daily hassles or life changes in isolation
• Severity of daily hassles

  May become 'amplified' or over-exaggerated when accompanied by major life changes
• Example of amplification hypothesis


  • The daily hassle of losing a set of keys is amplified when a new mother has to pick up her child from the nursery
• Individual differences in how daily hassles affect people

  Same differences can be applied to men and women due to varying gender roles
• Example of gender role differences

  • Running out of washing powder or bin liners may be perceived as a far greater and stressful daily hassle for women, compared to men
• Most of the research into the effects of daily hassles are retrospective, relying on the accuracy of participant's memory and recall
• This may become particularly problematic when participants are asked to recall all of the daily hassles experienced during the past year, many of which are seemingly trivial and more likely to be forgotten
• This suggests the validity and reliability of such studies is compromised, and that prospective studies may be a more reliable alternative