Measuring Stress

• Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS)

  A self-report measure of stress comprised of 43 items ranked on a scale of 1 to 43, 1 being the most stressful and having the largest Life Change Unit (LCU)
• Life Change Unit (LCU)

  A value assigned to each stressful life-event item on the SRRS, based on the extent to which participants would need to adjust in response to that event
• SRRS

  Participants recall major life changes over a set time period
• Hassles and Uplift Scale

  A self-report measure of stress made up of 117 items of different severity in provoking stress, and 135 positive, stress-reducing events
• Skin Conductance Response (SCR)

  An objective, physiological measure of stress where electrodes measure changes in sweat production and skin conductance
• SCR measures still ignore individual differences in baseline conductance levels
• Approaches to assessing stress

  • Global approach (SRRS, Hassles and Uplifts Scales) - considers multiple factors interacting to produce stress
  • Specific approach - associates specific stressful events with specific illnesses
• All stress measurement scales suffer from validity issues due to subjective interpretation of items