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Stress, Coping, and Adaption
February 25, 2008
Measuring Stress
Eric Weiser
Curry College
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Measuring Stress
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Stress can be measured three different ways
Paper-and-pencil scales
 Interviews
 Physiological measurements
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Measuring Stress: Paper and Pencil
Scales
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Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS)
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Life Experiences Survey (LES)
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Sarason, Johnson, & Siegel (1978)
Checklist of events, inquiry into desirability of each event
Assessment of Daily Experiences (ADE)
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Holmes & Rahe (1967)
Checklist of events, stressfulness ratings are fixed
Stone & Neale (1982)
Monitor and record thoughts and events
Daily Hassles and Uplifts Scale (DHUS)
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Kanner, Coyne, Schaefer, & Lazarus (1981)
Measure of minor stresses and pleasures of everyday life
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Measuring Stress: Interviews
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Life Events and Difficulties Schedule (LEDS)
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Brown & Harris (1978)
A semi-structured interview technique, it attempts to
evaluates life experiences within context of each
person’s unique circumstances
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e.g., “Birth of a child” would have a different meaning to an
20-year-old woman who is poor and unemployed than it
would to a 35-year-old woman with a good job and no other
stressors
Measuring Stress: Physiological
Measures
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This involves taking blood, urine, or saliva assays
(samples) to determine the presence of:
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Catecholamines
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Epinephrine and norepinephrine
Cortisol
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Usually measured via a cortisol metabolite often referred to as 17OHCS (that is, 17-hydroxycorticosteriod)
Normal ranges for urinary 17-OHCS are 2.5 to 12 mg/24 hours
During extreme stress, urinary 17-OHCS exceeds 15 mg/24 hours
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Social Readjustment Rating Scale
(SRRS)
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The Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS)
was developed in 1967 by Thomas Holmes and
Richard Rahe.
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In many ways, their work was influenced by
earlier work by Adolph Meyer.
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Adolph Meyer
(1866-1950)
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In the 1930s, Meyer proposed that life
events were related to health
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These events need not be negative,
bizarre, or catastrophic; they must simply
be interpreted as important life changes,
requiring some degree of coping
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e.g., marriage, moving to new city, changing
jobs, death in family
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Life charts
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Although he noted the effects these life
changes had on patients with diseases, he
did not document his findings with
empirical research
Social Readjustment Rating Scale
(SRRS)
Holmes and Rahe (1967)
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Hypotheses:
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The impact (slings and arrows) of life events build up over time.
Stress = social readjustment (amount of change in one’s normal pattern
of life as a result of a life event), regardless of desirability
Stress varies in intensity, but the intensity is consistent among groups.
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3.
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Death of spouse = MAJOR, MAJOR stress
Divorce = major stress
Lose job = very stress
Christmas = little “blast” of stress
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Social Readjustment Rating Scale
(SRRS)
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Holmes & Rahe (1967)
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A total of 394 respondents read a list of 43 life events
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Respondents asked to rate, in their opinion, how much average
“readjustment” each life event entails
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Marriage given an arbitrary value of 500; all other items were then
evaluated using this reference point. For example, an event requiring
twice as much readjustment as marriage would be assigned a value
of 1,000, whereas one requiring one-fifth as much readjustment as
marriage would be assigned a value of 100
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The mean value for each event was later divided by 10 (Table 3);
Ratings were highly correlated between groups of people (Table 2).
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Social Readjustment Rating Scale
(SRRS)
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From this study the Social Readjustment Rating Scale
(SRRS) emerged
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A respondent checks off each item that has happened
in a certain period of time (e.g., one year)
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Ratings then totaled to produce a Life Change Unit
(LCU) score
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High LCU scores are hypothesized to be positively
correlated to physical illness
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LCU Scores and Health Problems
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Holmes & Holmes (1970)
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A total of 55 respondents (37 men, 18 women) given Schedule
of Recent Events (SRE), which is a version of the SRRS
adapted for daily use
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Respondents record which event happened to them on a
particular day, each day for around two weeks
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Respondents also record day to day health changes they may
have experienced
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Would LCU scores be positively correlated with self-reported
health problems during the study period?
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LCU Scores and Health Problems
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Results:
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Events with relatively low magnitude of life change were the
most frequently reported (Table 1)
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The most frequently reported health problems were: skin,
eye, ear, nose, and throat problems (i.e., colds and fevers);
gastro problems, and muscle problems (e.g., strain)
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People with many symptoms tend to have them
continuously, not all at once
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A positive relationship was found between LCU scores and
symptoms (Table 3).
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B
C
A
Correlation of .45 (r = .45) between LCU score and average symptom frequency
(A and B). This means that respondents with higher mean LCU scores tended to
have more symptoms.
Correlation of .48 (r = .48) between LCU score and proportion of days
symptomatic (A and C). This means that respondents with higher mean LCU
scores tended to have symptoms most of the times (chronically symptomatic).
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There was a higher amount of life change on the day in which (as well as the
day before and the day after) symptoms tended to be reported.
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Social Readjustment Rating Scale
(SRRS)
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The SRRS has had an enormous impact on the study of stress
and illness
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Only a decade or so after it was first developed, it had been used
in more than 1,000 studies.
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Generally, people with LCU scores higher than 150 in any one
year tend to have more physical and psychological ailments
than do less stressed people.
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These ailments include heart disease, diabetes, cancer, leukemia,
various kinds of accidents, athletic injuries, fractures, colds and
fever, major depression, and schizophrenia.
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Life Experiences Survey (LES)
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Sarason, Johnson, & Siegel (1978)
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Similar to SRRS
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Respondent checks off items that they have experienced in
the “recent past” (0-6 months or 7-12 months)
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The difference between this and the SRRS is that the
respondent also indicates how positive or negative of an
impact each event has had on their life
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Scale ranges from -3 (extremely negative) to +3 (extremely positive)
Includes:
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47 core items
3 items that the respondent includes
10 “student only” items
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Life Experiences Survey (LES)
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Scoring
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Sum the impact ratings of items the respondent has
designated as positive
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Also, sum the impact ratings of items the respondent
has designated as negative
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Positive change score
Negative impact score
By adding both scores, you get a total change score
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An estimate of the total change the respondent has
experienced (good and bad)
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Life Experiences Survey (LES)
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Problems with Checklist Approaches
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Studies finding a correlation between the experience of
life events and illness does not mean that stress causes
illness
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For example, poorer people (who tend to have poor health
care) may lead lives in which more changes take place, due to
financial problems; thus, stress may only be coincidental to
health problems for this group, not the cause of it.
Studies using the SRRS and the LES use a retrospective
design (i.e., respondents asked to recall illness and
stressful life events at some point in time). Such reports
are subject to considerable bias and distortion.
Assessment of Daily Experiences
(ADE)
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Stone & Neale (1982)
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Designed to address some of the inadequacies of the SRRS
and LES (e.g., bias in retrospective reports)
Each day over a period of time (e.g., two weeks),
respondents check which of 66 items happened to them on
that day. If an event happened, they rate the event in terms
of its desirability, meaningfulness, change, and control.
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Work-Related Activities
Leisure Activities
Financial Activities
Family and Friend Activities
Other Activities
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Sample Section of
Assessment of Daily
Experience Scale (ADE)
Respondents indicate if an
event occurred by circling
arrow on left.
If an event occurred,
respondent rates in on
dimensions of desirability,
change, meaningfulness, and
control using the geometric
spaces on the right.
Assessment of Daily Experiences
(ADE)
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Stone, Reed, & Neale (1987)
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Using the ADE, studied the relationship between desirable
and undesirable life events and the onset of episodes of
respiratory illness.
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Of 30 subjects who experienced episodes of respiratory
infection, the daily frequency of desirable and undesirable
life events that occurred from one to ten days prior was
examined.
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Also, the daily frequency of desirable and undesirable life
events was determined for one to ten days before a control
day (i.e., a day in which no respiratory infection occurred.
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Mean Number of Desirable Events
Preceding Illness
(Stone et al., 1987)
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Mean Number of Undesirable Events
Preceding Illness
(Stone et al., 1987)
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Daily Hassles and Uplifts Scale
(DHUS)
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Kanner, Coyne, Schaefer, & Lazarus (1981)
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Assumes that the minor stressors and pleasures of
everyday life have a bigger effect on health than the
big, traumatic events assessed by SRRS
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Checklist scale
Originally given to 100 adults once a month for 10 months
 Subjects rate how much of a hassle (or uplift) numerous
items were in a particular month
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Ratings were on a 4-point scale ranging from 0 (none or not
applicable) to 3 (a great deal)
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Daily Hassles and Uplifts Scale
(DHUS)
Hassles
1. Concerns about weight
2. Health of a family member
3. Rising prices of common goods
4. Home maintenance
5. Too many things to do
6. Misplacing or losing things
7. Outside home maintenance
8. Property, investment of taxes
9. Crime
10. Physical appearance
Uplifts
1. Relating well to spouse or lover
2. Relating well with friends
3. Completing a task
4. Feeling healthy
5. Getting enough sleep
6. Eating out
7. Meeting your responsibilities
8. Visiting, phoning or writing to
someone
9. Spending time with the family
10. Home pleasing to you
The Hassles scale was found to be a better predictor of psychological
problems than life event scores, both at the time and later.
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Life Events and Difficulties Schedule
(LEDS)
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Brown & Harris (1978)
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Includes a semistructured interview, covering over 200 kinds
of stressors (death, illness, role changes, etc)
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The interviewer and the respondent work together to
establish a timeline of each of the major life events within a
given period of time
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After the interview, raters evaluate the event in terms of
severity, short-term threat, long-term threat, and other
dimensions
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The LEDS was designed to evaluate the importance of an
event in terms of a person’s unique life circumstances
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e.g., pregnancy would have quite a different meaning for an indigent
19-year-old woman than it would for a 35-year-old woman who had
been trying to conceive for a long time
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Example of a Life Events Timeline