Introduction
Stress is a big topic in psychological research. Humans regularly experience stress. It is a feeling of pressure. There is both positive (e.g., wedding) and negative stress (e.g., fleeing from an attack), although it is probably more frequently discussed as a negative feeling.
| There are many YouTube videos about stress. Click for list here. |
The Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) is one of the most highly cited scales for the measurement of the degree to which life appears stressful. As of August 2015, the paper by Sheldon and colleagues (1983) has been cited nearly 5000 times.
The authors suggested that the test may be useful as a measure of chronic stress levels (among other uses).
| The test has 14 items, and can be used in a shortened 4-item format. |
Scores can range from 0 to 56.
| Mean score | Men | Women |
|---|---|---|
Community sample |
24.0 |
25.6 |
College students |
22.1 |
24.6 |
| Sex differences were not statistically significant. |
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Legal stuff
It seems that the PSS can be used for research, but you need to acknowledge the authors and their research paper when writing about it (References).
Technically
This is a simple scale question with some reverse coded items.
The survey code for PsyToolkit
scale: frequency
- {score=0} never
- {score=1} almost never
- {score=2} sometimes
- {score=3} fairly often
- {score=4} very often
l: pss
t: scale frequency
o: width 50%
q: The questions in this scale ask you about your feelings and thoughts during the last month.<br>
In each case, you will be asked <i>how often</i> you felt or thought a certain way.<br>
Although some of the questions are similar, there are differences
between them and you should treat each one as a separate question.<br>
The best approach is answer each question fairly quickly.<br>
That is, don't try to count up the number of times you felt a particular way,<br>
but rather indicate the alternative that seems like a reasonable estimate.<br>
- In the last month, how often have you been upset because of something that happened unexpectedly?
- In the last month, how often have you felt that you were unable to control the important things in your life?
- In the last month, how often have you felt nervous and "stressed"?
- {reverse} In the last month, how often have you dealt successfully with irritating life hassles?
- {reverse} In the last month, how often have you felt that you were effectively coping with important changes that were occurring in your life?
- {reverse} In the last month, how often have you felt confident about your ability to handle your personal problems?
- {reverse} In the last month, how often have you felt that things were going your way?
- In the last month, how often have you found that you could not cope with all the things that you had to do?
- {reverse} In the last month, how often have you been able to control irritations in your life?
- {reverse} In the last month, how often have you felt that you were on top of things?
- In the last month, how often have you been angered because of things that happened that were outside of your control?
- In the last month, how often have you found yourself thinking about things that you have to accomplish?
- {reverse} In the last month, how often have you been able to control the way you spend your time?
- In the last month, how often have you felt difficulties were piling up so high that you could not overcome them?
l: score
t: set
- sum $pss
l: feedback
t: info
q: Your score on the Perceived Stress Scale is {$score}.<br>
Note that the possible scores lie between 0 and 56.<br>
The average score lies around 23 to 24 points.
References
-
Cohen, S., Kamarck, T., Mermelstein, R. (1983). A global measure of perceived stress. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 24, 385-396.