Stress is a normal part of daily life -- big or small, from stubbing your toe to crashing your car on your way to work. You would most likely not rate your stress level in these two scenarios equally. But how do we measure stress? And how can psychologists benefit from measuring stress?
- First, we’ll describe stress measurement scales.
- Then, what are the physiological measures of stress?
- Let’s continue by discussing stress-measuring instruments.
- What are the types of stress measurement tests?
- Finally, what are some difficulties in measuring stress?
Stress Measurement Scales
A person suffers from stress when they believe their well-being is under threat. This causes psychological and biological strain.
Stress measurement tests consist of methods used by health researchers and psychologists to detect human illnesses related to or caused by stress. Measuring stress is more straightforward when psychologists use the most relevant scales. Some of the most common scales used in measuring stress response are:
Self-report scales (SRRS and Hassle and uplift scale) use a rating scale that requires the respondent to respond to direct questions regarding their attitudes or beliefs.
Skin conductance response (SCR) scale: measures the skin’s electrical response to autonomic nervous system activity during stress. The idea is that the skin conduction of electricity briefly increases when we feel stressed.
Physiological Measures of Stress
Psychological strain is not the only evidence of stress we can measure. Researchers have long since discovered that there are several physiological symptoms of stress. Physiological measures of stress may involve measuring the activity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, which is active when we experience stress.
The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis is a neuroendocrine mechanism that regulates stress through several feedback loops between the anterior pituitary gland, hypothalamus and adrenal gland.
Cortisol (hormones) and catecholamines (monoamine neurotransmitters) are the byproduct of HPA activation and can be detected in our blood, urine, and saliva.
Other physiological breadcrumbs our body leaves when we experience stress include high blood pressure and skin conductance response.
Fig. 1 - Stressed student. Measuring stress requires understanding its physiological effects.
Stress Measuring Instruments
Thanks to the advancement in scientific research, several physiological stress-measuring instruments are now available to researchers. Let’s take a look at a few examples:
| Research Tools for Measuring Stress | Description |
Blood pressure monitor | It measures and displays systolic and diastolic blood pressure. When you’re stressed, your body releases stress hormones that affect the activity of your heart and blood vessels. Systolic reading measures the blood pressure in arteries when the heart is beating, and diastolic reading measures the blood pressure in the arteries when the heart rests between beats. This measure can indicate high-stress levels. |
Blood and urine tests | These tests measure the level of cortisol in the body. Cortisol is a stress hormone that prioritises certain functions, for instance, if you have a fight or flight response. Increased levels of cortisol in the body mean high levels of stress. |
Electrodes for skin conductance response scale | When using SCR to measure stress levels, scientists attach electrodes to the participant’s fingertips and measure the skin’s resistance to electricity. High ratings on an SCR imply arousal of the autonomous nervous system, which can be related to stress. When a person is stressed, they are also likely to sweat more. Sweaty or damp skin is a better conductor of electricity and thus reduces the skin’s resistance to it; this can be determined by measuring the SCR when a person is relaxed and compared with the SCR levels when the same person is seemingly under stress. |
Stress Measurement Tests
Let’s look at a couple of types of stress measurement tests that employ self-report scales:
- Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS).
- Hassles and Uplift Scales (HUPS).
Stress Measurement Scale: Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS)
Holmes and Rahe (1967) developed the social readjustment rating scale (SRRS) to measure the link between symptoms of stress and life events on a scale of 100. They used the records of 5000 patients to derive 43 life events that were a cause of stress symptoms.
Around 400 patients were asked to rate the life events regarding how much readjustment was required to adjust to a life event.
For example, the death of a spouse = 100, marriage = 50, and minor law violations = 11.
The psychologists added and averaged these ratings along with other individual life event scores to create the Life change unit (LCU) for each event. The higher the LCU, the higher the chance of suffering from stress and potentially developing a stress-related illness.
Stress Measurement Scale: Hassles and Uplift Scale (HSUP)
Other stress measurement tests that employ a self-report scale focus on daily hassles and uplifts. Researchers such as Kanner et al. (1981) pushed back against the approach used in the SRRS, which focuses on life events as major sources of stress. They thought that, instead, stress should be measured by our daily hassles (daily, irritating and distressing demands) versus daily uplifts.
Kanner et al. (1981) used the following components in their empirical study:
The hassle scale comprised 117 events that spanned work, family, and friends. It was conducted on middle-aged participants over ten months. The participants had to rate the intensity of the hassles they experienced on a three-point scale.
The researchers found that the hassles scale had a good chance of predicting psychological well-being changes. They were better at predicting this than the life events scores.
DeLongis et al. (1982) took this research one step further and developed the Hassles and Uplift Scale (HSUP), which measured the degree to which daily hassles correlate negatively with a person’s health. They found that these can have a more significant, long-term effect on stress than previous serious life events.
The hassles and uplifts scale may be a better predictor of the long-term effects that stress can have.
Fig. 2 - Spilling your coffee in the morning can be considered a daily hassle.
Difficulties in Measuring Stress
Researchers may face several difficulties in measuring stress using self-reporting and skin conductance response scales (SCR).
Difficulties in Measuring Stress: Self-Report Scales
The self-report scales can provide more detail of the patient’s account regarding the event’s intensity and its link to stress. However, the self-reporting scales fail to establish the cause-and-effect relationship between stress and life events as they are mainly linked with correlation studies.
External variables like personality type or increased cortisol levels (stress hormone) can affect the results. The self-report scales depend on the subjectivity of the patients.
This reduces the reliability and replicability of the results since each participant will provide scores according to their understanding.
Additionally, the results are prone to social desirability bias. The patients might not want to openly admit in the questionnaire that they are stressed and might need help.
Difficulties in Measuring Stress: Skin Conductance Response Scale
There are several advantages to using skin conductance response scales. It’s cheap and highly reliable as it can be replicated to produce similar results. However, a major difficulty is that an SCR can measure the intensity of the skin’s response to electricity. Still, it cannot objectively differentiate whether the response is due to stress, nervousness, or happiness. For such details, researchers have to depend on self-report questionnaires.
External variables can influence the readings of the SCR.
For example, high alcohol consumption can cause more sweating and weather humidity.
These can become misleading factors affecting the results of stress measurement. The participant’s internal variables can also mislead the reading.
For example, their personality type (rigid and inflexible personality, type A, may always be anxious and stressed) or if the participant has been going through life-changing events for a long time.
Measuring Stress - Key takeaways
Stress measurement tests consist of methods used by health researchers and psychologists to detect human illnesses related to or caused by stress. Measuring stress is more straightforward when psychologists use the most relevant scales.
Cortisol (hormones) and catecholamines (monoamine neurotransmitters) are the byproduct of HPA activation and can be detected in our blood, urine, and saliva. Other physiological breadcrumbs our body leaves when we experience stress include high blood pressure and skin conductance response.
A blood pressure monitor measures and displays systolic and diastolic blood pressure. When you’re stressed, your body releases stress hormones that affect the activity of your heart and blood vessels.
Holmes and Rahe (1967) developed the social readjustment rating scale (SRRS) to measure the link between symptoms of stress and life events on a scale of 100. They used the records of 5000 patients to derive 43 life events that were a cause of stress symptoms.
A major difficulty is that an SCR can measure the intensity of the skin’s response to electricity. Still, it cannot objectively differentiate whether the reaction is due to stress, nervousness, or happiness.
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