Daily Hassles Flashcards
Why do daily hassles cause stress?
Daily hassles may affect stress by accumulating over a series of days to create persistent frustrations and overloads that eventually develop into more serious problems such as anxiety and depression.
Explain Kanner’s research using his Hassles Scale.
He constructed a hassles scale consisting of 117 events that could annoy people on a daily basis. He then took a sample of 100 middle class Americans and got them to record their hassles over a 10 month period. They also completed the SRRS and a health questionnaire.
He found a positive correlation. The participants who reported the most daily hassles were the ones who showed more psychological symptoms of stress such as depression and anxiety. There was also a correlation between the number of hassles and physical ill health. The hassles scale was a better predictor of stress symptoms than the SRRS.
Kanner concluded that daily hassles are a better predictor of stress (and therefore vulnerability to illness) than life events/changes.
Describe Delongis et al’s revised Hassles Scale.
They revised the Hassles Scale due to the issue that people interpret hassles differently. An event which is a hassle to one person may not be to another. In the revised version, participants only had to rate 53 things (like the weather) as a hassle, or an uplift, on a 4 point scale, rather than just answering yes or no.
They found that people experiencing more stressors (or perceiving them as more stressful) had more symptoms of illness such as headaches and back ache than those experiencing less stressors.
This scale was more useful, and it shows how measuring a person’s perception of stress is more important than the actual amount of stressors they are exposed to.
Evaluate the hassles scale and the role of daily hassles in stress and stress related illnesses.
It is a better explanation than life events. Even though there seems to be a link between life changes and illness, the link between daily hassles and illness is much stronger.
There is a lot of evidence supporting the idea that daily hassles have a considerable impact on stress and health. E.g Gulian found a link between participants having a bad day at work, and the extent to which they find the journey home stressful.
The use of the scale requires accurate recall, many people remember things inaccurately, meaning that findings may also be inaccurate.
