Perceived Stress Scale (PSS)
How do people perceive their stress?
The Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) measures the degree to which situations in one’s life are appraised as stressful. This survey can be used to assess how unpredictable, uncontrollable, and overloaded people find their lives in relation to other psychological phenomena (i.e. emotion regulation, coping, physiological responses, etc.). Higher perceived stress has been associated with failure to quit smoking, failure among diabetics to control blood sugar levels, and in general, greater vulnerability to stressful life-event-elicited depressive symptoms.
Resources:- Cohen, S., Kamarck, T., and Mermelstein, R. (1983). A global measure of perceived stress. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 24, 386-396.
- Cohen, S. and Williamson, G. Perceived Stress in a Probability Sample of the United States. Spacapan, S. and Oskamp, S. (Eds.) The Social Psychology of Health. Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 1988
Parameters
This survey cannot be tweaked.
What data is collected? How is it scored?
The following variables are recorded:
- PSS_total
Raw data: answers to the 10 questions on a 5-points Likert scale
Calculation:
PSS_total = sum of the scores to each question
What participants see before taking the survey
In this survey, you are asked about your feelings and thoughts during the last month.
What participants see after taking the survey
Daily hassles, major events, and changes in coping resources influence people’s stress levels. Past research suggests that people who experience less stress are less likely to suffer from anxiety and depression.
Aggregate Variables
These data are automatically written to a csv file upon completion of the survey
- PSS_Total
Duration
2 mins
Resources
- Cohen, S., Kamarck, T., and Mermelstein, R. (1983). A global measure of perceived stress. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 24, 386-396.
- Cohen, S. and Williamson, G. Perceived Stress in a Probability Sample of the United States. Spacapan, S. and Oskamp, S. (Eds.) The Social Psychology of Health. Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 1988