General Problem : On perceived stress

Specific Problem: Assess the perceived stress of your subject using perceived stress scale by
Sheldon Cohen

Basic Concept: The term stress has typically been used to refer both to the adjustive
demands placed on an organism and to the organism’s internal biological and psychological
responses to such demands. These adjustive demands are referred as stressors, to the effects
they create within an organism as stress, and to the efforts to deal with stress as coping
strategies. Neufeld (1990) has pointed out: stress is a by-product of poor or inadequate coping.

According to Hans Selye (1956, 1976), the notion of stress can be broken down further into
eustress (positive stress) and distress (negative stress). Both types of stress tax a person’s
resources and coping skills, though distress typically has the potential to do more damage.

Adjustive demands or stressors stem from sources that fall into three basic categories: i.
Frustration, ii. Conflicts, and iii. Pressures. The impact of a stressor depends on a wide range
of factors—among them the importance of the stressor to the person, the duration of the stress,
the cumulative effect of stressors in thr person’s life, whether the stressor appears along with
other stressors, whether the stressor is natural or artificial and whether it has prominence in the
person’s life, and whether or not the stressor is seen by the victim as being within his or her
control.

Stress forces a person to do something. What is done depends on many influences. Sometimes
inner factors such as person’s frame of reference, motives, competencies, or stress tolerance
play the dominant role in determining his coping strategies. In reviewing certain general
principles of coping with stress, it is helpful to conceptualize three interactional levels: i. on a
biological level (immunological defenses and damage-repair mechanisms; ii. On a
psychological and interpersonal level (learned coping patterns, self-defenses, support from
family and friends), and iii. On a sociocultural level (includes labour unions, religious
organizations and law-enforcement agencies). To resolve the stressful situations, person
usually exhibits two kinds of coping task- oriented and damage oriented. A task oriented
response may involve making changes in one’s self, one’s surrounding, or both depending on
the situation. When a person’s feelings of adequacy are seriously threatened by a stressor, a
defense oriented response tends to prevail—that is behavior is directed primarily at protecting
the self from hurt and disorganization, rather than at resolving the situation.

The term stress tolerance refers to a person’s ability to withstand stress and without becoming
seriously impaired. People vary greatly in overall vulnerability to stressors. The different
reactions people have to environmental events is due in part to the way in which they perceive
the situation – the same event will be interpreted differently by different people.
Perceived stress is the feelings or thoughts that an individual has about how much stress they
are under at a given point in time or over a given time period.Perceived stress incorporates
feelings about the uncontrollability and unpredictability of one’s life, how often one has to deal
with irritating hassles, how much change is occurring in one’s life, and confidence in one’s
ability to deal with problems or difficulties. It is not measuring the types or frequencies of
stressful events which have happened to a person, but rather how an individual feels about the
general stressfulness of their life and their ability to handle such stress.

Individuals may suffer similar negative life events but appraise the impact or severity of these
to different extents as a result of factors such as personality, coping resources, and support. In
this way, perceived stress reflects the interaction between an individual and their environment
which they appraise as.

The aim of the present test is to assess the perceived stress of an individual by using perceived
stress scale.

Preliminaries:
Name of the Participant:

Age of the Participant:

Sex of the Participant:

Condition of the Participant:

Date of Participation:

Time of Participation:

Materials required:
1. Perceived Stress Scale by Sheldon Cohen
2. Norm table
3. Pen and paper

Instruction:
“Please relax and sit comfortably. First you need to fill the preliminary requirements (name, age,
gender and date) in your data sheet using pencil. There are certain questions in this scale that ask
you about your feelings and thoughts during the last month. For each questions there are five
options like 0 means never, 1 means almost never, 2 indicates sometimes, 3 means fairly often
and 4 indicates very often. You have to indicate how often you have found your life is
unpredictable, uncontrollable, and overloaded in the last month. In each case, you have to
indicate by circling how often you felt or thought a certain way. The best approach is to answer
each question fairly quickly. That is, don’t try to count up the number of times you felt a
particular way, but rather indicate the alternative that seems like a reasonable estimate. Please let
me know if you have any difficulty.”

Procedure:
Participant was asked to sit comfortably. Rapport was established with the participant. Perceived
stress scale developed by Sheldon Cohen, Kamarck and Mermelstein (1983) was given to the
participant. She was instructed properly and asked to each item and to respond against each item
by circling the most suitable option given. After the data collection necessary calculation were
done.

Perceived Stress Scale Scoring

Your Perceived Stress Level was ________ Scores around 13 are considered average. In research
purpose, it was found that high stress groups usually have a stress score of around 20 points.
Scores of 20 or higher were considered high stress, and if one is in this range, she might
consider learning new stress reduction techniques as well as increasing her exercise to at least
three times a week. High psychological stress is associated with high blood pressure, higher
BMI, larger waist to hip ratio, shorter telomere length, higher cortisol levels, suppressed immune
function, decreased sleep, and increased alcohol consumption. These are all important risk
factors for cardiovascular disease.

In this regard age norm can be followed.

Interpretation:
The present scale assesses the degree to which people perceive their lives as stressful. High
levels of stress are associated with poor self-reported health, elevated blood pressure, depression,
and susceptibility to infection.
 Age norm to be followed
 If possible, graphical presentation in NPC can be done

Conclusion: A brief summary view of specific problem and result.