Daily Hassles.

KANNER'S HASSLES AND UPLIFTS SCALE.

Not all of the stress we experience comes from major life events. Lesser events can also be stressful for example, when we give a presentation, misplace out keys during a busy day or have our quiet disrupted by a loud party next door. These are called daily hassles.

Kanner constructed a scale to measure people's experiences with day-to-day unpleasant of potentially harmful events.

This intrument - called the Hassles Scale - lists 117 of these events that range from minor annoyances such as 'silly practical mistakes', to major problems or difficulties, such as 'not enough money for food'.

The subjects indicate which hassles occured in the past month and rate each event as having been 'somewhat', 'moderately' or 'extremely' severe.

These researchers tested 100 middle aged adults monthly over a 9 month period. The half-dozen most frequently reported hassles were:

• Concerns about weight.
• Health of a family member.
• Rising prices of common goods.
• Home maintenance.
• Too many things to do.
• Misplacing or losing things.

The findings showed that participants who had indicated having the most daily hassles also had higher instances of psychological/physical illness - there was a positive correlation.

In the course of developing the Hassles Scale, these researchers proposed that having desirable experiences…