Causes of Stress 2: Daily Hassles

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Daily Hassles
minor but frequent aggravations and annoyances of everyday life that combine to cause us stress. It has been argued that these could give a better understanding of how stress can make us ill than Life changes.
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Primary appraisal
According to Lazarus, when we experience a hassle we first carry out a primary appraisal. We think about how threatening the hassle is to our psychological health.
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secondary appraisal
If we conclude it is a threat, think about how well-equipped we are to cope.
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Measuring daily hassles
Kanner et al. (1981) developed the Hassles scale.
It has 117 daily hassles from seven categories: work, health, family, friends, environment, practical considerations and chance occurrences.
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Uplifts scale
Uplifts are small daily ‘boosts’ that make us feel a bit better
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Key study: Kanner et al. (1981)
Comparison of two modes of stress measurement: Daily hassles and uplifts versus major life events
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Aim of Kranner et al.'s study.
To investigate whether daily hassles or life events were a better predictor of psychological ill-health.
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The procedure of Kranner et al.'s study.
The researchers devised the Hassles and uplifts scale.
100 participants completed 3 questionnaires
1. Daily hassles scale
2. A measure of psychological symptoms of anxiety and depression.
3. A measure of life events on two occasions – one month before
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The Findings of Kranner et al.'s study.
There were significant positive correlations between hassle frequency and psychological symptoms at the start and end of the study.
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The Conclusion of Kranner et al.'s study.
daily hassles are a more reliable predictor of psychological symptoms of illness than life events. And daily hassles overlap considerably with life events
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Evaluation of Daily Hassles as a Cause of Stress strength
the role of daily hassles is supported by many studies. One study participants completed the Hassles scale and the Schedule of recent experiences
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Evaluation of Daily Hassles as a Cause of Stress weakness.
the daily hassles scale is a self-report method and so there could be problems with social desirability bias. Therefore, there could be issues with the validity of the Daily Hassles scale and consequently, Kanner’s study as scores might not be accurate
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Evaluation of Daily Hassles as a Cause of Stress weakness.
Daily hassles scale being linked to illness is that research is correlational. This means that we cannot infer cause & effect as it cannot be claimed that the stress of daily hassles causes illness
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Other cards in this set

Card 2

Front

According to Lazarus, when we experience a hassle we first carry out a primary appraisal. We think about how threatening the hassle is to our psychological health.

Back

Primary appraisal

Card 3

Front

If we conclude it is a threat, think about how well-equipped we are to cope.

Back

Preview of the back of card 3

Card 4

Front

Kanner et al. (1981) developed the Hassles scale.
It has 117 daily hassles from seven categories: work, health, family, friends, environment, practical considerations and chance occurrences.

Back

Preview of the back of card 4

Card 5

Front

Uplifts are small daily ‘boosts’ that make us feel a bit better

Back

Preview of the back of card 5
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