+Perceived Stress Scale
Cohen, Kamarck, & Mermelstein (1983)
Topic: Mental and Physical Health - Stress
Description of measure:
Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) measures the perception of stress of an individual by appraising situations that might elicit stress. The PSS assesses perceived stress by asking individuals to indicate how many times a situation has arisen that is unpredictable, uncontrollable and overloading respondents.
Instructions:
The questions in this scale ask you about your feelings and thoughts during the last month. In each case, you will be asked to indicate by circling how often you felt or thought a certain way.
Response options:
0: Never
1: Almost Never
2: Sometimes
3: Fairly Often
4: Very Often
Items:
- In the last month, how often have you been upset because of something that happened unexpectedly?
- In the last month, how often have you felt that you were unable to control the important things in your life?
- In the last month, how often have you felt nervous and “stressed”?
- In the last month, how often have you felt confident about your ability to handle your personal problems?
- In the last month, how often have you felt that things were going your way?
- In the last month, how often have you found that you could not cope with all the things that you had to do?
- In the last month, how often have you been able to control irritations in your life?
- In the last month, how often have you felt that you were on top of things?
- In the last month, how often have you been angered because of things that were outside of your control?
- In the last month, how often have you felt difficulties were piling up so high that you could not overcome them?
Citation:
Cohen, S., Kamarck, T., & Mermelstein, R. (1983). A Global Measure of Perceived Stress. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 24(4), 385-396. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2136404 Links to an external site..
Link to PDF: http://www.mindgarden.com/documents/PerceivedStressScale.pdf Links to an external site.