Abstract
Conscious appraisals of stress, or stress states, are an important aspect of human performance. This article presents evidence supporting the validity and measurement characteristics of a short multidimensional self-report measure of stress state, the Short Stress State Questionnaire (SSSQ; Helton, 2004). The SSSQ measures task engagement, distress, and worry. A confirmatory factor analysis of the SSSQ using data pooled from multiple samples suggests the SSSQ does have a three factor structure and post-task changes are not due to changes in factor structure, but to mean level changes (state changes). In addition, the SSSQ demonstrates sensitivity to task stressors in line with hypotheses. Different task conditions elicited unique patterns of stress state on the three factors of the SSSQ in line with prior predictions. The 24-item SSSQ is a valid measure of stress state which may be useful to researchers interested in conscious appraisals of task-related stress.
References
1990). Comparative fit indexes in structural models. Psychological Bulletin, 107, 238–246.
(2006). Confirmatory factor analysis for applied research. New York, NY: Guilford Press.
(2012, September). Combating vigilance decrements in a sustained attention task: Lack of support for the utility of a cognitive intervention secondary task. Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, 56, 1446–1450.
(2002). Evaluating goodness-of-fit indexes for testing measurement invariance. Structural Equation Modeling, 9, 233–255.
(2012). The impact of artificial vehicle sounds for pedestrians on driver stress. Ergonomics, 55, 1476–1486.
(1975). Public and private self-consciousness: Assessment and theory. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 43, 522–527.
(1976). Measuring change and persistence in human affairs: Types of change generated by OD designs. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 12, 133–157.
(2011). Dual-task performance during a climbing traverse. Experimental Brain Research, 215, 307–313.
(2012). Natural scene stimuli and lapses of sustained attention. Consciousness and Cognition, 21, 1617–1625.
(1991). Development of a scale for measuring state self-esteem. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 60, 895–910.
(2004). Validation of a short stress state questionnaire. Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, 48, 1238–1242.
(2005). Assessing daily stress with the Short Stress State Questionnaire (SSSQ): Relationships with cognitive slips-failures. Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, 49, 886–890.
(2006). Short stress state questionnaire: Relationships with reading comprehension and land navigation. Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, 50, 1731–1735.
(2009). Stress state mediation between environmental variables and performance: The case of noise and vigilance. Acta Psychologica, 130, 204–213.
(2004). Workload transitions: Effects on vigilance performance, and stress. In , Human performance, situation awareness and automation: Current research and trends (pp. 258–262). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
(2008). Effects of warned and unwarned demand transitions on vigilance performance and stress. Anxiety, Stress and Coping, 21, 173–184.
(2008). Signal salience and the mindlessness theory of vigilance. Acta Psychologica, 129, 18–25.
(1980). The trilogy of the mind: Cognition, affection, and conation. Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, 16, 107–117.
(1997). Compensatory control in the regulation of human performance under stress and high workload: A cognitive-energetical framework. Biological Psychology, 45, 73–93.
(1999). Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: Conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural Equation Modeling, 6, 1–55.
(1984). Stress, appraisal, and coping. New York, NY: Springer.
(2002). Fundamental dimensions of subjective state in performance settings: Task engagement, distress, and worry. Emotion, 2, 315–340.
(2000). Human performance: Cognition, stress and individual differences. East Sussex, UK: Psychology Press.
(1990). Refining the measurement of mood: The UWIST Mood Adjective Checklist. British Journal of Psychology, 81, 17–42.
(1999). Validation of a comprehensive stress state questionnaire: Towards a state big three? In , Personality psychology in Europe, Vol. 7, (pp. 335–350). Tilburg, NL: Tilburg University Press.
(1997). Conation, affect, and cognition in personality. Advances in Psychology, 124, 31–63.
(2009). Are males always better than females in mental rotation? Exploring a gender belief explanation. Learning and Individual Differences, 19, 21–27.
(2011). The effects of emotional stimuli on target detection: Indirect and direct resource costs. Consciousness and Cognition, 20, 1649–1658.
(2012). Negative affect reduces team awareness the effects of mood and stress on computer-mediated team communication. Human Factors: The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, 54, 560–571.
(2010). Effects of mood and stress on distributed team cognition. Theoretical Issues in Ergonomics Science, 11, 321–339.
(2012). Emotion expression under stress in instant messaging. Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. 56, 493–497.
(1986). Cognitive interference: Situational determinants and trait like characteristics. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51, 215–226.
(2001). A scaled difference chi-square test statistic for moment structure analysis. Psychometrika, 66, 507–514.
(2010, September). Potential performance costs associated with large-format tiled displays for surgical visualization. Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. 54, 1430–1434.
(2010). Individual differences in vigilance: Personality, ability and states of stress. Journal of Research in Personality, 44, 297–308.
(2004). Subjective experience and the attentional lapse: Task engagement and disengagement during sustained attention. Consciousness and Cognition, 13, 657–690.
(2006). Training for vigilance: The effect of knowledge of results format and dispositional optimism and pessimism on performance and stress. British Journal of Psychology, 97, 115–135.
(2004). Effects of sensory modality and task duration on performance, workload, and stress in sustained attention. Human Factors, 46, 219–233.
(2010, September). Training effectiveness of wearable and desktop simulator interfaces. Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. 54, (pp. 2267–2271).
(2000). The effects of signal salience and caffeine on performance, workload and stress in an abbreviated vigilance task. Human Factors, 42, 183–194.
(1978). Mental rotations: A group test of three-dimensional spatial visualization. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 47, 599–604.
(1993). Assessing newcomers’ changing commitments to the organization during the first 6 months of work. Journal of Applied Psychology, 78, 557.
(2013). Cognitive engineering. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Cognitive Science.
(