Psychological stress has been defined as the extent to which persons perceive (appraise) that their demands exceed their ability to cope.
[1] Cohen et al. (1983)[1] viewed the void of the subjective component in assessing stress as an unwanted quality and developed the PSS in response.
[25] The original PSS consists of 14 items that are purported to form a unidimensional scale of global perceived stress.
[26] Although Cohen et al. (1983) originally argued the PSS to be a unidimensional measure of perceived stress, the research community generally views the 14- and 10-item forms as two dimensional.
[28] The pattern of differential prediction of depression between genders tends to indicate the negatively phrased items are tapping something substantive rather than a method effect.
Although the preponderance of evidence is on the side of a multidimensional measure, the issue has not been fully resolved owing in part to limitations in the methodological knowledge available on distinguishing between substantive and method variance.