Psychology Report: Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scales (DASS)

This report provides an overview of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS), a self-report questionnaire designed to measure the emotional states of depression, anxiety, and stress. Developed by Peter and Syd Lovibond, the DASS consists of 42 items, each rated on a four-point scale reflecting symptom severity over the past week. The report discusses the scale's validity and reliability, highlighting its use in both community and clinical settings. It also examines the manual's accuracy in portraying the uses and limitations of the DASS, its importance to test users, and the handling of issues related to minorities and special populations. The report concludes with recommendations for the appropriate use of the DASS and a discussion of factors that may influence results, such as substance use and environmental stressors.

Running head: DEPRESSION ANXIETY AND STRESS SCALES (DASS) 1
Depression Anxiety and Stress Scales (DASS)
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DEPRESSION ANXIETY AND STRESS SCALES (DASS) 2
Information identity
Depression Anxiety and Stress Scales (DASS) is a scale which was designed by Peter
Lovibond and Syd Lovibond at the South Wales University in the year 1995. DASS measures
mental health by focusing on three traits of anxiety, stress, and depression. There is a list of
forty-two symptoms contained in the test. After the test has been conducted, the data obtained is
put on a four-point scale to determine how the patient had such signs in the last week (Gomez,
Summers, & Summers, 2014). The test is administered in the form of a questionnaire there is made
to solely measure the emotional states (depression, anxiety, and stress) which are negatively
related. A three-scale rating system is used when administering the test. It measures how severe
the symptoms associated with anxiety, depression and stress are. In short, each one of the three
states is an independent test though they are all conducted in a single experiment. Although
medical professionals developed the test, it has been modified over and over again for it to meet
the necessities of both professional clinicians and researchers.
DASS test involves a respondent responding to a set of forty-two questions. Each
question is related to the three scales. The test is a self-report test which was designed to measure
emotional states which are conventionally defined (Parkitny & McAuley, 2010). Monitoring of these
three states over a period is also enabled. It also allows the people involved to be able to be able
to measure the three emotional states.
The anxiety scale is used to access hopelessness, dysphoria, inertia, lack of being
involved or interest, devaluation of life as well as anhedonia. On the other hand, the anxiety scale
analyzes skeletal muscle effects, the subjective experience of unsuspecting impact and the
situational anxiety. Finally, chronic non-specific arousals are very personal to the stress scale

DEPRESSION ANXIETY AND STRESS SCALES (DASS) 3
which is used to access; nervous arousal, difficulties in relaxing, peaceful agitations or upset,
impatient and over-reactions. It is the work of the participants to go through each question in the
questionnaire. The participant is required to indicate the degree at which they have experienced
specific symptoms over the last one week. The degree is given based on reasonable, mild,
moderate, severe and extremely severe severity levels. Summation of the scores from each item
helps in calculation of the scores for each of the negative emotional states. A summary of the
individual scores is given to each participant after the test is completed. This includes each level
compared to their average. Based on each negative emotional state, more light is the shade of
each negative emotional state.
Immediate respondent to DASS
In most cases, patients who were presented for physiotherapy care at the same time had
disturbed or low mood. This included mostly symptoms which were clinically relevant to anxiety
and depression (Parkitny, Luke; McAuley, James, 2010). In most of the cases, patients’ symptoms
were influenced by co-morbid moods. This highly affected their rate of recovery from such
complications. Management of such patients also became a complicated menace. As it is even
today, it is very critical to analyze patients' mood accurately. This creates a room for a
comprehensive physiotherapy assessment. It, therefore, became important to design a
questionnaire which was to possibly help in evaluation mood disturbance hence reducing the
proportion upon which clinicians could avoid diagnosing some of these problems. This is how
the DASS scale came into existence. It is a scale which was designed with the exclusion of some
physical items such as loss of appetite and sleep problems. This is because such somatic items
have probabilities of presenting a patient's present condition rather than any mood disturbance.

DEPRESSION ANXIETY AND STRESS SCALES (DASS) 4
Therefore, the DASS scale provides clinicians with proper diagnosing of the patients’ stress,
anxiety and depression symptoms (Noriega, 2014).
Reliability and validity of Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale
The validity of a test is the measure of the degree to which a test measures what it is
supposed to regulate. In the field of psychology, validity refers to the degree evidence gives
support to the interpretations of test scores as given by proposed uses of tests (Takaki, Taniguchi, &
Fujii, 2014). The method of DASS in both community and clinical settings among the English
speaking nationalities is evidenced. These nations include United States of America, Australia,
England and Canada (Tran, Tran, & Fisher, 2013). DASS has also been validated into other
languages such as Chinese and Italian. This is because; most of the countries mentioned above
consist of middles and low-income citizens. Women in these countries are profoundly affected
by depression and anxiety. The use of this test has helped in the screening of these problems
among such individuals. So far, it has succeeded.
Reliability in psychological tests refers to how consisted the outputs of a particular test
are (Takaki, Jiro; Taniguchi, Toshiyo; Fuji, Yasuhito, 2014). In a trial which was done to
evaluate psychometric properties as well as help in detection of anxiety and depression disorders
in a number of employees who did not report to work due to mental health complications, the
consistency of DASS was very high. This showed that DASS is reliable. Therefore, DASS is
suitable to use in occupational healthcare settings. It can help in ruling out depression and
anxiety disorders among employees with mental health problems.

DEPRESSION ANXIETY AND STRESS SCALES (DASS) 5
How accurately the manual portrays the uses and limits of DASS based on the evidence
above
Anxiety, stress, and depression are all negative feeling which people undergo at various
points in their life. The manual accurately shows the uses of the DASS based on the evidence
above (Oene, Beaufort, Buwalda, Goudriaan, & De Leeuw, 2017). DASS can be used to
diagnose individuals suffering from depression and anxiety. However, the test should always be
conducted for educational purposes only. This is because it comes without any guarantee of
accuracy. Therefore it should never be used to offer any psychological advice. When this test has
to be used in screening of patients suffering from depression, such patients have to be detoxified
first to minimize chances of substances such as alcohol and other drugs affecting the results.
Secondly, the first trial of the DASS may fail to give accurate results. This is caused by anxiety
or even demoralization of the patients at the mention of undergoing such a process for the first
time.
Importance of the manual to me as a test user
The manual is useful to me as a user. This is because DASS can be used when helping in
differentiating patients suffering from mental disorders or depression and anxiety. If one is
suffering from depression and anxiety, DASS can give consisted of results. This is an excellent
reliever to the health fraternity as the medics can quickly diagnose a patient. Clinical physicians
can also, realize the level of anxiety and depression in a patient through the use of DASS. I have
also learned through this model that depression and anxiety disorders can also be distinguished
through the use of the DASS despite their close commonality. Before one generalizes this results
across the while occupational health population, he or she needs to observe caution.

DEPRESSION ANXIETY AND STRESS SCALES (DASS) 6
Handling of issues related to minorities and special populations
DASS is reliable and valid to measure anxiety, depression, and stress in individual and
minority communities such as the older adults or people with persisted pains. However, it should
be noted that among the older adults to be specific, there exists some age difference regarding
reporting of mood symptoms (Wood, Nicholas, Blyth, Asghari, & Gibson, 2010). This should
highly be taken into account. Some other minority individuals such as gay usually experience
anxiety, depression, and stress due to exposure to stress rooting from the sexual minority
(Pachankis, 2014). Counseling is highly needed to help such individuals cope with that menace.
Evaluation
Based on the knowledge from this paper, I would consider one to use this knowledge
with an individual who has left their employment due to depression and anxiety. This is because
there would need to determine if indeed this person a mental disorder or is suffering from stress
and anxiety. I would recommend one to use this method to alcohol takers. This is because that
alcohol can affect the final results. Environmental factors such as family conflicts must also be
put into consideration before making any decision. Stress and anxiety issues must be attended to
help in presenting the best results accurately keenly. This is because their causes are many.

DEPRESSION ANXIETY AND STRESS SCALES (DASS) 7
References
Gomez, R., Summers, M., & Summers, A. (2014). Depression Anxiety Stress Scales-21.
American Psychological Association, Society for Clinical Psychology, Online.
Noriega, N. H. (2014, September 25). Clinical Importance of Anxiety, Depression and
Psychoneuroimmunoendocrinology. Retrieved from Austinpublishinggroup:
http://austinpublishinggroup.com/depression-anxiety/fulltext/depression-v1-id1024.php
Oene, D. W.-V., Beaufort, I. N., Buwalda, V., Goudriaan, A. E., & De Leeuw, J. (2017). The
Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21) as a Screener for Depression in
Substance Use Disorder Inpatients: A Pilot Study. US National Library of Medicine
National Institute of Health, 260-268.
Pachankis, J. E. (2014). Uncovering Clinical Principles and Techniques to Address Minority
Stress, Mental Health, and Related Health Risks Among Gay and Bisexual Men. US
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Parkitny, L., & McAuley, J. (2010). The Depression Anxiety Stress Scale. Journal of
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Parkitny, Luke; McAuley, James. (2010). The Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS). Journal
of Physiotherapy, 204.
Takaki, J., Taniguchi, T., & Fujii, Y. (2014). Reliability, Validity, and Significance of
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Takaki, Jiro; Taniguchi, Toshiyo; Fuji, Yasuhito. (2014). Reliability, Validity, and Significance
of Assessment of Sense of Contribution in the Workplace. International Journal of
Environmental Research and Public Health, 1594-1604.
Tran, T. D., Tran, T., & Fisher, J. (2013). Validation of the depression anxiety stress scales
(DASS) 21 as a screening instrument for depression and anxiety in a rural community-
based cohort of northern Vietnamese women. US National Library of Medicine National
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Wood, B. M., Nicholas, M. K., Blyth, F., Asghari, A., & Gibson, S. (2010). The utility of the
short version of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS-21) in elderly patients with
persistent pain: does age make a difference? US Ntional Library of Medicine National
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