ABSTRACT

Sociologists typically measure distress by asking questions about depressed and anxious mood and malaise. The researcher makes an index by counting the number of symptoms a person reports. The more symptoms, the more severe the problems. Many of the indexes were developed to screen for persons who might need further psychiatric evaluation. Measuring distress allows researchers to quantify the quality of life in terms that embody universal human values. The researchers who produce the information about distress and the individuals who learn that information and use it do not have to share the same ideology, religion, politics, or attitudes. Measuring distress allows researchers to provide information that individuals can use to make their own lives and communities better without the researchers having to superimpose their own views of what is good for those individuals and communities. In psychometrics, reliability is the exactness of reproduction that can be achieved with a given measure.