h a l f b a k e r y"My only concern is that it wouldn't work, which I see as a problem."
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In times of great stress, it would be helpful for legal eagles to be able to quantify exactly how much stress someone is under. There are various surveys that indicate things like divorce, moving house and bereavement are the most stressful things, but where's the quantifiable evidence?
I propose
a scale, somewhat like the Richter scale for earth tremors, that enables you to measure the emotional disturbance currently being suffered. It should be logarithmic, so that even minor disturbances can be quantified. Like earthquakes, anything over about 7 can be classified as major.
The current value on the scale should be measurable by things like emotional response to other unrelated issues, somatic symptoms such as sleeplessness and ability to concentrate, impact of the event on both short-term and long-term life. That way, hamster dying measures 2, while dismissal from work measures around 9.
Goldberg depression scale
http://www.grohol.com/depinv.htm
[hazel, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004]
Holmes stress scale
http://www.total-de....net/qol/holmes.htm
Doesn't mention hamsters [hazel, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004]
Cortisol: The "Stress Hormone"
http://stress.about...isol/a/aa012901.htm
more objective approach to measuring stress [xaviergisz, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004]
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hey, don't underestimate the relationship I have with my hamster. |
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There are scales for depression (eg Goldberg scale) and stress (eg Holmes scale) but a unified hamster to death Scale of Distress could still be useful, especially in work-related "I'm more distressed than you" competitions |
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Oh, is that what the Holmes scale is? |
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Football team being "knocked out the cup" - 6
Being marked for you-know-what because of injust 'list' accusation - 4 |
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[hazel] - I was actually thinking more in terms of "my client demands £x million pounds compensation because his emotional distress indication was 42". |
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And how is the hamster these days, [po]? |
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Well baked, as hazel points out. I had a doctor once use this on me during a check-up. |
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I'd call this a 'traumometer'. |
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Mr [Tiger] has hit on the problem there - what do you cablibrate it against? As everyone loves telling people who are miserable, there's always someone worse off than you. So what do you assign 10 to?
I went to hospital once with cracked ribs. A nurse wanted me to tell her how much it hurt:
[Spacemoggy]: Well its pretty bloody painful.
[Nurse]: Actually I need you to grade it on a scale from 1-10, where 10 is the worst pain imaginable.
[Spacemoggy](intrigued despite the pain): So what are we talking here, medieval torture chamber? What would be an example, of, say, level 5?
[Nurse]: I don't know. Could you just tell me roughly
[Spacemoggy]: Well how can I calibrate the scale without some reference values? I don't want to exaggerate, but then I also want to avoid erring on the other side....
[Nurse]: Just give me a number!
[Spacemoggy]: Six. |
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Aliens don't go to hospital, they go to mother ship. |
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