There are numerous measurement systems that are in use in the field of managing stress professionally. One is the perceived stress scale, or PSS, which was first introduced in the early 1980s by American psychologists. This scale uses just ten questions which people must score themselves against on a rating of one to five. Each individual will have his or her score added up, with the most stressed people often achieving the highest tallies. Although this approach assesses stress in a relatively qualitative way, it is often helpful in ensuring people realise how much stress they are under. The coping skills inventory uses a similar methodology. However, instead of focusing on stress itself, this system asks people how often and to what extent they make use of common coping mechanisms. These might include things like religion, humour and even substance misuse, for example.