Holmes and Rahe Social readjustment rating scale (SRRS) Flashcards
What are some criticisms of the SRRS?
Doesn’t differentiate between positive and negative stress which are completely different.
Doesn’t account for how different people cope with stresses differently.
Outdated (1960’s) no longer reflects the stresses of modern day.
Focuses on only major life events ignoring the impact small stresses can have on someone.
Some events can be more harmful or beneficial depending on your situation.
Uncontrollable changes were more likely to cause illness over uncontrollable, planned changes.
What is the Social Readjustment Rating Scale?
43 item list of typically experienced life events with stress ratings (1-100) researching the impact of stress on health and well-being.
What are the positives of the SRRS?
Large sample size using over 5000 medical records for their research.
Supports the link to stress and illness.
Simple and easy to use - widely used to identify the risk of illness from stress.
Allowed people to measure how likely their stress was to cause health issues, stating a red flag-need to change
What does a higher score on the SRRS mean?
High chance of physical illness due to extreme stress.
For example, someone scoring over 300 LCU’s (Life change unit) had an 80% chance of becoming ill, with health problems including sudden cardiac death, non-fatal heart attacks, diabetes, leukaemia, accidents and sports injuries.
Whats the background? (reason they created the scale/started research)
Thomas Holmes noticed that he developed a cold every time his mother-in-law came to stay with him for a week or more (stressful incident). This observation was the starting point for his and Richard Rahe’s attempt to develop a means of measuring the impact of various life-changing stressors on our mental and physical well-being.
