life changes as a source of stress

Question 1

what is a life change+example?

Answer 1

• not everyday events and need a significant psychological adjustment to adapt
• eg. getting married
• the bigger the change the bigger the adjustment

Question 2

how have researchers developed a way to measure life changes

Answer 2

• Holmes and Rahe’s SRRS scale and measures life using life changing units (LCU’s)
• the higher the LCU value the more adjustment is needed
• under 150 LCU= reasonable health
• between 150-300= 50% of pps experienced illness the next year
• 300+ >80% reported illness the next year

Question 3

evaluate supporting research for life changes?

Answer 3

Litzen used data from social study into 160,000 people who didn’t have asthma

• found that high levels of stress was a reliable producer of the onset of asthma
• link couldn’t be explained by other known risk factors eg. smoking
• research is predictive and therefore useful

Question 4

evaluate a weakness of life changes?

Answer 4

• INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES
• life changes don’t effect every1 the same eg. happy about pregnancy or sad?
• 2 researchers attempted to predict who would have a heart attack based on SRRS scores
• only worked when they considered different interpretations of of life changes
• failed to consider different interpretations of life changes reducing validity

Question 5

explain research into life changes?

Answer 5

• Rahe studied US navy personnel assigned to 3 ships
• they completed a version of the SRRS,asked questions about 6 months prior to deployment
• once they boarded, were told to document every illness, then researcher calculated scores
• FINDINGS: correlation between LCU and illness scores
• most stressed= most ill/severe

Question 6

evaluate Rahe’s research into US navy personnel?

Answer 6

• GENDER BIAS
• 1970 all personnel would’ve been men, therefore cannot be generalised as it is not representative of the wider population
• lacks external validity