life events (causes of stress)

Question 1

stress

Answer 1

• the way that we feel when the pressure we are under exceeds our ability to cope

Question 2

the role of life events

Answer 2

• not everyday happenings
• we have to make a significant psychological adjustment to cope with the situation

Question 3

measuring life events

Answer 3

• holmes and rahe (1967) developed a questionnaire called the social readjustment rating scale (SRRS)

Question 4

strength (eval)

Answer 4

• large body of evidence showing that life events are linked to illness and measured using self report methods
• this means the study is prospective: it predicted future illness from past events

Question 5

weakness (eval)

Answer 5

• ignores other causes of stress
• e.g: how workplace stress looks at environmental and organisational factors

Question 6

rahe et al (key study)

Answer 6

• wanted to see scores on a life events questionnaire predicted the onset of illness
• concluded that life events are a reasonably robust predictor of later stress-related illness

Question 7

strength (key study)

Answer 7

• the large number of participants
• this means they are more likely to be representative of the population

Question 8

weakness (key study)

Answer 8

• used a self report method
• means that scales such as SRRS may not give us a valid assessment of the stress people are experiencing