Life events P1 Flashcards
Define stress
Stress is a biological
and psychological response experienced upon
encountering a threat that we feel we do not have
the resources to deal with
What are life events?
-major changes
that individuals must adapt to
-make significant psychological adjustment to cope with the
changed situation
What is the social readjustment
rating scale? (SRRS)
A measure of the
stress (social readjustment)
experienced in your life
What was the aim of Holmes and Rahe (1967) study?
-Conducted a pioneering study - created the ‘social
readjustment rating scale’.
* They defined stress as the amount
of change an individual has had to
deal with during a particular time
period.
* They predicted that the degree of
stress is related to both physical
and psychological illness.
Holmes and Rahe (1967) study procedure
-Examined medical
records of 5000 patients and
compiled a list of 43 life events
which seemed to cluster in the
months before the illness
* Used 100 people to
judge and to assign a number to
each of the life events (averaged)
* Done in relation to the
adjustment needed for marriage
to which they had assigned the
number 50.
Rahe et al (1970) study aim
To find out if LCU scores on the SRRS corrolated with the subsequent onset of illness in healthy paitents
Rahe et al (1970) study method
-2500 male US navy personal
-Given the SRRS to fill in based on the previous 6 months
-Each P SRRS score calculated
-P followed over their tour of duty (7 months) and detailed records kept of each P health status and an illness score collated based on the number and severity of illness experienced during the tour
Rahe et al (1970) study results
-Pos correlation of 0.118 between LCU scores and illness sores
Rahe et al (1970) study conclusions
-Relationship found between life events and the development of stress related illness
-Since correlation not perfect, must be other factors involved in onset of illness
Rahe et al (1970) study Pos evaluation
-Methodology-was a natural experiment so had high ecological validity.
-Life events and illness are naturally occurring meaning findings applicable to every day life
Rahe et al (1970) study Neg evaluation
-Sample not representative (androcentric cause only men) and ethnocentric (cause only Americans)-cant generalise results
-Self report method-results aren’t standardised
Holmes and Rahe (1967) study conclusion
-stress could be measured
objectively as a LCU score, this in
turn predicts the persons chances
of becoming ill
* They argue that stress and illness
aren’t just correlated; stress
actually makes us ill.
Weaknesses of life events appraoch
-assumes all change is stressful, so it muddles together positive and negative events.
-Many psychologists have questioned this assumption.
They suggest that positive and negative events have
different effects.
-Turner and Wheaton 1997 found that negative events
accounted for most of the stress measured by the
SRRS.
-Therefore, the life events scale may not be valid
because it gives us a global measure of stress
