Rahe Flashcards
What did Rahe aim to do?
To find out if there’s a correlation between stress and illness & to see if people who are stressed go on to be ill and vice versa
How can Rahe’s study be placed in social & historical context?
1960’s people believed life was becoming more stressful, family breakups and divorces increased. Psychologists wanted to know if this would lead to break down of the immune system.
How can Rahe’s study be placed in an academic context?
Holmes and Rahe looked at records of 5,000 patients and created 43 life events, this was then given to a further 400 pps who gave each event a score whether it was more or less stressful than marriage, this meant they could numerically assess stress.
How else can Rahe’s study be placed in an academic context?
Selye’s rats suggested stress leads to illness, Rahe aimed to do this prospectively as opposed to retrospectively.
What was Rahe’s research method?
Correlation using medical records and a questionnaire
How many pps were used?
2664
How many Navy cruisers were used?
3
What was the mean age of the pps?
22.3
What % of the original sample was lost?
10%
When did the pps have to fill in the questionnaire?
Every 6 months for 2 years, prior to their duty on the ship
Why was the questionnaire modified?
To take into account military experience
What were pps given based on the total readjustment needed?
An individual life change unit score (LCU)
Who went onto the ships after their overseas assignment to look at all the medical records?
A research doctor
Why was a visit to the doctor on board the ship not counted?
If they thought the pp(sailor) was trying to get out of work
Were the pps aware that their LCU and their illness were being correlated?
No
What was Rahe interested in?
At what level of LCU would lead to illness
How did Rahe address some ethical issues?
By keeping names confidential, however informed consent was not gained due to the study being double blind
When did the most life changes occur for the pps?
Last 6 months of the 2 year period
What was the correlation between illness and LCU score?
+0.118
What was found NOT to be significant?
TLCU (total life change unit) for the 2 year pre-cruise illnesses
What was the mean number of illnesses the least stressed 258 sailors had?
1.4
What was the mean number of illnesses the most stressed 261 sailors had?
2.05
Which 2 cruisers had the highest correlation between LCU and illness?
Cruiser 1 & 3
For whom can better predications be made for?
Married men and older pps (over 21 y/o)
What did Rahe conclude about the environment?
If it’s stressful then previous life events have less effect on illness
What was the relationship between pre-cruise LCU and illness?
Low-order positive
Was the amount of earlier stress and illness experienced high or low?
Low
Was reliability a strength or weakness for Rahe?
Strength - consistent environment so could be repeated & medical records kept by the Navy using a double blind design so avoids demand characteristics and researcher bias
Was validity a strength or weakness for Rahe?
Weakness - findings only apply to situations on board a ship, all pps were from the USA and reported very little stress
Was Rahe’s sample strong?
Yes - 2664 pps is a large sample, however all pps were young males from narrow social group, so biased in gender and culture
What data was produced?
Quantitative - enables comparisons and are able to measure the correlation
What was the problems in terms of ethics in this study?
Sailors were deceived & didn’t give fully informed consent
Rahe et al findings developed and checked reliability the work of whom and how?
Holmes and Rahe - they used a modified version of the SRE to look at stress & illness, this was done on a larger scale and done prospective not retrospective.
Whose evidence challenges Rahe’s and why?
Friedman - suggests correlation doesn’t imply cause and effect. Something else caused LCU and illness; personality (type A - more stressed, more heart attacks & type B - less stressed, less heart attacks). This rejects Rahe’s research because personality is linked to illness. Friedman’s study is an improvement on Rahe’s as he used 9000 pps. Also type B might not find some life events as stressful as a type A
How else can Rahe’s study be rejected?
DeLongis et al - daily hassles. Studied stress in 75 married couples, they gave pps a questionnaire and found no relationship between life events and health, but found a positive correlation between daily hassles and next day health problems. This rejects Rahe’s study because there’s no correlation between life events and illness. It extended Rahe’s study because daily hassles were considered.
