Rahe

Question 1

What did Rahe aim to do?

Answer 1

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

Question 2

How can Rahe’s study be placed in social & historical context?

Answer 2

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.

Question 3

How can Rahe’s study be placed in an academic context?

Answer 3

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.

Question 4

How else can Rahe’s study be placed in an academic context?

Answer 4

Selye’s rats suggested stress leads to illness, Rahe aimed to do this prospectively as opposed to retrospectively.

Question 5

What was Rahe’s research method?

Answer 5

Correlation using medical records and a questionnaire

Question 6

How many pps were used?

Answer 6

2664

Question 7

How many Navy cruisers were used?

Answer 7

3

Question 8

What was the mean age of the pps?

Answer 8

22.3

Question 9

What % of the original sample was lost?

Answer 9

10%

Question 10

When did the pps have to fill in the questionnaire?

Answer 10

Every 6 months for 2 years, prior to their duty on the ship

Question 11

Why was the questionnaire modified?

Answer 11

To take into account military experience

Question 12

What were pps given based on the total readjustment needed?

Answer 12

An individual life change unit score (LCU)

Question 13

Who went onto the ships after their overseas assignment to look at all the medical records?

Answer 13

A research doctor

Question 14

Why was a visit to the doctor on board the ship not counted?

Answer 14

If they thought the pp(sailor) was trying to get out of work

Question 15

Were the pps aware that their LCU and their illness were being correlated?

Answer 15

No

Question 16

What was Rahe interested in?

Answer 16

At what level of LCU would lead to illness

Question 17

How did Rahe address some ethical issues?

Answer 17

By keeping names confidential, however informed consent was not gained due to the study being double blind

Question 18

When did the most life changes occur for the pps?

Answer 18

Last 6 months of the 2 year period

Question 19

What was the correlation between illness and LCU score?

Answer 19

+0.118

Question 20

What was found NOT to be significant?

Answer 20

TLCU (total life change unit) for the 2 year pre-cruise illnesses

Question 21

What was the mean number of illnesses the least stressed 258 sailors had?

Answer 21

1.4

Question 22

What was the mean number of illnesses the most stressed 261 sailors had?

Answer 22

2.05

Question 23

Which 2 cruisers had the highest correlation between LCU and illness?

Answer 23

Cruiser 1 & 3

Question 24

For whom can better predications be made for?

Answer 24

Married men and older pps (over 21 y/o)

Question 25

What did Rahe conclude about the environment?

Answer 25

If it's stressful then previous life events have less effect on illness

Question 26

What was the relationship between pre-cruise LCU and illness?

Answer 26

Low-order positive

Question 27

Was the amount of earlier stress and illness experienced high or low?

Answer 27

Low

Question 28

Was reliability a strength or weakness for Rahe?

Answer 28

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

Question 29

Was validity a strength or weakness for Rahe?

Answer 29

Weakness - findings only apply to situations on board a ship, all pps were from the USA and reported very little stress

Question 30

Was Rahe's sample strong?

Answer 30

Yes - 2664 pps is a large sample, however all pps were young males from narrow social group, so biased in gender and culture

Question 31

What data was produced?

Answer 31

Quantitative - enables comparisons and are able to measure the correlation

Question 32

What was the problems in terms of ethics in this study?

Answer 32

Sailors were deceived & didn't give fully informed consent

Question 33

Rahe et al findings developed and checked reliability the work of whom and how?

Answer 33

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.

Question 34

Whose evidence challenges Rahe's and why?

Answer 34

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

Question 35

How else can Rahe's study be rejected?

Answer 35

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.