Social Psychological Explanations-Life Events Flashcards
What is the definition of a life event?
It is an event which requires a signifcant readjustment of our lives, they are seen as a key source of stress and may lead to illness and other negative effects
What does SRRS stand for?
Social Readjustment Rating Scale
What is the SRRS?
A list of 43 life events which are each given a score , in Life change units (LCU’s)
E.g death of a spouse = 100
Change in schools = 23
How was the idea of life events 1st developed?
Doctors who noted that people who became ill had experienced an increase in ‘disturbing occurences’ in the 2 years prior to admission
Using their clinical exerience they drew up a list of life events and asked 394 ppts to rate each event on how much adjustment it would take e.g - mariage = base line of 50 etc
How was the SRRS developed from the first list of life events?
After anaysising the data, the list was developed into the SSRS scale, which consisted of 43 items that were each assigned a LCU
The higher the score, the more likely someone is to suffer from stress and illness
Suggested a score over 150 = stress related ilness by 30% 300 = 50% increase
Explain the research evidence using the SSRS for the relationship between stress and illness (description)
Researched used a version of the SSRI’s called the SRE to asses 2684 naval personel, they were asked to complete it before leaving on a tour of duty and during the 6-8 months that followed, a record was kept of any illnesses
What are the 4 evaluation points for Life events?
Supporting evidence
Correlation and causation
Issues in recall
Cultural differences and bias
Explain the evaluation point of supporting evidence for life events
Research gave 394 ppts a variety of questionaires to complete, including a life events scale, ppts were then exposed to the common cold virus, quarantined and monitored for signs of infection, higher life event scores were positively correlated with and increased risk of a cold, suggesting a stressful life leads us to more suspetable
Explain the evaulation point of correlation and causation (Life events)
Research into life changes as a source of stress is only a correlation, causation is not proven - research into pregnant women who had complications found no link to life events, but 90% with high life change but low social support scores had complications
Suggesting social support is more important
Explain the evaulation point of issues in recall (Life events)
The validy of the SRRS may be effected by ppts ability to recall life events
Research asked a group of women to record life events in a diary over a 10 month period, after this period only 25% of the events that were recorded could be recalled
Explain the evaluation point of cultural differences and bias (Life events)
Different cultures will rank life events differently - supported by Chinese participants ranking the death of a family higher than divorce (Zheng and Lin 1994)
Explain the findings of the research which used a SRE on naval personnel (decription) (Life events)
They found a significant positive correlation between stressful life events as measured by the SRE and illness, the more life events, the more likely the person was to be ill
