sources of stress: life changes Flashcards
what are life changes?
important events that occur in our lives
why are life changes often stressful?
you have to make a significant psychological adjustment to adapt to the changed circumstances
give 3 examples of life changes
~ marriage
~ divorce
~ death of a close relative
true or false?
the effects of life changes are cumulative
true
how do we measure life changes?
social readjustment rating scale (SRRS)
how does the SRRS measure stress?
it assigns a certain number of life change units (LCUs) to each item on a list (e.g. marriage has 50 LCUs, divorce has 73, etc.)
how many people who scored between 150-300 LCUs experienced illnesses the next year?
50%
how many people who scored over 300 LCUs reported illnesses the next year?
80%
what was the aim of Rahe et. al.’s prospective study?
to measure life changes then see who eventually became ill
who did Rahe study?
US Navy personnel assigned to 3 ships
what questionnaire did participants complete before boarding ships?
schedule of recent experiences (forerunner to SRRS)
once on board, what had to be reported to the medical unit?
every illness, no matter how minor
were the participants + medical staff aware of Rahe’s study taking place?
no
how were illness scores calculated for each participant in Rahe’s study?
an independent researcher reviewed all medical records + calculated an illness score for each participant
what did Rahe et. al. find?
a significant positive correlation (of +.118) between LCU scores and scores for illnesses aboard ship
what did Rahe et. al. conclude?
life changes were a reasonably robust predictor of later illnesses
what is one strength of this research?
there is research support
how did Lietzen provide research support?
~ they used data from Health and Social Support study in Finland
~ they followed over 16,000 adults who didn’t have asthma at the start of the study
what did Lietzen find + conclude?
~ a high level of life change stress reliably predicted asthma onset
~ they concluded that stressful life changes can contribute to the onset of a chronic illness
what is a counterpoint to Lietzen’s research?
there were surprisingly few life changes in Lietzen’s study - almost half the participants had experienced either only one or no life changes in the 5-year study period
what other explanation may be suggested for Lietzen’s findings?
other stressful events may have been responsible for asthma onset (e.g. daily hassles may have accumulated more stress)
what are 2 limitations of this research?
~ SRRS doesn’t take into account individual differences
~ SRRS muddles together both positive + negative life changes
what did Byrne + Whyte research and find?
~ they tried to predict who would experience a heart attack on the basis of SRRS scores
~ they found that they could only do so if subjective interpretations of life changes were taken into account
why does the life changes approach lack validity?
it does not consider individual differences in how life changes are perceived
what did Turner + Wheaton research and find?
~ they asked participants to rate the desirability of selected SRRS items
~ they found that undesirable/negative life changes caused the most stress, not all life changes as such
~ they argued that this may be due to frustrations associated with negative life events but not associated with positive events
how does the SRRS challenge the validity of the life changes approach?
it assumes that positive and negative life events have the same effect
