Stress - 3. Sources of Stress: 1. Daily Uplifts, Daily Hassles and Life Changing Events

Question 1

Examples of life changing events that we are all likely to experience

Answer 1

Death of a close relative
Moving out
Getting married

Question 2

What are life changes/life changing events?

Answer 2

Life events positive/negative that require you to make psychological adjustment. They can bring about stress and illness

Question 3

Who developed the Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS)?

Answer 3

Holmes and Rahe

Question 4

What did Holmes and Rahe develop?

Answer 4

Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS)

Question 5

What did Holmes and Rahe’s SRRS include?

Answer 5

43 life changes that varied in severity

Question 6

How was the severity of each life event measured in Holmes and Rahe’s SRRS?

Answer 6

Each life event was measured in life changing units (LCUs)

Question 7

What does a high LCU indicate?

Answer 7

High level of readjustment needed/event has high severity (E.g. death of a spouse)

Question 8

What can a high LCU predict according to Holmes and Rahe?

Answer 8

A high LCU can predict illness

Question 9

What made Holmes and Rahe begin their investigation into life changing events and stress?

Answer 9

They were both doctors in hospitals where they found that most heart disease patients had reported experiencing significant life events in the year leading up to hospitalisation

Question 10

What did Holmes and Rahe use to generate the list of 43 significant life events that had occurred in the year leading up to hospitalisation of their sample?

Answer 10

They examined the records of 5000 patients

Question 11

How was the generation of the 43 significant life events not subjective?

Answer 11

Holmes and Rahe used data from records, instead of asking the patients what events occurred

Question 12

What did Holmes and Rahe do once the 43 life events had been selected?

Answer 12

They got 400 separate people to rate the psychological impact/level of psychological adjustment of the 43 events

Question 13

What life event was ranked the lowest on the SRRS?

Answer 13

Minor violation of the law

Question 14

What life event was ranked the highest on the SRRS?

Answer 14

Death of a spouse

Question 15

What can the LCU of each life event be used as?

Answer 15

The LCU ranking of each life event can be used as a predictor for the change of a patient having an illness

Question 16

Example of how the LCU can be used to predict the chance of a patient having an illness?

Answer 16

If a patient experiences the death of a spouse in the last year, a doctor will strongly predict that they will get heart disease

Question 17

Who conducted a follow up study for Holmes and Rahe’s SRRS?

Answer 17

Rahe et al (1970)

Question 18

What did Rahe et al aim to identify in their follow up study for SRRS?

Answer 18

Aimed to identify a correlation between the stresses of a major life event and illness

Question 19

Who did Rahe et al study over 6 months?

Answer 19

Studied 2500 male US navy sailors

Question 20

During the 6 month period of Rahe et al’s study, what was counted?

Answer 20

The number of life changing events

Question 21

Results of Rahe et al’s follow up study in SRRS?

Answer 21

As LCUs increased, the frequency of illness increased

Question 22

Conclusion of Rahe et al’s follow