Stress-Sources of Stress

Question 1

What did Holmes and Rahe devise in 1967?

Answer 1

A questionnaire with an SSRS- Social readjustment scale

• Contained 43 items
• Each item given an LCU (life changing unit) score

Question 2

What was the process of Holmes and Rahe’s experiment?

Answer 2

• They examined 5000 patients and generated list of 43 events asking 400 people to rate the psychological impact of each one
• Each event was given an impact value in the form of a life changing unit (LCU)
• Death of spouse was assigned an arbitrary value of 100 LCU whereas minor violations of the law was given an LCU of 11
• LCUs added up for all critical events experienced in the preceding 12 months

Question 3

What is an SSRS?

Answer 3

• Easy to use scale as just add up numbers of person’s life events occurring over the past year
• A score of under 150 increases chance of stress-related illness by 30%
• A score of over 300 is a major crisis and increases risk to 80%

Question 4

What is the evaluation of Holmes and Raye’s experiment?

Answer 4

• Individual Differences; impacts of life events likely to be mediated by personality coping style for example
• Some events may be perceived differently by different people
• Correlation not causation

Question 5

What are Daily Hassles?

Answer 5

• Minor events that arise in course of a normal day
• Usually short-lived but may linger if left unresolved
• May result in more serious stress reactions such as anxiety and depression e.g. weight issues, health issues

Question 6

What are daily uplifts?

Answer 6

• Positive, desirable experiences that makes a daily hassle more bearable
• They could counteract negative effects of hassles and help lower our stress levels and improve our performances e.g. getting on well with friends, completing a task

Question 7

What is the HSUP scale?

Answer 7

• Consisted of 117 hassles and 135 uplifts
• Used to measure events over monthly period
• Each hassle measured on 3 point scale (somewhat, moderate and extreme)
• Hassles correlated with undesirable psychological symptoms such as anxiety and dpression
• Effects of uplifts unclear

Question 8

What was Bouteyre et al (2007) hassles experiment?

Answer 8

Aim: Investigate relationship between daily hassles and mental health of students during transition between school and uni
Procedure: First year psychology students completed The Hassles and Uplift Scales (HSUS)
Results: Positive correlation between students suffering from depression (41% of total) and scores on daily hassles
Conclusions: Transition from school to uni has frequent daily hassles, which are risk factor for developing depression

Question 9

What was Gervais (2005) uplifts experiment?

Answer 9

Aim: Investigate how daily hassles and uplifts affacted job performances for nurses
Procedure: Nurses asked to keep diaries for one month, recording all daily hassles and uplifts
Results: Daily hassles (e.g. staff members who don’t pull weight) increase job strain however uplifts (e.g. compliments from patients) increased job performance
Conclusion: Daily hassles may decrease job performance whereas daily uplifts may counteract daily hassles

Question 10

Positives of stress hassles and uplift scale

Answer 10

• Correlation research is useful when you cannot carry out an experiment for ethical reasons
• There is supporting evidence of hassles on psychological effect of health

Question 11

Negatives of stress hassles and uplift scale

Answer 11

-Ignores individual differences e.g. hardiness and personality type can mediate stress and needs to take person variables into account