8/3/2019 05 Life Changes 2010

1/23

Stress in everyday life

8/3/2019 05 Life Changes 2010

2/23

Stress as a

bodily response

Sources of

stress

Stress

management

Individual

Differences

Workplace

StressorsLife

Changes

Psychological

Approaches

Physiological

Approaches

Bodys response

to stressors Stress and

Immune System

Stress andCardiovascular

System

8/3/2019 05 Life Changes 2010

3/23

Define life changes

Describe APFCC for a study into life changesas a source of stress

Apply your knowledge to exam questions

8/3/2019 05 Life Changes 2010

4/23

What are the big life changes that lead to

stress and stress-related illness?

What are the daily hassles that lead to stressand stress-related illness?

Which are more important?

8/3/2019 05 Life Changes 2010

5/23

Describe how the SRRS was devised.

Describe and evaluate Rahe et als 1970 study

into life changes and illness. Use the alternative idea of daily hassles and

uplifts to evaluate the life changes research.

8/3/2019 05 Life Changes 2010

6/23

Events (such as divorce or bereavement) that

necessitate a significant adjustment in

various aspects of a persons life. As such,they can be seen as significant sources of

stress

8/3/2019 05 Life Changes 2010

7/23

43 life events taken from 5000 patient

records.

400 participants gave numerical values toeach in terms of amount or readjustment

needed compared to marriage.

Each event assigned 0-100 life change units

(LCUs) based on average scores.

8/3/2019 05 Life Changes 2010

8/23

Rank Life event (LCU)1 Death of a spouse (100)2 Divorce (73)3 Marital separation (65)4 Jail term (63)5 Death of a close family member (63)6 Personal injury or illness (50)

7 Marriage (53)8 Fired at work (47)9 Marital reconciliation (45)10 Retirement (45)

8/3/2019 05 Life Changes 2010

9/23

8/3/2019 05 Life Changes 2010

10/23

To use the SRRS to testHolmes and Rahes

hypothesis that the number of life events

experienced are positively correlated withillness, and to specifically look at a normal

population.

8/3/2019 05 Life Changes 2010

11/23

8/3/2019 05 Life Changes 2010

12/23

Significant, positivecorrelation (+0.118)

between LCU andillness.

Significant meansalthough small it is

very unlikely to bedue to chance.

8/3/2019 05 Life Changes 2010

13/23

Do life changes cause physical illness?

Is it stress that is causing the illness?

Are positive changes as bad as negativeones?

How important do life changes seem to becompared to other possible causes of illness?

8/3/2019 05 Life Changes 2010

14/23

Supports link between life changes andphysical illness.

Link may be stress life changes causestress and stress causes illness.

Change seems to be important, notnegativity.

As correlation is not perfect, life eventscannot be the only factor in contributing toillness.

8/3/2019 05 Life Changes 2010

15/23

Problems with recall of life events?

Individual Differences?

Correlation and causality Is sample valid?

Is SRRS valid? Other scales?

8/3/2019 05 Life Changes 2010

16/23

8/3/2019 05 Life Changes 2010

17/23

1. Describe howHolmes and Rahe (1967) devised theSRRS. (3)

2.What is the culture criticism of this process? (2)3. What question did Rahe et al (1970) ask when theyused the SRRS in research on US Navy personnel? (1)

4. What is important about the size of their sample? (2)

5. What type of correlation did they find between lifechange units and illness? (2)6. What was their conclusion? (2)

8/3/2019 05 Life Changes 2010

18/23

How hassled are you?

In what way is this approach better than life

changes?

8/3/2019 05 Life Changes 2010

19/23

DeLongis et al. (1988)

What are dailyhassles and uplifts?

Findings: Found a significant positive

correlation of +0.59 between hassles and

next-day illness.

What is the conclusion?

8/3/2019 05 Life Changes 2010

20/23

DeLongis et al. (1988)

Findings: Found a significant positivecorrelation of +0.59 between hassles and

next-day illness.

Conclusions: Daily hassles may be a better

predictor of stress than life events.They areclearly not the only factor, but this is a fairlystrong correlation.

8/3/2019 05 Life Changes 2010

21/23

Jacobs andCharles (1980).

Families of children with cancer and acontrol group filled out life-change

questionnaires cancer group had more life

changes.

8/3/2019 05 Life Changes 2010

22/23

8/3/2019 05 Life Changes 2010

23/23

A study of life changes as a source of stress (Rahe et al, 1970)Procedures: A military version of the SRRS was given to all the

men aboard three US Navy cruisers, a total of over 2, 700 men.The men filled in the questionnaire just before a tour of duty,noting all the life events experienced over the previous 6

months. An illness score was calculated on the basis of thenumber, type and severity of all illnesses recorded during thetour of duty (about 6 months).

Findings: An LCU score and an illness score was calculated foreach man. Rahe et al. found a positive correlation betweenthese scores of +0.118.This is not a very strong correlationbecause stressful life events and incidence of physical illness.However, given the number of participants involved, it issignificant.