Stress; Life changes and daily hassels

Stress; Life changes and daily hassels.
Rahe Et Al, 1970.   Life changes and stress.

-Wanted to see whether the onset of an illness could be related to the scores on the HOLMES & RAHE social readjustment rating scale.

They; -Took SRRS score from 2500 m US sailors before 6mth tour of duty.
-during 6mths medical records kept which provided detailed record of health
-after 6mths, SRRS score correlated with an 'illness score'

Found & Concluded; signifficant poss correlation bet. SRRS score & illness (1 went up, so did other)
-Concluded horrible lifechanging events increases our liklihood of sufferent with illness, experiencing events doesnt gaurentee illness occuring.

Stress; Life changes and daily hassels;

 'Rahe et al.' Criticisms

1)Research is correlational   -only shows relashionship

2)Low Coefficient. Only slightly signifficant. Possible that replication of study would get different results

3)sample restricted. Women or other cultures may differ

Stress; Life changes and daily hassels; HOLMES & RAHE SRRS

Evaluation of SRRS

SRRS contains events that are thought of as possitives e.g; holiday, xmas...

There are indiv.Differences in how much disruption an events will cause. E.g; divorse-length of marriage?children?finances?is it a relief (not bad)?

Acute events only (nothing about long term illness; caring for relative or non-events; not getting new job ect)

Age dependednt- Suitable for adults only

Lacks temporal validity (no mention of gay rel's)

Stress; Life changes and daily hassels;

 'Life experience survey', Sarason et al, 1978

57 items in different catogorysE.g; Health, Love&Marriage, School, Finance

Takes into account individual differences

Used in job interviews and deppression assesments.