Essay About Life Changes And Evaluate Research

Describe and Evaluate Research into Life Changes as a Source of Stress
Describe And Evaluate Research into Life Changes as a Source of Stress
[16 marks]
Life changes are big events that take place in our lives, both positive and negative. For example, getting married, getting divorced, or a family loss. These events are not every day occurrences and often require a significant psychological adjustment, therefor suggested to cause major stress. The theory is that the bigger the life change, the bigger the adjustment has to be and thus the bigger the stress produced. These life changes are thought to be cumulative and so, over time, the stress can build up more and more. Researchers have proposed that this build-up of stress is a direct link to illness that we experience after the events.

To research this idea (the link between stress and illness) researchers had to come up with a way to measure, the relatively subjective, life changes people went through. To do this researchers use the common method invented by Holmes and Rahe: the Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS). The SRRS assigns ‘life change units’ to life change events in a list, with a higher LCU equalling more adjustment and more stress for example.

The early research into life changes got participants to tick all their life changes from the last 12 months. Then the sum of the LCUs was calculated, and correlated with a measure of illness for the participants, over the same period of time in the future.

Using this method, Rahe predicted that people who scored under 150 LCUs in total would have reasonable health in the next year.
Rahe carried out another study into this area, using US Navy personnel. He carried out a prospective study, using Us Navy personnel assigned to 3 different aircraft carriers. Participants were asked to complete a ‘schedule of recent experiences’ (an early version of Holmes and Rahe’s SRRS based on the 6 months before deployment into active duty. Each participant had a total LCU score calculated and recorded. During their time on board the ships,