Life Changes

Booklet 1 recap!

Definition of stress

Definition of a stressor

When there is an imbalance between the perceived demands of the situation and the

individuals’ perceived ability to cope

Any event that causes a stress reaction in the body (such as life changes or environmental

situations) e.g. Marriage, college, bereavement

Booklet 1 recap!

Body’s response to stress

Research into stress and the immune system

Acute - SympAthoMedullary pathway (AHSAAFP)

Chronic – Hypothalamic Pituitary Adrenal axis (CHCPAACLIS)

Kiecolt-Glaser (1995) 13 carers

Cytokines, puncture biopsy & stress perception Qre

Carer group took 9 days longer to heal than control

Life Changes Definition: significant changes in a

person’s life which disrupt their normal routine.

(positive and negative e.g. Marriage, moving house,

bereavement)

Holmes and Rahe (1967) were the first to record the effects of life events.

From their work in hospitals, H&R noticed that certain life events seemed to be associated with stress and poor health Aim – to investigate Life Changes as a source of stress

Holmes & Rahe - procedure

• Identified 43 life changes from examining the hospital records of 5000 patients that appeared in the months before their illness

Identify the life events

• They assigned a random value of 50 to marriage

• Asked 394 ps to rate the other events compared to marriage in terms of how much readjustment would be required (more=higher score, less=lower score)

Establish the scale

• The scores from all participants were totalled and averaged to produce a life change unit score for each life event

LCUs

Findings: 1. Most events were considered requiring

less readjustment than marriage 2. Events such as divorce, bereavement

were considered more stressful 3. People with LCU scores of 300+ had

approx an 80% chance of becoming ill

Conclusion: This shows some link

between life events and illness

It’s thought that the link is

stress

=

Research Methods Recap Holmes and Rahe found a

positive correlation between the number of life events/changes

and their likelihood of developing an illness – what would this look

like?!

Life

ev

ents

Illness

X X

X X

X

X

X X

X

X X

X

Life Changes question

What has research shown us about the impact of life changes on health? (4 marks)

Holmes & Rahe A02

P • There is research to support the link between life events

and stress related illness

E

• For example Gupta (2004) found that high SRRS scores positively correlated with the severity & frequency of skin problems in participants who were healthy

E

• This is a strength because Gupta offers support for Holmes and Rahe’s study, supporting the positive relationship between life events and illness

Holmes & Rahe A02

Holmes & Rahe A02

P • Holmes and Rahe’s research uses correlational analysis

which could be affected by a third variable

E

• For example when experiencing life events many people cope by smoking or drinking and it could be this that results in poor health

E

• This is weakness because we cannot conclusively say that life events cause illness as the relationship could be indirect

Holmes & Rahe A02

P • Holmes and Rahe’s research raises ethical issues

E

• For example the research involved participants recalling stressful events of the last 12 months which might distress or upset participants

E

• This is a weakness as researchers have a duty of care to their participants and so should not cause them any undue stress