Sources of Stress - Life Changes

Sources of Stress - Life Changes

General Information:Holmes analysed the records of 5,000 patient that were in hospital. They found that 43 records involved life changing events that happened before their illness. They asked 400 patients to rate the level of change they would have to go through when faced with a particular life changing event. They rated 100 as high change. This then created the SRRS (Social Readjustment Rating Scale).

The Social Readjustment Rating ScaleThe scale gives a LCU (Life Change Unit) score. When the total score reaches 300 you are 50% more likely to suffer an illness. The scale is as follows:100 = Death of a spouse75 = Divorce50 = Marriage25 = Change in living conditions

Evaluation: Does not take into account the individual differences between patients as some may rate things a lot differently on the SRRS. This means the scale can not reflect everyone accurately. The scale includes possible positive changes such as "a change in financial situations" which would not have a link to negativity and so, no link to illness. The scale focuses on life time event which don't happen often. The scale on the other hand, includes no chronic stressors or daily hassles. This makes the type of life changing event very narrow and so we see less correlations of illness, stress and the life change.