Sources of Stress

1
Sources of Stress
www.psychlotron.org.uk

• Life change
• Research into the impact of critical life events
• Key study Rahe et al (1970)
• The workplace
• Research into a variety of stressors including
  overload and lack of control
• Key study Marmot et al (1997)

2
Life Change Stress
www.psychlotron.org.uk
3
Measuring Life Change
www.psychlotron.org.uk

• Holmes Rahe(1967)
• List of life changes rated (judged by a panel)
  for degree of readjustment required e.g.
• Death of spouse high readjustment - 100
• Holiday low readjustment - 13
• Adding up scores for changes during a given
  period (6m) gives the LCU score

4
Life Change Stress
www.psychlotron.org.uk

• Rahe et al (1970)
• Study of relationship between life change and
  general health
• LCU scores obtained using SRRS
• Health scores generated from doctors records
• Correlation between SRRS and illness scores was
  0.118
• Small, but unlikely to be a chance result

5
Life Change and Stress
www.psychlotron.org.uk

• Thomas et al (1997)
• Increased LCU scores predicted increased
  mortality risk in heart patients
• Rosengren et al (1993)
• Higher LCU scores associated with higher
  mortality in elderly PPs

6
Life Change and Stress
www.psychlotron.org.uk

• Individual differences
• Impact of CLEs likely to be mediated by e.g.
  personality, coping style
• Some events (e.g. divorce) may be perceived
  differently by different people
• Correlational retrospective data
• Do pps have an accurate recall of
  events/illnesses?
• Does being ill make certain CLEs more likely?