Life Events

Instructions: Please read the information below on the Social Readjustment Rating Scale. I would then like you to comment on the evaluative points below the image. Please write your notes on each point in either the comment’s section or on paper ready to discuss in class next week.

According to Holmes and Rahe (1967) life changing events, such as marriage and divorce are most likely to cause stress and furthermore, illness. The Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS) was developed to show how much readjustment each life event would cause a person. 

Holmes and Rahe (1967) wanted to test whether the stress of a life event was correlated with illness. They examined the medical records of 5000 patients and compiled a list of 43 life events which seemed to cluster in the months prior to the onset of the patients illness. 100 people were told that "marriage" had been assigned a value of 500, and that they were to assign a number to each of the other life events, indicating how much readjustment they involve relative to marriage. 

The average of the numbers assigned to each event was divided by 10, and the resulting values became the numerical value of each life event.

Death of a spouse was thought to require twice as much readjustment as marriage, making it the most stressful life event. 

Below is a complete list of the 43 life events most predictive of stress and illness. The value assigned to each event can be seen on the right-hand side. 

How to Evaluate this Scale...

1. Think about the sample size, is it sufficient? can it be generalised to the entire population?

2. How many life events were compiled? are these the only life   events a  person can experience? 

3. Individual interpretation. Some people may feel very positive about getting a divorce, others would feel devastated.

4. Created in 1967? Is it relevant today? 

5. Is the weighting reliable? 100 people were used to assign a value to each life event, is that a sufficient amount? To somebody death of a spouse may not be as stressful as the death of a friend etc...

Image taken from: Simply Psychology, by McLeod, Licensed under CC BY-NC