BTEC Applied Psychology Unit 3 - Learning aim B1

Unit 3 Health psychology Learning Aim B
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1. Causes of stress: A life event is a significant positive or negative experience
Life events - that can cause stress. They are stressful because we have
What is a life to expend psychological energy, to cope with the changed
event? circumstances.

For example, a child's birth is a positive life event. The
death of a loved one is a negative life event. These life
events are not everyday happenings.




2. Causes of stress: Thomas Holmes and Richard Rahe (1967)'s SRRS (social
Life events - How readjustment rating scale). 43 events with life change units
do we measure (life changing events), are add them up over a set period
life events? under 150 = 30% chance of stress related illness, 150-190
= 50% chance, 300+ = 80% chance (RAHE).




3. How do life The SRRS has been used by researchers to find out
events link to ill- whether illnesses (physical and psychological) are asso-
nesses? ciated with stressful life events. Rahe (1972) suggested
that a person scoring under 150 has a 30% probability of
experiencing a stress-related illness in the following year.
That probability increases to 50% for someone scoring
between 150 and 299 LCU's. It increases again to 80%
for someone who scores over 300 LCUS.






, Unit 3 Health psychology Learning Aim B
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4. Rahe et al The aim was to investigate the link between life events,
(1971) Study stress and illness.
of Prediction
of near-future
health change
from subjects'
life changes' :
Aim

5. Rahe et al The method used a questionnaire, the "Social readjust-
(1971) Study ment Rating scale" (SRRS), to ask US Navy servicemen
of Prediction to self-report on the stressful life events experienced dur-
of near-future ing a tour of duty. The number of times they visited the sick
health change bay was also recorded.
from subjects'
life changes' :
Procedure



6. Rahe et al Rahe et al. found that the sailors who scored low on
(1971) Study the questionnaire (few life events) also had low levels
of Prediction of recorded illness. Whilst sailors with most stressful life
of near-future events, had the most illnesses aboard the ship.
health change
from subjects'
life changes' :
Findings


7. Rahe et al Life events are reasonable predictors of later illness.
(1971) Study
- Prediction
of near-future
health change
from subjects'
life changes' :
Conclusion




, Unit 3 Health psychology Learning Aim B
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8. Evaluation of There is a large amount of support/evidence that life
Life events - events are linked to illness. E.g., Raija et al. (2011) fol-
Strengths + lowed nearly 17,000 healthy people. At the start of the
Weaknesses study none of them had asthma, but, after two years,
192 had developed it. Life events were measured over
the same two year period. There was a moderate but
significant positive correlation between life event stress
and the onset of asthma.


One weakness of the life events approach, is that it as-
sumes all life events are stressful, so it muddles together
both negative and positive events.




9. Causes of stress: Daily hassles are minor events that can be a constant
Daily hassles - source of stress. These can become major events if they
what are daily are high intensity or high frequency .Examples are missing
hassles and up- the bus or not being able to find your house keys.
lifts?
Where as daily uplifts are minor positive experiences that
counteract daily stress, such as hearing good news.




10. Who proposed Richard Lazarus et al. (1980) was one of the first psychol-
daily hassles? ogists to argue that big life events are not the main source
of stress - everyday frustrations cause far more stress.