SRRS,

Holmes and Rahe (1967) developed a questionnaire called the Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS) for identifying major stressful life events.
Each one of the 43 stressful life events was awarded a Life Change Unit depending on how traumatic it was felt to be by a large sample of participants.

A total value for stressful life events can be worked out by adding up the scores for each event experienced over a 12 month period.
If a person has less the 150 life change units they have a 30% chance of suffering from stress.
150 - 299 life change units equates to a 50% chance of suffering from stress.
Over 300 life units means a person has an 80% chance of developing a stress related illness.

Social Readjustment Rating Scale - SRRS

SRRS Social Readjustment Rating Scale

Evaluation of the SRRS

Individual Difference: The SRRS assumes that each stressor affects people the same way. Not necessarily true e.g. divorce can be amicable or even a relief.

Most 43 life changes in the SRRS aren’t everyday events.  Kanner et al (1981) has designed a Hassles Scale which are more common, e.g. losing things, traffic jams, arguments, disappointments, weight and physical appearance.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

MULTI STORE MODEL OF MEMORY.

Image
Multi Store Model of Memory - Atkinson and Shiffrin, 1968. The multi store model (Atkinson and Shiffrin, 1968) is a classic model of memory. It is sometimes called the modal model or the dual process model. Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968) suggest that memory is made up of a series of stores (see below) The multi store model (Atkinson and Shiffrin 1968) describes memory in terms of information flowing through a system. Information is detected by the sense organs and enters the sensory memory . If attended to this information enters the short term memory . Information from the STM is transferred to the long-term memory only if that information is rehearsed. If rehearsal does not occur, then information is forgotten, lost from short term memory through the processes of displacement or decay. Sensory Memory • Duration: ¼ to ½ second • Capacity: all sensory experience (v. larger
Read more

WORKING MEMORY.

Image
Atkinson’s and Shiffrin’s (1968) multi-store model was extremely successful in terms of the amount of research it generated. However, as a result of this research, it became apparent that there were a number of problems with their ideas concerning the characteristics of short-term memory. Building on this research, Baddeley and Hitch (1974) developed an alternative model of short-term memory which they called working memory (see fig 1). Baddeley and Hitch (1974) argue that the picture of short-term memory ( STM ) provided by the Multi-Store Model is far too simple.  According to the Multi-Store Model , STM holds limited amounts of information for short periods of time with relatively little processing.  It is a unitary system. This means it is a single system (or store) without any subsystems.  Working Memory is not a unitary store.
Read more

LEVEL OF PROCESSING.

Image
The levels of processing model of memory (Craik and Lockhart, 1972) was put forward partly as a result of the criticism leveled at the multi-store model . Instead of concentrating on the stores/structures involved (i.e. short term memory & long term memory ), this theory concentrates on the processes involved in memory. Unlike the multi-store model it is a non-structured approach. The basic idea is that memory is really just what happens as a result of processing information. Psychologists Craik and Lockhart propose that memory is just a by-product of the depth of processing of information and there is no clear distinction between short term memory and long term memory. Craik defined depth as "the meaningfulness extracted from the stimulus rather than in terms of the number of analyses performed upon it.” (1973, p. 48) We can process information in 3 ways: Shallow Processing
Read more