Life Changes A definition: Events (such as divorce, bereavement or marriage) that necessitate a significant adjustment in various aspects of a person’s life. As such, they can be seen as a significant source of stress.

Using life changes to measure stress Holmes and Rahe “Ok Holmes how can we measure life changes” “Easy – we look at 5000 patients records and check out any life changes that they had” “Nosey aren’t you. Then you get 400 participants to rate each life change on how much readjustment would be required”. “They come up with a numerical figure comparing to marriage being 500”. “ Longer to readjust, a larger number” “All the scores are then averaged and put on a 100 point scale”

So how many life changes did they identify? 43 Top at 100 – Death of a spouse Bottom at 11 – Minor violations of the law