1. Stressful life events
Andy Smith

2. Aims of talk
Provide information about the history, conceptualisation, description, modelling and practical relevance of psychological research on life events and adjustment to them.
I will focus on negative life events mainly because we know more about this topic than we do about positive events and associated processes and states.

3. Starting point
History - 40 years ago
Life events research

4. Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS)
Holmes & Rahe (1967):
Social readjustment: “the intensity and length of time necessary to accommodate to a life event, regardless of the desirability of this event…”
400 people ranked 43 commonly reported events in order of disruption. Scaled values out of 100.
Resulted in Life Change Units (LCU)

5. Social Readjustment Rating Scale
Death of spouse
Divorce
Marriage
Being fired from work
Son or daughter leaving home
Christmas
Rahe (1974): >LCU, > risk of ill-health among 89 physicians. Of 96 major health changes reported, 89 took place in people who reported over 150 LCUs. 70% of those who reported 300 LCUs became ill. <150 LCUs, no evidence of ill-health

6. Life events – a more recent study
Kozora et al. (2005):
measures of depression, mood, perceived health, stressful life events, coping, and social support.
Depressive symptoms were associated with major life-threatening events, disengage coping, and emotional coping. .

7. Problems of SRRS
Many listed events may not be applicable at certain times of life
Some may not occur sufficiently frequently to impact on life
Some vague (change of social activities)
Perhaps more central:
Most studies that show SRRS to be associated with illness are retrospective
Daily hassles may be more important than infrequent major stresses

8. Life Events or Daily hassles
Death of spouse
Divorce
Jail term
Marriage
Pregnancy
Too many things to do
Not enough time
Too many responsibilities
Troubling thoughts
Problems with children
Job dissatisfaction

9. But hassles seem to be more important…
Kraaij, Arensman & Spinhoven (2002):
Meta-analysis of 25 studies, the relationship of both specific types of negative life events and the total number of experienced events to depression in old age was studied.
Almost all negative life events appeared to have a modest but significant relationship with depression.
Correlation - negative life events levels and depression :
Correlation - daily hassles and depression

10. A more current view - stress as a process
Stress is a process and one must consider:
Exposure to stressful experiences/job characteristics.
Perceptions of stress.
Psychological resources that allow one to cope with the above.
Health outcomes induced by the above.

11. Appraisal or Perceived Stress
Stress occurs when demands exceed the ability to cope
Important to measure perceived stress
Also link with psychosocial resources that help you cope

12. Stressor------------Perceived ---------Stress
Stress Response

13. Stress and Coping

14. Primary appraisal - Is this a threat
Primary appraisal - Is this a threat? Secondary appraisal (Coping) - What can I do about it? Stress occurs when there is an imbalance between primary and secondary appraisal of a situation

15. Coping Evoked by distress… Broadly divided into:
Emotion focused: Attempt to reduce emotional distress – avoidance, cognitive re-appraisal etc
Problem focused: Attempt to change the nature of the problem causing distress - problem solving strategies

16. Relevant/potentially harmful + secondary appraisal
A simple model…
Stimulus event
Primary appraisal
Relevant/potentially harmful + secondary appraisal
Benign/irrelevant
Ignore – no action or emotion
Emotional response
Coping response

17. Stress as loss of resources
Hobfoll’s (1989) conservation of resources model proposed that mental
and physical health are determined by the amount of resources
available to the individual.
Resources may be:
social (for example, family support)
structural (such as housing)
psychological (for instance, coping skills, perceived control).
A large number of resources are health protective.
Reduced resources place an individual at risk for
mental health problems.

18. Social Support – a major
Psychosocial resource.

19. Berkman & Syme; Am J Epid; 1979

20. PERCEIVED SOCIAL SUPPORT & THE STRESS-BUFFERING HYPOTHESIS
TYPICAL QUESTIONS
Is there someone you can talk
to about intimate problems?
Is there someone who will loan
you money when you are in need?

21. Cohen & Wills; Psych Bull; 1985

22. Cohen, Gottlieb, & Underwood; 2000

23. Things are more complicated!
Many other factors must be considered – especially individual differences.
New models are being developed and tested
(see Mark and Smith, 2008).

24. THE DRIVE MODEL AND STRESS AT WORK
Moderating Effect
of Job Resources
on Job Demands
Work Demands & Work Resources
Job Stress
Health Outcomes &
Job Satisfaction
Individual Characteristics & Personal Resources & Demands
Work Resources
Main Effect X Y Z
Mediating effect of Y,
between X and Z 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

25. Prevention and management
On the basis of such models one can design different types of interventions (e.g. organisational or individual).
We should move away from a “one size fits all approach”.
However, a process based approach can provide a framework that accounts for individual variation but has a firm theoretical basis.