holmes - rahe social readjustment rating scale

• psychologists have looked to find ways to rate & measure total stress scores in a way that will help individuals cope with difficult events. they developed a questionnaire called the social readjustment rating scale which identified major stressful life events
• the social readjustment rating scale identifies 43 life events each with a different score for a stress level. they asked individuals to score how the events they'd experienced affected their stress levels. they discovered that the higher the score & the importance of each event identified, the more likely an individual was to become unwell
• critics of their theory stress that it isn't necessarily true, for some people the breakdown of a relationship & getting divorced can be an extremely stressful time, yet, for others, it can almost be a relief, especially if the arrangements for divorce have been amicable
• for most people, major life events aren't experienced very frequently but they can still experience stresses & strains in daily life, e.g. losing keys, traffic jams, physical appearance/weight. these are referred to as 'daily hassles'