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Rahe , Mahan, and Arthur (1970)

Rahe , Mahan, and Arthur (1970). Stressful Life Events. Context. Rosenman and Friedman (1958): Found a link between stress and coronary heart disease. Observed a group of patients in the waiting room called ‘Type A’ personalities. Impatient- tended to leap out of their seats.

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Rahe , Mahan, and Arthur (1970)

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  1. Rahe, Mahan, and Arthur (1970) Stressful Life Events

  2. Context • Rosenman and Friedman (1958): • Found a link between stress and coronary heart disease. • Observed a group of patients in the waiting room called ‘Type A’ personalities. • Impatient- tended to leap out of their seats. • Experienced higher levels of stress. • More likely to suffer from heart disease (Correlation). • Green (1954); Rahe et al. (1964) • Early studies focused on patients in hospital • Lacks ecological validity- not relevant to the effects of more typical life stressors. • Retrospective- memory about stressors. • Illness may bias perception of life stressors.

  3. Aim • Prospective study- looking for a correlation between stressful life events and subsequent illness. • Improve on flawed methodology of previous studies: • Instead of using a retrospective method, they measured prior exposure to stress at the start of the study, then followed the participants during their time onboard naval ships. • Controlled environment- onboard naval ships crew are likely to experience the same conditions, stressors, infectious agents, etc… • Participants were not severely ill so more likely to be representative of daily life stressors.

  4. Procedure- Sample • 3 naval ships • 2684 naval men • Varying ranks: apprentice to high ranking naval officers with 30 yrs experience • Avg. age: 22.3 yrs • 2/3rds high school graduates • Represented 90-97% of each ship’s crew • Fell by less than 10% due to transfer off-ship

  5. Procedure- Method • SRE (Schedule of Recent Experiences) questionnaire taken. • Assess stressful life events experienced over 4 consecutive 6mnth periods before their deployment onboard. • Each stressful experience is assigned a ‘life change unit’ (LCU)- weighting that indicates severity of stress.

  6. Procedure- Method • Onboard • Any illnesses recorded by ship’s medical facility • Analysis- excluded illnesses believed to be faked to shirk duties and any with reports of pre-existing medical conditions. • Produced an illness criterion of the number, type and severity of illnesses. • All participants and medical personnel were unaware of the aim of the study.

  7. Findings • Only significant correlation was between the LCU total for the last 6mnth period prior to departure and illness onboard. • Used only the last 6mnth total for further analysis. • Divided the crew into ten bands, from lowest LCU scores to highest, representing a 10th of participants each. • One of the ships showed smaller differences than the other two and obscured results. • Significant differences were only seen at opposing ends of the scale.

  8. Findings Cont. • To overcome this the grouping was changed to combine some bands… • Current stressors onboard may have obscured effects of previous life stressors. The ships showing the greatest correlations both had the easiest missions.

  9. Conclusion • When the pre-departure life changes are low so are on-board illness rates. • Masked by stressful onboard experiences which increase the illness rate of the whole crew. • Link stronger for men over 21 and married men.

  10. Evaluation- Strengths • Prospective- reports of stress not affected by illness. • More valid. • Controlled for bias • Participants unaware their illness rates were being tested. • Medical staff also unaware so would not have recorded illness any differently. • Choice of sample • Experience of crew onboard ship is largely consistent. • All incidents were reported in the same way. • Not unusual for crew to report even minor illness. • Large, representative sample • Different ranks, levels of education, and ages • Replicated on different samples (Holmes and Rahe, 1967) • Generalises well. • Highly reliable.

  11. Evaluation- Weaknesses • Low correlation score (r=0.118). • Results significant due to large sample. • Correlation does not show causation! • SRE self-report measure • Socially desirable answers, e.g minor violations of the law • Unrepresentative sample • Occupation- seamen more resilient to stress? • Gender- women have different coping strategies for dealing with stress. • Culture- differ in responses to stress • Does not take individual differences into account • Do all people experience divorce as highly stressful even if they didn’t like their partner? • Ethics • Lack of informed consent for medical records to be used.

  12. Past Exam Questions Section A • Outline the procedures of Rahe, Mahan & Arthur’s (1970) research ‘Prediction of near-future health change from subjects’ preceding life changes’. [12] • Outline the procedures of Rahe, Mahan & Arthur’s (1970) research ‘Prediction of near-future health change from subjects’ preceding life changes’. [12] Section B • With reference to alternative evidence, critically assess Rahe, Mahan and Arthur’s (1970) research ‘Prediction of near-future health change from subjects’ preceding life changes’. [12].

  13. Test yourself • Try this online version of the SRRS test: http://www.stresstips.com/lifeevents.htm

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