B6 - Major life events that affect development

Question 1

What are predictable events?

Answer 1

Events that are expected to happen at a particular time

Question 2

What are unpredictable events?

Answer 2

Events that may happen unexpectedly

Question 3

What are examples of predictable life events?

Answer 3

• Starting school
• Beginning and changing employment
• Leaving home/care
• Leaving prison
• Marriage
• Parenthood
• Retirement

Question 4

What are examples of unpredictable life events?

Answer 4

• The birth of a sibling
• Redundancy
• Illness and serious injury
• Divorce
• Bereavement

Question 5

Who created the social readjustment scale?

Answer 5

Holmes and Rahe

Question 6

How many life events does the social readjustment scale identify?

Answer 6

43

Question 7

How does the social readjustment scale work?

Answer 7

• Asked individuals to score how the events they had experienced affected their stress levels
• The higher the score and the importance of each event, the more likely a person was to become unwell

Question 8

What did Holmes and Rahe assume?

Answer 8

That each stressor would affect people in the same way

Question 9

What are the criticisms of the Holmes Rahe social readjustment scale?

Answer 9

• Not everyone is affected by stressors in the same way
• People experience stress in daily life but haven’t experienced many life events

Question 10

What is stress?

Answer 10

An automatic response to dealing with challenging situations or life events

Question 11

How does stress affect the body?

Answer 11

• When a person is stressed their body is flooded with hormones
• This increases blood pressure, boost energy and prepare to deal with the issue

Question 12

What was Richard Lazarus definition of stress?

Answer 12

Stress is experienced when a person perceives that the demands exceed the personal and social resources the individual is able to mobilise

Question 13

What can stress cause?

Answer 13

• Irritable
• Fatigued
• Have headaches
• Lack motivation
• Unable to concentrate

Question 14

What can stress lead to?

Answer 14

• Over/under eating
• Smoking or drinking too much alcohol to cope
• Chronic stress can cause anxiety attacks
• Depression
• Cardiovascular problems

Question 15

What health problems can high levels of stress hormones over a long period of time cause?

Answer 15

• Poor immune system
• High blood pressure
• Heart attacks
• Breathlessness, Asthma
• Loss of appetite, IBS
• Muscular twitches, tension headaches
• Diabetes

Question 16

What behaviours can a person who is stressed display?

Answer 16

• Indecisive
• Impaired judgement
• Muddled thinking
• Making errors