AQA Psychology for A Level Year 2: Rev Guide

Research studies simpli ed Bad jokes Invaluable exam tips Spec spotlight – so you know what you have to know Exam questions to practise AO2 Practise your application skills Need extra revision power? This wonderful Revision Guide will make your revision y! Combine it with the accompanying Revision App and boost your revision into the stratosphere! See back page for details @ookx hs @ookx hs Twopsychology students conduct a survey of their fellow sixth- formers. Theywant to identify the experiences thataremost stressful for students. Somehave sadly lost familymembers; for others, theirparentshavedivorced. Some havemoved to the college from adifferentpart of the country; othershave celebrated thearrival of ababy in their family.All of themhavebeen through important exams. Thepsychology students find that thepeoplewhohave experiencedmost eventsare the oneswho reportbeingdepressed, anxiousandphysically ill. Use your knowledgeof life changes to explain the psychology students’findings. Support your explanation with some evidence. Chapter 10: Stress Sources of stress: Life changes Spec spotlight Sourcesof stress: life changes. Sources of stress: Life changes AO1 Description They’d found the perfect dress–now all theyneededwere the shoes… Life changes as a sourceof stress Sources of stress are often the big events inour lives. Major sourcesof stress are the really important things that happen to us from time to time. For example, gettingmarried/divorced, close relative dies, financial state changes (better orworse),new child isborn. Life changes require significant adjustment , so are stressful. Life changes are stressful because youmakemajor psychological adjustment to adapt to changed circumstances – thebigger the change, the greater the adjustment and associated stress. Life changes are cumulative – they add together to create more stress because they require evenmore change to adapt. Applies asmuch topositive life changes as tonegativeones. Life changes measured using SRRS , calculating LCUs. Holmes and Rahe’s (1967) Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS)givesnumberof life change units (LCUs). The higher the LCU value, themore adjustment the life changeneeds,making itmore stressful (e.g. divorce is 73 LCUs;marriage is 50). Participants tick all the life changes they recallover previous months (usually 12). Life changes linked to illness if LCUsmore than 300 . Rahe (1972) suggested scoring under 150 LCUsmeans you are likely to experience reasonablehealth in following year. Between150 and 300 LCUsmeans youhave 50% chance of experiencing illness the next year. Over300 LCUsmeans an80% chance. Key study:Rahe et al . (1970) Life changes and illness Procedure USNavy personnel assigned to three ships completed a version of the SRRS called Schedule of Recent Experiences (forerunner to SRRS). Total LCU scorewas calculated for eachparticipant for a six-month periodbefore tour of duty – every illnesson board shipwas reported to themedical unit. At the end of the tour, an independent researcher reviewed themedical records and calculated an illness score for each participant. Neitherparticipantsnor on-boardmedical staff awareof the purposeof study orwhat datawere being used for. Findings Researchers found significant positive correlation (of+.118) between LCU scores for sixmonthsbefore departure and illness scores aboard ship. Thosewho experiencedmost stressful life changes in the final sixmonthsbefore leavinghadmost (severe) illnesses on ship. Researchers concluded life changeswere a reasonably robust predictor of later illness. 160 ‘Yellow and green should never be seen.’Sid had heard it all before– but itwasChristmas and hewas determined tomake a point. AO3 Evaluation One strengthof the life changes concept is supportive researchevidence. Lietzén et al . (2011) found ahigh levelof life change was a reliablepredictor of asthmaonset. Linknot explainedby known risk factors (e.g.pet athome or smoking). Study after studyhas found amoderate but significantpositive correlationbetween stressof life changes and illnesses. Some research is especially supportive because it isprospective – methodologicallypowerful because itpredicts illness in the futurebasedon past life changes. One limitationof life changes research is it ignores individualdifferences. Life changes donot affect everyone in the sameways. For example, the stress awoman feels if she becomes pregnant dependson various things, such as whether itwas planned orunexpected. Byrne andWhyte (1980) tried topredict whowould experience myocardial infarction (heart attack) basedon life change scores. This onlyworkedwhen they took into account the subjective interpretations participantsgave to their life changes. This suggests that the classic life changes approach fails to consider the impactof individual differences inhow life changes are perceived, reducing the validity of this approach as an explanation of stress. Another limitationof life changes research is itassumesall change is stressful. The SRRSmixes together different types of life changes (e.g.positive and negative).But positive and negative changesmayhave different effects. Turner andWheaton (1995) foundnegative life changes causedmost stressmeasured by the SRRS.Couldbe due to frustration associated withnegative life changes. This challenges the validityof the life changes approach, suggesting that aglobal measure shouldbe abandoned in favour of looking at effectsof specific life changes. A further limitation is life changesmaybe ratherunimportant sourcesof stress. Lazarus argues that dailyhassles aremore important sourcesof stress than life changes because the accumulative effectofmanyminor stressors isgreater than thatof a few, relatively raremajor events. DeLongis et al . (1988) studiedmarried couples, finding thatmore hasslesmeantmore healthproblems (e.g. headaches),but there wasno such relationship between life changes and illnesses. Failure tofind a correlationbetween life changes and illnesses in this study castsdoubt on validityof life changes as a predictorof stress and suggestsdaily hassles may be themoreuseful concept. Afinal limitationof life changes research is thatmostof it is correlational. Many studiesmeasure life changes (using SRRS) and illness (frequency and/or severity) and find apositive correlation between them –higher LCU score, higher ‘illness score’. Becausewe arenot justified indrawing conclusions about cause and effectbasedon correlational analysis, we cannot claim that stressof life changes causes illness. This is a limitation because it ispossible that another causal factor (e.g.having lessmoney) could explain relationship. Thismeans effectsof life changeson illness are most likely tobe indirect. It reallypays topractisewriting 16-mark essayswith your book shut and timing yourself – about 20minutes for a 16-mark essay. Revision booster 1. In relation to sourcesof stress, explainwhat is meantby ‘life changes’.Use examples in your answer. (4marks) 2. Describe one study into life changes as a sourceof stress. In your answer refer towhat the researcher(s)did and what they found. (6marks) 3. Evaluate research into one sourceof stress. (6marks) 4. Tad and Taditahaveboth had a stressful year. Tad split upwithhiswife andhad to movehouse and start anew job. Tadita gotmarried and had ababy. Outline and evaluate life changes as a sourceof stress. Refer to Tad’s and Tadita’s experiences in your answer. (16marks) Knowledge Check 161 PSYCHOLOGY For A Level year 2 A Q A Revision Guide Titles in this series: Student Books: AQA Psychology for A Level Year 1 & AS (978-1-908682-40-6) AQA Psychology for A Level Year 2 (978-1-908682-41-3) Revision Guides: AQA Psychology for A Level Year 1 & AS (978-1-908682-44-4) AQA Psychology for A Level Year 2 (978-1-908682-45-1) Revision Apps: AQA Psychology for A Level Year 1 & AS AQA Psychology for A Level Year 2 Digital Books: AQA Psychology for A Level Year 1 & AS – Digital Book Bundle (978-1-908682-42-0) AQA Psychology for A Level Year 2 – Digital Book Bundle (978-1-908682-43-7) AO3 Evaluation • On each right-hand page • Five critical points, each one split into three elements for elaboration AO1 Description • On each left-hand page • Divided into just the right number of key points for each topic Everything you need to know for your exam! www.illuminatepublishing.com