Major life events that affect development
Affect on health
Low income/loss of income
Retirement
Redundancy
Divorce
Bereavement
Serious injury/illness
Changes in home, community + friendships
Leaving home
Marriage
Parenthood
Change and adapt a new lifestyle involving physical, psychological + financial implications
Divorce
Serious illness/injury
Predicatable events can have changes like learning new things
Starting secondary school
Unpredictable events
Birth of a sibling
Learning to make emotional attachments
Jealousy + rivalry
Redundancy
Adapting to changes in income + lifestyle
Refusal to accept change
Depression
Illness/serious injury
Learning to adapt to physical change
Grief at loss of good health
Divorce
Learning to cope with new lifestyle
Financial hardship, resentment/depression
Bereavement
Cope with new lifestyle
Grief at loss of relationship
Predictable events
Starting school/nursery
Make new friends
Feel unsafe
Health
People who are stressed affect/cause
Indecisive
Impaired judgement
Muddled thinking
Make errors
Inability to sleep
Feeling fatigued
More accident prone
Self-esteem
Self-image
Irritavle
Fatigued
Headaches
Lack of motivation
Unable to concentration
Chronic stress
Anxiety attacks
Depression
Cardiovascular problems
Beginning + changing employment
Source of income
Changes to lifestyle
Leaving home/leaving care
Achieving independence
Unable to cope in new situation
Leaving prison
Coping with freedom + choice
Loss of routine
Marriage
Making emotional attachments + experiencing intimacy
Feeling threatened by intimacy = sharing possessions
Parenthood
Learning parenting skills
Loss of past lifestyle
Retirement
Controlling own life
Loss of previous work roles
Holmes-Rahe Social Readjustment Rating Scale
Way of rating and measuring total stress scores
43 life events which all score differently
The higher the total score the more likely an individual was to become unwell
Critics
High levels of stress hormones over a long period of time
Endocrine system: diabetes, loss of sex drive + absence of menstruation
Musculoskeletal system: tension headaches, taut muscles + muscle twitches
Digestive system: loss of appetite, gastric ulcers (stomach), duodenal ulcers (small intestine) + irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)
Respiratory system: breathlessness + asthma
Cardiovascular system; high blood pressure, heart attacks + sudden death
Immune system: infections + colds especially if you have unhealthy habits like excessive alcohol
Every individual is unique and deals with stress differently
Some circumstances may be difficult for some people and not for others
E.g. divorce
Stressful
Relief
Daily hassles are more common than major life events
Losing keys
Traffic jams
Physical appearance/weight
Stress Levels
Psychologist Richard Lazarus definition of stress: 'stress is experienced when a person perceives that the demands exceed the personal and social resources the individual is able to mobilise'
Automatic response to dealing with challenging situations or life events
When stressed a person's body is flooded with hormones which
Raise heart rate
Increase blood pressure
Boost energy
These combined are known as the 'fight or flight' mechanism
If prolonged or out of context, stress may interfere with day-to-day life and become and serious psychological + physical problem - making someone unwell
Effects of stress + the individuals ability to cope with demands of stressful events depend on how threatened + vulnerable they feel rather than the event itself
The word stress can describe lots of situations
Stress can be short-term + a positive motivational force
E.g. lots of school work
E.g. before an exam
It can be long-term causing negative effects on an individual's health