Life Changes & Daily Hassles (AQA A Level Psychology): Revision Note

Life changes

• Life changes are any events (positive or negative) that cause disruption, such as moving house, getting married or becoming seriously ill

• Life changes can vary in their impact: while the end of a marriage or relationship may be devastating for one person, it may be viewed positively by another

• When expected life changes do not occur – maybe a wedding is cancelled or a person does not get a place at university – this can also have a stressful impact

• The bigger the life changes and the more there are of them at any one particular time, the greater the psychological adjustment needed and the greater the level of stress

Life changes and illness

• Life changes can trigger physical and psychological illnesses

• Holmes & Rahe (1967) created the SRRS, assigning Life Change Units (LCUs) to events, e.g., divorce = 73, marriage = 50

• Higher LCU scores mean more stress and greater health risk

• Rahe (1972) found illness likelihood increases with LCU score

  • Under 150: low risk

  • 150–300: ~50% became ill

  • Over 300: ~80% became ill

Research which investigates life changes and stress

• Rahe et al. (1970) found a significant link between higher life change scores (LCUs) and increased illness among US Navy personnel, showing life changes can predict later illness

• Jacobs & Charles (1980) found that children with cancer came from families who had experienced more life changes than children with other illnesses, suggesting that certain illnesses are more influenced by stress than others

Evaluation of life changes

Strengths

• Many studies (e.g., Raija Leitzén et al., Rahe et al.) show a consistent positive correlation between high life change scores and later illness, supporting the predictive validity of the concept

• Some research has used a prospective approach (tracking participants over time), which strengthens the reliability of the findings by predicting future illness from past life changes, which could inform early intervention strategies to help reduce stress and subsequent illnesses

Limitations

• Many studies into this topic are retrospective and reliant on the memories of participants who self-report, recalling illnesses and stressful life changes that occurred in the past, which may make the data unreliable

• The relationship between life changes and illness is only correlational—other factors (e.g., personality, poor lifestyle, daily hassles) might actually cause the illness, not the life change itself

Daily hassles

• Daily hassles are those everyday frustrations and annoyances, like being stuck in traffic, that irritate people constantly

• Many psychologists believe that life stress comes from daily hassles more than it does from life changes

• Daily hassles tend to repeat and accumulate, creating chronic stress and with that stress a heightened risk of serious illness

• Daily uplifts are events that raise spirits, such as meeting friends for coffee, and these help neutralise the harmful effects of hassles

Life changes, daily hassles and illness

• Life changes affect well-being indirectly by disrupting daily routines and increasing daily hassles

• These hassles make everyday tasks feel more difficult, especially after major events like illness

• Life changes are distal stressors (indirect), while daily hassles are proximal (direct and immediate) sources of stress

Research which investigates daily hassles and stress

• Kanner et al. (1981) found that daily hassles were a stronger predictor of psychological ill-health (e.g. anxiety and depression) than life changes, based on consistent positive correlations across both genders

• Sher (2004) suggested a correlation between daily hassles and increased cortisol (stress hormone) levels and that this increased cortisol may lead to depressive disorders in vulnerable individuals

Evaluation of daily hassles

Strengths

• Studies (e.g., DeLongis et al., Ivancevich) show that daily hassles are better predictors of poor health and wellbeing than major life changes, supporting their validity

• The amplification hypothesis explains that daily hassles can intensify the impact of major life changes, offering a more complete understanding of stress than life changes alone

Limitations

• Most studies are retrospective, as they rely on participants recalling daily hassles from the past, which can be inaccurate and reduce the validity of findings

• Hassles research shows correlations with illness but cannot confirm causation—other factors (e.g., personality) might influence both stress and health

Issues & Debates

• Research into life changes and daily hassles uses a nomothetic approach, aiming to identify general patterns and laws about how stress affects health

  • While useful for predicting illness across populations, it overlooks individual differences in how people perceive or cope with the same life events

• Stress models are reductionist as they reduce complex emotional and physical responses to simplified scales of life events or daily hassles, potentially ignoring social, emotional and cultural factors
  🔹 This limits the holistic understanding of how stress impacts health over time