Evaluation of life changes
Strengths
- There is strong evidence that both life events and daily hassles are positively correlated with stress and stress-related illness and so this helps people identify possible stressors early and plan how to deal with them
- Awareness of the link between daily hassles, life changes and stress could inform early intervention strategies to help reduce the escalation of stress and subsequent illnesses
Weaknesses
- 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
- Research looks at life changes and daily hassles separately, when the two may influence each other with the stressful effects of daily hassles increased if against the backdrop of a stressful life event like a death in the family
Link to Issues and Debates:
The argument that life changes result in stress and increase the chance of stress-related illnesses is an example of environmental determinism and does not take into account individual responses to stress, assuming instead that it is the life events and hassles themselves that are responsible, rather than a person’s interpretation of them as stressful. This also ignores the role of free will which would be when a person chooses to engage in some daily uplifts to counteract the stressful daily hassles they are experiencing.