Introduction to Psychology

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likely stress level by completing the measure in Table 10.2 "The Holmes and Rahe Stress Scale".
You might want to pay particular attention to this score, because it can predict the likelihood that
you will get sick. Rahe and colleagues (1970) [12]asked 2,500 members of the military to
complete the rating scale and then assessed the health records of the soldiers over the following 6
months. The results were clear: The higher the scale score, the more likely the soldier was to end
up in the hospital.


Table 10.2 The Holmes and Rahe Stress Scale
Life event Score


Death of spouse 100


Divorce 73


Marital separation from mate 65


Detention in jail, other institution 63
Death of a close family member 63


Major personal injury or illness 53


Marriage 50


Fired from work 47


Marital reconciliation 45


Retirement 45


Major change in the health or behavior of a family member 44


Pregnancy 40


Sexual difficulties 39


Gaining a new family member (e.g., through birth, adoption, oldster moving, etc.) 39


Major business readjustment (e.g., merger, reorganization, bankruptcy) 39


Major change in financial status 38


Death of close friend 37


Change to different line of work 36


Major change in the number of arguments with spouse 35

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