Life experiences may interact with each other When individuals are asked
to complete a checklist of their recent life experiences, these experiences are regarded
as independent of each other. For example, a divorce, a change of jobs and a marriage
would be regarded as an accumulation of life events that together would contribute
to a stressful period of time. However, one event may counter the effects of another
and cancel out any negative stressful consequences. Evaluating the potential
effects of life experiences should include an assessment of any interactions between
events.
What is the outcome of a series of life experiences? Originally, the SRE was
developed to assess the relationship between stressful life experiences and health status.
Accordingly, it was assumed that if the life experiences were indeed stressful then
the appropriate outcome measure was one of health status. The most straightforward
measure of health status would be a diagnosis of illness such as cancer, heart attack or
hypertension. Within this framework, a simple correlational analysis could be carried
out to evaluate whether a greater number of life experiences correlated with a medical
diagnosis. Apart from the problems with retrospective recall, etc., this would allow some
measure of causality – subjects with higher numbers of life events would be more likely
to get a medical diagnosis. However, such an outcome measure is restrictive, as it ignores
lesser ‘illnesses’ and relies on an intervention by the medical profession to provide the
diagnosis. In addition, it also ignores the role of the diagnosis as a life event in itself. An
alternative outcome measure would be to evaluate symptoms. Therefore, the individual
could be asked to rate not only their life experiences but also their health-related symp-
toms (e.g. pain, tiredness, loss of appetite, etc.). Within this framework, correlational
analysis could examine the relationship between life events and symptoms. However,
this outcome measure has its own problems: Is ‘a change in eating habits’ a life event or
a symptom of a life event? Is ‘a change in sleeping habits’ a stressor or a consequence of
stress? Choosing the appropriate outcome measure for assessing the effects of life events
on health is therefore problematic.
Stressors may be short-term or ongoing Traditionally, assessments of life
experiences have conceptualized such life events as short-term experiences. However,
many events may be ongoing and chronic. Moos and Swindle (1990) identified domains
of ongoing stressors, which they suggested reflect chronic forms of life experiences:
physical health stressors (e.g. medical conditions);
home and neighbourhood stressors (e.g. safety, cleanliness);
financial stressors;
work stressors (e.g. interpersonal problems, high pressure);
spouse/partner stressors (e.g. emotional problems with partner);
child stressors;
extended family stressors;
friend stressors.
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