ABSTRACT
Life-change events mark major alterations in a person's daily activities. They include transitions such as the death of a spouse, birth of a child, move to a new home, loss of a job, getting married, and finishing school. Holmes and Rahe, the two physician researchers, demonstrate the connection between social-psychological Stressors and somatic illness in humans. The concepts of homeostasis and adaptation suggest a system temporarily destabilized and expending its energy to regain equilibrium, much like a spinning top righting itself. One of the problems with life events indexes is that they add together things that may be quite different in their origins or their links to distress. Social and behavioural scientists have taken a number of approaches to improving indexes of social stress. Indexes of chronic Stressors and of recent life events share another trait that can be both strength and weakness. Indexes of lifetime trauma and cumulative adversity count up the disturbing experiences of a lifetime.
