Life changes

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Life changes (life events or life transistions) are the longer term consequences of life experiences such as:

• Leaving school
• Starting work
• Career change
• Marriage
• Divorce
• Bereavement including parental death
• Retirement

while these events have their immediate consequences they also require longer term adjustments.

In psychological research life eventsare a class of life stress that are thought to lead to physical or psychological difficulties. they include both 'negative' events {such as losses of various kinds, of partners, jobs etc} and also 'positive' events, {such as getting married, children leaving home etc}.

Assessment tools

Various life event inventories have been constructed to return indices of life event stress, for research purposes. These include:

• Holmes and Rahe stress scale
• Life Events and Difficulties Schedule
• Life Experiences Survey
• Social Readjustment Rating Scale

Other researchers, notably George Brown developed semi-structured interview techniques to assess life event stress levels.

See also

• Aging
• Andropause
• Developmental stages
• Disability
• Life history theory
• Life span
• Life style changes
• Menopause
• Parenthood status
• Pregnancy
• Quality of life
• Readiness to change
• Rites of passage
• Stages of change
• Stress management
• Stress reactions
• Wellbeing

Key Texts – Books

• Dohrenwend, B.S. and Dohrenwend, B.P. (eds) (1974) Stressful Life Events: Their Nature and Effects, New York: John Wiley.

Key Texts – Papers

• Holmes, T.H. and Rahe, R.H, (1967) The Social Readjustment Rating Scale, Journal of Psychosomatic Research 11: 213-18.