Examine Life Events, their frequency, complexity, and demands for coping. Holmes and Rahe (1960's) serial readjustment rating scale. This scale ranks life events in terms of seriousness or severity. Each life event is a stressor that demands some adjustment or adaption to many life events in too short a period of time, is correlated with potential for illness of a physical and/or psychological nature. Thus, the more major changes one faces, the more likely one may become ill. Humans are seen as reactors. This approach does not consider people as actors and interpreters of events. Nor does it consider the timing of events as important. Nor the lack of sufficient challenge (boredom) as stressful. Further, health may depend on mastering on-going irritations. Finally, this model ignores individual differences in stress resistance or diathesis (vulnerability).
Congruence Model - This model recognizes that people's needs differ and so do the environments that meet those needs when person and environment are congruent, eg. An independent person in an environment that requires self sufficiency. Such a match reduces stress. Where as a dependant person in such an environment is incongruent or "mismatched" and this leads to stress.
Environmental pressure - environments make different demands or pressure. Further, individuals have different competencies or abilities to meet these pressures or demands. When the person and environment are matched than adaption takes place and the person is comfortable. Thus, as people age, if their competencies decrease but the pressure of the environment remains the same or becomes more demanding, this may lead to an inability to meet demands and a failure at adaption occurs followed by stress. Thus, a person must change to meet the demand or the demand must change to be fitted to the person's competencies.
cont......(with Behavioral models)
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