Aims: Establish whether there is a link between stressful life-changes and illness
Procedure: A large sample of people were asked to rank various life-changing events with stress levels. The results were aggregated into a table of "Life Events", each of which had a relative score. Using this Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS) table, they assessed a set of individuals and compared their total score with their incidence of illness
Findings: It was found that there was a correlation between high SRRS scores and a subsequent illness.
Conclusion: Stressful life events can be a factor in susceptibility to illness
Strength: The idea that stressful events depress the body's resistance to disease has an intuitive appeal, and this study appears to provide evidence to support this view.
Weakness 1: Data for SRRS scores is gathered by asking P's to do a retrospective self-assessment, which may not be very objective
Weakness 2: Although H+R found a correlation, it was not very high, and so there is limited practical application of this - e.g. it's not very useful for predicting what will happen for a given individual.