Stress and Illness

Events on the Holmes and Rahe (1967) Schedule of Recent Life Events were separated into controllable and uncontrollable categories based on subjects' ratings. It was found that the relationship between life events and illness depended upon whether events were viewed as controllable. Specifically, the more life events individuals identified as uncontrollable, the greater the illness reported. Moreover, events perceived as uncontrollable were rated as significantly more stressful than events perceived as controllable. It was also demonstrated that the effect the controllability-uncontrollability dimension had in moderating the relationship between total life events and illness was stronger than the effect of severity (i.e., life change units) of life events.