The prevention and treatment of detrimental effects in the psychosocial environment

Abstract

This chapter poses the question as to what mobilizes the defenses standing between distressful life changes and emotional arousal with its accompanying neuroendocrine disturbances. In formalizing a schedule of life changes, Holmes and Rahe (1967) and more recently Rahe (1976) have defined a series of categories, such as work, home, family, personal, social, and financial. For example, a major health change demanding defenses could be massive burns or quadriplegia from a broken neck. Or a work change could be a new job, bringing a man under the control of an excessively dominating personality and an unfamiliar social order. Or the death of someone close, such as a spouse, could induce severe changes in home and family life. A change in personal or social affairs could be the decision to become engaged to marry—an abandonment of other intimate relationships—whereas, a change in financial status could be the loss of salary following loss of employment.