What is the Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS)? In particular, how are life change units (LCUs) used in this scale?

What will be an ideal response?

Human research led Holmes and Rahe to create an instrument called the Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS) to determine if there is a predicted relationship between stress and illness in humans. The SRRS conceptualizes stressors as positive or negative life events that require adaptation or adjustment. In developing the instrument, each life event on the scale was assigned a number of life change units (LCUs) based on the mean participant ratings of their experiences with the events.

After ranking the items, the highest ranked item, Death of a spouse was given the top score of 100 and all subsequent items were scored in descending order of intensity. Most of the items on the resulting scale are low-to- moderate intensity stressors, examples of which include Change in church activities, Change in eating habits, and Revision of personal habits. In keeping with Selye's concept of negative and positive stress, some events are positive. An example is the seventh ranked event of Marriage.