Scaling of life events by psychiatric patients and normals.

Life event scaling was investigated in 171 male psychiatric patients, a comparison group of 181 “normals”, and 165 relatives of patients and normals. The social readjustment rating questionnaire (SRRQ) of Holmes and Rahe was employed as the scaling instrument, and a social readjustment rating scale (SRRS) was calculated for all groups. Although psychiatric patients and normals agreed on the rank ordering of events, patients generally assigned greater magnitudes to items than did normals. The most significant scaling differences were for items of a martial-family or personal nature. Future research concerning the relationship of life events and psychiatric symptoms should consider employing SRRS weights derived from psychiatric populations rather than existing scores from normative groups.