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Lack of stress‐health relationships: A base rate problem?
Author(s) -
Schmitt Neal W.,
Colligan Michael J.
Publication year - 1984
Publication title -
journal of community psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.585
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 1520-6629
pISSN - 0090-4392
DOI - 10.1002/1520-6629(198407)12:3<245::aid-jcop2290120308>3.0.co;2-t
Subject(s) - stressor , psychology , stress (linguistics) , base (topology) , sample (material) , clinical psychology , demography , developmental psychology , social psychology , mathematics , sociology , chemistry , mathematical analysis , linguistics , philosophy , chromatography
The lack of relationship between psychological or social stressors and various health indices is common. This paper presents stress and health data collected from nurses at 10 different hospitals and from food processors at eight different sites. Correlations computed in samples constructed so that the number of people affected by a particular illness is approximately equal to those not so affected were consistently higher than similar correlations computed for the entire sample of 1,934 respondents. Because correlations are affected by the base rate of the phenomenon one is studying, it is suggested that other indices such as simple percentages in affected and unaffected groups are more appropriate.