Final answer:
The top stressor on the Holmes & Rahe Social Readjustment Rating Scale is the death of a spouse, with 100 life change units. This scale measures how life events that require significant change can impact a person's stress level and health.
Step-by-step explanation:
The stressor that tops the Holmes & Rahe Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS) is the death of a spouse, which has the highest number of life change units (LCUs) at 100. Holmes and Rahe developed this scale to establish a metric for the stress load one might experience from various life events, under the hypothesis that significant changes in personal routines—whether positive or negative—are intrinsically stressful. The SRRS assigns numerical scores to a variety of life events, which cumulatively can be used to assess a person's risk of illness following stressful periods. Divorce ranks second with 73 LCUs, and subsequent items like personal injury or illness, marriage, and job termination also score highly. Lower ranking events include a change in residence, change in eating habits, and vacations.
It is important to note that these life change units are designed to quantify the potential stress of different events based on the amount of readjustment they would require from an individual. The aim, as suggested by correlational research, is to determine how stress, as quantified by LCUs, correlates with health outcomes. However, this method cannot establish a causal relationship between stress and health issues—only an association.