Stress

The bodies response to stress: sympathomedullary pathway + pituitary adrenal system

SAM: hypothalumus, autonomic nervous system, adrenal medulla + release of adrenaline/nor-adrenaline.

PAS: hypothalumus, pituarity gland, ACTH hormone released, adrenal cortex, corcisteriods released + back to normal.

Research support:

SAM: Taylor: acute stress produces flight or fight response in men but not in women which suggests a gender difference in the SAM response to stress.

PAS: Necomer: Giving people high levels of cortisol to match people who are highly stressed produced memory effects through the PAS system.

Stress and the immune system: Kiecol glaser + Cohen

Stress doesnt cause an illness it just makes the body increase in the chances of producing an illness or becoming infected with an illness.

Kiecolt glaser: Found that by testing the blood samples of first year medical students both 1 month before their exams and the day of their exams that, killer cell activity was higher in the month before tests suggesting that when the body has high amounts of killer cell activity they are more subjected to getting reduced immune functions which is becuase they are stressed therefore more likely to become ill.

A02:

Strength: used variation of conditions- makes her results more applicable

Weakness: Only test on medical students which arent the entire population of people who become stressed.

Cohen: Gave participants the cold virus and monitored how long it took people to develop the cold. She found that people who had more stressful lives were more likely to get the virus and more quickly, whereas less stressed people either didnt adapt to get the virus or took long to become infected with it.

A02:

Strength: Large sample- which means that her sample can be generalised to the wider population.

Weakness: Used a correlational study which measn that her findings don't show causality

Stress and everyday life: Holmes/Rache + Kanner

Life changes: Holmes and Rache: conducted an experiement by looking at 5,00 paitent medical history and made a list of 43 life changes that they all had in common. Each life change was given a unit of LCU'S and asked to be rated indivdually by the patients at what was the most stressful. Found that death of a spouse was the highest and he correlated the data against the people more likely to become ill.

A02:

Strength: Theres…