Evaluation

• Real world applications - Addison's disease

  -People with Addison's disease cannot produce cortisol, so can't deal with stressors.

  -This can be life-threatening when a stressor occurs.

  -Symptoms can be mental confusion, abnormal heart rhythm and a drop in blood pressure.

  -This medication helps people with Addison's disease deal with stressors in everyday life.
• Gender bias

  -Flight or fight response may be less applicable to females.

  -This is because preparing to run away from danger would be helpful to survival for males, less so for females.

  -It has been argued that females respond with a 'tend to befriend' characteristic to protect offspring in times of stress.

  -Has beta bias as it ignores differences between males and females.
• Strength of general adaptation syndrome

  -Research support with rats and ethical issues.

  -They subjected rats to physical pain like extreme cold and surgical injury.

  -Selye justified this as he hoped they would lead to therapeutic breakthroughs in treating stress related illnesses.