stress re sit essay

• A01: immediate stress

  • Adrenaline & CVD
  • High adrenaline levels increase heart rate, constrict blood vessels & dislodge plaque on blood vessel walls which causes the heart to work harder, increasing blood pressure & blocking arteries - which can lead to coronary heart disease
• A01: ongoing stress

  • Cortisol & immunosuppression
  • one effect of cortisol is to reduce the body's immune system
  • the immunosuppression increases the chances that someone will become ill because invading bacteria and viruses are not attacked by the immune system
• A01: CASE STUDY: Kiecolt - Glaser et al. (1984)

  • he found that natural killer cells were less active in medical students while they were revising than before they started
  • This is evidence that ongoing stressors reduce immune system functioning
• A03: Research support linking stress with cardiovascular disease...

  • A large body of research has linked stress with cardiovascular disease (CVD).
  • For example, Sheps et al. (2002) found that people with CVD had erratic heartbeats when public speaking. They were more likely to die from heart disease than those with stable heartbeats.
  • This shows that psychological stress dramatically increases the risk of death in at least some people with poor coronary artery circulation.
• A03: Self-report data should be treated with caution...

  • Stress and cardiovascular outcomes are often measured using self-report questionnaires.
  • People who remember more unpleasant than pleasant events are likely to score more highly on stress measures and cardiovascular outcomes.
  • This means that self-report measures might produce an unjustified correlation between higher perceived stress and cardiovascular symptoms.
• A03: Individual differences in cardiovascular effects...

  • Individuals respond differently to stress because of gender, age, and reactiveness of their sympathetic nervous system.
  • For example, women show more adverse immunological and hormonal changes when stress is caused by marital conflict.
  • There are also age differences; as people age, stress has a greater effect on immune system functioning, making it harder for the body to regulate itself (Segerstrom and Miller, 2004).