AO3 - the role of stress in illness

• challenging evidence - Firdaus Dharbhar (2008) and Segerstrom and Miller (2004), suggests relationship between stress, immune system and illness is complex and not yet fully understood
• Firdaus Dharbhar (2008) - subjected rats to mild acute stressors and found immune cells flooded into bloodstream and body tissues in preparation for physical damage
• Segerstrom and Miller (2004) - conducted meta-analysis on around 300 studies of stress and immune system, found acute stressors led to increase in immune system functioning. everyday stressors of limited durations lead to no overall effect
• does not consider individual differences - research suggests gender differences in how people respond to stress; women show more adverse changes in immune system compared to men after marital conflict. Also suggests stress has greater effect on immune system in older people, weakness as response can't be generalised to everyone
• difficult to show stress causes illness - health is influences by many factors like genetics and lifestyle so difficult to conclude exactly what role is played in stress, highlights difficulty in this area of research and limitations to drawing conclusions (Kristina Orth-Gomer et al (2000))
• Kristina Orth-Gomer et al (2000) - found marital stress tripled the risk of a heart attack in women who already had CVD, suggests stress increases person's vulnerability to developing CVDs mainly through indirect effects
• Practical applications - Dharbhars research and Kiecolt-Glaser lead to helping people through stress