Fight or flight

• What does the fight or flight response involve?

  The fight or flight response involves the endocrine system and autonomic nervous system working alongside each other during times of stress.
• explain fight or flight?

  When a stressor is perceived in the environment the amygdala sends a stress signal to the hypothalamus, located in the brain. The hypothalamus will then activate the pituitary gland which triggers the activation of the sympathetic nervous system (SNS). This is our acute stress response which takes the autonomic nervous system from a state of rest to being physiologically aroused. The SNS will trigger the adrenal medulla (part of the adrenal gland) to release adrenaline and noradrenaline to prepare us for fight or flight by creating physiological changes in the body.
• effect of adrenaline?

  Adrenaline will increase our heart rate and constricts blood vessels causing an increase in blood pressure. This ensures that more blood and oxygen can be pumped to our muscles for physical action and to the brain for rapid response planning. Other effects include increased respiration and sweating as well as the digestive system being inhibited. When the stressful situation has passed our parasympathetic nervous system will activate, bringing the body back to homeostasis and lowering our levels of adrenaline. This is sometimes known as the ‘rest and digest’ response
• What are the weaknesses of fight or flight?

  beta bias

  contradicting research

  unhealthy

  simplistic
• elaborate on beta bias as a weakness of fight or flight?

  One weakness of the fight or flight response is that most of the early research into it was typically conducted on males and so researchers assumed that the findings could be generalised to females. This means that the fight or flight response suffers with the problem of beta bias, as psychologists assumed that females responded in the same way as males. 
• elaborate on contradicting evidence as a weakness for fight or flight?

  However, research such as Taylor et al.’s (2000), suggests that women are more likely to protect their offspring (tend) and form alliances with other women (befriend), rather than fight an enemy or flee. Fight or flight may be counterintuitive for women, as running (flight) might be seen as a sign of weakness and put their offspring at risk of danger. Therefore, the fight or flight response is not generalisable to both genders.
• elaborate on unhealthy as a weakness for fight or flight part 1?

  An issue with the fight or flight response is that although in the past it would have been a useful survival mechanism when we faced genuinely life-threatening situations (e.g. from predators), our modern lives do not need such an intense biological response. The everyday stressors of modern life can repeatedly activate our fight or flight response, which can negatively impact our health.
• elaborate on unhealthy as a weakness for fight or flight part 2?

  For example, if we experience chronic stress our sympathetic nervous system is continually activated. This will increase our blood pressure, which can cause damage to our blood vessels and ultimately could lead to heart disease. This suggests that the fight or flight response is a maladaptive response in modern-day life.
• elaborate on simplistic as a weakness for FF?

  Finally, some have suggested that there is third reaction to stressful situations that is not included in the original response. Gray (1988) suggests that the first response to danger is to avoid confrontation altogether, which is demonstrated by a freeze response. During the freeze response animals and humans are hyper-vigilant, while they appraise the situation to decide the best course of action for that particular threat. Therefore, the FF response could be considered to simplified in understanding our physiological response to stress.