Essay Questions
2. What is the evidence that stress is linked to illness? Is there any evidence that stress can actually cause illness?
Key Points:
- Identify that the term ‘stress’ means many different things to many people: a lay person may define stress in terms of pressure, tension, unpleasant external forces or an emotional response, while psychologists define stress in a variety of different ways.
- Outline contemporary definitions of stress, considering the external environment as a potential stressor, the response to the stressor as stress or distress, and the concept of stress as something that involves biochemical, physiological, behavioural and psychological changes.
- Differentiate between stress that is harmful and damaging (‘distress’) and stress that is positive and beneficial (‘eustress’).
- Consideration of the following models and theories:
- Cannon’s ‘fight or flight’ model.
- Selye’s general adaptation syndrome.
- Life events theory.
- The model of appraisal and transaction.
- Discuss the links between:
- Stress and illness.
- Stress and behaviour.
- Stress and physiology (including the role of sympathetic activation and hypothalamic-pituatary-adrenocortical (HPA) activation).
- Consider the role of hormones
- Discuss psychoneuroimmunology (PNI)
