Outline And Evaluate Research Into The Relationship Between The Immune System
Outline and Evaluate Research into the Relationship between the Immune System and Stress Related Illness
There is evidence to suggest acute stressors can cause suppression of the immune system and decrease immune cell functioning. The study by Kiecolt-Glaser et al. (1984) investigated whether the stress of taking exams caused a change in the amount of white blood cells in the blood. Kiecolt-Glaser studied 49 male and 26 female first year medical students at the Ohio State University College of Medicine in a natural experiment. The students had blood taken a month before their exams, a period of relatively low stress and on the day of their first exam, a highly stressful day. The students had volunteered to take part and a repeated measures design was used. The amount of stress the students felt they were under was determined by a series of questionnaires such as the SRRS devised by Holmes and Rahe which explored topics such as recent …show more content…
Also, immune responses were particularly weak in those who reported experiencing stressful life events, psychiatric symptoms such as depression or anxiety, and loneliness. It can be concluded that stressful experiences such as exams reduce the effectiveness of our immune system. Therefore it could be said that periods of stress mean that you are more likely to be ill. There are many evaluation points that can be made for this study. This was a natural experiment when the naturally occurring exams were taken advantage of, rather than replicating a stressful event. This means that situations and their effect on the body can be studied where it would be unethical to cause stress artificially. Natural experiments also have a high ecological validity. Taking exams is an event that every student experiences and so that the stress felt would be naturally occurring in real
There is evidence to suggest acute stressors can cause suppression of the immune system and decrease immune cell functioning. The study by Kiecolt-Glaser et al. (1984) investigated whether the stress of taking exams caused a change in the amount of white blood cells in the blood. Kiecolt-Glaser studied 49 male and 26 female first year medical students at the Ohio State University College of Medicine in a natural experiment. The students had blood taken a month before their exams, a period of relatively low stress and on the day of their first exam, a highly stressful day. The students had volunteered to take part and a repeated measures design was used. The amount of stress the students felt they were under was determined by a series of questionnaires such as the SRRS devised by Holmes and Rahe which explored topics such as recent …show more content…
Also, immune responses were particularly weak in those who reported experiencing stressful life events, psychiatric symptoms such as depression or anxiety, and loneliness. It can be concluded that stressful experiences such as exams reduce the effectiveness of our immune system. Therefore it could be said that periods of stress mean that you are more likely to be ill. There are many evaluation points that can be made for this study. This was a natural experiment when the naturally occurring exams were taken advantage of, rather than replicating a stressful event. This means that situations and their effect on the body can be studied where it would be unethical to cause stress artificially. Natural experiments also have a high ecological validity. Taking exams is an event that every student experiences and so that the stress felt would be naturally occurring in real