Every stress essay you can be asked in AQA Alevel psychology 16/16 marks
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Course
Stress
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AQA
this includes every stress 16/16 marker essays marked by an examiner to be full marks coming from a student who scored full marks in every essay in the real exam in 2024. i have essays for every topic in psychology so check them out too
‘Outline and evaluate the physiology of stress’ (16 marks)
Our body can respond to short term (immediate) or long term (ongoing) stressors
depending on the situation and hormones released at the time. When faced with a stressful
situation, an animal responds with an immediate fight or flight responses by the
sympathomedullary pathway (SAM). Within this, the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) is
activated and alerted as soon as the stressor is perceived in which the adrenal medulla
responds by releasing adrenaline and noradrenaline hormones into the blood stream. These
hormones circulate through the body and affect key target organs such as the heart and
muscles, causing the heart to beat faster and blood pressure to rise so that the animal is
now ready to respond to the stressor. When the threat has passed, the parasympathetic
branch of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) dampens down the stress response to
return the body to its normal restful state. At the same time, a second system starts- much
slower than SAM- called the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal system (HPA). The
hypothalamus releases corticotrophin releasing hormone (CRH) into the bloodstream and
this causes the pituitary gland to produce and release adrenocorticotrophic hormone
(ACTH) into the bloodstream. ACTH stimulates the adrenal cortex to release various stress
related hormones including cortisol which has some positive effects such as lowering
sensitivity to pain and quick bursts of energy through the release of glucose, whereas others
are negative such as impaired cognitive performance and lowered immune response. Seyle
also proposed the general adaptation syndrome (GAS) to help explain stress responses
universal with animals, general being because it is the same response to all agents,
adaptation due to the body adapting to a stressful situation and syndrome because there’s
many symptoms of the stress response. There are 3 stages in this process: alarm which is
when the hormones are sent to target organs and the stimuli is detected, stage 2 which is
resistance in which resources begin running out eg sugars, neurotransmitters and things
begin to deteriorate such as the immune system, the final stage is exhaustion in which the
body has been damaged by the stressor such and can have certain affects such as
depression, ulcers and cardiovascular problems.
One advantage of explanations for physiology of stress is that there is supporting research.
For example, Seyle’s study was originally conducted on humans as he found that there were
a shared set of common symptoms of stress eg loss of appetite, so he conducted it on rats
and found that no matter what noxious substance they were injected with they all produced
similar responses and similar illnesses such as the common cold. Therefore this suggests
that the research into physiology of stress has high external validity rhus conclusions about
the explanations are academically credible and valid.
Another advantage of explanations of physiology of stress is that there is practical
applications. For example, now that we know which hormones are involved in stressors and
the pathways taken, medication has been able to be made such as BZs and BBs which can
help reverse the effect of these hormones to calm us down and reduce any damaging
changes that can have detrimental effects eg ulcers and depression. Therefore this has had a
positive impact on society thus improving the quality of life for people who undergo high
levels of stress.
,One disadvantage of explanations of physiology of stress is that it doesn’t take into account
different genders within its research. For example, research such as Seyle’s and many others
tend to depend on male animals which may not be applicable for women due to high
fluctuations in hormones with ovulation which complicates matters. Shelley Taylor and
colleagues believe that women may have a completely different pathway of tend-and -
befriend rather than fight-or-flight due to the evolving from their primary caregiver and the
nurturing behaviour from a young age. Therefore, this means we cannot generalise these
results for both men and women thus, more research needs to be conducted as there is
high levels of gender bias.
Another disadvantage of explanations of physiology of stress is that the response may not
be inevitable but more it depended more on how the stressor was perceived. Lazarus
conducted a study where participants watched a gruesome film, when told that it was
exciting, they showed lower levels of arousal of the ANS as opposed to those who had the
pain of the experience emphasised. Therefore, this shows that there may be additional
factors that need to be taken into consideration thus making the theories oversimplistic.
Finally, one disadvantage of GAS is that it has been criticised by more recent research. The
GAS proposes that resources become depleted so that the body can no longer fight
infections however more recent research has shown that many ‘resources’ do not become
depleted even under extreme stress. The current view is that the exhaustion phase is
associated with increased hormone activity such as cortisol and it is this which leads to
stress related illnesses (Sheridan and Radmacher). Therefore, further research is needed to
gain a full understanding of the exhaustion phase thus reducing the external reliability of
the model.
, ‘Outline and evaluate the role of social support in coping with stress’ (16 marks)
Social support can be used as a coping mechanism in times of stress, Nabi found that having
more friends on Facebook was a good predictor of perception of high social support- the
more friends you had the lower the levels of stress and lower risks of physical illness. There
are 3 different types of social support that one can receive: instrumental, emotional and
esteem. Instrumental social support is a more tangible assistance for example driving
someone to the hospital which is used in problem-solving approaches related to stress.
Instrumental support can be given to anyone even outside of friend and family as it doesn’t
need you to be connecting with the other person on a more deeper and personal level. The
next type is emotional in which someone is aware of another person’s emotions and listens
to the person’s feelings and offers advice to them. This is usually given to family and friends
however at times of emergencies, this may be given to strangers too. The final one is
esteem support, self-esteem is what we base our value off as a person however, someone
may boost your confidence or may you feel better about yourself when your self-efficacy is
low. This is a more personal support so only given to close friends and family. The Buffering
Hypothesis helps explain the effects of social support by expressing that at times of stress,
people will act as a protection or a ‘buffer’ to prevent someone from further harm and
helping them see the stress problem in another way.
One advantage of social support in coping with stress is that there is supporting research.
For example, Karmack conducted a study on female students in which they had to complete
a difficult mental task (stressor) and were either asked to complete it alone or holding a
same sex close friend’s hand (they didn’t provide help in answering the question). Karmack
measured physiological reactions and found that those with their friends experienced lower
levels such as heart rate than those alone. Therefore this provides evidence of social
support benefitting with stress thus increasing the external reliability of the theory.
Another advantage of social support in coping with stress is that there are practical
applications. For example, now that we know that having people to support you in times of
stress can reduce risks of physical illness, then this can help explain why those of old age
tend to face high levels of ill health due to reduced social contact. Therefore, changes can be
made eg in care homes to promote more visits and social contact to reduce these risks thus
creating a positive impact on their quality of life.
However, one disadvantage of social support in coping with stress is that studies such as
Karmack’s only use a certain sex for example he used only females within his study. This
means that men may not produce the same results eg they may have shown lower levels of
physiological reactions if they were alone rather than holding someone’s hand. Therefore
gender differences have been ignored and increases the bias of the results thus results
cannot be generalised and more studies need to be conducted to see the impact of social
support on all genders.
Another disadvantage of social support in coping with stress is that it doesn’t take into
consideration of the role of animals in coping with stress too. For example, The American
Heart Association released a research report endorsing dog ownership as a way of warding
off cardiovascular disease which shows that having pets may also help reduce risk of
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