Investigating Stress and Illness
Lucas Gröger IB1
25-10-09 Psychology HL
Being stressed is sometimes a good thing but it often has negative effects on the person that is under stress. For example if you are stressed you have an increased chance of becoming sick. In a study 394 healthy participants completed a questionnaire designed to measure their stress level. They listed the stressful events they had experienced over the last year, assessed their ability to cope with these events and noted how often they felt negative emotions such as hostility, anger and depression. On the basis of this information, each participant was given a ‘psychological stress index ‘ from 3 (lowest stress) to 12 (highest stress). The participants were then given nasal drops which exposed them to one of five common cold viruses. Most showed signs of infection, but only around a third were judged by a doctor to have an actual cold. Looking at those results there was a great indication that the level of stress had to do something with the participants becoming sick
