UNIT 2
Biological psychology - Extended writing essay question 1 Complete one of the following two extended writing essay questions:

1. Outline and evaluate research into the relationship between the immune system and stress-related illness. (12 marks)
2. Outline and evaluate research into stress-related illness. (12 marks)

Over the past few lessons we have discussed stress-related illness. In some cases illness can be related to immune system activity (or inactivity) but not in other cases. For example, cardiovascular illness is not related to changes in the immune system. This means that you need to be careful when answering questions on stress-related illness. The research covered in the ‘Stress-related illness: Cardiovascular and Psychiatric disorders lesson’ would not be creditworthy in a question on stress-related illness that mentioned the immune system. However, it would be creditworthy in an essay that just referred to stress-related illness (as in the second question above). In some questions, such as the examples above, the word ‘research’ is used. This means you could describe research studies (such as Kiecolt-Glaser or Williams) but you could also describe explanations (such as the effects of the stress hormone cortisol on immune system activity, or the diathesis-stress model). The term ‘research’ includes studies and/or explanations.

DUE NEXT FRIDAY 25TH JAUARY 2013