Stress and health
IB Psychology· Health and well-being· 14 min read
1. Core concept
Stress is the body-and-mind response to demands that are appraised as exceeding one's resources, and it plays a role in many health problems. Chronic or acute stress can worsen problems directly — through the stress-hormone and serotonin systems and effects on the body — and indirectly, by pushing people toward coping behaviours like overeating or compulsive screen use. Because stress raises vulnerability rather than acting as a lone switch, its effect usually appears in interaction with a person's biology and environment. Much of the evidence is correlational, so 'stress causes X' should be stated with caution.
2. Key studies
IB Psychology answers must be supported by named studies. Learn these to cite as evidence:
Zhao and Zhou (2021)
COVID-19-related stress correlated with increased social media addiction, particularly when active use produced 'flow' experiences. — Anchors stress as a factor in a behavioural health problem (addiction), via a coping/flow pathway.
Wankerl et al. (2014)
Prenatal stress and early-childhood trauma were associated with lower serotonin-transporter (SERT) gene expression — an epigenetic route to depression vulnerability. — Anchors a biological pathway from stress to a mental-health outcome, showing stress can leave molecular traces.
3. Evaluation (AO3)
Strength — one factor, plausible pathways — Stress links to diverse outcomes through credible biological and behavioural routes, and points to concrete stress-management targets.
Limitation — correlational and hard to define — Most human evidence is correlational and stress is hard to operationalise, so cause and direction (does stress drive the problem, or the problem create stress?) are difficult to establish.
4. Scope
5. Common Pitfalls
Wrong move:
Treating 'stress' as a vague feeling that straightforwardly causes illness.
Why:
A frequently penalised misconception in IB Psychology exams.
Correct move:
Specify stress as an appraisal-plus-physiological process and treat the stress-to-health link as largely correlational and interactive, not a direct one-way cause.
Going deeper
- Chemical messengerscortisol as a stress hormone is a chemical messenger (BIO_4).
- Diathesis–stress modelstress meeting vulnerability is the diathesis-stress model (BIO_5).
- Environmental factors in depressionstressful life events are environmental factors in depression (HWB_4).