Lesson 4.3.7.2

4.3.7.2 Stress and illness; sources of stress Quiz: AQA Psychology, Unit 3

20 questions

Written by Revision Ninja · Last reviewed 11 October 2026

In partnership with Revision Ninja

Lesson 4.3.7.2, Stress and illness; sources of stress: 20 multiple choice questions for the AQA Psychology (7182), Unit 3: Issues and options in Psychology, written with Revision Ninja.

Host it live on the board and students join with a game code on their own devices, or revise alone with Free Play. The answers are revealed in the game.

Host this setFree Play

The 20 questions

  1. What is immunosuppression in the context of stress and illness?

    • A rise in the number of white blood cells that attack the body's own tissues
    • A weakening of immune function, so the body is less able to fight infection
    • A strengthening of immune function that prevents all infections from developing
    • A process in which the immune system removes all bacteria from the blood

  2. Which type of illness is most associated with stress through cardiovascular mechanisms?

    • Type 1 diabetes, caused by a viral infection of the pancreas
    • Influenza, caused by a virus that spreads in close contact
    • Tuberculosis, caused directly by a bacterial infection of the lungs
    • Coronary heart disease, linked to raised blood pressure and adrenaline effects

  3. What does the Social Readjustment Rating Scale (Holmes and Rahe) measure?

    • The strength of a person's social support network in their community, measured through a questionnaire about friends, family and neighbours
    • The number of daily hassles a person reports each day in a diary, recorded over a single week of ordinary routine and rated for severity
    • The amount of life change a person has experienced over a period, scored in life change units
    • The level of cortisol in saliva measured at several times of day, collected at home by the participant using a simple kit each morning

  4. Which is an example of a daily hassle as a source of stress?

    • Being stuck in heavy traffic on the way to work each morning
    • Divorce from a long-term partner after many years of marriage
    • Being made redundant from a job after a company restructuring
    • The death of a close family member after a long illness at home

  5. Which feature of workplace stress is linked to higher risk of illness?

    • High workload combined with little control over how the work is done
    • Low workload combined with a high level of control over decisions
    • High social support from colleagues with a fixed and predictable routine
    • Low workload with frequent breaks that are taken whenever wanted

  6. A study finds that people who experience many life changes in a year are more likely to report illness in the following months. Which conclusion is best supported?

    • Life changes are associated with illness, but the study cannot prove that they cause it
    • Life changes have no link to illness, since the correlation is a coincidence
    • Illness causes all life changes, so stress has no effect on health
    • Life changes always cause illness in every individual, with no exceptions at all

  7. What is a key criticism of research into life changes and illness?

    • The scale only measures physical events and ignores all psychological stressors
    • The scale is based only on animal studies with no human participants at any stage
    • The scale may ignore individual differences in how people appraise and cope with events
    • The scale is too accurate and always predicts illness in every person correctly

  8. Which of the following is a daily hassle that might add to a person's stress over time?

    • Constantly losing work documents or misplacing keys
    • Getting married to a long-term partner
    • Moving to a new city after a job offer
    • The death of a close relative in an accident

  9. Which evaluation point applies to research on daily hassles?

    • Hassles have been shown to have no effect on health in any study ever conducted
    • Hassles and uplifts are measured by self-report, which may be affected by mood at the time of reporting
    • Hassles are always measured by observers who never see the participants
    • Hassles are measured only by physiological recording, which is never affected by mood

  10. A workplace introduces a policy giving employees more control over their schedules. Which outcome is predicted by research on workplace stress?

    • No change in stress, because control has no effect on health at any time
    • Increased illness, because employees always resist any change to their schedules
    • Reduced stress, because greater control over work reduces the strain of demands
    • Increased stress, because control always increases the workload for each employee

  11. Which best describes the link between stress and immunosuppression?

    • Stress has no effect on the immune system, which is entirely controlled by genes
    • Stress causes the immune system to attack only the nervous system and not the body's other tissues
    • Cortisol released during stress can suppress immune cell activity, reducing resistance to infection
    • Stress increases the number of immune cells but makes them less able to fight infection

  12. Which statement about the SRRS is accurate?

    • It assigns different life change units to events, with the total indicating the amount of life change
    • It measures only daily hassles and never major life events of any kind
    • It is a physiological measure that uses skin conductance to record stress in real time
    • It is a measure of cortisol in the saliva that is taken once per year

  13. A researcher argues that stress causes cardiovascular disease. Which weakness of the research would be most important to consider?

    • The research used a measure of hassles that is always accurate and never subject to bias
    • The research was conducted on too few cells in the laboratory to be reliable at all
    • Other factors, such as diet and smoking, may explain the link between stress and heart disease
    • The research was based only on the immune system and never measured the heart

  14. Which finding would most support the claim that stress reduces immunity?

    • Participants under high stress are less likely to report any illness at all
    • Participants under high stress show no change in immune markers over several months
    • Participants under high stress show faster wound healing and stronger immune responses to a vaccine
    • Participants under high stress show slower wound healing and reduced immune responses to a vaccine

  15. Which of these is an example of a major life change in the SRRS sense?

    • Waiting in a queue at the supermarket
    • Losing a set of car keys
    • The death of a spouse
    • Running late for a meeting

  16. A study finds that workplace stress is linked to coronary heart disease in men but not in women. Which evaluation point is most appropriate?

    • The finding is meaningless because heart disease is never affected by any form of stress
    • The finding may reflect a sample or measurement issue, so it needs replication before being generalised
    • The finding proves that women are immune to workplace stress in every situation
    • The finding shows that all stress affects men and women in exactly the same way

  17. Which physiological pathway links stress to raised blood pressure?

    • The immune pathway, through white blood cells that attack the walls of the blood vessels directly and cause them to narrow over time
    • The parasympathetic pathway, through a slowing of the heart rate and a widening of the blood vessels in the body under strain
    • The sympathomedullary pathway, through adrenaline and noradrenaline increasing heart rate and vessel constriction
    • The hypothalamic pathway, through insulin release that lowers the blood pressure by drawing sugar out of the bloodstream into cells

  18. Why might hassles be a better predictor of illness than major life events for some people?

    • Hassles always occur only once in a lifetime and so have a much larger single effect
    • Hassles occur frequently and may build up cumulatively over time, causing sustained stress
    • Hassles are unrelated to stress and so cannot predict illness in any group of people
    • Hassles are never measured by researchers, so they cannot be compared to life events

  19. Which example is a major life change rather than a daily hassle?

    • The death of a close family member after a long illness
    • Being stuck in traffic on the motorway on the way to a regular weekly meeting
    • Losing a set of car keys on the way to the shops for a routine errand
    • Waiting in a long queue at the supermarket checkout during a busy weekend shop

  20. Which pattern would the life-changes approach predict for a person who has experienced several large changes in one year?

    • A higher risk of illness than someone who has experienced few changes
    • A risk of illness identical to that of someone who has experienced no changes at all
    • No change in risk, since illness depends only on genetics and not on experience
    • A lower risk of illness, because large changes always strengthen the immune system

All AQA Psychology quizzes