Riley (AO2)

Question 1

Why does this research give scientific credibility and usefulness on the effects of the immune system?

Answer 1

Because they conducted lab experiments on the mice which enables us to control other possible variables like the experiences of the mice through environment/diet therefore enabling a cause & effect relationship to be established of stress and lowered production of killer cells.

Question 2

However why might this study be limited in their use?

Answer 2

Because they used mice therefore we may not be able to generalise the findings to humans.This may mean that the research isn’t useful in helping us to understand how stress affects the immune system in humans.
However it’s suggested that humans are around 90% biologically similar to mice therefore the findings may still be valid and therefore useful.

Question 3

What ethical issues can be raised in this research?

Answer 3

Studying on mice could cause severe stress however many people would argue that its more ethically unacceptable to do this on humans and by doing it on animals we’re generating useful data on the effects of stress on the immune system that we wouldn’t have known therefore it’s justified.