Perceived Stress Levels and Stress Management Among Paramedical Students Lyceum of the Philippines University: Towards Stress Management Enhancement Maribel D. Mayuga-Barrion, DDM, MAT It is recognized that stress is a normally occurring part of life. Selye was the first to describe the term "stress" as a state produced within an organism subjected to a stimulus perceived as a threat (Selye, 1957). He spoke of stress as a condition that occurs commonly in response to any adaptive response within the body. He defined stress as ". . . a state manifested by a specific syndrome which consists of all the nonspecifically induced changes within a biologic system" (Selye, 1950). In other words, stress can refer to a wide range of physiological …show more content…
Very little research has been done to find out what college students are doing about these high levels of stress. An equally modest amount of research has been done to learn how effective are the techniques used by college students to reduce stress levels. Stress on college campuses is high, but students may not be aware of more effective ways to reduce stress. For example, in a recent review of literature of substance use and abuse (Prendergast, 2004) reported that "college students are more likely to drink and to drink at high levels than are young adults who are not in college." The means for relaxing may be temporarily effective for reducing stress levels, but there are consequences associated with regular drinking that are not always desirable (Fromme & Rivet, 2004). Existing research provides limited information on stress and its management among college students. Accurate information regarding stress, its primary sources and effective ways to deal with it specific to college students would allow university health educators, counseling centers, and student wellness centers to target specific need areas more effectively on campuses across the country. Dental students often report high levels of stress. Even though many studies have been conducted on this issue, we still lack a global understanding of how dental students experience and deal with stress, making it difficult for dental educators to improve
Society defines stress as anything which forces us to change. Through technical terms stress is defined as “a negative emotional state occurring in response to events that are perceived as taking or exceeding a person’s resources or ability to cope.” To explaining stress researchers came up with the “Cognitive appraisal model”, this system works to tell us whether we believe we have enough resources to deal with the situation without becoming stressed. For instance as a now college student those who have had previous experience taking finales in high school can have less stress than those who have not taken it. This is because they have previous experience with taking the tests and learning how to study while those who have never taken one can become extremely stressed over the unknown of the test. Stress is one of the sub branches that is attached to the world of health psychology. Health psychology is a quickly growing branch that deals with the way the mind and body work together. Psychologists that work in the health field came up with the biopsychosocial model. This model explains the complex interaction with biological, psychological, and social factors.
Stress was defined by Selye as "the nonspecific response of the body to any demand" (Christopher, 1996), the
Stress is defined as the “non specific response of the body to any demand for change”. It was coined by Hans Selye in 1936. A highly subjective phenomenon. There are many signs of having/getting stress; Physical, Psychological, Behavioural and Emotional.
Stress has been defined by Selye as a non-specific organic response to situations that are stressful to the organism. Its presence in a moderated form signifies a normal adaptation to day-to-day demands. When it is excessive, it is a manifestation of psychological distress with physical and emotional reactions, and the symptoms vary depending on the phase in which it is found. In her
Stress is the strongest reason why college students choose to binge drink undeterred by the short and long term consequences. The transition from high school to college is one fraught with change. The increased responsibility on the student is heaped
capabilities, resulting in biopsychological charges that may make him/her of risk for disease. Effects may vary from one person to another. (Niabi; H. et. al., 2013)
Alcohol is one of the most addictive drugs in the United States and the most prevalently used among college students. A mixture of stress that comes from school and sometimes work sometimes encourages college students to use this drug as a source of alleviation. This negative situation causes many cases of death, sexual assault, injury, unsafe sex, and academic failure. The overconsumption of alcohol is a major issue that can only be resolved through proper teaching of the harmful effects of alcohol and the proper way to handle stress.
Cooper & Marshall (1976). A response based definition; this comes in three stages, first being the body is alerted and responds with a reaction. Moving on to the next stage being autonomic activity is activated so the body prepares to deal with the stress, but if the stress becomes overbearing the body cannot handle this and begins to breakdown and become damaged Selye (1956) And lastly stress as a dynamic process; this definition of stress which has contributing factors to the other two definitions of stress. This suggests stress is a dynamic process including internal and external factors, the characteristics of an individual and also the interactions between them. Cognitive factors are more focussed upon in this definition; the amount of stress experienced by a person is determined by demands. This definition suggests there is a link between emotional and environmental factors Sulsky and Smith (2005). The definition of stress is subjective to an individual and each have their own perceptions of what stress is. Stress is the concept how well a person can deal with lifestyle factors but in fact there are many ways stress can impact in anyway, it depends on the individual’s tolerance and view of a situation. In addition to Butler.G., the researchers Kranner, I., Minibayeva, F. V., Beckett, R. P., and Seal, C. E. (2010) definitions of stress were largely
Stress is a very popular concept about which there is still a lot of controversy. '' Stress as an adaptive response, moderated by individual differences, that is a consequence of any action, situation, or event that places special demands on a person '' (Ivancevich, page 214). We say that a person is subjected to a stress situation when he has to face environmental demands that exceed his resources, so that the subject perceives that he cannot give them an effective response, which causes an increase in the activation of the organism. However, stress is not always a bad thing, since in many cases the stress response puts a number of exceptional resources at the disposal of the person, fostering a better perception of the situation, a better search for solutions and a better selection of answers to deal with the situation that has caused it.
Many believe that stress is a simple problem, however it is often misunderstood and more complex than they believe (p. 181, Griffin & Moorhead, 2014). Stress is the physiological and psychological response to excessive and usually unpleasant stimulation as well as threatening events in the environment (p. 284, Schultz and Schultz, 2010). Stress appears in silent and subtle ways but this negative response affects millions of employees in all levels of all types of jobs (p. 284, Schultz and Schultz, 2010). If identified
Like many of the questionnaires utilized for research in the articles used for this literature review, it was anonymous, and administered and collected during class. This form of data collection provided high turn in rates allowing researchers to have a wide study scale. According to Hicks, T., & Heastie, S., contrasting levels of stress and coping mechanisms were present in these students. It was noted that traditional college students experience more psychological stress than their nontraditional student counterparts. In addition, during the first year of college, the amount of stress experienced by students is the highest in comparison to stress in the remainder of the years. These results are especially important because it stresses the need for a strong health and wellness center within colleges and universities.
Stress is no new phenomenon. It’s been around as long as man and has captivated scholars and physicians alike. With the growing demand for degrees in the professional world comes the growth of the number of college students. The relationship between stress and college students has become the subject of on-going research. Several studies show that stress in college students is increasing with time and the authors of those studies are attributing this to an increased number of students. Other research seems to indicate that it isn’t necessarily the stress that is increasing but the awareness of it. Increased awareness of stress, and its unique toll on individuals, allows colleges and students to recognize
Hans Selye (1982) points out that few people define the concept of stress in the same way or even bother to attempt a clear-cut definition. According to Selye, an important aspect of stress is that a wide variety of dissimilar situations are capable of producing the stress response such as fatigue, effort, pain, fear, and even success. This has led to several definitions of stress, each of which highlights different aspects of stress. One of the most comprehensive models of stress is the Biopsychosocial Model of Stress (Bernard & Krupat, 1994). According to the Biopsychosocial Model of Stress, stress involves three components: an external component, an internal component, and the interaction between the external and internal components.
The impact of stress among college students may have a negative impact on the student’s psychological health. Research indicates that depression rates in college students have been increasingly rising over the years. In 2012, a study was conducted by the National Survey of Counseling Centers which resulted in 91% of the researchers found an increase in students with psychological needs. To resolve college students’ stressors, Surgeon General and additional research studies propose that students who are more active exhibit a decrease in stress, anxiety, and depression. In order to improve and retain a healthy lifestyle, physical activity
Stress is also linked low fertility in one’s reproductive organs, and can cause problems during pregnancy or one’s menstrual cycle (www.everydayhealth.com). This happens when one is overwhelmed with the stress he or she is going through in their lives. No one person is the same, meaning stressors as well as stress levels differ for each individual. This is why it is hard for scientists to reach the core because it is a subjective sensation related with a variety of symptoms that differ for each of us. Because of this, stress is not always a synonym for distress. Situations like a steep roller coaster ride that cause fear and anxiety for some can prove highly pleasurable for others (www.stress.org). Each person also responds to stress differently. There are numerous physical as well as emotional responses to stress. Stress can cause an ocean of different emotions that are often times unpredictable. It can have wide ranging effects on people’s emotions, mood and behavior (www.stress.org). Stress has said to have been America’s number one leading health problem. It has been shown that stress levels have escalated in children, teenagers, college students and the elderly for reasons that of which have lead to: increased crime, violence, and other threats to personal safety; pernicious peer pressures that lead to substance abuse and other unhealthy life style habits; social isolation and loneliness; the erosion of family and religious