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Raul Torres
Professor Vagnoni
ENC 1102
5 December 2014
Stress Management
Description of the Problem
Stress is one of the most common problems that students have to face while being in
college. Usually the existence of high levels of stress can bring adverse effects to your daily
performance and damage your health. According to health-care consultants Inlander and Moran
they establish that stress is caused by stressors. These “[s]tressors can be physical or emotional,
internally or externally generated” (2). The authors also state that stress can be caused by
different types of physical and emotional stimulants that range from internal conflicts to physical
violence (2). For college students the cause of stress is classified in four major categories:
interpersonal, intrapersonal, academic and environmental (Ross, Niebling and Heckert).
Interpersonal involves roommate conflicts, working with people you do not know, fighting with
boyfriend/girlfriend, new boyfriend/girlfriend and trouble with parents; intrapersonal is related to
change in sleeping/eating habits, new responsibilities, financial difficulties, outstanding personal
achievement, change in religious beliefs, death of someone close to you, injury and
engagement/marriage; academic refers to increase in workload, receiving a lower grade than
anticipated, change of major, missing too many classes and serious argument with instructor;
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environmental is addressed to computer problems, messy living conditions, change in living
environment, car trouble, quit job and divorce between parents. There are more causes that lead
to college stress, but these are the most frequent ones students have to experience. Once our body
starts experiencing these stressful scenarios that is when anatomy comes into play and for every
process or failure that occurs in our body there is a reaction. This is called the “fight or flight”
mechanism activated by our nervous system. The purpose of this instantaneous reaction is to
supply blood to the organs that need to strike an attack and prevent further damage (Inlander and
Moran). Other authors like Ph.D. Brian Luke Seaward agree that the “fight or flight” mechanism
is necessary in order to maintain the balance of our organism (6). For example: the fight or flight
reaction when students get stressed about a bad grade on an assignment or failing a course. Since
this is considered a threat for our body, our organism reacts by increasing our heartbeat, our
respiration, and other physical symptoms. If we do not react (come up with a solution about the
stressful situation) we are going to fail and put our health at risk, but if we succeed in moderating
our stress then the job of the fight or flight mechanism will be a total victory. The purpose of the
fight or flight mechanism is to help us react to life-threatening situations. Although not all of
them are life threatening, the brain does not differentiate between a real threat and a perceived
threat so they all receive the same reaction (UT Counseling and Mental Health Center).
Significance of the Problem
Stress is a popular topic among students. Actually on a survey conducted by senior health
reporter Jonel Aleccia from NBC News found that teens stress level was of 5.8 on 10-point scale,
surpassing the adult stress level which is 5.1. On the survey 30% of teens reported to feel sad or
depressed, 31% claimed to feel overwhelmed, 36% reported to feel tired and 23% stated they
skipped meals; all this because of stress. On a higher note, according to health-care consultants
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Inlander and Moran 50% of all illness in the United States is attributed to stress (1) this
demonstrates that stress is a relevant problem that can lead to the development of health issues
and diseases at an early age.
Actually, stress can have severe effects and produce cognitive symptoms like memory
lost and inability to concentrate; emotional symptoms like sense of loneliness and depression;
physical symptoms like loss of sex drive, diarrhea and rapid heartbeat (which can lead to heart
diseases); and finally behavioral symptoms like nervous habits, the abuse of alcohol and other
substances, and isolating yourself from others (Smith, Segal and Segal). If stress is not treated
the correct way it can become fatal. According to M.D. Haney Shafey, the adverse effects of
stress can be so deteriorating that a patient can seek suicide as the only way out. If stress
management can help avoid suicidal thoughts among teens and adults then it is worth researching
a method that can decrease the mortality rate caused by stress.
Research Questions
-How can college student’s deal with high levels of stress without letting it have adverse effects
upon their health and academics?
-How can college students avoid stress to live a healthier and happier school experience?
Sources and Research Methods
For this research I have used and will continue using sources from authors that are
involved in the health field. This will give a sense of accuracy to my paper. Charles B. Inlander
is one of the authors used in this research. He is the president of the Peoples Medical Society
(nonprofit health advocacy organization) and is a lecturer at Yale University School of Medicine;
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he has also co-written a large amount of books related to the health system. Another author used
in this research is Brian Luke Seaward. He is a Ph.D., faculty member of several universities
around the country, TEDx speaker and counts with clients that range from Hewlett-Packard to
the US Army. He started researching about stress because he suffered it before, which provides
an accurate description of what stress is and what are the effects it can cause upon the victims. It
gives a broader insight for those who have not suffered of the strong effects of stress. I also plan
to keep using statistics because, I believe that numbers are easier to process and help you see
how severe and significant a problem is when interpreted from a critical point of view.
Sometimes you do not realize how relevant a problem is until you see how many victims are
involved. Finally, I will make use of research medical journals like the Mayo Clinic Proceedings,
The New England Journal of Medicine, The Canadian Medical Association Journal, etc. These
are journals that are reputable and known for their long-lasting legacy; some were founded in the
late 1910’s and are still running in the health field which proves their reliability.
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Works Cited
Aleccia, Jonel. "Teens More Stressed-Out Than Adult, Survey Shows." NBC News 11 Feb 2014:
n. pag.
Inlander, Charles B. and Cynthia K. Moran. Stress : 63 Ways To Relieve Tension And Stay
Healthy. New York, NY: Walker & Co, 1996.
Ross, Shannon E., Bradley C. Niebling and Teresa M. Heckert. "Sources of Stress Among
College Students." College Student Journal (2008): 4-6.
Seaward, Brian Luke. Managing Stress: Principles and Strategies for Health and Wellbeing.
Boston, MA: Jones and Bartlett, 1999.
Shafey, Haney Dr. What Doctors Say About Stress Staff Report. 6 Jan 2006.
Smith, Melinda, Robert Segal and Jeanne Segal. "Stress, Symptoms, Signs & Causes."
HelpGuide.org (2014): n. pag.
UT Counseling and Mental Health Center, Staff. Fight or Flight. N.D. N.D. N.D. 2 12 2014
.
UNIT 2 – Writing a Research Proposal
Unit Objectives:
•
Complete a writing project with the purpose of convincing their reader
of the feasibility of their proposed research project;
•
Define an area of interest appropriate for extended research;
•
Define a problematic, significant and interesting question which will be
explored and refined in the research;
•
Demonstrate that adequate resources are available for the topic;
•
Identify an audience or discipline appropriate for the topic;
•
Develop a plan for effectively managing, organizing and conducting a
research project.
•
Show a promising start to their capstone extended writing project,
engaging with sources related to their research question and
illustrating a feasible approach to research;
•
Pose a timely research question that is likely to engage a chosen
audience;
•
Conduct relevant research (taking detailed notes while rhetorically
locating, evaluating and analyzing sources);
•
Choose sources purposefully and reflectively, rather than randomly;
•
Effectively summarize, analyze, and synthesize the ideas of others;
•
Read sources with attention to their rhetorical context;
•
Employ dialectic thinking using thesis, antithesis, and synthesis;
•
Demonstrate engagement with sources and wrestling with ideas to
explore the research question;
•
Document the evolution of the writer’s thinking by recounting the
research process and subsequent analysis.
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