projimo chapter 2

Chap 2
1. better understanding on (of) the
2. this chapter aims to provide relevant information of (on) the topic
3. why it’s so ( spell put and omit so)
4. Selye is conveyed (? Check )
5. Stressors makes a person aware of a task that must be done thus the person is reminded of the task. (,thus,)
6. An example is when (reconstruct)
7. is observations led him to summarized (to summarize) stress reactivity
8. Selye (as cited in Winter, 1976) elaborates (tense consistency)
9. The first stage is alarm reaction. This happens when a person (connect; which happens)
10. The Last stage (why capital L?)
11. Eventually this would lead a person to stress out (to be stressed out)
12. A person’s emotions could kill either at a slow pace or a quick pace and he also mentioned that in some studies it showed that tension causes the body to increase the secretion of chemicals called catecholamine that affects the nervous system. (mangled thought.reconstruct)
13. physically and emotional. (Pedersen, 2005) (period after the parenthesis)
14. It deals with your (point of view consistency) current situation
15. wherein you have time for leisure and work. (refer to comment no. 14)
16. According to Selye as cited in Rice (1999) (include as cited…inside the parenthesis)
17. It isn’t always easy to point out what’s (spell out)
18. You have to examine yourself especially your habits (refer to comment no. 14)
19. It’s either you change your situation or change how you react to stress. (comment no. 14)
20. Moonmuang’s adapted the theories Pender’s health-promotion model (faulty, check)
21. was either positive or negative which had varied impacts to (on) them considering how they cope up with (omit up) their stressors.
22. Moonmuang’s study was able to acquire data that showed (showing that)
23. Moonmuang (2005) recommended that more public health promotion be of concern (check)
24. he students see stress as the “body’s response to changes in life.” The stress that various nurses experience..( tense consistency)
25. The study showed that nursing students, particularly level III students, that the (two that’s; faulty)
26. he study also aimed to know the effects of the people that surrounded their respondents. (effects of the people on who? The object?)
27. conducted a study to “evaluate the effectiveness of biofeedback and relaxation skills training to help alleviate college students’ stress symptoms” (as cited in Anstead’s Abstract). She states (tense consistency)
28. Anstead (2009) believes (tense consistency)
29. cope with no up
30. Regarding to (omit to) the concerns of college students,
31. Based from (on) the gathered related literature
32. helps an individual understand his stress experience more thus the (,thus,)
33. This study is different from previous studies since it deals with an evaluation (state differently, in a positive way)
34. Furthermore, the first year students focused in this study are those taking up BS Biology and BS Mathematics. This study enables the students to evaluate their stress management practices and the effectiveness of their stress management practices in their academic performance. (not necessary.only the relationship between your scope/topic with those you had reviewed)


Chapter II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

Before evaluating the stress management practices of the first year college students, it is important to have a better understanding on the concepts of stress and stress management. Hence, this chapter aims to provide relevant information of the topic by discussing first the concept of stress and how it is understood in the contemporary times. Secondly to be able to comprehend what stress is all about and why it’s so essential to study it, important stress factors are elaborated in this chapter. Lastly, particular studies and articles that usually focused on stress management practices are also discussed.
Stress is derived from a Latin word that means hardship. It involves the change of the chemistry and metabolism of the body as a result of an event when our state of mind experiences anxiety. Stress not only affects our state of mind but also our physical well-being (Rai, 2005). Hans Selye’s definition of stress is “the nonspecific response of the body to any demand upon it” (as cited in Greenberg, 1999). Stress is universally understood but defining it further would be a great help to better grasp its true meaning since some would substitute stress with terms like pressure and strain (Rice, 1999).
Thus according to Selye, “stress is a scientific concept which has suffered from the mixed blessings of being too well known and too little understood” (as cited in Linden, 2005). Selye is conveyed that “when concepts from basic science become popularized, oversimplification or alteration of the term” could change its original meaning. People usually would search for the definitions of terms such as stress in dictionaries. Though the definitions are in accordance with the scientists’ definitions, it would appear to be in a “simpler language”, one that would be easily understood by the majority (Linden, 2005). On the other hand, Donkin (1989) simplified his definition of stress saying stress is a person’s “physical and emotional reaction to change.” This change happens in the environment and could be seen as threatening or challenging to one’s dynamic balance (Smeltser, et al., 2008) Thus stress puts a heavy demand on a person making it difficult for him or her to deal with life situations and the tasks at hand (Potter and Perry, 2004 ). Each person experiences different situations of stress and could be caused by different stressors.
As cited in the books of Donkin (1989) and Linden (2005), the term stressor was provided by Selye and coined as the causes or agents of stress. Stressor or stressors in the plural form are the stimuli that initiate a response when a person experiences stress. They could be physiological, psychological, social, environmental, developmental, spiritual or even cultural. They can also be classified as internal stressors or external stressors (Potter and Perry, 2004). Internal stressors originate from the person himself since it’s a mental state of tension. It could be emotive, interpretive and the coping processes occur within the person. It could promote maturity but in the downside it can cause mental strain due to particular factors. External stressors are environmental stimuli that trigger a person’s stress due to outside forces (Rice, 1999).
Stressors makes a person aware of a task that must be done thus the person is reminded of the task. An example is when the person’s body experiences a stress cycle wherein muscles tense, jaw clenches and the blood pressure as well as the pulse rate rises. The person’s hands become cold and the stomach may feel a bit of tense. These are normal bodily responses to stress. The stressors could be acquired from physical, psychological and sociocultural situations or conditions (Alix, P. R., et al. 1992). Hans Selye (as cited in Alix, 1992) specified the changes that occur in a person’s body physiology through his experiment by exposing rats to stressors. His observations led him to summarized stress reactivity by explaining it in his “stress syndrome”.
Selye (as cited in Winter, 1976) elaborates that the “stress syndrome” goes through three stages. The first stage is alarm reaction. This happens when a person is exposed to a certain emotional or physical threat that could come in 2 phases. The first one is shock phase which is the increase of one’s blood pressure and the heartbeat’s change to a quick pace. This resulted as a primary reaction to a threat. The second phase is called the countershock phase which is a “rebound phenomenon marked by the mobilization of defensive forces.” (Selye, as cited in Winter, 1976 p.5). The adrenal cortex as well as the outer layers of the gland above the kidney enlarges and the adrenocortical hormones being secreted increases. The second stage of the “stress syndrome” is the Resistance stage. The symptoms either improve or disappear during the “full adaptation to stress and at the same time there is a decreased resistance to other stimuli. The Last stage is the exhaustion stage which involves the body getting weak or tired after the experience of stress for a long duration of time. It is essential to be able to perceive what kind of stress we are experiencing to be able to intervene with the harmful outcomes of the exhaustion stage which could be even be death (Selye, as cited in Winter, 1976).
Gregson (2000) categorized stress into three namely Good Stress, Bad Stress and Chronic Stress. Good stress has a dual role in making the individual feel nervous and yet excited at the same time. This positive stress is termed Eustress by experts (Gregson, 2000). While there is good stress, there is also bad stress that makes a person feel mad, scared and unhappy. This unhealthy stress is termed dis-stress and makes an individual constantly feel on the edge of nervousness (Gregson, 2000). Chronic stress is different from good and bad stress since it is an ongoing form of stress. The stress hormones of people who experience chronic stress work beyond normal circumstances. Eventually this would lead a person to stress out and the body weakens and often tires easily. Chronic stress cause changes in the lifestyle of people in negative ways. It can even lead to serious physical illnesses like high blood pressure and stroke (Gregson, 2000). Thus, it is important to know how the body reacts to stress.
The brain releases chemicals when a person experience stress. These chemicals are called epinephrine and cortisol. The term adrenaline is also used to name Epinephrine (Gregson, 2000). These chemicals are also called stress hormones which are sent throughout the body by a stressor. These stress hormones send signals that would protect the body from danger. The blood moves to the heart and the other organs thus would feel hot. The hands and feet would be clammy and senses become sharper. After the disappearance of the stressor, stress hormones calm down thus the body eases back to its normal condition (Gregson, 2000).
Winter (1976) mentioned that an individual’s capability to resist or tolerate stress is based on the genes. Some scientists even believed that even before birth, a person’s emotions can already be affected. A person’s emotions could kill either at a slow pace or a quick pace and he also mentioned that in some studies it showed that tension causes the body to increase the secretion of chemicals called catecholamine that affects the nervous system. Tension was also said to increase fats, triglycerides, and cholesterol in the blood that if these could result to hardened arteries; occurrence of heart attacks and strokes. Meanwhile, a person may experience emotional tense caused by external events that don’t involve any bodily reactions through secretion of chemicals. This kind of reaction could be linked to stress reactivity, the term given to the fight-or-flight response (Greenberg, 1999).
The fight-or-flight response presented by Walter Cannon, another pioneer in the field of stress (Greenberg, 1999), explained that when a person is presented with a stressful situation or if the person is in danger, a physiological response activates the person’s adrenal glands and his/her cardiovascular system. The activation allows a person to react by instinct to adjust to the need of either fighting or fleeing the situation he is facing. This may be beneficial during emergency situations but it could be vital when it concerns ongoing, chronic psychological stressors. The person would continue to experience such a psychological response as if he was still in the face of danger. His/her continuing reaction would deplete his/her body physically and emotional. (Pedersen, 2005) Thus, tension comes in which is the body’s reaction to stress.
According to Irwin (1966), “Tension is actually a by-product of stress.” It is an essential part of human experience. Tension is the reaction that our body makes with regards to stress. Our body secretes hormones that makes our hearts beat rapidly thus circulation quickens. Our minds become keener that makes us ready for action to any emergency that may occur (Irwin, 1966). Eventually, our body relaxes or eases down. If a person doesn’t relax, trouble may come that could lead to the bottling of negative emotions such as anger that could endanger one’s health. Prolonged cases of emotional stress, as studies have shown, would lead for a need of medical help since a person would suffer from acquired illnesses caused by severe stress experiences.
A person may also feel the same symptoms stress like the ones mentioned but in this new case, the person is not able to do the task at hand due to the constant thinking that you may not be able to finish it on time. This is a “vicious cycle” that would occur seldomly (Donkin, 1989). A person’s perception of stress is the primary step on the better understanding of the concept of stress management.
Stress Management starts when a person takes control of one’s life. It deals with your current situation including your feelings, your surroundings, your goals and the troubles that you are facing and how you go about all those things. “Having a balanced life is the ultimate goal” of stress management wherein you have time for leisure and work. It is also having self-composure even when you are under pressure and being able to do your tasks wisely (Smith, M., et.al., 2010). This doesn’t mean that a person should free himself from any stress or stressful experience.
According to Selye as cited in Rice (1999), “Complete freedom from stress is death”. Too little stress was considered to be as bad as experiencing to much stress. Rice (1999) noticed that some people perform their best when they are slightly pressured. He saw stress management as a tool to control stress at an optimal level and not to eliminate it. Stress management aims to avoid getting into situations wherein one would experience “extreme, disorganizing stress” (Rice, 1999). Our individuality and uniqueness makes us go through different experiences.
Human lives have been going through different kinds of threats and uncertainties. People confront problems and solve those using methods that they find more convenient or comfortable to use. Psychological studies provide us with “an abundance of techniques and strategies” to help us prevent and manage stress. “The Smith Stress Management Motivations Inventory (SSMMI) is a simple inventory used to assess and organize” the kinds or types of approaches to manage stress (Smith, J. C., 2002). The inventory was able to analyze the results of the extensive research that was done among 1,200 college students from undergraduate classes in twelve Chicago and Illinois junior and four-year colleges. Their scores showed what specific approach was desirable for them to combat stress. Some of the enumerate approaches were relaxation, solving problems and negotiating, time management and dealing with procrastination, managing worry, overcoming shyness and social anxiety, relating assertively, managing anger and also anxiety (Smith, 2002). It is difficult to pin-point which type of stress management is most efficient for us thus we should know where to start with managing our stressful life.
The first step to Stress Management is “identifying the source of stress” (Smith, M., et.al., 2010). It isn’t always easy to point out what’s the real source of stress since you might mistake it with “stress-inducing thoughts, feelings, and behaviours.” You have to examine yourself especially your habits, attitude, and excuses towards stress. Second step is taking a good look at the current ways of coping up with stress. It is essential to know if one is adapting the healthy or unhealthy ways of managing stress (Smith, M., et.al., 2010).
Each one of us has different ways of coping with stress. These ways can be categorized into healthy or unhealthy. Unhealthy ways include smoking, procrastinating, sleeping and drinking too much, spending too much time watching television or playing and using the computer, eating too much or too little, and taking out your stress on other people. These are considered unhealthy because they will only make you feel worse since they are only temporary and they have negative effects on you.
Luckily, there are still healthy ways you can use to change your unhealthy ways in order for you to have a better well-being. It’s either you change your situation or change how you react to stress. Changing your situation means avoiding and altering what causes you stress while changing your reaction means adapting or accepting the stressors in your life.
There are numerous strategies in dealing with stress but not all are applicable to everyone. A few examples to experiment on would be learning to refuse accepting tasks that you can no longer handle, managing time more effectively, adjusting our standards to reasonable levels and forgiving ourselves and others for matter beyond our control. It is good to have time for leisure and to nurture ourselves (Smith, M., et.al., 2010). It is also important to keep being optimistic to manage stress properly and avoid the consequences of bad stress management that would affect our health (Rai, 2005). Being able to know health promoting behaviour by adopting a healthy lifestyle can boost our resistance to stress and the well-being of a person.
Moonmuang (2005) conceptualized stress as “a major protagonist of ill health and poor sense of wellbeing amongst all age groups” (p. x). He conducted a study among young men in tertiary education from four universities in Melbourne and discovered the relationships of stress and the concerns in the academic studies of tertiary men. It was also for the purpose of discovering “health-promoting behaviours” used by the respondents thus leading to future intervention in the educational and clinical field of studies and health promotion programs. Moonmuang’s adapted the theories Pender’s health-promotion model which attempts to “explain the multidimensional nature of individual’s interaction with their environment in relation to health” (p. 78) and Lazarus’ stress adaptation model which focuses on the individual’s cognitive appraisal that “evaluates and manages their environment and their emotional and behavioural responses” (p. 98) to his study. He found out that there were only two demographic factors that differed between the levels of stress and impact namely the nationality of the young men and the language used at their homes.
There were still various major factors that served as stressors and environment hassles such as self-imposed pressures or some influenced pressures. Some examples would be pressure to excel, career endeavours and status or even financial concerns. There were two factors that related to the health-promoting behaviours of the young men. These are emotional and physical health promoting behaviours (Moonmuang, 2005). The behaviours that the young man executed was either positive or negative which had varied impacts to them considering how they cope up with their stressors. However, results showed that most stresses were due to interpersonal dysfunction that linked to disrupted family relationships or the breakdown of intimate relationships (Moonmuang, 2005).
Moonmuang’s study was able to acquire data that showed that the tertiary men needed educational and social support in order to develop their health-promoting behaviours. Moonmuang (2005) recommended that more public health promotion be of concern to help the tertiary men cope up with their issues whether it may be familiar, interpersonal or gendered.
Stress affects many people especially college students considering the cases in which the level III Nursing Students of the Nueva Ecija University of Science and Technology go through in their clinical duties. This was a study conducted by some Nursing Students of the Nueva Ecija University of Science and Technology. They said that nursing students who perform their clinical duties “will meet some kinds of stressors that produce discomfort and irritation conducive to stress that would affect their learning experiences and their future professional practice” (p. 18). The students see stress as the “body’s response to changes in life.” The stress that various nurses experience during their clinical duties include their adaptation to the changing work shifts, assuming duties even if one is not yet prepared and the lack of sufficient support from their supervisors and friends or duty mates (Castillo, D. P. B. D., et al., 2009).
The study showed that nursing students, particularly level III students, that the completion of their charts on time was the most significant stressor and the least significant to be the relation with the physicians. But they did not disregard the effects of other stressors experienced by their respondents. The coping style of the respondents ranged from positive to negative ways of coping. Positive ways included having strong faith in God and being optimistic while the negative ways are crying at the corner of a room and drinking alcoholic beverages. These are the dominant methods that they used to manage their stress (Castillo, D. P. B. D., et al., 2009).
Another study was conducted by Labadia and Rias (2010) to know the psychological effects of stressful life events on teens, specifically the first year college female students of the University of the Philippines-Visayas Cebu College. The study also aimed to know the effects of the people that surrounded their respondents. The researchers considered the adolescent stage to be crucial for teens in “dealing with many physical, social and most especially emotional changes.” As a teenager struggles to live his/her teenage life filled with uncertainties and sets on a quest for discovering one’s identity, he/she encounters different events that could have a great impact on him/her. Significant life events could either be good or bad and sometimes, coping with these events could be beyond a teenager’s ability to cope (Labadia and Rias, 2010).
Results from Labadia and Rias’ study showed that the respondents’ experiences of stress affected their life decisions. The results showed that those suffering an illness were not thinking of committing suicide. It also showed that those who had to go through the death of a loved one were discouraged to accomplishing their goals and that most that were experiencing a break up had trouble with concentrating in their studies. Results also showed that there were females who lacked sleep due to meeting deadlines in school. Financial concerns were also the causes of stress and the change of usual lifestyle experienced by some (Labadia and Rias, 2010).
In order to find a solution to managing stressful situations, Anstead (2009) conducted a study to “evaluate the effectiveness of biofeedback and relaxation skills training to help alleviate college students’ stress symptoms” (as cited in Anstead’s Abstract). She states that “stress is inevitable” though acquiring knowledge on “effective stress management strategies” could help individuals in managing their health and well-being.
Anstead (2009) believes that the more knowledgeable society is about effective stress management, the better results to coping up with the stressors on experiences with his/her life in the society. She cited Walter’s Cannon’s idea of the fight or flight response to be “Physiological reaction to a threat.” This could serve as a stress response that is usually used by individuals. A survey done by the American Psychological Association (2008) showed that financial stressors were the greatest source of stress among the American people. It also showed that less Americans adopted healthy behaviours in stress management. It was concluded that the impact of the worsening economy affected the worsening of stress symptoms and illnesses as well. Regarding to the concerns of college students, they too are greatly affected by stress about their state’s economy since it has consequences on them (Anstead, 2009). Interviews conducted alongside the poll done by the Associated Press revealed that students’ lives were affected academically and socially (as cited in Anstead, 2009). Most concerns of the students were financially and the availability of job opportunities when they graduate.
Anstead (2009) even cited the contributions of some pioneers to the field of stress studies. These pioneering researchers were Claude Bernard, Walter A. Cannon and Hans Selye. They were able to provide a better understanding of the role of stress in modern times.
Anstead (2009) used dependent variables which were the stressors, symptoms, and coping strategies of the respondents. She also compared the differences of the data gathered using paired sample t-tests using the computations of the pre and post session data. These date composed of a student’s EMG instrument reading, skin temperature instrument readings, and subjective stress ratings before and after the session. The highest rated stressors were having too much to do, homework and classes/school.
The usual symptoms that occurred among the respondents were feeling overwhelmed, feeling anxious and not concentrating properly. Student’s coping strategies mostly involved praying, exercising and talking to friends (Anstead, 2009). With regards to the Pre and Post Treatment Measures, skin temperature instrument readings revealed that there was an increase in skin temperature during the post-session; Electromyograph instrument readings showed a decrease in EMG micro volt reading in the post-session; and the student self-report issues rating showed lower stress rating after training (Anstead, 2009). Conducting trainings are not the only means of solution to stress; therapies can also be one of the many options of coping styles.
Cotton (1990) states that a therapist needs to be familiar with the basic of psychotherapy in order to help his client effectively manage stress. There are many factors to consider regarding Stress Management. Such factors would include “releasing tension; cognitive learning; overt and covert operant conditioning; alliance with therapist; and reality testing” (Cotton, 1990). Stress management is a distinct form of psychotherapy due to dependence of the information being disseminated. Therapist and client must work together to know what stress for the client is, how he/she experiences it, and how it can be managed effectively. Both of the therapist and client’s knowledge about different experiences and certain significant life circumstances or events are used in the analysis (Cotton, 1990). Time should also be considered when stress is being discussed thus wise time management could be advised by the therapist for the client to successfully manage stress.
Jack Ferner (as cited in Rice, 1999) said that “time management is the efficient use of time in a certain way that important personal goals are achieved” (p. 382). Time management is a skill very useful in managing stress. Proper time management results in positive academic outcomes of the students who apply it. The relationship of time management with stress and health deals with an improved productivity of an individual and it is evident that contemporary times are time driven. The first relationship shows how a person gains good judgement on how to ho through his available time and fit in his activities. The second relationship of time management with stress and health explains how people see time as really valuable and should not be wasted so easily. Time management is one useful tool to be used as a coping style (Rice, 1999).
Various coping styles were cited in the study by Alix, P. R., et al. (1992). Such coping styles were seen in Lazarus’ conceptual analysis of stress and coping which involved a “process of perceiving a threat to oneself”, called as primary appraisal. The secondary appraisal involved “bringing to mind a potential response to threat.” The outcome of applying this coping style may repeat the whole processes during a stressful event. Billings and Moos (as cited in Alix, P. R., et al., 1992) were able to identify six types of recent stressful life events that included illness, death, children, economic status and interpersonal and non-interpersonal relationships. There is also a distinction between a problem-focused coping and emotion-focused coping depending on the solution that a person uses based on his/her stressors. The differences in an individual like age and gender plays a role in his/her coping process. Variables such as environmental and situational were considered important predictors of coping in the study that was conducted. (Alix, P. R., et al. 1992).
Based from the gathered related literature, stress is known and experienced by many individuals. Pioneers like Hans Selye provide definitions of stress that may vary but still have the same concept. It is important to be able to understand stress in order to avoid too much of it. The importance of knowing stress factors such as stressors and the individual’s stress responses helps in combating stress. One’s perception of stress is also considered in the formulation of stress management practices since it promotes better understanding of the individual’s stress experience. Knowing the kinds of stress helps an individual understand his stress experience more thus the individual would be able to come up with effective ways of coping with stress.
This study is different from previous studies since it deals with an evaluation of the stress management practices of the first year students considering their academic performance and how their stress management practices affected or improved their academic performance. Furthermore, the first year students focused in this study are those taking up BS Biology and BS Mathematics. This study enables the students to evaluate their stress management practices and the effectiveness of their stress management practices in their academic performance.