University Stress

The Stress of Meeting New People

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On November 17, 2022

In Module 3: The Stress of Meeting New People, University Stress

Meeting new people may also cause stress for most college students. Reasons for student reluctance or avoidance of meeting new people vary, but all these reasons cause students to become unconfident or uncomfortable around their peers.

One reason that may cause student unconfidence is being unable to accept the new environment that is university. This scene applies especially to international students. They come to their dream colleges through hard-working. However, they have found plenty of situations opposing their home country. The most obvious scenario is foreign languages. Another obvious problem among most international students is the workload (D’Souza et al., 2016). Domestic students face this problem as well. Even though domestic students have fewer challenges living in a new environment, it does not mean they can immediately fit into the new environment. Often students find the way they make friends in the university is very different and more challenging than making friends in high school. 

Another possible reason cause students may not be willing to meet new people is potential childhood trauma. Many factors cause this trauma. One type of childhood trauma many carry with them daily is having grown up in a strict family. Their opinions and accomplishments are often denied or looked over by their family members, thus creating an environment causing students to learnt they should not trust other people. Accidents from everyday life may cause trauma as well. For example, bullying, discrimination, and loss. 

All factors that may cause unconfidence require specific solutions to improve student confidence. This lesson contains opportunities to explore further reasons for university students may be uncomfortable or unwilling to meet new people and how to solve this issue in a customized way.

Activity – Praise Challenge

Join the Discord Server and follow the praise challenge instructions.

The Stress of Moving Away From Home

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On November 17, 2022

In Module 2: The Stress of Moving Away From Home, University Stress

Many people experience anxiety when moving away from home. Especially teenagers when they are trying to live on their own for the first time. Many factors contribute to this stress, including leaving our loved ones, finding a new job, or general confusion about the future. It is tough to put ourselves into new challenges, knowing that we could have stayed where we were and enjoyed the old life. This is why many teenagers are forced into work by their parents, simply because they do not want to step into unknown territory. The anxiety becomes much stronger if we move to another city or country. Not only do we have to face all the problems mentioned above, but we also need to deal with cultural and perhaps language differences. This is probably one of the most challenging tasks to conquer. However, all these factors can be summed up into one core concept: leaving our comfort zone. 

Above is a picture showing four levels of the human mind. What we want to achieve in this learning resource is successfully moving from our comfort zone to our growth zone. The majority of our stress and anxiety come from the fear zone. For example, we want to find a new job in a new environment, but we are scared that our resume will get denied or our new co-workers will be hard to get along with. We cannot succeed at anything when we are too scared of failure. So as a teaser, the number one technique for easing our anxiety is not to have too much hope and give up control. Many famous people have mentioned this concept more than once: the higher the expectation, the greater the disappointment. So by keeping our hopes low, the disappointment we receive when we fail would hurt us much less. In addition, It is impossible to have everything under control in our life, so we have to learn to let it go sometimes. Make sure to get used to this mentality so that failure will not negatively impact your life.

Activity – Step Out of Your Comfort Zone

No amount of essay reading or lecture listening can help you conquer anxiety if you do not apply the techniques discussed above in real life. For this activity, you will attempt at least one thing that causes you anxiety, and to manage this anxiety, you will use a technique taught in this lesson to ease your negative feelings. You will record the difference in how you feel before and after trying out your coping strategy. Post your experience below in the comments.

Stress and the Signs and Symptoms

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On November 17, 2022

In Module 1: Stress and the Signs and Symptoms, University Stress

Stress is defined as a state in which an organism experiences psychological and biological strain due to various demands (Salleh, 2008). Stress affects everyone regardless of all factors, whether age, income, or ethnicity; therefore, it is something everyone must cope with and understand. In this module, students will gain an understanding of stress and learn to define it.

Watch: Stress (Le stress)

Stress is something everyone feels at some point in their life. We all experience stress at different intensities and handle it differently. Both of these will determine the signs and symptoms of stress someone shows. For young adults, the most common signs of stress include, but are not limited to: feeling worried, increased heart rate, fear, chills, sadness, and headaches (APA, 2019). Physical signs of stress are symptoms other people may notice. Physical signs of stress include sweating, chills, increased heart rate, hunger, crying, bad temper, face blushing, skin rash, vomiting, stomachaches, and muscle stiffness (APA, 2019). Although our bodies show physical signs of stress, they are still caused by our brains. Cognitive signs of stress are symptoms we can notice but are not as obvious to other people. Cognitive signs of stress include: feeling afraid, weird, weak, worried, tired, sad, embarrassed, or mad; headaches; agitation; inability to think clearly; thoughts about death; and desire to hit someone (APA, 2019). 

Stress can affect anyone in any sort of situation. The main types of stress university students encounter will be explored throughout this lesson. 

Activities

  • Complete the True/False activity
  • Complete the Matching activity

Read and Watch Materials

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On November 17, 2022

In Read and Watch

Watch: Stress (4 minutes)

Read: College Stress (7 minutes)

Watch: Why are college students so stressed? (3 minutes)

Read: Overcoming the stress and anxiety of moving out (5 minutes)

Read and Watch: 10 Tips to Make Friends at College (10 minutes)

Read and Watch: Academic Pressure (15 minutes)

Read: 5 Simple Budgeting Methods to Help You Live Your Best Life (5 minutes)

Watch: Many college students find themselves in a serious financial crisis (5 minutes)

Read and Watch: Coping with Stress (12 minutes) 

Learning Outcomes

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On November 17, 2022

In Learning Outcomes

  1. Define and describe the concept of stress.
  2. Recognize and label the signs of stress in yourself and others.
  3. Understand why humans experience homesickness when away from home.
  4. Describe strategies to ease homesickness and not let it affect our everyday life.
  5. Compare reasons for the reluctance to meet new people and how to solve these problems.
  6. Provide examples of techniques to become more confident among people.
  7. Recognize the external and internal factors responsible for the pressure to succeed in your academic journey.
  8. Share experiences and techniques to overcome pressures to succeed.
  9. Compare ways to manage financial stress. 
  10. Employ strategies to control expenditures within budgets.

Overview of University Stress

Sticky Post

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On November 17, 2022

In Overview

There is no doubt that university students experience mass amounts of stress. Over 60% of university students report experiencing above-average to tremendous levels of stress (Naz Böke & Heath, 2020). Based on our own experiences as university students and literature, the four main types of stress university students handle daily are the stress of moving away from home, meeting new people, the pressure to succeed, and financial stress (Learning Centre, 2022).  

Here is what will be discussed throughout this lesson:

  1. To begin the discussion, stress will be defined using easy-to-understand language. Here the signs and symptoms of stress are presented. A review of stress will help ensure a concrete understanding of stress, laying the groundwork for success in the following topics.
  2. The stress of moving away from home will be discussed, and coping strategies will be presented.
  3. Meeting new people can be daunting; therefore, we will discuss techniques for managing the stress of meeting new people.
  4. We will highlight students’ unbearable pressure to do well and succeed in their university studies. In conjunction, strategies will be discussed to manage the weight of the expectations we may impose on ourselves or that others may impose on us.
  5. Lastly, we will explore financial stress and the steps we can take to reduce this stress. 

To aid in your understanding of stress, there is a curated list of content to read and watch before reviewing the content modules.

Upon completion of the Read and Watch materials and the content, there are activities that must be completed for each module:

  1. A true-false quiz and matching activity
  2. The praise challenge
  3. Stepping out of the zone
  4. Think-pair-share
  5. Case study group discussion.

Each activity corresponds to its respective subtopic.

To summarize the lesson, students will complete a blog post responding to a reflection question and interact with another student’s blog post with a substantive comment.

Each task that must be completed can be found in the “To-Do This Week” section. 

Overall, this lesson teaches university students about stress, the signs and symptoms of stress, the most prevalent types of stress university students face, and management techniques. Our goal is to give students the tools to understand and manage stress to prevent long-term issues.

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