Sociological Stress

Stress has a profound effect on health becoming a topic under health psychology, a subfield of psychology dealing with ways psychological factors influence the causes, treatment of physical illness and maintenance of health. Stress has a multitude of sources from natural disasters to small annoyances that interrupts people’s daily lives. Research from Brown and McGill has also shown that positive events can also generate stress due to readjustment or unpreparedness. Unfortunately in life people will experience chronic stressors which are sources of stress that occur continuously or repeatedly. Accumulation of small stressors such as bullying and money troubles can lead up to distress and illness. These daily stressors are reported to have more psychological and physical symptoms which can have a greater and long lasting impact than major life

This scholarly paper is about stress, one of the social determinants of health, and how stress occurs and how it influences the health and wellbeing of an individual. Stress affects the mental and psychological health of a person, which reflects in their thoughts and emotions, ultimately, making them think or act in a different way than normal. This abnormal behaviour could potentially lead to further severe mental damage. Stress also affects a person’s family and people near them, resulting in separation or loss of friendship, marriage and other social bonds with communities. The paper also endeavours to look into some of the strategies to overcome stress and the ways to fit into a healthy and happy life

44% of Americans feel more stress today than they have felt in the past 5 years. (American Psychology Association, 2015). Stress, a silent killer, has become a typical occurrence ranging amongst all generations. The American Psychology Association rates the top three causes of stress as money, work, and family responsibilities.Though stress has become more common amongst the population, knowing how to cope seems to be less known. Through education and applying coping skills, we can lead a strong and healthy lifestyle.

Mental health is a serious topic that is often not taken seriously. Due to my own struggles with depression, I have experienced the impact mental illness can have on a student’s life. Mental illness can make everyday life feel unbearable and can have just as serious of an effect on a person as a physical illness. The causes of increasing mental health problems in college students are numerous, and it will take work from both students and universities to overcome this problem, but change is necessary for the health of U.S. college students.

One of the most common issues that affect college students on campus are mental health conditions, such as stress, anxiety, and depression. In fact, the American College Health Association concluded that almost half of the participants in their 2009 study met the criteria for having a mental disorder (American College Health Association, 2009; as cited by Demyan & Anderson, 2012). The high stress environment that colleges and universities provide students with can lead to unhealthy behaviors that can affect class performance and can allow preexisting mental health conditions to get worse. A student going through a mental health crisis may lose their drive to do well in school, lose their desire to socialize with their friends and peers, and lose their motivation to attend class (Brandy, 2011).

According to “The American Institute of Stress” there are numerous emotional and physical disorders that we have with our health. (The American Institute of Stress;IAS) Stress can overrule and overwhelm people's lives. The definition of stress for most people depend on the negative feelings and emotions they produce. Here in a few moments i’m going to explain how. There are so many gestures and indications that are with stress. People don’t think they could be stressed out so easily, dealing with work, school, working at home,feeding/supporting a family,and, animals to take care of. Most people get stressed to the max; because, they don’t have enough time to do all the chores they need to get done, in an amount of time that is needed.

While many mental illnesses, such as anxiety and depression, can spring from circumstance, many are already lurking in the psyche just waiting to be triggered. The two most common triggers are environmental stress and psychological trauma (Child Mental Illness: Schizophrenia, Anxiety, Behavior Disorders, and More). Both triggers can occur outside of academia; however, stress from school has become the foremost trigger for students. In an environment where grades are everything, for a student who is constantly reminded of his or her shortcomings, a mundane event such as a lower-than-desired mark on an assignment can become an extremely traumatic event. Many of the more obvious symptoms of mental illness, such as excessive complaints of physical

Depression can affect college students in all aspects of life; physically, mentally, and emotionally. The students who reported that they were depressed also stated that they considered their health fair or poor (Lindsey 2009). In their cases, depression not only affects them psychologically but also physically. Students with chronic illness who experience depression become more at risk for suicidal thoughts, or their condition to worsen because they are extremely stressed. Depression plays a huge role in college students with chronic illness such as bipolar mood diseases, or any chronic illness that requires medication. Depression sometimes alters your decision making and can cause one to be not as concerned with their overall health. Disrupted decisions can produce episodes, or their current chronic illness to worsen. Chronic illness and depression affect one another, despite which one is presented first. Chronic disease can cause depression when depression-like symptoms aren't already

Previous research has indicated that a cluster of social events that requires change in on-going life adjustments is significantly associated with the onset of psychological illness. It has been deduced that this clustering of social or life events achieves etiologic significance, but not sufficient enough to be causal in part for the time of onset.

Stress is known for occurring during the overwhelming times throughout students’ university experience. There are three major elements that students face in university that reinforce each other and lead to stress. These three connected experiences can lead to them developing a mental illness if the stress becomes long-term. Firstly, when the academic pressure and work-load for students rises when they come to university, they will feel stressed. Secondly, since university is expensive, it may be very stressful for students to pay for tuition and living costs. Lastly, students who are starting university will face a lack of family support systems, difficulty finding friends, and difficulty leaving home which will lead to them feeling stressed. Stress based on these three factors may have a significant impact on their mental health and academic success.

Stress is derived from many areas and can be found in just about anything. When it comes to college, stress in academics is no stranger. Students tend to find themselves dealing with not only stress, but with its relatives, anxiety and depression too. Stress and health are linked with one another. A walk around a campus reveals many different ways student’s cope with their stress.

Societal stressors are defined as factors that capture the discrimination and difficulties associated with being undocumented, including the fear of deportation and possible separation from their kids (Arbona et al., 2010; Perreria et al., 2006). When looking at the research done on acculturation, very few studies looked specifically into societal factors affecting undocumented parents. The studies that did look at societal stressors focused solely on discrimination and its effects on immigrants. Knowing the English language for immigrants is not just about having the language skills, but also being linguistically integrated into the U.S. since there are sets of social requirements, laws, and propositions that enforce the acquisition of the dominant language (Leuck and Wilson, 2010). When using the National Latin and Asian American Study (NLAAS), Leuck and Wilson (2010) found that language acquisition is seen as an enforced civic duty. For immigrants, keeping their ethnic language often is devalued and seen as a threat by society and thus they experience greater language based discrimination (Leuck and Wilson,

The Causes of StressStress is a common issue that many deal with on a daily basis. It is often described as a feeling of being overloaded, tense, and worried. Small amounts of stress can be beneficial, but too much is extremely detrimental. According to Danzae Pace, “Stress is the trash of modern life-we all generate it, but if you don't dispose of it properly, it will pile up and overtake your life” (Pace). This buildup of stress is immensely toxic, and there are many reasons for such a buildup. Stress is primarily caused by three main factors: a person’s financial responsibilities, job pressure, and health. Financial stress is a persistent stressor in all of our lives. It is an important source of distress in people’s lives due to the

Stress theory is a sociological theory that can be used to support Fromm’s arguments in regards to this illusion of individuality. Stress theory is the concept that stressors in society, whether positive or negative, have an influence on the mental well being of an individual. This is evident when Fromm talks about the result of individuals trying to conform to this societal culture politeness. He argues that society has a culture that forces individuals to be pretend to be happy or smile to conceal their true emotions. This can lead to stress, especially if the individual works in the field for a while because he has to pretend to feel emotions that he is not currently feeling. The problem is further complicated by the fact that if the individual refuses to abide by these norms, he may lose his job which increases the stress in his life thereby making his life unbearable. Another source of stress according to Fromm is seen when children make their way into high school and college. They enter these systems only knowing what the previous systems have taught them and have no idea on how to think independently. This becomes a problem because the questions increase only for the system to refuse them answers. This causes stress on students who struggle to satisfy their curiosity and also conform to society at the same time. This leads to teens finding ways to cope with this stress like taking illicit drugs which could lead to a dependency and potential for future abuse.

In a study by Pabst, Brand and Wolf, they sought to determine whether or not stress had an effect on decision making in individuals. As part of the experiment, 40 healthy male students were chosen (ranging in ages 18-34) and randomly assigned to four groups. One group was the control, while the other three performed a decision-making task at different times. The participants were given a demographic questionnaire after their arrival. The Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) was administered and the first salivary sample was taken at baseline. Stress was induced by the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST). As part this test, participants answered 10 questions in order to evaluate how they felt at the moment on a scale of 1 to 5. A higher average score indicated that there was a higher negative affect. Then, participants had five minutes to prepare before they performed two consecutive tasks in front of a committee (composed of two confederates that acted neutral and distant). Participants who were part of the control group did not leave the test room. Participants in the stress group were taken into another room where they were introduced to the committee.