Report on the Condition of Psychological Pressure of College Students

Title page Resisting Pressure: Survey on Chongqing University's Students' Psychological Pressure Group6 Supervisor: Wang Xu Chongqing University May 7, 2012 Abstract page Abstract This survey examined the condition of Chongqing university's students' psychological health. Our main aim is to find ways to deal with the pressure we students face. 100 Chongqing university's students were surveyed on both pressure they face and ways they use to deal with that. We predicted that academic pressure,emotional pressure and the pressure of employment can be huge to our students and it's hard for them to deal with that.Actually,pressure from the above three aspects was not that huge for our students,no matter they are science students or arts students,girls or boys. Also,it seems like that our students have their own set of ways to handle these pressure. Still,there are a certain number of students find they struggle to handle pressure from the three aspects,suggesting that Chongqing university 's students mainly stay a healthy psychological condition,but there are still things we can do to improve that. Body Resisting Pressure: Survey on Chongqing University's Students' Psychological PressureNowadays,with the rapid development of China's economy,psychological pressure more and more appear in newspaper,TV,or someone's life,especially,a university student's life. Many factors can be pressure for a university student. For example,academic grade point(GPA),emotional problems or job-hunting difficulties. After summarizing most pressure factors, we classified them to three aspects:academic pressure,emotional pressure and pressure of the employment. So,how the three pressure source affect university students and how the students deal with that?As to psychological sources of stress for college students, foreign research results are generally believed to include academic factors, social factors, life and economic factors, career factors. [i] For example, Misra's research shows tha t the Students' largest source of stress are factors that directly related to learning , such as test scores and test results, the burden of learning;The second largest source of pressure are social environment-related factors such as economic problems, lack of time to communicate with parents and friends. ii]The Armeli group's study shows that students's anxiety caused by the pressure of two aspects;on the one hand, it's high academic expectations that caused them anxious;on the other hand, it is the will of self-development and maintaining good interpersonal relationships contributes to that anxiety. [iii]Domestic scholars found that the pressure sense of college students mostly come from life events when thay are trying to adapt to college life. Severe psychological problems are caused especially by life events which are linked to their personal lives, their parents and family, learning progress , and most of them are negative events. iv]Li Lun and Wang Qian, according to whose r esearch,they pointed out that the psychological pressure of college students can be summarized into the three categories: pressure from family, work , learning problems ,love and interpersonal problems. [v]Li Hong and Mei JinRong's study indicates that college students' main pressure source including:study,job-hunting,interpersonal relationships,life problems,romance,economy,society,tests,family,life and study environment,future,competence,personal affairs(development,outlook,confidence),health,competitiveness. 5 categories in total. [vi] However,it's not hard to see that the studies which have been done mostly are qualitative analysis . Most researches focused on frequency and type of event that caused pressure,but lack the discovery of the psychological experience of degree research. Therefore, we want to use the college students' psychological pressure gauge as a theoretical basis to provide a scientific analysis of mental health status of college students so to put forward some constructive ideas for college students to stay psychological health. . Method ParticipantsParticipants included 100 Chongqing university students (56 females, 44males;61 majoring in science,19 majoring in arts),most of them are in their freshman year,the other are junior students. Materials Stress in college students is texted by 25 questions listed in each of 100 questionnaires. We tested it in three different aspects–academic pressure,emotional pressure and the pressure of employment. participants are requested to make multiple-choice or single choice so let us know the degree of their psychological pressure. Pressure degree is measured on the basis of Students pressure measure table. vii]And ways to handle pressure are concluded from these analysis . Procedure As our first step,we gave away 100 questionnaires ,then we collected the data and made an analysis of it using the Students Pressure Measure Table,at last,we put forward our view and suggestions. Note:M–male( 44); F–female(56);ST–science students(61);AT–arts students(39) Academic pressure group Emotional pressure group I. [pic] [pic] Unexpectedly,a significant difference between science students and arts students was found. However,there was no obvious difference between boys and girls was indicated.We deduced that the former phenomenon was due to the following reasons:For one thing,science students are busy doing their homework or experiments ,when compared with arts students,they have less time to experience loneness and their life maybe much simpler. This point of view was supported by Figure 2—Academic performance was more important for science students than arts students. As the saying goes:Simple is beautiful. Simple life lead to a higher happiness level. For another,it's a new trend which was observed by many sociologists that boys majoring in science are more appealing for girls than boys majoring in arts.Combining with the fact that Chongqing Universi ty's Male to Female ratio is 7 to 1. It's no surprise that boys majoring in science are less pressed by factors like romance but money is a problem. Also unexpectedly,we found that girls we surveyed put more attention the academic factors,Perhaps that's why girls feel more happy than boys–girlfriends' mood may always changing but your GPA is always there. Is that a reason why girls are always studying hard than boys in college? II. [pic] [pic] [pic] We predicted that girls are more easy to feel lonely and have a stronger urge of taking with others.Moreover,they might be more good at dealing with their psychological pressure. Our survey results partly support our idea:most girls are not always troubled with the feeling of loneliness and girls do know how to deal with own pressure—they write letters or diaries;they can cry out or go shopping with friends.. Unexpectedly,compared with boys,they are less likely to talk about their problems than boys. So,why? After looking t hrough our data collecting results,here is the reason:among the 54 girls we surveyed,39 are majoring in science.As we all know,in some science majors,girls are rare,say,The Civil Engineering,so it's no wonder they don't like to talk about it:female friends around them,especially in a same class are are. So,how about build a relationship with boys,treat them as their â€Å"girlfriends†? III. [pic] [pic] [pic] Unexpectedly,it seems like that most students who received our survey all have a familiar results according to the figure1,2,3. Half students will be pressed by others' views ,pressed by the mainstream definition of success,and pressed by dealing interpersonal relationships no matter he or she,science or arts.This phenomenon can be explained by the theory of Group Psychological Effects. ,which says because of the need of seeking belonging sense,individuals will obey the norms and standards of a certain group. However,Group Psychological Effects are not equivalent to each member,that's why the other choose an opposite choice. Also unexpectedly,girls are more pressured by â€Å"success† though we traditionally thought that boy was the one who shouldered too heavy an expectation. All in all,we found that students in Chongqing University generally stay in a healthy emotional pressure level,and the existence of there pressure sources might be a good thing.Because it can help college students mature both physically and mentally thus they will learn to understand others and get along well with themselves. We always believe that EQ is more important than IQ,so the pressure can increase their EQ,even stimulate them to rebuild a better self. Job-hunting pressure group Discussion The purpose of this study was to find how different levels of pressure college students bear and put forward constructive methods to deal with that.We predicted that a large number of college students are experiencing or have experienced different levels of depression caused by pressure. In this study,those students that we tested mostly showed healthy psychological condition and a good knowledge of ways to let out pressure. Thus,our hypothesis was not supported by this study. But,how and why? Is it true that college students are living happily and without pressure given by society. We postulate that this result can be explained by the following reasons:First of all,the concept of â€Å"vanity† may explain this unusual phenomenon.Fear of being other people see themselves vulnerable and the trend to pretend optimism as all people like optimistic make them choose some options which are not true. Secondly,our participants mainly are freshmen,in their first year in university,the impact of pressure from the three sources are small as everything is new which attract their most attention. Last but not least,it's maybe cultural background that affects our students choice. For example,most westerners are used to express theirs feelings directly,however,we Chinese are more familiar with words like†just so-so†,†not bad†,which are not clear to escribe our feelings. And that may make an effect on our survey. In conclusion, the results of this study provide some fascinating insights into the pressure level Chongqing University students feel. Contrary to what we predicted, most students may indeed always stay in a good psychological condition and know a lot to get alone with their emotion. This research and other research to follow will contribute to knowledge of the main condition of Chongqing University students and good ways to deal with pressure. —and possible advantages—of skipping meals.The mixed results of this study suggest that we have much more to learn about resisting pressure in college. ———————– [i] Rawson H E,Bloomer K,Kendall A. Stress,anxiety,depression and physical illness in college students. [J]. The Journal of Genetic Psycholog y,1999,155(3);321-330. [ii] Misra R,Mc Kean M. College students' academic stress and its relation to their anxiety,time management and leisure satisfaction[J]. American of Health Studies,2000,16(1);41-51. [iii] Armeli S,Gunthert K C,Cohen L H.Stressor appraisals,coping,and post-event outcomes:The dimensionality and antecedents of stress-related growth[J]. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology,2001,20(3);366-395. [iv] Guo JinWu,She ShuangYu. A Preliminary Study of College Students' Sense of Life Stress. [J]Psychological Science,1996,19(2),;123-124. [v] Li Lun,Wang Qian. University Students' Mental Stress: Life Events And Coping Style Characteristics[J],Medicine And Society. 2002,8(1);27-31. [vi] Li Hong,Mei JinRong. Development of Stress Scale for College Students. [J]. Applied Psychology,2002,8(1),:27-31.