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What is academic stress? Academic stress occurs when a set of academic-related demands exceed a student’s existing capability to manage and adapt to these demands (Wilks, 2008). This involves mental distress regarding expected academic challenges or failure, or even fear of the possibility of academic failure. How does academic stress affect my performance? While a moderate level of temporary stress can be beneficial, improving attention and memory and enhancing immune function, prolonged or excess stress impairs both cognition and immune function. Prolonged stress can increase the hippocampus’ vulnerability to damage, with rats under prolonged stressful situations showing shrinkage in hippocampal volume and memory impairments (Kim et al., 2017). Excess stress in short-term academic situations, such as taking a high-stakes college admission exam, can impair information processing and execution (Beilock, 2008). Academic stress can also result in unhealthy coping mechanisms such as problematic smartphone usage, particularly in students with lower levels of problem-focused coping (Xu et al., 2019). These directly lead to poorer academic performance, resulting in even worse academic stress. Stress tolerance varies from person to person - a healthy level of stress for one individual could be debilitating for another. Thus, it’s important for us to gauge how much stress is too much and manage it accordingly. How do I manage academic stress? Write about your concerns towards the situation for a short period of time, immediately before tackling it. In the laboratory, Beilock (2011) found that writing about one’s worries about an upcoming test for 10 minutes immediately before taking it eliminates poor performance under pressure. This was especially applicable to students with a tendency to worry on tests (high test anxiety). Expressing their worries allows people to glean some insight into the cause of their stress, enabling them to re-assess the situation. This reduces the tendency to worry during the actual stressful situation, which prevents the resulting impairment of information processing and execution. Reaffirm your self-worth by listing important values like relationships with friends and family, or focusing on reasons you might succeed rather than reasons you might fail. Affirming important values buffers students from worrying about their ability to succeed because of discrimination due to factors such as gender and race, freeing up precious information processing capacity in their working memory to focus on the problems at hand (Beilock, 2011). Stop comparing yourself with others. Everyone’s performance is subject to many different factors: their background, the resources available to them, even their personal situation. Don’t value your accomplishments solely based on how they look compared to others: instead, compare your current self to your past self. Acknowledge and celebrate your growth, and learn to celebrate the achievements of your peers as well. This leads to a more positive and productive mindset that is less susceptible to being overwhelmed by your own academic demands for yourself. If you are facing academic stress and need professional support or coaching, do schedule an appointment with us at http://psychologyclinic.sg/index.html or call +65 6970 5611. References Beilock, S. L. (2011, September). Back to school: Dealing with academic stress. Psychological Science Agenda. https://www.apa.org/science/about/psa/2011/09/academic-stress. Beilock, S. L. (2008). Math Performance in Stressful Situations. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 17(5), 339–343. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8721.2008.00602.x Wilks SE. Resilience amid academic stress: the moderating impact of social support among social work students. Adv Soc Work. 2008;9(2):106–125. Xu, T., Wang, H., Fonseca, W., Zimmerman, M. A., Rost, D. H., Gaskin, J., & Wang, J. (2019). The relationship between academic stress and adolescents' problematic smartphone usage. Addiction Research & Theory, 27(2), 162-169. https://doi.org/10.1080/16066359.2018.1488967 Comments are closed.
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