Reaction and Coping to Stress
APA style, would prefer 1 or 2 references from psychology books.
People react to and cope with stress in their lives in a variety of ways. Consider your midterm and final exams as examples. How stressful are these experiences for you? What are the physiological, emotional, behavioral, and cognitive reactions you usually encounter before and during your exams? In other words, what changes do you notice in your body, emotions, behavior, and thoughts? Psychologists recommend several strategies to cope with stress, including emotional, behavioral, cognitive, emotion-focused, and problem-focused methods. Which strategies do you currently use during exam time? Which methods would you consider incorporating in the future? In a multi-paragraph essay, first describe your physiological, emotional, behavioral, and cognitive reactions to the stressor of taking exams, and then discuss two strategies (emotional, behavioral, or cognitive) that you might use to cope more effectively. Be sure to include details from class materials, readings, and research to support your discussion.
Reaction and Coping to Stress
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Stress is inevitably part of a student's life and may affect how they cope with school life. Stress has rampant effects on memory, caused by the actions of different stress mediators. There are various causative stress factors among students, including but not limited to work, family problems, illnesses, finances, and exams. Mid-term and final exams can lead to substantial stress, prompting different ways of reacting and coping. Different neurological transmitters, peptides, and hormones are integral drivers of stress impacts on memory (Schwabe et al., 2022). This paper discusses personal experience with stress drivers, specifically exams, and analyzes physiological, emotional, behavioral, and cognitive reactions to this stressor. The paper also includes an evaluation of emotional-focused coping and problem-focused strategies effective for coping with the exam stressor.
Physiological, Emotional, Behavioral, and Cognitive Reactions to the Stressor of Taking Exams
Mid-term and final exams cause a substantial amount of stress in my life. During the exams, I noticed specific physiological changes in my body, like increased heart rate, sweating, muscle twitching, tunnel vision, muffled hearing, uncoordinated feeling, muscle aches, fatigue, and decreased appetite. Increased anxiety and restlessness accompany such physical manifestations. Regarding emotional reactions, I experience invulnerability, denial, fear, irritability, distressing thoughts and dreams, and loneliness. Such feelings adversely affect my memory and concentration and may cause negative self-talk like self-doubt. Also, I experience such changes in behavior like reduced effectiveness, levels of activity, communication difficulties, frequent arguments, inability to rest, change in sleep pattern, and difficulties in focusing on reading. Cognitive changes I experience during exams include forgetfulness, confusion, low attention span, concentration difficulties, slow thinking and analysis, disorientation, and loss of objectivity (Crosswell & Lockwood, 2020). Such reactions to the exam affect my mental health. Ultimately, exposure to life event stress and stressful life may lead to poor mental health.
Strategies to Cope with Stress
I find various applicable stress coping strategies, including emotion-based and problem-focused coping strategies. The methods of copying rely on such determinants as health, the nature of the stressful event, personality factors, and well-being. Considering the nature of the stressor, the exam, seeking emotional support is an effective coping strategy. Seeking emotional support enhances effective and efficient problem-solving, and during exams, I find t...