Stress of First-Year College Students at Record High

Hamdan Alsulaimani

Reference:
Rumsey, M. (2011, February 2). Stress of first-year college students at record high. Retrieved 2, February 2011, from http://media.www.thebrownandwhite.com/media/storage/paper1233/news/2011/02/08/News/Stress.Of.FirstYear.College.Students.At.Record.High-3974285.shtml


Summary:
This article discusses the stress of freshmen who have more stress than sophomores, juniors, or seniors. Moreover, the factors that cause the stress for the freshmen are financial, psychological and emotional health of students, and the perception of the job market. There are examples of these factors respectively. The first is that the students did not receive the entire amount of money the aid from their college because they do not hand in the necessary papers on time. The second is they did not adapt to the college life quickly and their families were not with them to encourage them. The third is the chances were very weak to get a job after graduating. The students suffer a lot of stress through the first year at university.


Reaction:
This article talks about the stress with freshman in the first year at the university. I was interested when I read the article because it describes the difficulties that face the students who want to achieve their goal in the college life. Moreover, the author gave us the problem which is the stress that faces the freshman, but he did not give us the solution. He should suggest the solution about the students who did not hand in the necessary papers on time. For example "why did they not hand in the necessary papers on time? In this situation, he should give the ways that help the students to hand in the necessary papers on time. When I was reading the psychological problems that face the student, I was waiting for the way that reduces the stress such as the exercises. Unfortunately, he did not write this way. Also, the author mentions that the chances to get a job are very weak. When I was reading these sentences, I asked myself, "What are the reasons that make the chances to get a job poor?" If he were writing these reasons, the article would have been more interesting. By the way, some students do not have the stress when they study in the first year at the university. Finally, the article was interesting, but it will be best with the solution for these problems that face the students.

Friends and Bad Decisions

Moatasem AL-Ridha
Reference: Parker-Pope, T. (2011, February 3). Teenagers, Friends and Bad Decisions. New York Times blogs. Retrieved February 8, 2011, from

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/03/teenagers-friends-and-bad-decisions/?scp=1&sq=teenager,friends%20and%20bad%20decisions&st=cse

Summary:
In this article, the author shows the new study about the teenagers' behavior. This study focuses on the effect of the teenagers' friends on their decision and on their behavior when they become together. The researcher makes an experiment on three groups of people by examining their brains while playing a specific game. He checks the brain signals for all the participants while they are alone and when they are watching with their friends. After that, he compares the results in two situations; he found there is a big effect on the teenagers' decisions when they are watching with their friend; their decisions become more risky and stupid.


Reaction Before I read this study, I already had information about the effect of friends on the teenagers' decisions and behavior. But this study confirms this effect in a scientific way even when the adolescent not in the same room. It is very important information for the parents and all society. We should take care when we are dealing with teenagers especially when they become with their friends because they may be treated in a bad way by us. This study explains the bad behavior of the adolescents with their parents with them, particularly when the parents are trying to advise an adolescent in front of their friends. Although I was very excited when I read this article, there are many points in this study I want to discuss it. First, I think the number of people who participated in this study was very small. Also, the researcher analyze of one specific situation. If we are looking for a perfect result in this study, we should examine a very large number of people in different ages and in many situations. Finally, the presence of friends in the lives of adolescents is not always bad; there are many adolescents who become more innovative when they stay with their friends.

Seasonal Affective Disorder: The Birth of the Blues

Hamdan Alsulaimani

Reference:

Glenn, C. ( 2011, January 27 ) Seasonal Affective Disorder: The Birth of the Blues. Retrieved 27, January 2011, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/glenn-c-altschuler/the-birth-of-the-blues_b_813509.html

Summary:

This article discusses the relationship between seasons of the year and the moods of people. The author explains what kinds of disorder a person has when he faces different seasons of year or different events. Moreover, the person is affected by the time and special events. For example, the fall season makes the person feels hopeless. And another example, birthdays and holidays make the person be more hopeful. Finally, the parts of year and particular occasions make the human reacts to every situation in his life.

Reaction:

This article talks about the relationship between the season of year and humans. In fact, there is close correlation between the season of year and humans. I am happy with this article because when I read the heading of the article I expected that I would find a lot of scientific information in it. The author just showed what is happening with humans in the parts of the year and some occasions in his life. If the author wrote how it is happening, it would be great. The author should give the reader information about what is the thing that makes the person affected by the season of year is. On the other hand, the author should give the reader what is happening inside the body of humans ( psychological side). When I was reading the article, I was asking myself these questions; what is the main reason that makes the human change his current situation to another situation? Another question is, how is the immune system affected? And this question is cells inside the body of human harmed? In fact, I asked these questions because as we know the human has physical and psychological sides. I am satisfied with this article because it lets me know that there is a strong relationship between the season of year and the events of humans.

A Teen’s Personalized Guide to Managing Stress

Hugo

Reference

Kenneth R. Ginsburg, MD, MS Ed, FAAP, and Martha M. Jablow. Publish by the American Academy of Pediatrics. (2006). A Teen’s Personalized Guide to Managing Stress. Retrieved February 2^nd, 2011 from http: www.aap.org/stress/buildersstress-teen.htm

Summary

In this article, the author described everyone would have stress include adults and kids. Stress comes from our brain, and it can affect our moods and behaviors. The author also gave us an example which about Sam and Zalda escaping from a tiger, because their stress help them to change the hormone and nervous system in the emergency situation, so they can run faster than usual. In out life, we always have some stress, which is only a mild stress, or not real emergency, if we think this problem is very terrible, the stress would make we feel bad. Finally, the author also mentioned managing stress has many ways; don’t try the harmful choices, which is bad for us.

Reaction

In this article, I was very interested the author described about how the stress produced; how it affect our moods, body and life, and which is a good ways to manage our stress. And I was agree with the author’s opinion which “nobody can avoid all stress”.

But I was not agree with the author’s opinion about which must choose the good way, can not try the harmful choices which is bad for us. In my opinion, find a way to solve or manage stress is very hard, sometimes many ways which other people suggest me is not help, however waste my time and make me get more stress. Consequently, find out a way by yourself, whatever it is bad or good; the most important is which can real help you to solve the stress.

In the modern world, everyone is busy for his or her life everyday, so stress is very common for everybody. But we must realize where is the stress produced from; which stress is good for us, and which is bad for us. Finally, the most important thing is understood which is the best way for you to manage the stress.

Reading Reaction Journal #1

Hamdan Alsulaimani

Reference:
Singah, M. (2010, Sept 21). Math Is Not Hard?. Retrieved 30, January 2011,from
http://www.articlesbase.com/tutoring-articles/math-is-not-hard-3357928.html
Summary:
This article discusses the difficulties which face the students in Mathematicsclasses because they did not know the basic subjects of mathematics.Mathematics has very interrelated themes and if the student misses one ofthese themes he will face a problem to solve questions of mathematics. So thestudents always say mathematics is very difficult. Mathematics is very easy ifyou have the necessary information about mathematics.
Reaction:
My major is mathematics, so I was interested in this article. The main reasonthat makes me glad in reading this article is the encouragement that makesthe students change their bad opinion about mathematics. The author tries totreat the psychological side of students when he says,” Math Is Not Hard? “.Although the students have a scientific problem, I think the best way to solveany problem is that we should solve the psychological problems before wesolve scientific problems. Afterward , the author talked about the solution ofscientific problem, which is that we should study mathematics step by step. SoI was interested in this subject, but there is another problem, which is how canthe teacher reach information to students easily ?. The author did not explainthe relationship between the teacher and his process. The answer for abovequestion depends on the skills of the teacher. When I was a teacher inmathematics and when I received questions from my students, I was changingmy way to teach them. Finally, I was very happy because I found a personwho encourages the students to learn mathematics in smart way.

Record Level of Stress Found in College Freshmen

Aki Huang

Reference

Lewin T. (2011, January 26). Record Level of Stress Found in College Freshmen. NY Times, Retrieved February 1, 2011, from http://www.nytimes.com

Summary

This news discuss freshmen’s stress in their college life. In depression period, some parents lost their job and they do not have enough money for their children to go to college. The financial aid becomes an important factor for students when they choose a school. Students worry about their living expense and college debt which exerts students extra pressure on their life. According to the survey, this situation influences students' mental health. Researchers point out that there are many gender gaps in this research because of human being's natural instincts. For example, men are prone to spend more free time for fun and find activities that help them relieve pressure, such as exercise; women are inclined to bear more responsibilities, such as volunteer work when they are free, which does not help them reduce stress.

Reaction

When I finish reading this news, I find that men and women reduce their pressure in different ways. If school can open some courses to teach students right attitudes to face pressure, student’s mental health will be improved greatly. Under financial depression period, if schools can cooperate with companies, providing students some part-time job opportunities, students can not only reduce their economic pressure, but also increase their competitiveness in getting a good job in the future.

What does it take to get us off the couch?

Moatasem AL-Ridha


Reference:Lindell R. (2011, January 26). What does it take to get us off the couch? For Postmedia News Retrieved January 27, 2011, from

http://www.vancouversun.com/business/What+does+take+couch/4172026/story.html


Summary:

In this article, the author focuses on a study which shows the importance of exercise and how it affects our health. The researcher encourages people to do sport activity continually to prevent suffering from different diseases. Furthermore, she tries to explain the true meaning of exercises and to make connection between the exercises and with what people are doing in their life. She mentioned many examples in this study to support her idea. Finally, the author put two schedules to show how people are able to arrange their responsibilities and do exercise.







Reaction

Before I started to read this article, I thought it might be boring because it was not short. However, I began to read it and the first thing that got my attention was the title. There were many points that raised my admiration for this article. The first point was success of the author in choosing the title that makes me read this article to see what is the ways to make us far away from the medical treatment are. The other point, the author said there were not ages to stop or to start doing the sport activities to stay in a healthy body even if you are not athletic. While reading this article, I remembered when I had a backache and I was not able to sleep; so, I went to the doctor and he said you should do some exercises to reduce your pain; I executed the doctor's advice and I felt better. But I stopped doing the exercises because I felt it was an order, not like advice. I felt happy when I read "I think the word `should' should be expunged from the English language". You cannot do anything if you do not like to do it. Furthermore, the author mentioned a very important point when he talked about the time. It is a real problem which faces any person who wants to do the exercise. I got new information about the benefit of the exercises from this article and from the reading in our core book. Finally, he also said we should rearrange our life schedule to do these exercises. Therefore, I will try to manage my time to do some exercises and to protect myself from different diseases

Reading Reaction Journal #2

from:Winnie

Reference

Lewin, T. (2011, January 26). Record Level of Stress Found in College Freshmen. The New York Times. Retrieved January 27, 2011, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/27/education/27colleges.html

Summary

According to this article, men think the emotion health is more important than women. Students’ stress is from the loan, the fact that they can’t find an ideal job, and the economy. Young students think they have to get a higher degree in order to make their wages above the basic wages. Because of the worse economy, the scholarship has become a reason that students choose their college. The stress is not only affecting college students, it’s also affecting the high school student. Different genders have different feelings about stress. In having a good mood, the percentage of women is lower than that of men. Women reduce the stress by talking. Men reduce their stress by exercising more.

Reaction

Our topic for our survey is Ways of Reducing Stress; in this article I got some information. Women will talk about what they feel about making stress easier. I agree with that, because in our culture, we think men should be stronger in any section. They should be brave. For example, we women cry because being condemned for falsehoods is natural, but if men cry in the crowd, we will think he is not brave enough. Therefore men will hide their deeply thinking and be trained to bear more bad things. For the same reason, men will not easily tell people about their stress except his close friend.
Students in different grades have different stress. Basically we have to finish our homework, think about the exam and worry about the relationship with classmates. For freshmen or pre-freshmen, they have to worry about if they can catch up with the courses. In senior year we have to worry about the career that we will have; we have to prepare our autobiography and get ready for an interview for the job. Almost every moment we have stress except the moment that we are thinking about nothing. That is really relaxing.
As I know, Americans are more independent, so their own economy might be one of the stresses in their lives, so it can be proven in our survey that is the economy street he a main part of the stress?

directions

This blog is for EAP1 students posting articles on ways of reducing stress. To post, log on is cesl06@yahoo.com...password is a familiar building we all know, all one word...