Title:

How do second-year psychology students describe their
experiences of university stress?

Abstract:

 Purposive sampling and semi-structured interviews were used as well as Interpretative phenomenological analysis being utilised to analyse the transcripts and quality checks were implemented to increase the validity of the analysis. Three superordinate themes were identified with each superordinate theme had two sub-themes each. Such qualitative research is rare in the university related stress literature for psychology students. Suggestions for further research regarding students coping with university stress.

Introduction:

There are now more students aiming to enter an increasingly competitive job market, which exacerbates the pressure to achieve a respectable degree (Robotham & Julian, 2006). In addition to financial and employment pressures, as well as completing exams and assignments is a period of significant change in a student’s life, with heightened levels of stress (Fisher & Hood, 1987). In a study conducted by Hirsch and Ellis (1996) the came to the conclusion that university students put extreme pressure on themselves to get a good grade, earn a degree, and get a job as soon as they finish their studies. Although, this is possible to achieve, the negative effects that come with sort of pressure could cause a student to do poorly in one assignment or exam due to the stress they have subjected themselves too and create even more stress for themselves by punishing themselves for not achieving as good of grade as they could have.

Moyle and Parkes (1999) believed that
given the high levels of stress and change students are faced throughout
university and the pressure placed on their coping resources, support from friends
and family is invaluable during this period. McEwan (2000) also claimed that
brain regions respond to acute and chronic stress and show changes in
morphology and chemistry. Using the previous relevant research as a guideline
its expected that the participants will describe their experiences of
university stress by revealing the sources of their stress and how they deal
with their stress.

Method:

Participants:

Four second year students studying psychology at University participated in this piece of research. It was key to obtain information from a variety of different perspectives however is some homogeneity in some participants such as; gender, age, and subject of study (see Table 1). Purposive sampling was used in this piece of research because it means that the researcher can select participants based upon a particular purpose to meet their particular needs.

Procedure

A semi-structured interview was used to
collect data from the participants regarding their experiences of university
stress. This was decidedly the best method because it meant that the researcher
could collect data relating to university stress using prepared questions but
could also delve deeper into a participant’s answer by using probing questions
that encourage expansion on a certain point. The interviewer began fully
informing the participant that the interview would be audio recorded and used
anonymously to analyse later on. This was fully by a full explanation briefed
about the purpose of the experiment and that the participant has the right to
withdraw at anytime. The participant would be interviewed using the prepared
questions along with any probing questions used, as well as debriefed and after
the participants were interviews the recording was then transcribed.

Analytical approach:

A qualitative study was thought to be
best because it meant that the researcher could gather more detailed data from
the participants. Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) was the chosen
method of analysis in this piece of research because it allowed the interviewer
to explore the subjective experiences of the participant, and help to describe
and understand the respondent’s account of the processes by which they make
sense of their experiences of university stress (Brocki, Wearden,2006). Critical
realism is the ontological stance of IPA; this means that there is a reality
however it is subjective because everyone interprets reality in different ways
(Furlong, Marsh, 2010). This means that the epistemological stance of IPA is
interpretive because it attempts to make sense of the subjective views (Furlong
et al, 2010). IPA was used as a method of analysing the data by creating
transcripts from each participant’s audio recording. Each transcript was read
several times so that the researcher was familiar the data which was then coded
in order to create emergent themes which would eventually become categorized
into superordinate themes. The process was the same for each participant
resulting in a table previewing the superordinate themes, sub-themes, and
quotes from the transcripts to support the creation of the themes.

Reflexivity:

Qualitative analysis is a subjective
process and IPA recognises that a researcher’s perspective usually affects the
analysis (Golsworthy & Coyle, 2001).
Having a good understanding of IPA means that the researcher’s personal
perspective relative to the research topic is presented, to assist the readers
interpret the analysis and for transparency (Elliott et al. 1999).
The researcher’s interpretative framework has been influenced by: previous
research in stress. It is also recognised that the analysis is influenced by
the researcher’s perspective and the framework applied to understand the data.

Findings:

Effects of student stress

The results of how the participants
described their experiences of university related stress revealed that there
were a range of different effects of stress that can stretch from physical
effects to psychological effects, which were found to be a dominant effects of
stress (see appendix 2 for themes and quotations). The psychological effects of
stress can be seen in Iris’s transcript in which she stated that:

 “I don’t know how to put it in words, not just stress, it was the worst feeling ever”.

When you consider what most people go
through in their lives, for her to say it was “the worst feeling
ever” goes to show the toll stress had taken on her causing her to feel
the worst she has ever felt. There is also evidence in Jessica’s transcript in
which she described one of her experiences in dealing with university related
stress as feeling so much anxiety that it felt like she was drowning. There is
also evidence in Anil’s transcript which reveals that he suffers from high
levels of anxiety but without mention of a drowning sensation. There is further
evidence of psychological effects of stress in Smokie’s transcript which
suggest that he regularly suffers from mini breakdowns that help to motivate
him to work but the motivation goes after a day or two which creates another
mini breakdown due to the buildup of responsibilities.

There is also evidence to suggest that
the participants suffered from physiological effects as well as psychological
effects. The main evidence comes from Anil’s transcript in which he described
one effect of his university related stress that stated:

“My face gets lots of spots when I am feeling stress.”

For the effects of stress to manifest in
a physical way is worrying but not uncommon, for example in Smokie’s transcript
he revealed that he cries a lot because of university related stress. In Iris’s
transcript she describes an effect of university related stress by revealing
that coping with all the responsibilities and stress of university makes her
feel weak, which would be categorized as a physiological effect as well as a
possible psychological effect due to the fact that you feel weakness rather
than show it.

Sources of student stress

The results of how the participants
described their experiences of university related stress revealed that there
were a variety of different sources of stress for university students which
range from university work such as assignments or exams, to life after
graduation. Both are considered in these participant’s transcripts to be
dominant sources of stress. University work as a source of stress for it’s
students is evident in all transcripts with perhaps the most evident comes from
Anil’s transcript in which he states that:

“A time umm when I experienced stress the most during university is when I have a massive report due.”

This not only reveals one source of
stress for this student to be reports set by the university but it also goes to
show that this participant feels most stressed at university when set reports.
This also relates to Smokie’s transcript in which he described his stress
levels as being high when it came to deadlines which isn’t that dissimilar to
Anil’s quotation due to the fact that both feel highly stressed because of work
set by the university. Further evidence can be found in Jessica’s transcript in
which she described her feeling of drowning in anxiety to be a result of a lack
of understanding when it came to analysing data.

Evidence for his future life as a source
of stress for university student is evident in the transcripts but the most
evident comes from Smokie’s transcript which stated that:

“teachers do things for me and like my parents do things for me, because I don’t feel ready to do things for myself.”

Again, this not only reveals his main
fear for his future life to be, but it also shows how he has got as far as he
has, which is down to the support he gets from those around him. This can also
be support by Jessica’s transcript which described her opinion of her future
life as one of confusion as to what her she would be doing in her future life
and whether she would enjoy it or not. There is also evidence in Iris’s
transcript which reveals that she is still struggling with dealing with all the
university related stress but she is hopeful that her future life will be
better.

Dealing with student stress

The results of how the participants
described their experiences of university related stress revealed that there
were several different methods of dealing with stress used by the participants
ranging from the support of family and friends, to the amount of support they
give themselves. Evidence of support from family and friends as a method of
dealing with stress can be found in all the participants transcripts, however,
the main evidence for this point comes from Iris’s transcript in which she states
that:

“My mum is always being there for me and loves me and I
have had some other woman in my life, I talk to her about my problems”.

 This reveals evidence of support not only from
her mother but also from another woman who isn’t a family member but would be
regarded by her as a friend that supports her. This example is not unlike
Jessica’s transcript in which she reveals that she uses her flatmates as a
method of coping with her stress.

Another example of a participant using
the support of family and friends as a method of dealing with university
related stress comes from Smokie’s transcript in which he says that he gets a
lot of help from his parents and when he usually gets stressed out with
university work he talks to his friends.

Self-support is what a person does or
doesn’t do to help themselves throughout their first two years of university.
Evidence from Jessica’s transcription states that:

“I procrastinate a lot” […]

“whenever I have something to do for Uni, suddenly I get a major interest to do something else”.

This clearly shows the lack of
self-support she gave herself which meant that instead of doing university work
she would ignore her responsibilities and find something else to do. This
results in a build up of responsibilities that can create an overwhelming
feeling of stress and possibly cause other problems for the student according
to the evidence previously discussed regarding the manifestation of
psychological problems into physicals ones, for example Anil and his facial
spots.

More evidence for a lack of self-support
can be seen is all the transcripts, for example in Smokie’s transcript in which
he describes himself as a corner-cutter who often does things he doesn’t enjoy
with half of his effort even though he understands that this is one of the
reasons why he gets behind on his university work creating more stress for
himself. Further evidence can be found in Anil and Iris’s transcripts in which
they both reveal that they struggle when it comes to self-support. Anil gets
stressed when he attempts to tackle problems by himself, whereas Iris goes
through periods of time where she feels like she cannot deal with problems by
herself.

Discussion:

In summation, the analysis of the data
has revealed that the participants all describe their experiences of university
stress in a similar manner; the effects of stress on students, sources of
stress for students, and dealing with student stress. Each superordinate theme
had two sub-themes each, which were the result of a variety of emergent themes
that were combined and adapted to equate to the final themes in the analysis.

The participant’s descriptions of the
effects of university stress related to those described by McEwen (2000) who
believed that stress began in the brain and affected all organs and muscles but
none more so than the brain. Using his research combined with this experiments
data means that it’s possible localize psychological effects of stress to the
burden of chronic stress which can result in behavioral changes (smoking,
excessive eating, binge drinking, little or no sleep). Physiological effects of
stress can be localised using the same method in which McEwan (2000) claimed
that brain regions respond to acute and chronic stress and show changes in
morphology and chemistry. This could explain why the participants were affected
the ways they were.

The difficulties related to university
work but more specifically; exams and assignments, can be linked to Yumatov
(2001) who reported that exams can influence a strong psychological and
emotional reaction in students, with feelings of stress experienced before and
during, that can persist until they receive their results afterwards, with many
experiencing anxiety and stress over the outcome. Gadzella(1998)
argued that it’s the uncertainty and anxiety that is the main cause of the
stress as opposed to the exam itself. The pressure of graduation as well as
post graduation life is as serious source of stress as any according to the
data from this experiment and is also supported by Hirsch and Ellis (1996).
This could explain what the sources of the participants university stress was.

The participant’s experience of dealing
with university stress can be related to other similar cases such as Moyle and
Parkes (1999) who believe that given the high levels of stress and change
students are faced throughout university and the pressure placed on their
coping resources, support from friends and family is invaluable during this
period. Without friends, students have more limited resources at their disposal
to assist them in the university work as well as emotional support. An absence
of friends also makes it more likely to consider dropping out (Paul &
Brier, 2001).
This could explain why the participants used the supportive systems they used.

Using a qualitative approach provided
depth and detail in that it looked deeper than analysing ranks and counts by
recording attitudes, feelings and behaviours. Similar to the reason why a
semi-structured interview was chosen because it allows the interviewer to be
more spontaneous in their questioning without being too sporadic. That being
said, there are usually fewer people are studied in qualitative report because
a collection of data is generally more time consuming that quantitative data
collection and therefore unless time, staff and budget allows it is generally
necessary to include a smaller sample size. It also means that it’s difficult
to generalise because fewer people are studied and it’s not possible to
generalise results to that of the population. A qualitative report is also
dependent on skills the of the researcher particularly in the case of
conducting interviews, focus groups and observation. As an overall summation of
this study it can be concluded that there is need for further research regarding
university stress as a result of the data and previous relevant research.

References

Abouserie, R. (1994).
Sources and levels of stress in relation to locus of control and self esteem in
university students. Educational psychology, 14(3), 323-330.

Brocki, J. M., & Wearden, A. J.
(2006). A critical evaluation of the use of interpretative phenomenological
analysis (IPA) in health psychology. Psychology and health, 21(1),
87-108.

Dahl, C. M., & Boss, P. (2005). The
use of phenomenology for family therapy research. Research methods in family
therapy, 2, 63-84.

Denovan, A., & Macaskill, A. (2013).
An interpretative phenomenological analysis of stress and coping in first year
undergraduates. British Educational Research Journal, 39(6),
1002-1024.

Elliott, R., Fischer, C. T., &
Rennie, D. L. (1999). Evolving guidelines for publication of qualitative
research studies in psychology and related fields. British journal of
clinical psychology, 38(3), 215-229.

Fisher, S., & Hood, B. (1987). The
stress of the transition to university: a longitudinal study of psychological
disturbance, absent‐mindedness and vulnerability to homesickness. British
journal of psychology, 78(4), 425-441.

Furlong, P., & Marsh, D. (2010). A
skin not a sweater: Ontology and epistemology in political science. Theory
and methods in political science, 184-211.

Gadzella, B. M. (1994).
Student-life stress inventory: Identification of and reactions to stressors. Psychological
reports, 74(2), 395-402.

Gadzella, B. M., Masten, W. G., &
Stacks, J. (1998). Students’ stress and their learning strategies, test
anxiety, and attributions. College Student Journal.

Golsworthy, R., & Coyle, A. (2001).
Practitioners’ accounts of religious and spiritual dimensions in bereavement
therapy. Counselling Psychology Quarterly, 14(3), 183-202.

McEwen, B. S. (2008). Central effects of
stress hormones in health and disease: Understanding the protective and
damaging effects of stress and stress mediators. European journal of
pharmacology, 583(2), 174-185.

Paul, E. L., & Brier, S. (2001).
Friendsickness in the transition to college: Precollege predictors and college
adjustment correlates. Journal of Counseling & Development, 79(1),
77-89.

Robotham, D., & Julian, C. (2006).
Stress and the higher education student: a critical review of the literature. Journal
of further and higher education, 30(02), 107-117.

Ross, S. E., Niebling, B.
C., & Heckert, T. M. (1999). Sources of stress among college students. Social
psychology, 61(5), 841-846.

Smith, J. A., & Osborn, M. (2007).
Pain as an assault on the self: An interpretative phenomenological analysis of
the psychological impact of chronic benign low back pain. Psychology and
health, 22(5), 517-534.

Weinstein, L., &
Laverghetta, A. (2009). College student stress and satisfaction with life. College
Student Journal, 43(4), 1161.

Yumatov, E. A., Kuz’menko, V. A.,
Badikov, V. I., Glazachev, O. S., & Ivanova, L. I. (2001). Emotional stress
in students during examinations. Human Physiology, 27(2),
221-227.

Appendix 1

Appendix 2