Name:Long Huayu ID:13470826 Tutor’s name: Anne O’Brien Title:The Causes and Effects of Stress(字体：times of new roma, 小4)
Stress is a human reaction process caused by external stimulation, which includes psychological stress and physical stress. Stress leads to rapid increase of hormones in people's body (BBC, 2013). When the stimulation is exerted to people's body, a small area at the bottom of the brain which is called the hypothalamus will react (BBC, 2013). "The hypothalamus through stimulation will produce hormones which include adrenaline, these hormones will help you process any difficult problem or stress you are facing, which is called "fight or fight" effect" (BBC, 2013). This essay will analyze the causes and effects of stress in modern life and give some advice about how to release the stress. Firstly, this essay will explore the causes of stress in our society. Why does this situation happen? Psychological stress is a process of nervous mood that we have to deal with in our daily life. In modern times, we live in a fast-paced society with high consumption. With economic development, people's material life is improved rapidly. At the same time, all kinds of stress are increasing in our daily life, like work stress, study stress, social stress, relationship stress and family stress. Among these we have to attach great importance to work stress, because work stress has become a serious problem that not only influences our physical and psychological health but also brings some negative effects to our society. So that people cannot avoid experiencing the anxiety and depressed mood and this stress has become part of our daily life, no matter young or old. All of us are facing with harmful stress. Secondly, this essay will explore the negative and positive effects of stress. The negative stress includes mental health and physical health. The final section will focus on how to release stress, giving the readers some better ideas for that.

Several decades ago, an office worker was deemed to be one with a little stress, but in modern times work stress is becoming a serious problem concerned by universities administrations. "We used the job demand-control (JDC) model (Karasek, 1979) to define work stress as experiences that are caused by a variety of individual physical and mental activities in the work process and that produce a certain psychological stress load" (Snyder et al, 2008, paragraph 5)."Gmelch, Wilke, and Lovrich (1986) reported five distinct dimensions of perceived stress on academic staff: reward and recognition, time constraints, departmental influence, professional identity, and student interaction"(Ablanedo-Rosasa et al, 2011, paragraph 2). All kinds of occupations involve severe challenge and competition with other people, which is an inevitable thing. One who gets a job through competition necessary feels nervous about this job and it will affect the mood of person in question. There are many stresses in the working space, for example when a person receives some disadvantageous assessment or is given a different work in another position, such a situation can create a nervous complexion(Raitano & Kleiner, 2004). Sometimes, working stress can have positive effect. Almost everyone wants a promotion opportunity for economic or other reasons. "According to a survey conducted by Shanghai Medical University in 2000, 29.7 percentage of the surveyed hospitals in Shanghai, the largest city in East China, reported tensions between doctors and patients (Yuan et al., 2007). In 2001, the Chinese Medical Association investigated 326 hospitals, the majority of which were located in East China, and found that medical disputes occurred in 98 percentage of the investigated hospitals. A correlation was also found between the medical tangle and medical worker's mental health (Ma et al., 2013). These findings indicate that the doctor–patient relationship is an important factor which increases the work stress of medical workers and, thereby, affects their mental health" (HU et al, 2014, the para21). Everyone wants to earn more money to improve their material life. However positive complexions like raising pays and promotion can also lead to stress(Raitano & Kleiner, 2004). In work setting, individuals need to complete their work at hand which is their responsibility(Raitano & Kleiner, 2004).In an organization, interpersonal relationship leads to stress among individuals (Raitano & Kleiner, 2004). If someone's job expectation is not distinct, it will lead to a confused experience (Raitano & Kleiner, 2004). Someone who wants to have a better performance at a high level may make his colleagues feel more stressful. Others may have the conflict with colleagues, which could also cause stress (Raitano & Kleiner, 2004). Though all kinds of work cause certain kinds of stress, many occupations cause more stress than others. Nevertheless, each occupation has its underlying causes of stress according to its occupational requirement. " Researchers have identified that there are four main factors that are sources of stress across all occupations: first is task demand; such as the demands in the work environment with regard to the stigma associated with the Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management 555 job; second is job security; lower levels of job security caused higher levels of stress; third is work overload; quantitative or qualitative in nature (Palmer, 2004); and the last is physical conditions; individuals who work in the outdoor elements will experience stress from natural factors such as weather conditions. Extremely hot or cold temperatures naturally occur from time to time. Individuals who work in an office can experience stress from the internal design of the office setting. Most individuals now require a private setting for conducting business, which allows the individual to have autonomy from the others in the internal environment (Wales, 2003)" (Ablanedo-Rosasa et al , 2011, paragraph 7).

Stress comes from many details in our daily life as a student. In modern times, long schooling has become an inevitable trend. The number of people with high degree is increasing rapidly. Some researchers think that students stress comes from their homework and exams, on the other hand, many researchers think that gender difference is the main reason for relationship-related stress and autism among youngsters (Hamper & Petermann, 2006; Hankin, Mermelstein & Roesch, 2007; 2004). At first, a survey of stress shows that if girls and boys experience equal stress, girls will have higher level of depression (Hampel & Petermann, 2006; Hankin, Mermelstein & Roesch, 2007; 2004). Several surveys show that girls will have more stress than boys in their adolescence (Lewinsohn & Hops, et al, 1990). Moreover, there are more reports saying that girls have more interpersonal relationship stress from their peers and family members than boys(Aseltine & Colten,et al, 1993). Some studies show that girls tend to think in a negative way, but boys tend to think in a positive way (Seiffge-Krenke, et al, 2009). Furthermore stress of Chinese high school students shows different influence on autism (Liu1 & Lu, 2009). Some students are feeble to study stress, but others are not. In addition, good school climate and culture are useful for reducing stress of Chinese high school students and their depressive mood (Liu1 & Lu, 2009). For instance, a researcher finds out that a school with excellent climate helps reduce adolescents' study stress and mental problem (Kuperminc et al, 2001). Students not only have mental problem but also study stress. Almost every student must face college entrance examination. Many students have mental stress because of college entrance examination. They are afraid that they may not be enrolled by a great college and thus cannot get a good job. Some students have autism, especially college students suffering from academic stress, job hunting stress, financial stress, personal relationship stress and so on (MD, 2010). Maybe such stress comes more from high parental expectations.

Social stress can be found in various aspects of our daily life. There is putting together dinners and lunches for special occasions, there are some parties that you do not want to attend, and there are some people that you simply cannot stand to be around. Besides, stress also comes from three aspects of daily life, relationship, family and current social situation. Relationship is very complex in our society. Whether people are single or married, dating with friends or trying to stay alone, good relationship is always good for reducing stress (Sheahan, 2014). When relationship goes with a swing, people usually do not experience much stress, but when conflict takes place, even a slight one, can take people into bad mood in a minute (Sheahan, 2014) When this situation happens, if problem can be resolved, then the stress can be mitigated. Stress also exists between parents and their offspring. Every family has different kinds of stress. In recent years, late marriage has become one of them. The level of our life is improving day by day, but the age of getting married is becoming older and older. Many parents are worried because their offspring have not got married or got a baby. It is difficult to know which opinion is right. Social stress also comes with holidays, because in holidays, people need to spend much money on gifts, activities and meals (Sheahan, 2014). Some people believe that these social duties must be fulfilled, so they suffer from stress and trying to manage something at the same time in their way (Sheahan, 2014). This is the one effect of stress, which is the positive effect. Recent survey shows that genes are closely related to individuality and maybe can decide the stress tolerance. Moderate stress can make people challenge themselves, exploit potential, work efficiently and make people have more creativity (BBC, 2013). Positive working space always make people have positive attitude. "In a line of reasoning congruent with the conservation of resources model, Fredrickson suggested that positive emotions provide immediately and enduring benefits because they create physical, intellectual, and psychological resources that individuals can use on the spot or hold reserve to manage future threats. It is suggested that when employees experience positive events at work, they will generate new ideas, additional resources, better social relationships, and improved problem-solving via recognition of a wider scope of possible solutions, thereby reducing stress. " (BONO, 2010, the ninth paragraph) The connect between work cases, emotions, and mood attitude are very important for stress. For example, when staff do some positive work, work with a positive supervisor, and positive coworker, they will give more positive feedback (Glomb, & Hulin, 2005), and on days when staff receive over their expectation (i.e., promises are exceeded), they undergo positive and happy emotions. (Conway & Briner, 2002) About positive attitude, for example job satisfaction, researcher found that both positive aspect and negative aspect have equal value. (Thoresen, 2003) Sometimes, work stress can improve efficiency of work that people are not interested about it. Some bosses use hunger method to inspire staff to improve their performance. "Many researchers have found that stress can be positive for some people. There are individuals who work well under stress and are more productive as the workload becomes more intense and deadlines approach. Given the differences in individual aptitude, stress can result in a career change or could result in a new and better position within the organization. The result of stress could also generate new ideas, more creativity, and competitiveness (Wales, 2003).Absolutely, studying stress has many positive effects." (Ablanedo-Rosasa, 2011, the ninth paragraph). Almost every school has exams in every course. On one hand, exam is a way to text student's learning level and knowledge level; on the other hand, exam can cause stress that push students to study harder. So, to some extent, studying stress can encourage students to study harder and acquire higher score, out of which students find satisfaction.

Another effect of stress is negative stress, which include physical stress and mental stress. The word "stress" is a special one. It is used to explain emotions, difficulties, negative and even mental illness. Emotion difficulties need to be considered as social factor, life incident and biological factor (BBC, 2013). Excessive working stress has many negative effects. Researchers found that many psychological problems are related to stress, including overweight, nervousness, anxiety, testiness and so on (Juniper, 2003). It is significant that everyone knows that these are real menace related to stress (Juniper, 2003). Some people suffer from physical and mental problem. However others developed ways to deal with stress(Juniper, 2003).When some people uses a negative way to deal with stress, they experience aggravated attitude, which leads to poor achievements and judgment. "Ornelas and Kleiner (2003) found that, in some cases, stress develop into a pathological reaction that could result in extremely adverse reactions such as drug abuse or suicide. In today's working space, there are many factors that can cause individuals to become stressed, such as overworking and dealing with difficult customers. There can be serious consequences for an organization and the individual when there are negative stresses, including depression, anger, headache, and over- or under-eating" (Blevinsb et al, 2011, paragraph8). A researcher discovered that negative working space has harmful effect on fundamental needs like sense of belonging and autonomy (Cohen & Wills et al, 1985). For example, Children are always worried about failing their parents' expectations. Some students even choose suicide for not having good performance in some important examinations.

A lot of surveys have indicated that negative job-related peculiarities like long working time, low control at their work and high work needs lead to cardiovascular illness as well as mental and physical result (Dimotakis et al, 2010). Other surveys have connected daily work trouble (e.g detest work responsibility ) to body symptoms, for example headache and slight fever, feeling wobbly and rough, back pain and so on. Survey has also discovered that negative working space affects body health (Kessler et al, 1989). In a survey on immune system, two researchers found that negative cases are related to diseases (Smith et al, 1993). "Stone and colleagues also found that among study participants infected with a virus, those with more negative life events exhibited more symptoms, even though mood and stress did not differ for those who did and did not develop colds " (Stone et al, 1993, paragraph17).

In conclusion, stress can produce both negative effects and positive effects to people. Everyone needs stress to live well to some degree. It is the reason for you to wake up in the morning and live up the whole day. Nevertheless, whether it becomes a problem depends on the amount of stress. Human brain is defined the most complex matter in cosmos. And everyone has his particular experience from which we progress our individuality. The complexity of human emotional life is enormous. (BBC, 2013) The relatively more important factor is biological factor. There are neurotransmitters and nerves in brain and each of them has got certain functions and were very important for mental health. (BBC, 2013) Nervous feeling can happen in a short period time or last for a long time, for instance, someone is unemployed or having a bad relationship for a long time. Oversize stress can also lead to many kinds of physiology diseases such as headache, cardiovascular disease. It can also cause work accidents and bring economic damage to organization. Stress is a serious problem around the world. Stress is called "popular disease all over the world" by world health organization. Reducing some unhappy elements and making yourself happy may be useful ways to release stress. To keep happy is very important in our life. Firstly, people should control their mood and learn to calm down. Relaxation will help people reduce stress. With a light music or a cup of coffee, you can lie down and take a rest for the moment. This can be very helpful. Even if causes of stress don't disappear, you will feel more able to resolve it when you release your nervous body and uptight muscle. There are other ways to reduce stress, too. A most common method used in learning how to release stress is by doing breathing exercises. The inhaling and exhaling help the body to catch itself and your heart beat to regulate your system, so as to release your depression and anxiety. Secondly, people should do exercise and keep fit. If you do not want to do exercise sharply, just take a walk, especially strolling outdoors. Thirdly, eating chocolate and sweet food can make people feel happy. Chocolate can make people relax their body and change their mood. Most girls love shopping and sweet food very much. In conclusion, reducing some unhappy factors and give yourself a happy mood may be a great way to release stress.

Reference List:
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