Grace Trinidad

Mrs. Thomas

UWRT 1103-020

20 February 2018

Stressed, Depressed, and Academically Regressed

The science of psychology in itself is tricky business. When you think of ​Psychology​,

some of the first words that might pop in your head could be ​brain, mind, behaviour, Sigmund

Freud​, and even ​personality.​ We think of everything in terms of understanding the mechanics of

the brain and how we can distinguish and/or manipulate certain humanistic behaviours from

others, etc. However, most of us do not often explicitly associate learning (let alone higher

education) with the social science.

As an Engineering student, college is not a breeze. There are certainly high expectations

of me in terms of managing academics, activities, leisure, etc. If things are currently not stressful,

they can and they will be. So what happens when you reach a maximum level of stress? In fact,

we must first ask ourselves, what is the main source of the stress? Is it solely the workload?

Friends, perhaps? ​Everything else that I’m supposed to do in 24 hours but cannot because it’s

literally impossible, ​maybe? (duh). But what if it’s really none of those? What if it goes way

back to your essential needs for survival as a human? And how much exactly does that affect

how we handle learning and academics?

In the past few weeks, I have been struggling to manage everything. The worst part of it

is not knowing what the main problem is. This semester’s workload is highly manageable and

flexible. But why is it that I am in a bigger crisis now than I was last semester? How come I am
not reaching my highest potential? I am certain that I am not the only student asking this in

college. According to ​apa.org​, around 61% of college students report having anxiety (45% of

which report stress). Concurrently, many of those students do not know the answer and/or are

trying to fix the wrong problems. But in the midst of the dilemma, one thing was clear -- I had no

drive. No, it is not because I cannot handle the work or because I hate school and I hate

engineering. The lack of drive felt much deeper than that. I felt like I needed something else and

that something in my life, completely unrelated to learning, was missing. Perhaps an

extracurricular activity, money, friends, or even love. And maybe that is what causes my stress

and that is what has been affecting my cognition.

If you are in college, there is a higher chance that you have heard of Abraham Maslow. I

know that I am not a Psychologist, but in the world of Psychology (and the world, basically),

Abraham Maslow is best known for creating what is called ​Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.

Figure 1​. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Descriptively, it’s structured as a pyramid with the first level being the ​Physiological Needs

consisting of: breathing, food, water, shelter, clothing, and sleep. The next levels become less

and less necessary for survival per se. Needs are categorized into a hierarchy, in which certain

needs must be met before others (Maslow, 1943). If these needs are not met, then all efforts are

focused on these needs. Hopefully, you can see where I am going with this essay. Needless to

say, quality learning and higher education is at the top of the pyramid -- it is not urgent.

According to the article ​Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and Its Relation to Learning and

Achievement​ from the University of Florida, “When learners are preoccupied with these concerns

[non-academic needs], learning and achievement are regularly put on the back burner. Why?

According to one human psychologist, it’s because current concerns are driving the learner’s

behavior.”

This makes a lot of sense as to why students might not be performing as well as they can.

If the student is not taking care of their physicality, there might be biological consequences and

deficiencies as a result. If some of their emotional or perhaps even financial needs are not met,

then the student could be distracted either actively or passively through stress and anxiety. On

the contrary, there are many psychologists and students who point out certain flaws with the

hierarchy. Some might even completely disagree. The human population is way too diverse to

generalize a certain concept. And that is exactly my question. ​How dependent is quality learning

to the hierarchy of needs? ​I believe that it is an important question to answer not just for me, but

also for the majority of students who find themselves questionably struggling. I want to further

my research into the implicit and explicit relationships of learning with these needs and
ultimately provide/suggest solutions. The most important step to solve a problem is to define it

(Feisel, 2013), and I intend that to be the purpose of this thesis.