DECLARATION

It is hereby declared that dissertation submitted by me in the partial fulfillment of the

requirements of M.Ed on the topic “A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF STRESS

AMONG GRADUATE STUDENTS” is my original work. To the best of my

knowledge and belief, no dissertation has been previously submitted on this topic.

Date: (SONI SHAKEEL)

Place: Bareilly M.Ed

Rakshpal Bahadur Teachers Training Institute,

Bareilly (U.P.)
 CERTIFICATE

It is to certified that the dissertation entitled “A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF

STRESS AMONG GRADUATE STUDENTS” has been completed by

Soni Shakeel as a part of her M.Ed study under my guidance and supervision. I

recommend the dissertation to the submitted for the Degree of M.Ed of Rakshpal

Bahadur Teachers Training Institute, Bareilly

Date: Signature of the Supervisor

Place:

(Assistant Prof. Dharamveer Gangwar)

Faculty of Education

Rakshpal Bahadur Teachers

Training Institute, Bareilly

 ACKNOWLEDGMENT

All researchers are cooperative efforts. A researcher has to seek cooperation of the oeoile

around, right from the stage of identify the area of research to finally submitting the

research report. The researcher is guided by surrounding about the way to make other

help in research process. The present study is no exception in these terms the same has

happened with the researcher.

This study was made possible through the cooperation of numerous teachers, principals,

librarians, school officials, and students in various schools. The researcher is thankful to

all of them and apologetic also as she is unable to credit by name the individual

assistance provided by them in gathering the facts and figures.

The researcher feels proud and privileged to have a learned teacher with extensive

research experience in Assistant Prof. Dharamveer Gangwar, Rakshpal Bahadur Teachers

Training Institute, Bareilly. Who was very kind enough to guide the researcher at each

step and made her aware as to why and how to do things the way they are done in a

research work. The researcher feels over whelmed with gratitude to his for the individual

time support and motivation; he generously extended as a supervisor in leading this

dissertation to completion.

The researcher takes this opportunity to register her heart felt thanks to all her teachers,

who extended their generous guidance and time whenever they were approached, and

proved to be motivating.
Force during the entire research process, However, she would register special thanks to

Prof. Amita Bhatnagar, Ass. Prof. Satish Chandra, Ass. Prof. Morpal Singh and all the

faculty of department of B.Ed/M.Ed for their motivation to meet the deadlines.

The researcher is heartedly thankful to her parents and brothers who always supported

and motivated her to conduct this study finally, the researcher acknowledges the

cooperation of her friends and classmates, and is thankful to them for being more than to

help her whenever she got stuck in the research process.

Date: Soni Shakeel

M.Ed Student
 CHAPTER – 1

INTRODUCTION
 Introduction

A Brief Study

“Stress is the non specific response of the body to any demand made upon it”.

(Hans Seyles, 1973)

We hear this stress word everywhere these days; from senior citizens to adults;

even it is not uncommon to spot stress in children. Well, what is stress?

Simply put, stress is the reaction of the body to everyday pressure & tension.

Besides, it gives a feel of being unhealthy all the times.

“Stress is commonly regarded as a part of the graduate school experience”

(Saunders & Balinsky, 1973). Graduate students not only have stress in college, but

also within society. Graduate students must meet the demands of life outside of college.

There are some common stressors that graduate students tend to experience while in

college. Some of these common stressors that graduate are: transition to graduate school,

test anxiety, academic performance, family commitments, and finances. Graduate school

has been known to be a time of multiple and rapid changes in life for young adults. “It

was reasoned that more experienced students should be less stressed by the demands of

graduate school” (Kreger, 1995, p. 345). Stress in graduate school has been related to

poor academic performance, coping problems, poor family relations, and dropping out of

graduate school (Saunders & Balinsky, 1993). Graduate students may experience an
increase in emotional difficulties and high levels of stress in their graduate school

experience. Graduate study often leads to the postponement of various life events.

Stress can be positive or negative:

1. Stress is good when the situation offers an opportunity to a person to gain

something. It acts as a motivator for peak performance.

2. Stress is negative when a person faces social, physical, organizational and

emotional problems.

Factors that are responsible for causing stress are called stressors such as:

Transition: A large number of graduate students belong to the adolescence stage.

This is a transition stage between childhood and adulthood. The stage is characterized

by rapid physical changes and mental development. According to Abolarin (2010)

adolescence stage is define as the time when individuals begin to function

independently of their parents. Behavioral scientists have often referred to

adolescence as a period of “storm and stress”, the biological oriented psychologists

have attributed this pronounced period of storm and stress to the adjustment required

by the tremendous physiological and psychological changes both in body structure

and functioning (Anusiem, 1995). According to Kai-wen (2010) students at this

level may sometimes experience incompatibility of their mental development with

their physical changes or with social environment and thus suffer from problems
arising from inadequate adaptation. These problems may further case psychological

troubles and even induce deviant behaviors.

There have been many studies (Schafer, 1996; Fisher, 1994; & Altimaier,

1983) which have reported strong relationship between stress and graduate students.

Stress has been associated with the major life events, daily life hassles and changes in

life. It is created by excessive environmental & internal demand that need constant

effort and adjustment.

Marriage and parenthood are actions that, while not impossible to combine with

graduate school, may be postponed because the individual feels that they will interfere

in some way with the graduate work”

Financial Issues

Finances can be a strain for graduate student. Hudson and O’Regan

(1994) found that financial concerns cause significant stress for graduate students and

produce high levels of stress. Many students prefer to undertake graduate study on a

full-time basis, rather than on a part-time basis. Sources of money then become

important for the student. “There are sources within the university for loan and jobs

that become part of the educational program, such as teaching assistantship”

(Arnstein et al., 1999, p.48). Graduate programs provide financial aid with

assistantships or fellowships. Some of the other students support themselves through

ancillary jobs. “The income from such jobs may solve their fiscal crisis, but students
often find themselves exhausted physically and distracted mentally” (Arnstein et al.,

1999, p. 52). Personal loans are an additional source of financial support for graduate

students.

When students start to have financial troubles, their outlook on life may be

dramatically affected. Many studies (Hodgson & Simoni, 1995; Arnstein et at.,

1999 and Saunders & Balinsky, 1993) have found that financial problems during

graduate study were strongly related to psychological distress. Financial constraints

are a reality for almost all graduate students.

Family Commitments

Many students have career and family commitments that make full-time

student. The older students may feel a little lost since they have been in the school

setting for years. Younger students may feel intimidated by the older students due to

the fact that they are more experienced. “Graduate students tend to be older and to

lack recent experience in taking exams” (Sapp, 1996, p. 80). Grade competition is

also a stressor that is related to test anxiety. “Graduate education is competitive”

(Rittner &Trudeau, 1997 p. 148). Getting involved in a study group could help an

individual release some of their anxiety by asking their colleagues questions that they

are uncertain of. To alleviate test-anxiety, students should not compete with one

another (Dukelow, 1980).

 Course Load

Coursework can add a great deal of stress in a graduate student’s life. Most Graduate

students know what they need to have in order to stay in graduate school. When a

graduate student first starts, they will notice that the readings for each class are double

from what they were in undergraduate work (Rittner & Trudeau, 1997). Some

graduate students will take the maximum credit load that their programs will allow them

so that they can finish sooner. This can cause a great deal of stress for graduate students

having 4-5 classes and having readings, assignments and papers/projects to do.

“Increased coursework stress among students with higher academic success may be

related to higher self-expectations for maintaining their high academic standing”

(Nelson, et. al, 2001, p. 766)

Commitments that interfere with their graduate work such as childcare or caring

for aging parents. These all require time and energy. Students may build up a great

deal of stress due to these added factors while in graduate school. “Depression and

loneliness can interfere with the student’s performance and be a source of conflict for

both partners (Arnstein et al., 1999, p. 59). The impact graduate school has on

marriages may be different from one couple to another. The impact of these

difficulties may not have been anticipated or considered beforehand (Arnstein et al.,

1999).
 If the couple has children, the household responsibilities may become more

difficult to maintain. There has to be a great deal of flexibility in the family so that

they can complete the program. Poor family relations can cause a student to have an

even greater amount of stress during their graduate study.

Test Anxiety

Two of the main components to having test anxiety are worry and emotionality

(Sapp, 1996). Those graduate students who have heightened test anxiety tend to

perform worse. This is not always true though. Some students tend to work better

when they are under pressure. There are various reasons why some graduate students

may experience test anxiety. Some of these reasons are due to the age differences in

the graduate school.

1.2 Need of the Study

The problem of stress has acquired considerable importance in recent years. It is not only

a clinical or organizational problem but has family and social ramifications also. More

and more people are now recognizing its negative effects in terms of physical and

psychological disorders. Recent researches demonstrate that the stress may also have

beneficial effect (Mathew, 1985, pestonjee, 1987).

Inpsyhcho – Physiology, stress refers to some stimulus resulting in a detectable

strain that cannot be accommodated by the organism and which ultimately results in
impaired health or behavior. In common parlance, however the terms ‘stress’ and ‘strain’

is used synonymously in non-scientific manner. The popularity of this concept has

dwindled in the physiological field where is first introduced but the use of stress

terminology continuous to flourish is psychological and social sciences.

Hans Selye first introduced the concept of stress in the lif sciences in 1936. It is

concept borrowed from the natural sciences. Derived from the Latin world ‘stringier’,

stress was popularly used in the seventeenth century to mean hardship, strain, adversity

or affection. It was used in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to dente force.

Pressure strain or strong effect with reference to an object or person, in engineering and

physics, the term implies and external force or pressure exerted on something with the

intention to distort and being resisted by the person or object on which it is exerted.

Life would be simple if one biological and pshychological needs were automatically

gratified. However, as we all know that there are many obstacles both environmental and

personal in each person’s life that may interfere. Such obstacles place “adjectives

demand” or “stress” on the individual (J.C. Coleman, 1988). So stress is that stage

which exerts so pressure on the individual that requires adjustment or he has to adjust

himself accordingly. The mental health of the individual does not developed in the

absence of stress. Each individual shows fast development in such conditions when he

responds in satisfactory manner to stressful circumstances.

1.3 Origin of the study

Late in the nineteenth century, Charls Darwin’s theory of “natural selection” and

Edmund Spencer’s concept of “survival of the fittest” focused attention on the idea that

human survival involves adaptation to the ‘natural’ demands of living. Physician soon

began to view illness as the result on the part of man’s perceptual struggle with social as

well as natural forces.

Early in the twentieth century, the means by which human and animal adopt to stress

came under scientific study. In the United States, Walter Cannon (1941) studied the

“Fight or flight” phenomenon, an arousal reaction called forth in time of danger, cannon

started using phrased such as “great emotional stress” or time of stress” in a clear

physicological sense, when reporting his psycho endocrine experiments on the fight or

flight phenomenon of the organism. The primitive response helps an animal or a person

to stand a flight or to flee the enemy and is therefore caused an adaptive survival

mechanism.

Later in this century, Dr. Hans Selye (1936), a Canadian stress physiologist, further

documented cannon’s findings and coined the term “stress” in the life sciences for the

non-specific response of the body to any demand for an adaptation made upon it. He

defined stress as a “General adaptation Syndrome”. General, because it is produced by

the hormones, that have an arousal effect on the entire body. ‘Adaptive’ because it
stimulates body defence mechanism, thus increase the chance of survival, and

‘Syndorme’ because its individual manifestation are coordinate, and inter dependent.

Stress involves an initial alarm reaction similar to cannon’s “fight or flight” reaction. This

is followed by a stage of resistance to disease or recovery. Finally, if the organism is

unable to adopt, there is a stage of exhaustion leading to death.

It is now agreed that the ability of a person to function physically, psychologically and

socially plays an important role in both, health and disease.

Actually the word, ‘Stress’ is a term used in the 15 th century as a shortened or apathetic

form of “distress” (Rees. 1976), to denote obnoxious human experience. Shorter oxford

English Dictionary determined that in 11th century ‘Stress’ meant ‘hardship, trait

adversity or affection’. As a psychological phenomenon, stress can be viewed as the state

of an organization in any situation where he perceives that his well-being is endangered

and he must develop all of his energies to its protection. Together social and

psychological requirement of stress as generic term despite disagreement about its precise

definition among different disciplines.

1.4 Stress

Stress is difficult to define partly because it means different things to different

people. Mason (1975) reviewed literature on stress and concluded that there was

confusion and lack of consensus regarding its definition. The concept of stress has been
popularized in the field of (i) physiology (ii) physical & life science (iii) Medical

Sciences and (iv) Engineering.

Selye (1956, 1973) has defined stress as a non-specific response of the body to

any demand made upon it.

The term stress has been used variously to refer to i) stimulus external force acting

on the organism ii) Internal drive iii) Response changes in the physiological functions iv)

interaction between external forces and the resistance opposed to it as in biology and v)

more comprehensive combinations of both the factors (Selye 1979). Most definitions

emphasize one aspect of stress more than the other does.

Cannon (1929) considered it as a pattern of physiological reactions that prepare

as organism for action.

George Eugel (1979) associated stress with the equilibrium of the body system.

When a person feels a pressure exerted upon him. Individual tries to resist the force

pressure, to maintain the original state of equilibrium. The process gives rise to distress

which manifests in the form of psychosomatic symptoms.

“Either fight or fight” The fight or flight response used by stone ancestors is no

longer appropriate. It is dangerous also. It later year, the concept of stress has been

substantially modified by Selye (1979) himself from “non-specific response of the body”

to general adaptation syndrome”.

 Stress is bodily experience that generally refers to the circumstances that place

physical or psychological demand on an individual and to the emotional reactions

experienced in this situation. Stress has physiological glandular and psychological

components coming up at various degree and combinations.

The stress response is not always harmful to unpleasant, stress is quite of the spice

of life the feelings so exhilaration, excitement and challenges that makes living a fun.

Stress is non-specific result of any demand made upon the body be it a mental or

somatic demand for survival and the accomplishment of our aim.

Adams (1983, in kamaruddin, 1997), stated that the biggest problem among

schooling teenagers is the matters associated with their schooling. Other than that,

problems that female students have to deal with are communication and family problems.

For the male students, their side problems are problems with getting involved in sports,

recreation and financial problems. The many responsibilities and pressure cause stress to

the graduate school students like need to achieve good academic grades, character

building and good attitude besides trying to comprehend with their personal needs.

Levine, 1970 (in Dobson, 1980), explained that stress has a relationship with a

specific situation like a learning environment in school and the inability to do work

perfectly and the failure to achieve anything that is desired. The issues of students doing

things like punching teachers, cursing, slandering and hurting teachers, position and

others calls for researchers to see the mentioned phenomena is connected to the stress

situation among graduate students.

 Fariza (2005) who conducted a research on the stress among graduate students

found that this age group has to deal with the academic world. Therefore, there exists

demand and hope for themselves, their parents, teachers and the society to see them

succeed. This is parallel to the research by mates and Alisson (1992) which finds that

among the academic factor that contribute to the stress in graduate students is their

achievement in academics. Therefore, when stress is associated with academic

achievements it is hoped that a suitable teaching and learning method is created so that

stress will not exist among students.

Research based on the stress levels that are experienced by graduate students have

been done by Chin (2005) on students form Tunkn Abdul Rahman (TAR) school,

Malaysia. Mean while, Godzilla (2006) conducted a research on the stress levels in

female students in a university. Although past researches have been on the stress

phenomena, the findings of these researches is hoped to be able to assist directly or

indirectly in managing students who are dealing with stress with that it is hoped that an

effort or a program that can prevent stress among students will be planned out.

Information about the stress that is experienced by students can also help the more

authorized group like parents, school and society in giving guidance to students on

handling the stress that exist in them.

Other than that the education curriculum that stresses on academic achievement by

focusing on the importance of examinations should be re-evaluated. This is because it

may cause stress to the students. The importance of this research is to help avoid stress

form the beginning.

Researches on the difference of stress levels between sexes are usually conducted

directly or indirectly. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to verify the result of

previous researches that concluded female students experience more stress compared to

the male students like the research by Gadzella and Baloglu (2001) which found that

female students experience stress during changes in their life. While Mohammad Shah

(1993) found that, there is significant difference between the stress experienced by male

and female students and the research by Mohd. Jafri (1991) shows that students

experience more stress when faced with problems compared to the male students. From

the researches that have been conducted, it is hoped that a program can be created and

applied to the students especially the female students.

Among the question that need to be answered are, does the need to achieved good

academic have an impact on the stress experienced by students, in there a difference

between stress in experienced by students, is there a difference between stress in female

and male students. I hope that with the research that is conducted can help identify and

understand the stress that is experienced by students and can help the students deal with

the stress.
1.5 Statement of the Problem

“A comparative study of stress among graduate students”.

1.6 Definition of the Terms

CONCEPTUAL DEFINITIONS

The researcher has defined the main terms considered for the study.

COMPARATIVE STUDY

A term used in which two or more cases or groups are considered loosely to

indicate conceptual meaning and a careful examination or analysis of a phenomenon,

field or a subject.

STRESS

Stress has become such as ingrained part of the our vocabulary and daily

existence, thus it is difficult to believe that our current use of the term originated only a

little more than 50 years ago, when it was essentially coined by the Hans Selye in 1936,

who defined it as “non-specific response of the body to any demand for change”.

Stress is also defined as “A physical, mental or emotional reaction resulting from

an individual’s response to environmental tensions, conflicts and pressures”.

 B.Com : B.Com stands for Bachelor of Commerce. Duration of B.Com degree

spans over a period of 3 years. The degree provides the students with a wide range of

managerial skills and competence in an area of commerce. It equips students with the

knowledge of accounting principles, expert and import laws, economic policies and other

aspects that impacts trade & business. B.Com students can opt for jobs like Accountant,

Finance Manager, Financial Analyst & Marketing Manager etc.

B.Sc : B.Sc stands for Bachelor of Science. Duration of B.Sc degree spans over a

period of 3 years. It offers theoretical as well as practical knowledge about different

subject areas. These subject areas usually include any one of the main science fields

(Physics, Chemistry & Biology) and other fields depending on the specialization a

student opts. Persuing a B.Sc course is most beneficial for students who have a strong

interest and background in Science & Mathematics. The course is also beneficial for

students who wish to pursue multi & interdisciplinary Science careers in future.

BA : BA stands for Bachelor of Arts. Its Duration spans over a period of 3 years.

Bachelor of Art is a flexible course allowing students to adapt to changing demands of

the employment market and demands of the employment market and meet their career

demands. It opens up a wide range of opportunities for the students in Journalism,

Library and Information Science, Social Work Departments, Advertising Agencies etc by

taking courses in the Arts and Humanities one can depend on cultural understanding and

awareness in addition to developing analytical, critical thinking, written and

communication skills.
1.7 Significance of the study

Stress happen when we feel that we cannot cope with pressure and this pressure

comes in many shape and forms, and triggers physiological responses.

Although there has been considerable study about stress and anxiety, much of

research has focused on adult conditions. This study is intended to review stressful events

in the life of graduate students.

As our society is dynamic and progressive, there has been a considerable change

in the socio-economic status, school environment and home environment of students.

Stress is helpful when it increase our ability to be alert, energized, switched on and

resourceful in facing challenges we enjoy or have to deal with, but stress becomes

unhelpful when it leaves us feeling fatigued, tense, anxious, burnt out or overwhelmed.

The tipping point between helpful and unhelpful stress is different for each of us and can

depend on what is happening in our lives. Therefore, it is necessary to find out if there is

any change in the stress level of the students.