One thing that one notices when entering the college world is that their identity changes. The student not only takes on a new identity, but many identities. It is no wonder that around 80% of college students go through high levels of stress daily according to Pavel Gurnik's article The Truth Behind an Average College Student. It isn't just the school work that gets the students stressing through this transformation, but the transformation itself.
When one is adopted into the college atmosphere they not only hold the ascribed statuses of male, female, 20 years old, or African American, but they also acquire the achieved status as high school graduate, the situational status of freshman, and the transitional status of degree seeker. These are only some of the titles they hold under these statuses. The variety of who they need to be becomes broader at this stage in their lives. As a result, they are overwhelmed with stress. While this analysis may seem surprising considering that people deal with identity and role changes every day, college is an agent of socialization that gives one the opportunity to take on more of these identity and roles than they would have in their average limited environment.
As a socializing mechanism, college's intent is to diversify and broaden its students. Because students on average have only 4 years, they are flooded with many identities to presume at once to undergo this educational experience. This can be overwhelming if one already assumes the titles daughter, sister, employee, friend, female, and tutor. On top of these titles college adds the titles student, researcher, workshop attendee, socialite, adult, writer, resource, and many others. This is especially hard to juggle when under standards of a higher achieving reference group. This can cause the student to view themselves more harshly against the scholars and doctors of the areas of their study. That is overwhelming enough to stir up a good percentage of the stress that they experience daily.
As a whole, humans don't experience stress because the amount of things they have to do, but because of the amount of identities they have to assume. The only reason humans commit the actions they do is because of the psychological and sociological roles they try to fulfill. Because a student has been socialized in the school structure they perform the academic tasks given to them when in the frame of the class. This behavior is also seen in parenting when a mother rushes to mend the wound of her bleeding child. The use of reference sources in society is the essential of how socialization occurs. People presume the titles that those around them assume when placed in a similiar circumstance, and once the majority of a culture agrees on the norms that when it becomes acceptable to presume many of these statuses outside of the ascribed ones. For college students, skipping a lecture or refusing a research project that occurs the same time as a family vacation may seem like a leeway in their new academic environment. When trying to balance being a student, family member, friend, and employee they experience identity overload, which lead to the amount of stress they experience, like many others that significant transitions that require taking on more identities.
In the end, stress is a factor that occurs because of the many identities humans have and the way they view themselves. This view of how one sees themselves in society influences the actions they commit to go along with that perception. Without the worries of a boss' expectations or the hours of studying to pass a test to remain an A student there would be nothing to stress about. Stress is all about maintaining one's image in their society, and college students know all to well about trying too balance their many faces.
When one is adopted into the college atmosphere they not only hold the ascribed statuses of male, female, 20 years old, or African American, but they also acquire the achieved status as high school graduate, the situational status of freshman, and the transitional status of degree seeker. These are only some of the titles they hold under these statuses. The variety of who they need to be becomes broader at this stage in their lives. As a result, they are overwhelmed with stress. While this analysis may seem surprising considering that people deal with identity and role changes every day, college is an agent of socialization that gives one the opportunity to take on more of these identity and roles than they would have in their average limited environment.
As a socializing mechanism, college's intent is to diversify and broaden its students. Because students on average have only 4 years, they are flooded with many identities to presume at once to undergo this educational experience. This can be overwhelming if one already assumes the titles daughter, sister, employee, friend, female, and tutor. On top of these titles college adds the titles student, researcher, workshop attendee, socialite, adult, writer, resource, and many others. This is especially hard to juggle when under standards of a higher achieving reference group. This can cause the student to view themselves more harshly against the scholars and doctors of the areas of their study. That is overwhelming enough to stir up a good percentage of the stress that they experience daily.
As a whole, humans don't experience stress because the amount of things they have to do, but because of the amount of identities they have to assume. The only reason humans commit the actions they do is because of the psychological and sociological roles they try to fulfill. Because a student has been socialized in the school structure they perform the academic tasks given to them when in the frame of the class. This behavior is also seen in parenting when a mother rushes to mend the wound of her bleeding child. The use of reference sources in society is the essential of how socialization occurs. People presume the titles that those around them assume when placed in a similiar circumstance, and once the majority of a culture agrees on the norms that when it becomes acceptable to presume many of these statuses outside of the ascribed ones. For college students, skipping a lecture or refusing a research project that occurs the same time as a family vacation may seem like a leeway in their new academic environment. When trying to balance being a student, family member, friend, and employee they experience identity overload, which lead to the amount of stress they experience, like many others that significant transitions that require taking on more identities.
In the end, stress is a factor that occurs because of the many identities humans have and the way they view themselves. This view of how one sees themselves in society influences the actions they commit to go along with that perception. Without the worries of a boss' expectations or the hours of studying to pass a test to remain an A student there would be nothing to stress about. Stress is all about maintaining one's image in their society, and college students know all to well about trying too balance their many faces.
