RESEARCH JUSTIFICATION
YEAR ONE INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH STUDIESResearch Topic: Health in Singapore
Chosen Area of Focus: The Effects of Stress on the Mental Health of SST Students
1. Framing our research topic
Our chosen area of focus is “The Effects of Stress on the Mental Health of SST
Students.” We have chosen this topic as most of us face stress from things
such as exams, peers, trying to meet expectations of our parents etc. Too much
stress causes us to be unhappy. This may lead to a worse academic
performance or a worse relationship with family and friends. (Reuben, n.d.).
Many agree that they should manage stress because sometimes they are too
stressed and realise that we could be happier and many parts of life, such
as their performance at work or school, could be better with less stress. “PNI
(psychoneuroimmunology) research suggests that chronic stress can lead to or
exacerbate mood disorders such as depression and anxiety, bipolar disorder,
cognitive (thinking) problems, personality changes, and problem behaviors.”
(Dombeck, Mills and Reiss, 2008). However, there may also be some good
points of stress, such as pushing you to do things to make a change and
reach a certain goal.
a) The mental health, in this case, means the cognitive ability which is measured
by academic performance, and the students’ happiness level.
b) The advantages are that students can be motivated and pushed to reach a goal.
For example, students could receive stress from trying to do better in
examinations. This would encourage students to manage their time better so
that they have more time to study. It is also found that stress can be physically
enhancing if it is in small amounts. (Knowlton, n.d.).
a) We have chosen the topic, as we want to find out more about how stress can
affect our studies and happiness, and therefore find a change to our lifestyle to
improve on certain aspects of life.
b) This topic benefits society as we will know if the students are overstressed or
under stressed. Thus, the teachers can help the overstressed students relieve
their stress. We can also see if stress causes the students to be sadder and
whether it affects their studies.
3. Feasibility of the research
a) There is a need for our research as some of the students of the students in SST
may be stressed out which will cause them not to be happy and which might
affect their studies.
b) It is possible to carry out and complete the project, as there are many students
in Secondary One who we can do the research on.
c) The project is logical and realistic as the platforms involved are only googleform
(for creating the survey and collating results), email and facebook (for
communication and spreading of the survey), all of which are convenient and
easy to access.
4. Manageability of the research
a) The research provides opportunity for working as a team because we will have to
discuss different parts of the project, such as generating survey questions,
sharing and analysing the collected data etc.
b) We anticipate difficulties like poor communication and lack of data. We intend to
cope with lack of data by encouraging students from other classes to take part in
the survey. We also intend to cope with lack of data (marks) by consulting with
the level head. As for poor communication, we intend to solve it by using
Facebook and email.
5. Accessibility of the information required
a) Information/knowledge that will be relevant to our research would be the stress
level, the grades and the happiness level of the students in SST’s 3rd cohort.
b) We will be obtaining this information by conducting surveys with the SST
students. We will obtain the grades of the students by asking from the level
head.
c) Some problems we anticipate while gathering data is that students might not
answer the surveys truthfully and the data would be inaccurate. Another
problem is that the marks are confidential so the teacher may not reveal them.
REFERENCES
Dombeck, M., Mills, H. & Reiss, N. (2008, Jun 30). Mental and emotional impact of stress. In Stress reduction and management (10). Retrieved 9 August, 2012 from http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=15649&cn=11
Knowlton, S. (n.d.). The Positive Effects of Stress. Retrieved 13 September, 2012 from http://www.healthguidance.org/entry/15537/1/The-Positive-Effects-of-Stress.html
Reuben. (n.d.). Negative Effects of Depression. Retrieved 30 August, 2012 from
http://www.all-on-depression-help.com/effects-of-depression.html
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