As December begins, most college students are entering their last week or so of classes. Even as the pressure of final exams, projects, and papers rises, the effects of this pressure will look different in different students. Some are propelled forward by adrenaline, perhaps at a pace they haven't matched all semester. Others may feel paralyzed, stopping in their tracks right when they need to step up their game. Many students will experience a combination — feeling the boost in some courses or with some tasks, and the paralysis with others.
This moment is a ripe opportunity for coaches to bring up the "stress curve" or Yerkes-Dodson law*. The basic premise is that some level of stress or pressure is productive, generating energy, movement, and focus in the mind and body, and motivating high performance. Too little stress results in low motivation and leads to low performance; too much stress leads to low performance as well, but the cause is burnout and exhaustion rather than boredom. There is no standard best level of pressure — each individual will have a unique stress curve.
Students may experience different "ideal stress levels" depending on the course, the task, and their self-efficacy around that material. The key is for them to investigate themselves, identify their needs, and craft actions that work for them. A coach can ask questions such as these about any major end-of-semester task:
- How much pressure to you feel to complete this task? Do you need that pressure level to increase or decrease in order to get moving?
- If you don't feel motivated, what can you do to increase your awareness of what's at stake, and begin to take action?
- If you feel overwhelmed by the pressure, what can you do to ease the stress and generate small gains?
- Daily concrete tasks can increase momentum and can also decrease overwhelm. Whether you need more pressure or less, what is something you can do today, tomorrow, and the next day in relation to this final exam, project, or paper?
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*Awada, Mohamad; Gerber, Burcin Becerik; Lucas, Gale M.; Roll, Shawn C. (2024). Adaptation of the Yerkes-Dodson law "inverted U-curve" for stress arousal and performance that incorporates appraisals of the experience.. PLOS ONE. Figure. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0296468.g001
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