It is Important to Think through Possibilities in Stressful Situations

09:49, May 30, 2023

Psychologist tells how to help students and parents get through the exam season

The exam period is coming. Anna Pechurkina, Head of Department of the UrFU Faculty of Psychology, told how to deal with emotional well-being and anxiety during exams and other stressful situations. With the support of the Russian Science Foundation (project No. 23-28-01515, "Emotional well-being of a schoolchild: specific features of individual differences and academic success"), she conducted a study of the relationship between emotional well-being and academic success.

"It is important to understand that it is normal to experience emotions and to show them. We all have feelings: we are happy, we show anger, and so on, and we do it to different degrees, because we have different individual differences. If we are talking about the Unified State Exam, then the experiences are justified. A certain period of life is over, one situation of personal growth changes into another," Anna Pechurkina explains. - In this case, adults play an important role. First of all, they help to recognize their individual characteristics. And secondly, they prepare the child. On the one hand, parents say, "We have faith in you, you are very good. But on the other hand, it is very important to tell the child that it's okay "if you get a different score than you thought, it is not going to change your life, it's not as critical a situation as it might seem".

The task of the adult, the psychologist believes, is to think clearly and logically and to present different options for the development of events and actions. This will help to manage the emotional state and anxiety.

"You do not have to exercise these options, but you have to have them in your head. When we have these options, we become calmer, more emotionally balanced, stable, prepared, because we know what to do. Anxiety is often due to imaginary situations, invented when there are no objective factors to worry about, and we begin to form these thoughts ourselves and constantly refer to them, maintaining the anxiety. The peculiarity of the emotional sphere is that as soon as it comes to the fore, everything connected with logic disappears. That is why the mistakes a student makes, for example, in simple tasks, are often related to it," adds Anna Pechurkina.

When passing the exam, the expert advises not to focus on the final score, but to focus on the knowledge gained while studying.

"There are two concepts that are considered synonymous - academic achievement and success. But they are different. Academic achievement is a quantitative characteristic, it is related to assessment. On the one hand it is objective, on the other hand there is an element of subjectivity in any assessment. Success in learning activities is a concept that has to do with self-assessment. Success and academic performance are not directly correlated. A person can study with "C" grades, but still feel successful and emotionally calm. Moreover, a child can be a "C" student at school, but when it is time to get a professional education, he or she becomes in a completely different environment, where potential begins to unfold, and the student becomes interested, and shows a different attitude," explains Anna Pechurkina.

According to the psychologist, the environment we live in and the relationships we build with it have a great impact on how successful we are. In addition, the level of personal activity, the motivation of a person, and the ability to act appropriately to the situation are important.

Reference

Psychologists from the Ural Federal University are conducting a large-scale study. With the financial support of the "Priority 2030" program they are implementing the project "Human well-being in the conditions of digital transformation". The goal of the scientists is to identify the criteria of human well-being in various fields and to offer practical tools for a happy life.

The news article was translated by UrFU International Marketing Office. 
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