CAUSE ANALYSIS ESSAY: THE CAUSES OF STRESS

Stress is the root of, if not all, most evil in the modern world and as such, needs to be treated with the respect it deserves. Getting to grips with stress involves understanding the underlying causes and developing coping mechanisms. Follow the plan below to write an essay discussing the causes of stress.

Introduction: Discuss stress as a physical reaction with survival value and explain how things have changed in the modern world. Mention some of the effects of stress – it is debilitating, destroys peace of mind and undermines the quality of life – and indicate that in order to solve the problem, one has got to understand the underlying causes. End your introduction with the following thesis statement:

Thesis statement: Stress occurs as a result of both the pressures of modern life and certain outside factors beyond one’s control.

Development:  Divide the development into three paragraphs as follows:

Development 1, topic sentence: One of the most widely recognized reasons of stress in modern society is the pressure to succeed, to get ahead and to be the best. Provide support by giving examples: students and exams, the scramble to bag the best jobs, office politics, keeping up with the Jones’ and the like as well as the price one pays for participating in all this.

Development 2, topic sentence: A second common cause of stress is high expectations and unrealistically high standards one sets oneself. Provide support by tying into the previous paragraph. The social pressure discussed in the previous paragraph is reflected in the perceptions of the individual as well. Remember to provide examples.

Development 3, topic sentence: Lastly, there are a plethora of factors beyond our control which are universal causes of stress. Provide support: divorce, death of a loved one, sickness, losing one’s job, the kids leaving home, accidents, natural disasters and the like… Remember to give examples.

Conclusion: Listen to your teacher read the following short text to you: “Two Essential Skills for an Emotionally Healthy Life” and take notes. The text is a blog and very conversational in style, which makes it ideal for this kind of activity. It comes off psychologytoday.com, was published on Feb. 19, 2011 and was written by Dr Jeffery Bernstein.  Make a note of the solutions he suggests and summarize them for the conclusion.

Refer to my second blog, The Essay Archive, for sample essays: https://theessayarchive.blogspot.com.tr/