The Influence Of Awe On Academic Stress Of High School Students

Awe is an emotional response when individuals are confronted with a vast stimulus that surmounts the current cognitive structure.It can not only bring cognitive and social benefits to individuals,but also improve their mental health.With the rise of positive psychology,awe as a positive emotion has been introduced into the study of school education.It is believed that it can provide theoretical perspective and practical reference for students’ moral and mental health education.It also advocated to pay attention to and cultivate students’ awe and positive psychological characteristics.Awe can improve students’ psychological benefits such as life satisfaction and happiness,more humility,less aggressive behavior,and less anxiety and daily annoyance.However,in the study and daily life of students,academic pressure is one of the main factors that affect their mental health level,and is also the most important source of pressure in their study and life.Academic pressure can cause physical problems such as hypertension and cardiovascular disease,and often lead to psychological problems such as anxiety and depression,and even suicidal tendencies in severe cases.It also has adverse effects on academic performance,learning motivation,and learning engagement.Moreover,Chinese high school students study longer and have greater academic pressure than high school students in other countries.Helping them actively cope with academic pressure is more urgent than other psychological problems.Awe can cause individuals to develop a "small self" awareness,shifting attention from the self to a larger entity,and thus reducing attention to the self.While academic stress often comes from students’ immersive attention to themselves,reducing self-attention and changing self-evaluation are strong predictors of reducing academic stress.In conclusion,the present study explored whether awe reduces academic stress in high school students.In study 1,365 senior high school students were assessed with the Trait Awe Scale and the Academic Stress Scale for Middle School Students to explore the relationship between awe and academic stress.The results showed that there was a significant negative correlation between awe and academic stress in high school students.Study II conducted two experiments to explore the causal relationship between awe and academic stress reduction in senior high school students.In Experiment 1,we pretested the academic stress of 180 senior high school students.Then they were divided into three groups,and they were primed with awe(experimental group),happy and neutral(control group)emotions by video,respectively.Finally,we posttested the academic stress of the three groups of high school students.The results showed that high school students in awe reported lower scores on the post-test than on the pre-test for academic stress,compared to those in happy and neutral mood states.Experiment 2 changed the priming paradigm to cognitive priming to further explore whether awe reduced academic stress in high school students.Firstly,171 senior high school students were pretested for academic stress.They were then divided into three groups,and their emotions of awe(experimental group),happiness,and pride(control group)were primed by a recall task,respectively.Finally,we posttested the academic stress of the three groups of high school students.The results also found that high school students in the awe group reported lower scores on the post-test than on the pre-test for academic stress,compared to those in the happy and proud groups.Therefore,the results of this study suggest that awe can reduce academic stress in high school students.