Ababon Belloc Tanoy

Clitoria Ternatea: The Afterglow on Stress

Statement of the Problem

This study aims to investigate a way to lower stress levels of Grade

7 students and improve their mood through drinking Blue Ternatea Tea.

The outcome will be the basis to the symposium of the afterglow of Blue

Ternatea to the stress levels of mood.

This study desires to accumulate data from the following

questions:

1. What is the profile of the students in terms of:

1.1 age,

1.2 gender, and

1.3 grade level?

2. What is the stress level of students before and after drinking

Clitoria Ternatea Tea based on the ff. areas:

2.1 school work/demands,

2.2 personal responsibilities, and

2.3 mood?
3. Is there significant differences before and after drinking Clitoria

Ternatea Tea?

4. What means can be proposed to lower stress levels?

Theoretical Background

The Theory that would relate to this research would be the The

Lazaruz Theory as it talks about stress and coping. However, we will not

tackle much on the coping part of this theory but rather more on the

stress part. According to Lazaruz (2001), stress is a relational concept

where stress itself is not described as an outward feeling nor a

physiological pattern, behavior or reaction. Instead it is looked upon as

an interaction between people and the environment around them. This

theory is perfect for this research which is focusing on stress and how it

can be lessened. First step to grasp the enormity of this research is to

understand stress in its psychological ways.

Specifically, Psychological stress refers to the relationship with

the environment that the person thinks is relevant and important for

his/her own growth and well being. In this research, school is the overall

environment of the respondents. We refer school to be the top reason

unto why students are stressed daily due to school demands and

responsibilities that they need to meet. However, he/she may not able

to cope up with the demands or needs that comes with being in the said

environment. This concept is necessary to explain the differences of

each person in terms of quality, intensity, and duration of the stress that

may be experienced in an environment is actually objectively equal. This

will be included in the daily surveys we will hand out of the respondents

on how grave their stress levels are. Specifying on the intensity of stress

on their school demands and personal responsibilities. However, since

they are on the same grade level and are in the same age rate of 12-

13, their stress levels may differ on how they cope and react on the

demands that are pressured on them.

Furthermore, Lazaruz (2001) classifies stress in three different

kinds; harm, threat and challenge. Harm is where the psychological loss

or damage has occurred already. While threat is where there the

overhanging harm is predicted to happen. Lastly, Challenge is where a

person is confident of mastering the demands put upon him/her. These

different kinds of psychological stress also have different types of

different of emotional reactions. Lazarus (2001) ties it into 15 basic

emotions where nine are negative and the others are positive which are

anger, fright, anxiety, guilt, shame, sadness, envy, jealousy, disgust

and happiness, pride, relief, love, hope, compassion, respectively. These

basic emotions will be used as a basis on the surveys we will hand out

our respondents. Each day would consist of a different stress level, a

different mood or emotion based on the individual.

In relation to, this theory also talks about coping and are

classified into two basic functions- emotion focused and problem

focused. Through this Lazarus distinguished 8 groups of coping

strategies: confrontive coping, distancing, self-controlling, seeking

social support, accepting responsibility, escape-avoidance, planful

problem-solving, and positive reappraisal. And even though drinking

herbal tea is not specifically classified into these coping strategies. It

will be classified under planful problem-solving as drinking Blue

Ternatea tea will be a means to lower stress and mood therefore leading

the person to come with his/her problems.

It is further supported by Bryne (1964) and Eriksen (1996),

co-workers of Lazaruz that also studied Psychological stress with him,

that there are two types of people when confronted with a stressful

encounter. This dispositional coping is called repression- sensitization

construct. On one part of this construct are the repressers, these are

people who tend to deny or minimize the existence of stress, who don’t

talk about their struggles, and avoids to think possible negative

outcomes. On the other part are the sensitizers, these people react to

stress-related events by searching information, pondering/ reflecting

and obsessive worrying. Therefore, the gender will also be taken into

account since females are more sensitive to males. However, we will

also be considering how the respondents cope along with the other data

accumulated before deducing the research into a conclusion.