Thursday, May 12, 2016
Gunn Suicides
We recently learned about the suicide clusters that occurred at Gunn high school. These suicides caused some questions to arise, one of them being, what is it about Palo Alto that causes these suicides? The article we read by The Atlantic suggested that parental pressure is a contributing factor to the depression and suicide rate. While I agree with this, I also believe that self-pressure plays a huge role. Since we live in a very successful area, many students feel as if they must accomplish as much or even more than their parents have. This causes students to take many advanced courses, which leads to heavy workloads, and lots of stress. What are your thoughts on this topic?
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I agree that self pressure is one of the biggest factors of the depressions and suicide. People believe that everyone else is doing just fine and is ahead of them, so they feel singled out and that they are alone. They feel pressured to be doing just as well as everyone else, when in reality most people are struggling a lot. People overdo themselves because of the assumption that no one else is struggling.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your opinion. I think this could be related to normative influence. The fact that everyone around you achieved their goals makes you want to succeed as well. The self pressure to be part of their "group" can cause a lot of stress to the student.
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