October/November 2006: Stress

The Many Facets of Stress

Physical, tensile, linguistical, emotional, psychological, occupational, physiological—stress takes many forms. At MIT, researchers perform stress tests at the atomic level and build devices that can detect stress. Students study it in engineering, foreign language, earth sciences, and linguistics classes and overcome the pressure of school in often humorous ways.

This inaugural issue of Quick Take looks at stress broadly defined: from academic research to the mental and physical tension caused by life's priorities and demands. Read on to learn how the MIT community tackles stress.

How Do Students Deal with the Pressure?

Above: Stephanie Brenman '09, too tired to read anymore, muses, "If you sleep with your book over your face, then maybe the material will just absorb into your head?"

Elizabeth Canavan-Palermo '07:
"I bake! Cookies, brownies, pies, breads—anything to get me away from my desk, working with my hands, and producing something I can share with my friends to coax them to take a study break."

Yaoyao Luo '09:
"By playing piano, cooking with friends, or cleaning my room."

Scot Frank '08:
"Through music, either listening to something I've liked before, finding something new, or playing music on the radio—WMBR 88.1."

Ali Wyne '08:
"I reserve every Friday evening for self-reflection."

Laura Hajj '07:
"Playing video games, cleaning (my room, suite, laundry), writing scathing (I think) political commentary, sleeping."

Megan Roberts '07:
"I enjoy cooking with my friends. One weekend we celebrated eggplant, so we went to Boston's Haymarket and bought a whole bunch of eggplants and then cooked them in a variety of recipes, including eggplant parmesan, eggplant soup, eggplant bruchette, and eggplant rolls. We even made shirts for the event. It was a lot of fun and we had a ridiculous amount of food!"

Joia Ramchandani '07:
"I go rollerblading, sailing, dancing, running, blast music, laugh for no reason and every reason, paint with watercolors, read my favorite childhood books, or talk to someone I care about."

Trevor Filter '10:
"By sitting down with a few close friends and talking it all out. Or, I clean my desk. One of the two."

Lisa Shank '08:
"Yoga, tennis, watch movies, dance around my room with my friends, or read a fun book that I don't have to think much for."

Krishna Gupta '09:
"I de-stress by listening to beautiful melodies and taking in the breeze. Or by taking a walk outside along the river. I'm a romantic."

Learn to Chill

MIT Relaxation Line
Call 617-253-CALM to be guided through a quick relaxation technique

Stress management tips from MIT Medical

MIT Medical multimedia library
Includes audio files with relaxation techniques

Center for Health Promotion and Wellness
Free or low-cost programs, classes, and workshops for the MIT community and their families

MIT Mental Health
Provides evaluations, brief treatment, urgent care, and consultations for the MIT community on issues including stress

Academic Resource Center's 'spa' helps students relax

MIT World video: The Ceaseless Society: What Happens to Our Mind, Body, and Spirit When we Just Never Stop?

Mandala Project 2006
Construction of a five-foot sand mandala (an art form representing the universe that is often used as a meditation aid) begins this fall at MIT. Public viewing and a Web cast will be available.

Bruised succulent plant leaf: ©iStockphoto.com/Ye Liew

The Academics of Stress

PokerMetrics: Stress and Lie Detection through Non-Invasive Physiological Sensing (pdf)

MIT researchers control light with a shock
Powerful shock waves sent through photonic crystals, which allow researchers to see how materials react under severe stress, can lead to more efficient solar cells.

Human-interest meter could aid call centers, marketing efforts, and focus groups
This Media Lab study measured activity, stress, mirroring behavior, and engagement in subjects' speaking styles to determine their level of interest and engagement.

Intelligent plastics change shape with light
An MIT engineer and his German colleagues have created programmed materials that change shape when struck by light and have medical and industrial applications.

Affective Computing group balances emotion and cognition
Breakthroughs include new techniques to assess frustration, stress, and mood. Sample studies:

• Car Phone Stress: a system that watches for certain signs of stress in drivers, such as stress related to talking on the car phone.



• Personal Heart-Stress Monitor: a wireless system that measures healthy and unhealthy stress.

Stress and start-ups: "Pinpointing That Critical Entrepreneurial Spark"

On Values and a Caring Meritocracy for MIT
Faculty newsletter discussing stress and performance pressure.

Student makes dough—in the lab
Research involves the mechanical properties of matter, in this case, dough, and how it behaves when subjected to forces and stress.

Atomic stress test predicts origin of material defects
MIT engineers have developed a model to predict the birthplace of a defect, such as a crack, its initial features, and how it begins to advance through the material.

CoMeT software offers preliminary stress tests on design concepts

Sloan Management Review: "Survival Under Stress"

Learn about Stress

OpenCourseWare

Aeronautics and Astronautics: Structural Mechanics

Linguistics and Philosophy: Introduction to Phonology

Mechanical Engineering: Mechanics & Materials

Biological Engineering: Fields, Forces, and Flows in Biological Systems

Civil and Environmental Engineering: Advanced Soil Mechanics

Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences: Applications of Continuum Mechanics to Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences

MIT Press

The Threat of Impending Disaster: Contributions to the Psychology of Stress
Edited by George H. Grosser, et al.

An Essay on Stress (Linguistics)
By Morris Halle and Jean-Roger Vergnaud

STRESS: A User's Manual (Structural Engineering)
By Steven J. Fenves, et al.

Copyright©2006 Massachusetts Institute of Technology