I want to get this assignment finished and sent in this morning but I am, once again, struggling to understand what they actually want me to do.
"Drawing on material in chapter 7 and the online material in week 9, evaluate the role of environmental factors on an individual’s experience of stress."
I know they don't mean evaluate the research that has been done into environmental factors and what it tells us about that now.
1/2
So do they mean evaluate what weight environmental factors have compared to others factors?
Or how environmental factors impact someone compared to non environmental factors?
Or something else I haven't considered?
2/2
@alexisbushnell without knowing what the material is, and the course in general, it's hard to say as an outsider. But as you have written it I would interpret the question as asking you to examine whether environmental factors impact an individual's experience of stress, and if so how much? E.g the research says X and Y environmental factors affect stress, but confounding factors, limitations in research, yadda yadda yadda.
@fak that is basically the essay I wrote, and IMO what the notes for what they want ask for, but my tutor says I should try to include at least a paragraph on non-environmental factors.
The notes say "you need to identify and evaluate evidence regarding the role of environmental factors on an individual’s experiences of stress."
But then also "you may want to introduce evidence about the role of individual traits (e.g. personality) in determining an individual’s experience of stress."
@alexisbushnell right, that's partly the confounding variables bit. It's saying that (and I would personally expect the research to back this up) environmental factors aren't the only ones that contribute to how an individual experiences stress - there are other factors. I would expect the research to show that people responded negatively to X or Y environmental factor, but it wasn't universal, suggesting that other variables are at play here.
@alexisbushnell some people may react more to a given environmental factor than others.
@alexisbushnell so you're basically looking at: do environmental factors affect stress? If yes, is this universal? If not universal (or level response differs between individuals) why could this be (other factors affect stress)?
@fak and the tutorials about this stuff and previous feedback I've had has been do not include anything not explicitly asked in the question - which is why I stuck only to environmental factors.
@alexisbushnell "Or how environmental factors impact someone compared to non environmental factors?"
This is what I would guess, but it probably depends at least a little bit on who is teaching the course.
@roknrol yeah that's true, also a possibility.
The tutor's don't set the question, they're set by the people who put the course together and then tutor's are just supplied with marking criteria.
He has noted that the questions put ND students at a disadvantage but that doesn't help me right now: https://toot.wales/@alexisbushnell/115836285863086453
