Directorate: Curriculum FET

SUBJECT and LIFE ORIENTATION, Grade 12

GRADE
TERM 1 Week 1
TOPIC Development of self in society
AIMS OF LESSON 1. What is change?
2. What are your stressors?
3. How stressed are you?
4. How can you manage your stress?
RESOURCES Paper based resources Digital resources
FOCUS, Life Orientation https://www.verywellmind.com/stress-and-health-3145086
Grade 12, Learner’s book

https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/a-to-z/s/stress

INTRODUCTION • In this section we will focus on:

Life skills required to adapt to change as part of healthy lifestyle choices: identify stressors,
assess and manage stress.
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Identify stressors
I am so excited to be in Grade 12! It
can be stressful, but we can use this
stress to motivate and push ourselves
... to do well
Yes, for sure, let’s not be scared of Grade
12, but make it the best year ever ... by
working hard from Term 1 already. This will
reduce the stress of Term 4 ... This is
awesome! I also like being in Grade 12. I
waited a long time for this ...

CONCEPTS AND Congratulations on being a Grade 12 learner! You have persevered and already achieved a
SKILLS great deal. That is why you are now in Grade 12. This year you will have to learn how to adapt
to change, how to make healthy lifestyle choices and how to ensure that you have a good
quality of life. Work carefully through your Life Orientation chapters to ensure that you make the
most of your final year at school and are ready for the adventures that await you in the future.
How to deal with stress is an important aspect of being able to cope with Grade 12.

Stress is a reaction caused by ongoing, increasing or new pressures or demands. When the
pressures are more than your coping skills, you may feel overcome by:
• constant nervous tension or anxiety
• too much to do
• too many problems to solve
• too many things happening over which you think you have no control.

The pressures that lead to stress are called stressors. Stressors may be physical, emotional, social
and environmental. These stressors have an effect on your quality of life and how well you live.
The factors that cause stress are often linked. For example, if you live in a stressful environment,
you may fall physically ill; illness is also a stressor.
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Key words
change – to transform or become different
quality of life – your level of personal well-being and satisfaction with your life, what the
conditions of your life are
stress – pressure, nervous tension and anxiety, constant worry, strain
anxiety – worry, nervousness or unease
stressors – things that cause stress or pressure

Physical stressors
Physical factors cause stress that affects your body. Examples include lack of physical exercise,
physical or sexual abuse, illness, injury, tuberculosis (TB), HIV and AIDS, hunger, accidents,
overtiredness and physical disabilities.
Physical stressors also include unhealthy lifestyle choices such as poor nutrition, lack of sleep,
substance abuse and addiction. Examples include drinking too much caffeine or alcohol,
smoking, using drugs, sexual promiscuity that leads to sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and
risky behaviour such as driving while using a cell phone or while drunk.

Emotional stressors
Emotional stressors include your feelings, thoughts, reactions to life crises and change, your
personality and your image of yourself.

Feelings that are stressors can be constant worry, nervousness, anxiety, jealousy, anger,
disappointment, rejection, pain from a broken relationship, hate, fear, fear of failure and
uncertainty about your future.
(People and things do not upset us. Rather, we upset ourselves by believing that they can upset us.
Albert Ellis)
Life crises that are stressors include unplanned pregnancy, death of a parent or family
member, failing, divorce of parents, job loss, not getting into the university of your choice or
being a victim of crime.

Change can be a stressor. Examples include moving to a new place, starting a new job,
marriage and transition from school to adult life.
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Key word
personality – qualities, actions, behaviour and attitude that make a person unique

Personality as a stressor
Your personality consists of the thoughts, feelings, attitudes and behaviours that make you
unique. Your personality may be a stressor. Knowing more about personality types may help
you to understand in what way your personality could be a stressor.

Keep in mind that we are all a mix of personality types, and often our personalities are
affected by the situations we are in. So none of us will completely fit into only one specific
personality type

Table 1.1 explains four main personality types.

Table 1.1: Personality types

Type A personality
• You are competitive, a person who wants to
succeed and achieve a lot.
• You have goals and aim to reach
the top.
• You push yourself very hard.
• You like to be in control.
• You feel that everything is urgent and worry
about deadlines, tests and exams. This may
cause you stress.
• You are often busy, rushing around, impati
and sometimes aggressive.
• You want to hand in perfect tasks.
• You are brave and often lead the way with
new ideas.
• You don’t have time to waste; you are
hardworking and self-motivated.
Type A personality
• You are easy-going, restful and very relaxed.
You are laid-back; you take things easy
and as they come.
• You often delay work and do things at
the last minute.
• You can be seen as a procrastinator. This may
cause you to be stressed, as you have to
struggle to meet deadlines.
• You are not very competitive and don’t mind if
you don’t win, or even come last.
• You are optimistic and always expect the best
to happen.
• You like to joke with your friends and are often
seen as cool.

Type C personality
• You are a bit shy and not assertive.
• You like to be alone.
• You often give in to others to keep them
happy.
• You will suffer rather than get into an
argument.
• Because you don’t say how you feel, or
assert your needs, you may feel
stressed.
• You are interested in small details; you like
to know more about how things work.
• You enjoy facts and things have to be
orderly. You think very carefully and
logically.
Social stressors
Social stressors refer to aspects of your relationships with others, from your family and friends to
society in general.
Family and society
• divorce or death in the family
• family responsibilities • family pressure to
succeed
• arguments with family members
• trouble with the law
• poverty, financial difficulties, debt
• stigma • gender discrimination
• lack of work
• fear of crime
• problem neighbours
Directorate: Curriculum FET
Type D personality
• You are a pessimist; you have a negative view of
life.
• You expect the worst to happen. This can cause
you to experience stress.
• You keep your feelings to yourself and don’t
show what you feel.
• You like routine and hate change. • You don’t
have a lot of energy; you often feel tired and
miserable.
• You are easily irritated, often depressed, sad
and upset.
Friends and peers
• peer pressure
• breaking up a friendship or relationship
• loneliness
• unpopularity
• being unsure of others
• teasing and name calling
• bullying
• pressure to join a gang or to party
• pressure to smoke, drink, use drugs
• pressure to wear expensive clothes
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ACTIVITIES/ASSESS Activity 1 Find out if your personality is a stressor

MENT
Read Table 1.1 before you answer the questions.

1. Tick the characteristics that are most true of you in each personality type.
2. Which personality type is closest to the way you are? Give reasons for your answer. (4)
3. Critically evaluate if and how your personality type adds to your stress. Give reasons for
your conclusions. (8)

Environmental stressors
The environment is everything around you. It is where you live and includes all the physical
factors that may affect you. Environmental stressors can include:
• pollution such as air pollution caused by traffic, or water pollution caused by waste from
factories and mines
• natural disasters − fire, floods, drought
• dangerous environments where violence is part of life
• harmful living conditions that lack basic facilities such as water and electricity and proper
shelter
• lack of private space at home, for example, having to share a room and having to share
work spaces
• noise pollution such as cell phones ringing, building works, loud music
• physical factors such as a lack of fresh air, lack of sunlight, and lack of privacy.

An airless, cramped working environment can be a huge stressor

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Look at Table 1.2 which lists the different stressors and factors that may have a stressful effect
on the quality of life:

Table 1.2: Examples of stressors, stress factors, and their effects on quality of life
Stressor Physical Factor Example Effect on quality of life
Physical Abuse A family member Physical and emotional pain,
beats you loss of trust, fear, unable to
focus on studies, scarring,
absent from school and
falling behind
Emotional Life crises A death in the family Sorrow, mourning, loneliness,
depression, loss of income

Personality Having Type A Worry, anxiety, sleeplessness,

personality unhealthy lifestyle choices
Social Vocation Unsure about which Worry, loss of motivation, loss
career to choose of sleep
Social pressure Peer pressure to do You harm yourself and may
something you don’t end up in jail
want to, for example,
smoking or drinking
alcohol
Poverty You don’t have You worry a lot, feel uncertain
money to pay for if you will be able to write the
your school needs exams, lose motivation
Environmental Noise Living in an area You may feel very tense, get
where there is a lot of headaches, become irritable
noise from heavy and be unable to focus
traffic

Identify your stressors

Life Orientation teachers did research with a large group of Grade 12 learners about their
stressors. Graph 1 shows the stressors that learners saw as their main causes of stress.
 Directorate: Curriculum FET

Graph 1 Typical stressors experienced by a group of Grade 12 learners

12

Percentage of learners
10
8
6
4
2
0

Grade 12 learners´ main stressors

Activity 2 Analyse a graph to identify stressors

1. Look at Table 1.2. For each of the four stressors:
1.1 List one factor for each stressor, not mentioned in the table, which
you may experience. (4 × 1)
1.2 Give an example of each factor you list. (4 × 1)
1.3 Explain the effect of each factor you gave, on your quality of life. (4 × 1)
2. Look at Graph 1.
2.1 Which two stressors affect Grade 12 learners most often? (2)
2.2 Explain how this compares to your main stressors. (2)

CONSOLIDATION Click on the link to open. ( The content of the link is in Afrikaans)
Write in your note book what influence stress can have on your health.
Answer all the question in the activities.

VALUES The value of a healthy life and healthy choices.

Accountability for your choices.