Smoking Survey

I. Introduction

Smoking is a serious problem in most countries. Smoking affects the smoker in social, health and economic terms. Smoking also affects the environment. In social terms, people will stay away from smokers because of the bad smell of smoking. In health terms, smoking causes many diseases like bronchitis, emphysema, larynx cancer, and pancreatic cancer (Seal, 1998). In economic terms, smokers will spend more money on cigarettes, so they will have low income and smokers will have trouble with money in the future. Nowadays both men and women are smoking; “about 35 percent of adult men and 25 percent of adult women in the United States smoke cigarettes” (Seal, 1998). People start smoking, often when they are adolescents, for different reasons; some smokers smoke because their parents smoke, and some of them smoke because they have stress in their life. It is difficult for smokers to quit smoking after they start to smoke. “People become psychologically dependent on smoking as a way of reducing anxiety and coping with different situations. Because of these physiological and psychological forces, quitting is difficult and the relapse rate is high” (Seal, 1998, P-31).

II. Purpose
We did this survey about smokers for both smokers and non-smokers. For smokers, we did it to know why they smoke, where they smoke, with whom they smoke, who smokes more, males or females, and what the best way to quit is. For non-smokers, we wanted to know what they think about smokers and why they start smoking.

III. Hypothesis

I thought males would say that they smoked more than females because females cared about their lives more than males. I thought half of males would be smokers.

IV. Materials

In our survey we asked eight questions, three questions for both smokers and non-smokers. Two questions were for smokers and one question was for non-smoker people, so we could cover all types of people. The types of questions were yes/no questions and multiple-choice questions.

V. Methods

We asked 43 different people from different places around SIUC like Faner building, the library and the student center. We went outside and we asked anyone. We asked males and females of different ages and from different countries. We asked both smokers and non-smokers to get different answers. We gave the survey and waited until they filled it out to have the result at the same time. I think we have a good survey about smokers, because we asked different people in different places and the people were very kind to do the survey.

VI. Data

See Appendix A

VII. Results

According to our survey, 78.9% of smokers are males and 21.1% of females are smokers, so males are smoking more than females. 75% of smokers are smoking equally both alone and with people, and 12.5%, said they smoked mostly alone or mostly with people. 66.7% of smokers smoke both in public and private, and 25% of smokers smoke in private only, and 8.3% of smokers smoke in public only. 42.9% can equal percentage, of smokers smoke because they have too much stress, and because they have friends who smoke. 9.5% of smokers smoke because they have exams, and 4.8% of smokers smoke because they have a family member who smokes. 29.5% of non-smokers think that the smokers start smoking because they have friends who smoke, and 25% of smokers smoke because they have too much stress, and 13.6% of smokers smoke because they think cigarettes are tasty, and an equal percentage of 11.4% of smokers smoke because their friends pressured them to smoke.

VIII. Conclusion & Discussion

According to the result, my hypothesis was right that more males are smoking more often than females. I don’t think that our survey was perfect because we asked only 43 people, which is not enough for an excellent survey. In my opinion, the best way to have more people is to put the survey online. Next survey I would like to concentrate on only smokers to have specific information to learn a lot about why smokers smoke and what is the best way to quit smoking.
IX. References
Seal, B. (1998). Smoking. In Academic Encounters: Human behavior. pp. 31–33. New York:
Cambridge University Press.

How You Can Get Away From Stress

The author told about two young lawyers who are told that they have only the weekend to prepare a report on a complex case. One of the lawyers feels threatened and fears that she might not solve this complex case. The other lawyer feels challenged and excited. As this example helps to show stress comes from the way in which people react to the events. According to author, a sense of control can help to reduce the negative consequences. The rats that could exert control had less ulceration than their helpless partners. It is easier to cope with the expected death of a loved one than the sudden death of a loved one. For example, students have more stress when they have surprise quizzes. The research proves that some people have a relatively stress-resistant personality. To control one's stress depends on whether people feel in control of things that give them stress, what they are doing and whether they welcome a moderate amount of change. According to the author, healthy people are more likely to cup with stress. Finally, people have different ways to cope with stress, so each person chooses the best way for him to control his stress.

In my opinion, I disagree with the author that healthy people are more likely to cope with stress. I think it depends on the personal behaviors and how they react to a sudden situation, whether if he is a healthy person or not. In my county we divide people into hot people and cold people. Hot people are people who react very fast with any situation and cold people are people who do not react at all about anything; that are a bad thing for cold people, but it is very good for not having stresses for cold people. I will talk about different ways to avoid stress or at least reduce the amount of stress, like exercise talking with friends when you have stress, and always being ready to accept sudden change in your life.

First, the research comments that when people do exercise they are less likely to have stress, especially relaxing exercise like yoga and similar exercises, because it helps the body to be productive in a sudden situation. Also when we do exercises we balance our body. For example, when we do exercises our blood pressure is balanced, and your body will be always active and ready for any sudden bad news.

Second, if you have stress, the best way to reduce that stress is to talk with other people like friends or parents, and explain to them what your problem is and you will feel better to share your problem and get advice from different people to solve your problem. Also, when you are nervous, angry and upset, remember that it is better to change your place to another place you like. For example go out with your friends to a comfortable place to reduce the stress.

Finally, when your body is ready to accept any change in your life, it helps to reduce the amount of stress. For instance, when people laugh at someone, he or she should be relaxed or not care about them. So, people should not be serious all the time about small situations.

In conclusion, we can avoid the stress with different ways. It depends on the personality of people, and not all people have same amount of stress-resistant personality. Each person has to learn the technique of how to cup with stress. In my opinion, smoking, drinking alcohol and using drugs will not help you to cup with stress.

Seal, B. (1998). Coping with stress. In Academic encounters: Haman behavior. (pp. 15-16). New York: Cambridge University Press.