1. Health at Work

Question 1

Sulsky - Stimulus definition

Answer 1

event of situation (stressor) in the environment that contributes to disruptive experiences. Focus: external forces. occupational stress meant negative environment factors associated with job. Ex: long commuting, high-stress job.

Question 2

Sulsky - Response definition

Answer 2

Reaction the organism has to stressors; the nonspecific response to any demand. Strain = long term or chronic changes in response to stressor. Response always internal, however trembling hands possible or increased heart rate

Question 3

Sulsky - Stimulus-response definition

Answer 3

Interactive. Stress as a result from INTERACTION environmental stimuli (stressor) and individual response. KEY: some stressor, environment, provokes immediate psychological appraisal this determines whether and to what extent the stressor is stressful.

Question 4

Sulsky - General Adaption Syndrome

Answer 4

(1) alarm stage: heart beating, (2) stage of resistance: stressor prolonged resist to maintain arousal, (3) Exhaustion: body resources depleted.

Question 5

McEwen - Brain structure impaired stress

Answer 5

Repeated stress affect the hippocampus. Episodic and declarative memory, memory of context. Impairment lowers the reliability of this and to the degree to which an event is perceived as stressful. + The hippocampus is also a stress response regulator, and it has a primarily inhibitory effect on the HPA stress response, allowing it to shut down.

Question 6

McEwen - Allostasis

Answer 6

adaptive response in which one adaptive to something.

Question 7

McEwen - allostatic load

Answer 7

wear and tear on body and brain resulting from chronic overactivity or inactivity of physiological systems normally involved in adaptation to environmental influences

Question 8

McEwen - systems involved in coping and adaptation

Answer 8

Cardiovascular, metabolism, immunesystem and CNS. if not able to turn of –> load on body.

Question 9

McEwen - anticipation

Answer 9

includes psychological states (worry, fear) as cognitive preparation. likely that this results in allostatic charge.

Question 10

McEwen - health-damaging and health-promoting behaviors

Answer 10

smoking, drinking, diet, exercise = overall notion of allostasis. how individuals cope with a challenge and they also contribute in some ways to allostatic load (rich diet -> diabetes, smoking -> high blood pressure etc.)

Question 11

McEwen - types of psychological reactions to allostatic load

Answer 11

frequent stress: how often reactions, failed shut down: chronic activity or failed shut down, inadequate response: failure to respond

Question 12

McEwen - cardiovascular

Answer 12

response to challenge: avoid black-out. problems with chronic or inactivity: hypertension, stroke, MI

Question 13

McEwen - metabolic

Answer 13

acute response: maintaining energy reserves, to brain. problems chronic or inactivity: obesity, diabetes, atherosclerosis

Question 14

McEwen - immune

Answer 14

actue response: response to pathogens. problems chronic or inactivity: inflammatory, autoimmune disorders

Question 15

McEwen - brain, CNS

Answer 15

acute response: learning, memory. problems chronic or inactivity: neuronal atrophy, death of nerve cells.

Question 16

McEwen - how does immune system respond to acute and repeated stress?

Answer 16

acute stress: redistribute immune cells -> to battle stations and allostasis = response -> adaptation, reinforces responses w/ immunological memory. if this is for pathogen -> result of stress beneficial. if this is for autoimmune/allergic response -> stress effect likely to disease process. Allostatic stress suppresses ability of immune system to respond to stressors -> limitation of adaptive responses.

Question 17

McEwen - conclusion

Answer 17

Immune system is balanced so that the response to acute stress promote adaptation and survival by protecting the body from damage. however, when systems are overworked, capacity to respond acutely with DHT is suppressed. repeated stress can cause beneficial suppression of unfavorable autoimmune response. lack of adequate allostatic HPA response to acute stress w/ increased susceptibility to autoimmune response

Question 18

McEwen - characteristics habituation

Answer 18

ex. public-speaking -> response: increased salivary cortisol, get used to with repetition. people who do not get used to it have low self-esteem.

Question 19

McEwen - frequent stress

Answer 19

Post-traumatic stress disorder is an example of how an acute traumatic event leads to an HPA axis that may not respond adequately to acute challenge. blood pressure surges not only trigger myocardial infarction (MI) in susceptible individuals but their repetition also accelerates atherosclerosis and primes the risk for MI.

Question 20

McEwen - failed shut-down

Answer 20

blood pressure elevations in repetitive, time-pressured work. persisently elevated blood pressure and glucocorticoids accelerate obesity and Type II diabetes; persistent glucocorticoid elevation and/or excitatory activity in the brain causes dendritic atrophy and neuronal death in the hippocampus

Question 21

McEwen - inadequate response

Answer 21

autoimmunity and inflammation is associated with inadequate endogenous glucocorticoid responses, chronic fatigue.

Question 22

Maslach - theory one

Answer 22

best and most idealistic workers experience burnout

Question 23

Maslach - theory 2

Answer 23

burnout is end result of long exposure to chronic job stressors.

Question 24

Maslach - phase model

Answer 24

exhaustion to cynicism. subsequent link to inefficacy is less clear. burnout scores fairly stable overtime.

Question 25

Maslach - Maslach & Leiter model

Answer 25

focus on degree of match/mismatch between person and six domains of job environment: workload, control, reward, community, fairness, values. big gap -> burnout, match = more engagement. weighing of factors, some weigh higher than others.

Question 26

Maslach - Maslach, leiter engagement

Answer 26

= energy, involvement, efficacy.

Question 27

Maslach - Schaufeli dimensions engagment

Answer 27

= persistent, positive affective-motivational state of fulfillment in employees characterized by: vigour - high energy, dedication - strong involvement, absorption - pleasant state in work.

Question 28

Taris - result H1

Answer 28

exhaustion is negatively related to performance. exhausted workers tend to possess insufficient resources to deal with the demands of their jobs. strongest relationship with exhaustion and performance.

Question 29

Taris - results H2

Answer 29

depersonalized workers would distance themselves from their jobs and the recipients of their services in attempt to prevent themselves form depleting their resources. not enough support

Question 30

Taris - result H3

Answer 30

not supported

Question 31

Taris - implications

Answer 31

reductions of exhaustion may be advantageous for the organization. exhausted perform less well, other components ambiguous and inconclusive.

Question 32

VDL - results H1

Answer 32

burnout was associated with a high number of self-reported cognitive difficulties. Clinical group more daily cognitive failures than high (non-c) group. then non-c then controls

Question 33

VDL - groups

Answer 33

burnout who stopped working due to symptoms = clinical. group with high levels still worked and control

Question 34

VDL - H2

Answer 34

high level of burnout symptoms associated with increased inhibition failures in SART (sustained attention). clinical more inhibition errors than control.

Question 35

VDL - results H3

Answer 35

burned out increased performance variability (executive control).

Question 36

VDL - what processes impaired?

Answer 36

sustained attention and response inhibition aspect of executive control. burnout poorly on: tasks of attention and inhibition and self-reported cognitive failures in daily life.

Question 37

VDL - conclusion

Answer 37

relationship between cognitive difficulties and cognitive performance. CFQ during SART strongly with actual performance on attention tasks. 1. cognitive failures also in group 2. cognitive effects gradually rise with severity of burnout symptoms.

Question 38

VDL - implications

Answer 38

treatment programs that enhance executive control and consider using cognitive tests in the diagnosis of burnout.

Question 39

Hesselink - what influences did the law have on absenteesim?

Answer 39

law came into insuring against the financial consequences of sickness. easy to misuse to dismiss employees so absenteeism rose.

Question 40

Hesselink - why did employers begin to intervene to prevent?

Answer 40

disability became less profitable, so began to prevent absenteeism. absence rate dropped.

Question 41

Hesselink - changes made to the policy

Answer 41

employers obliged to pursue active absenteesim management policy (counseling) + employees need to cooperate to come back asap, absence rate low

Question 42

Hesselink - periods of sick leave

Answer 42

1. mental complaints and burnout, 2 cardiovascular complaints. influenza and cold and headache shortest absence periods.

Question 43

Hesselink - cause of sickness

Answer 43

work as main or part of the cause of most recent sickness. conflicts at work (1), mental complaints (2)

Question 44

Hesselink - preventic action

Answer 44

introducing incentives or by offering guidance to employees. (ngos and small organizations). guidance to help reintegrate more often

Question 45

DARR - work strain, illness and absenteesim

Answer 45

strain from work-related 60 - 70% work lost. illness only 10%. so, work strain explains little. why connection not stronger?: absence ineffective coping, source of strain so need to be present, absence more likely to acute strain

Question 46

Darr - model

Answer 46

supported

Question 47

Darr - variance explained by theorized mediators

Answer 47

strain and absenteeism may be connected by series of events each which may be influenced by external random factors (deadlines, weather, flu). people are inclined to work in face of strain.

Question 48

Darr - restorative model

Answer 48

absence no apparent effect on subsequent work strain. positive association with illness -> little support model. early withdrawal maybe beneficial in helping recharged. later withdrawal might exacerbate condition

Question 49

Darr - time lost absence

Answer 49

little support that it is more reflective of illness. voluntary and involuntary both underlie absence measure sick (unv) might decide single day (v) is sufficient for recovery

Question 50

Darr - moderators of attribution

Answer 50

strong evidence for role of attribution in absenteeism. macro social change only with support.

Question 51

Darr - implications

Answer 51

Given the influence of attributional and voluntary factors on absenteeism, our findings suggest that managers might, instead, consider programs that allow employees more flexibility over the use of their work time. non work factor more influence absenteeism than work factors