1. Health at Work Flashcards
Sulsky - Stimulus definition
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.
Sulsky - Response definition
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
Sulsky - Stimulus-response definition
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.
Sulsky - General Adaption Syndrome
(1) alarm stage: heart beating, (2) stage of resistance: stressor prolonged resist to maintain arousal, (3) Exhaustion: body resources depleted.
McEwen - Brain structure impaired stress
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.
McEwen - Allostasis
adaptive response in which one adaptive to something.
McEwen - allostatic load
wear and tear on body and brain resulting from chronic overactivity or inactivity of physiological systems normally involved in adaptation to environmental influences
McEwen - systems involved in coping and adaptation
Cardiovascular, metabolism, immunesystem and CNS. if not able to turn of –> load on body.
McEwen - anticipation
includes psychological states (worry, fear) as cognitive preparation. likely that this results in allostatic charge.
McEwen - health-damaging and health-promoting behaviors
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.)
McEwen - types of psychological reactions to allostatic load
frequent stress: how often reactions, failed shut down: chronic activity or failed shut down, inadequate response: failure to respond
McEwen - cardiovascular
response to challenge: avoid black-out. problems with chronic or inactivity: hypertension, stroke, MI
McEwen - metabolic
acute response: maintaining energy reserves, to brain. problems chronic or inactivity: obesity, diabetes, atherosclerosis
McEwen - immune
actue response: response to pathogens. problems chronic or inactivity: inflammatory, autoimmune disorders
McEwen - brain, CNS
acute response: learning, memory. problems chronic or inactivity: neuronal atrophy, death of nerve cells.
McEwen - how does immune system respond to acute and repeated stress?
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.
McEwen - conclusion
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
McEwen - characteristics habituation
ex. public-speaking -> response: increased salivary cortisol, get used to with repetition. people who do not get used to it have low self-esteem.
McEwen - frequent stress
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.
McEwen - failed shut-down
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
McEwen - inadequate response
autoimmunity and inflammation is associated with inadequate endogenous glucocorticoid responses, chronic fatigue.
Maslach - theory one
best and most idealistic workers experience burnout
Maslach - theory 2
burnout is end result of long exposure to chronic job stressors.
Maslach - phase model
exhaustion to cynicism. subsequent link to inefficacy is less clear. burnout scores fairly stable overtime.
Maslach - Maslach & Leiter model
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.
Maslach - Maslach, leiter engagement
= energy, involvement, efficacy.
Maslach - Schaufeli dimensions engagment
= persistent, positive affective-motivational state of fulfillment in employees characterized by: vigour - high energy, dedication - strong involvement, absorption - pleasant state in work.
Taris - result H1
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.
Taris - results H2
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
Taris - result H3
not supported
Taris - implications
reductions of exhaustion may be advantageous for the organization. exhausted perform less well, other components ambiguous and inconclusive.
VDL - results H1
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
VDL - groups
burnout who stopped working due to symptoms = clinical. group with high levels still worked and control
VDL - H2
high level of burnout symptoms associated with increased inhibition failures in SART (sustained attention). clinical more inhibition errors than control.
VDL - results H3
burned out increased performance variability (executive control).
VDL - what processes impaired?
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.
VDL - conclusion
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.
VDL - implications
treatment programs that enhance executive control and consider using cognitive tests in the diagnosis of burnout.
Hesselink - what influences did the law have on absenteesim?
law came into insuring against the financial consequences of sickness. easy to misuse to dismiss employees so absenteeism rose.
Hesselink - why did employers begin to intervene to prevent?
disability became less profitable, so began to prevent absenteeism. absence rate dropped.
Hesselink - changes made to the policy
employers obliged to pursue active absenteesim management policy (counseling) + employees need to cooperate to come back asap, absence rate low
Hesselink - periods of sick leave
- mental complaints and burnout, 2 cardiovascular complaints. influenza and cold and headache shortest absence periods.
Hesselink - cause of sickness
work as main or part of the cause of most recent sickness. conflicts at work (1), mental complaints (2)
Hesselink - preventic action
introducing incentives or by offering guidance to employees. (ngos and small organizations). guidance to help reintegrate more often
DARR - work strain, illness and absenteesim
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
Darr - model
supported
Darr - variance explained by theorized mediators
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.
Darr - restorative model
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
Darr - time lost absence
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
Darr - moderators of attribution
strong evidence for role of attribution in absenteeism. macro social change only with support.
Darr - implications
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
