Booklet 2: Stress in everyday life

Question 1

What is a life change?

Answer 1

Occasional/ rare events which require major adjustments to lifestyle for example, marriage, death of a spouse, retirement.

Question 2

What is a daily hassle?

Answer 2

Everyday irritations which produce an overall elevated strew level e.g. traffic, school.

Question 3

Who conducted the studies into Life changes and stress?

Answer 3

Holmes and rahe & then Rahe on his own.

Question 4

What were the two life changes studies?

Answer 4

The SRRS scale and the sailor study.

Question 5

What does SRRS?

Answer 5

Social Readjustment rating scale.

Question 6

Why did Rahe carry out further research?

Answer 6

To investigate if SRRS scores could be linked to illness.

Question 7

What are uplifts?

Answer 7

Also happen in daily life and can neutralise the effects of daily hassles. They are positive experiences such as hearing good news, compliments or spending time with friends.

Question 8

What are the difficulties in researching life changes and daily hassles (A02)

Answer 8

RESEARCH RELIES ON SELF REPORT- all research into life changes and daily hassles relies on collecting data through self report e.g. questionnaires and interviews. Data collected can be inaccurate as it is not possible to remember every daily hassle you have experienced if the data is inaccurate it means the results will lack validity.
RESEARCH IS CORRELATIONAL- Research relies on correlations to show links between variables e.g. between daily hassles and stress/illness.

Question 9

What is workplace stress?

Answer 9

The modern workplace is a major source of stress and workplace stressors can have a direct impact on an individuals health and work performance. This subsequently impacts the economy and the health service as employees take time off work due to stress related illness.

Question 10

What are the most important workplace stressors?

Answer 10

Work overload, level of control, physical environment.

Question 11

What is work overload?

Answer 11

The amount of work can seriously affect a persons health and stress levels. If the workers feel that they cannot manage all the work they are given in the time they have then they feel more stressed.

Question 12

What is level of control?

Answer 12

This refers to how much control a person has over their day to day routine. If someone has high level, they can control their timetables and how they prioritise tasks, whereas if control is low, these factors are decided by someone else. Low levels of control lead to higher levels of stress.

Question 13

What is physical environment?

Answer 13

These include any aspect of the working environment that causes stress for example noise, temperature or overcrowding.

Question 14

Who conducted the research into workplace stress?

Answer 14

Marmot and Johansson.

Question 15

Who conducted the research into daily hassles?

Answer 15

Kanner and Delongis.

Question 16

What are the general evaluation points for workplace stress?

Answer 16

EVER CHANGING WORKPLACE- The current research does not take into account the ever changing demands of the work place for example the increasing use of technology and lower job security are stessors on employees which are not discussed in current research.
INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES- Different people may have different responses to the same stressors depending on their individual perceptions of their ability to cope. For example, situations that some find very stressful others would see as a challenge to achieve and current research doesn’t not consider the variety of individual responses to workplace stress.

Question 17

What is a type A personality?

Answer 17

Competitive, Rapid, Time urgent, Intense, hostile agressive and more likely to get CHD.

Question 18

What is type B personality?

Answer 18

Relaxed, Slow movements, Slow speech, One thing at a time, Express feelings, Less likely to get CHD.

Question 19

What is the hardy personality?

Answer 19

They have three characteristics:
Control- High internal LOC (in control of their own lives)
Commitment- Get involved and take problems head on
Challenge- They see stress as a challenge rather than a threat.

Question 20

Where is type A behaviour found?

Answer 20

Mainly in individualistic societies in the western world rather than in collectivists societies in the non western world. For example in the USA and the UK, people are more focused on personal achievement and success.

Question 21

Who carried out the research into personality and stress?

Answer 21

Friedman and rosenman & Kobasa

Question 22

What did Friedman and Rosenman research?

Answer 22

Type A and Type B personalities.

Question 23

What did Kobasa research?

Answer 23

Hardiness and Stress.