Chapitre 2 Part 2 Burnout

Question 1

What is acute stress ?

Answer 1

A rapid response to an abrupt, easily-identified cause that will often respond positively to some form of intervention.
In general, return to normal like in short time period.

Question 2

What is the onset period for symptoms of post traumatic stress ?

Answer 2

Up to six months.

Question 3

Is burnout easy to identify when it first appears ?

Answer 3

No, the early symptoms such as fatigue are easy to miss.

Question 4

What is the second phase of burnout ?

Answer 4

Cynicism and depersonalization.

Question 5

Is the risk of losing one’s job as a result of downsizing a proximal or distal job demand ?

Answer 5

Distal.

Question 6

What are the four categories of social support ?

Answer 6

Emotional, informational, appraisal, instrumental.

Question 7

What is an adjustment disorder ?

Answer 7

A person with an adjustment disorder/stress response syndrome develops emotional and/or behavioral symptoms as a reaction to a stressful event. … In an adjustment disorder, the reaction to the stressor is greater than what is typical or expected for the situation or event.

Question 8

What is appraisal support ?

Answer 8

It involves information, especially feedback, concerning a person’s functioning.

Question 9

What are the characteristics of a burnout ?

Answer 9

«Syndrome of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment that can occur among individuals who work with people in some capacity» (Massachusetts, Jackson & Leiter, 1996).

Question 10

What is chronic stress ?

Answer 10

It is a cumulative reaction to a buildup of pressures over a long period of time. It begins gradually and proceeds slowly.

Question 11

How does chronic stress usually manifest itself ?

Answer 11

Various ongoing physical and/or psychological symptoms such as hypertension, withdrawal and depression.

Question 12

What are the mental disorders attributed to work-related stress ?

Answer 12

PTSD
Burnout
Adjustment disorder 
Depression 
Anxiety

Question 13

What is the stage of depersonalization also called cynicism?

Answer 13

It is the second stage of a burnout and is people’s respond to persistent stress by developing cynical attitude towards their work, colleagues, or by putting a distance between themselves and services recipients.
Through cynicism and depersonalization, they attempt to distance themselves emotionally as a way of coping with emotional exhaustion and job demands.

Question 14

What is distal job demands associated with?

Answer 14

Characteristics like job instability or insecurity, involuntary termination : i.e reducing the size of the workforce , and all the pressures due to the global economy : merger, downsizing…

Question 15

What is proximal job demands associated with?

Answer 15

Content of the job : time pressure, work overload, task complexity, variety of task performed, problem with equipment, shift work, exposure to risk and hazards…
Also immediate work environment : lack of participation in decisions, role conflict and role ambiguity, poor career development perspectives, quality of supervision …

Question 16

What are job demands ?

Answer 16

Work stimuli that require sustained physical, cognitive, and emotional efforts on the part of the employee, and that lead to negative consequences if the effort required go beyond usual.

Question 17

What are job resources?

Answer 17

It refer to psychological, social, or organizational characteristics that reduces job demands, stimulate personal growth and engagement, and that are functional in achieving work goals.

• direct positive effect
• reduce impact of job demands would
• buffers the effects of stress.

Question 18

In which levels job demands can be situated and analyses ?

Answer 18

• task : skill variety, autonomy
• organisation or work and supervision : role clarity..
• social relationships : supervision style, coworker support..
• global organization : salary..

Question 19

What is the stage of emotional exhaustion ?

Answer 19

First stage of the burnout, refers to feeling of being overextended and depleted of one’s emotional and physical resources, resulting in loss of energy and chronic fatigue.
Feeling of not being able to give ourselves at a psychological level.

Question 20

What is emotional support ?

Answer 20

One of the four types of support and named as the most important, focuses on caring by providing empathy, trust and love.

Question 21

What is health impairment and what is it caused by?

Answer 21

Deterioration of an individual health, I.e initiated by job demands (see JD-R model).

Question 22

What is informational support ?

Answer 22

Offers advice or information useful for coping with the problem.

Question 23

What is instrumental support?

Answer 23

Involves helpful behaviors such as the giving one’s time and skill, or even the loan of money.

Question 24

What is PTSD ?

Answer 24

Post traumatic stress disorder:
Complex disorder in which the affected person’s memory, emotional responses, intellectual processes, and nervous system have all been disrupted by one more traumatic experience. It can be summarized as a normal reaction to abnormal events” : i.e so overwhelming and frightening that they would upset anyone.

Question 25

What is the stage of called “reduced personal accomplishment” ?

Answer 25

Last and third stage of the burnout, refers to the fact that employees evaluate their work and themselves negatively and feel dissatisfied with their work accomplishments.

Question 26

What is social support ?

Answer 26

Refers to the belief that one is cared for, esteemed, valued, and that one belongs to a network of mutual obligations (Cobb, 1976).

Question 27

How can we prevent burnout ?

Answer 27

Positive feedbacks
Manageable workload
Social support

Question 28

What is the Job Demands-Resources model (JD-R) ?

Answer 28

Framework that try to integrate two research traditions: stress and motivation.
It says that job demands are initiators of the health impairment process and job ressources initiators to motivational process.
It also talks about how demands and ressources interact and predict organizational outcome, burnout and work engagement.