Chapter 7: Psychosocial Hazards

Question 1

work stress

Answer 1

• A leading cause of workplace death
• Costs industry billions of dollars each year
• Also places considerable costs on society

Question 2

Psychologically healthy and safe workplace

Answer 2

a workplace that promotes workers’ psychological well-being and actively works to prevent harm to workers’ psychological health including in negligent, reckless, or intentional ways

Question 3

Psychosocial Model of Health

Answer 3

approach to the study of health that highlights the importance of both the social environment and psychological factors

Question 4

Stressors

Answer 4

• Objectively verifiable events that occur outside of the individual that have the potential to cause stress

Question 5

Acute

Answer 5

have a specific time onset (i.e., you know exactly when it began)

Question 6

Chronic

Answer 6

has no specific time onset, may be short or long duration, repeats frequently, and may be of low or high intensity

Question 7

Daily

Answer 7

specific onset, are of short duration, low intensity and are typically infrequent

Question 8

Catastrophic

Answer 8

specific onset, occur infrequently, have high intensity, and may be of long or short duration

Question 9

Work Stressors (6 major categories of workplace stress)

Answer 9

o Workload and work pace – amount of work completed and speed
o Role stressor (conflict, ambiguity, and inter-role conflict) – individuals face incompatible demands from two or more sources
o Career concerns – worries about job security, underpromotion and overpromotion, and concerns about career progression
o Work scheduling – shifts can disrupt circadian rhythms
o Interpersonal relations – poor interpersonal relations
o Job content and control – highly repetitive jobs, or that do not make use of a variety of workers’ skills or give workers a measure of control over how and when they complete their tasks

Question 10

Stress

Answer 10

an individual’s response to, or evaluation of, stressors. An internal experience characterized by arousal and displeasure

• Stress is moderated by individual differences
• Stress is adaptive

Question 11

General Adaptation Syndrome

Answer 11

the body’s way of gearing you up for fight or flight

Question 12

Gender Differences in GAS?

Answer 12

• Most early stress research conducted on males
• Women may be different
  o Fight or flight vs. tend and befriend

Question 13

Tend

Answer 13

nurture oneself and offspring

Question 14

Befriend

Answer 14

form social allegiances

Question 15

Transactional Model of Stress

Answer 15

• Our responses to our environment are influenced by our interpretations of events

Question 16

Cognitive Appraisal Process

Answer 16

o Individuals perceive and respond to the same event (stressor) in different ways
o Coping processes are invoked
o Stress occurs when people recognize a threat that they feel they cannot manage effectively

Question 17

Primary Appraisal

Answer 17

Are these events relevant to me? Will they cause harm? Benefit?

Question 18

Secondary Appraisal

Answer 18

Can I manage any threats identified during primary appraisal?

Question 19

Problem focused

Answer 19

remove or actively deal with stressor

Question 20

Emotion focused

Answer 20

manage emotions surrounding the stressor (e.g., avoid)

Question 21

Appraisal focused

Answer 21

change the way you view the stressor (e.g., redefine a threat as an opportunity)

Question 22

Moderators of Stress

Answer 22

a variable that changes the relationship between two variables

Question 23

Risk factors

Answer 23

aggravate stress

Question 24

Buffers

Answer 24

reduce stress

Question 25

Type A behaviour

Answer 25

action-emotion complex that can be observed in any person who is aggressively involved in a chronic incessant struggle to achieve increasingly more in increasingly less time

Question 26

Negative affectivity

Answer 26

a dispositional dimension reflecting persistent individual differences in the experience of negative emotion

Question 27

Strain

Answer 27

• The result of stress

Question 28

4 major categories of strain reactions

Answer 28

1. psychological
2. physical
3. behavioural
4. organizational

Question 29

Psychological

Answer 29

a disturbance in affect or a disturbance in affect

 Could result in burnout (has three dimensions)

Question 30

Three dimensions of burnout

Answer 30

1. emotional exhaustion
2. cynicism about one’s work
3. sense of inefficacy about one’s contributions

Question 31

Physical

Answer 31

stress plays a role in serious physical illness

Question 32

Behavioural

Answer 32

development of nervous habits, avoidance of situations, or reduction in individual involvement, engage in aggressive behaviour, increase in substance use

Question 33

Organizational

Answer 33

increased absenteeism, decreased performance, disturbances of interpersonal relationships, looking for other employment, or increase in workplace accidents

Question 34

Managing Psychosocial Hazards

Answer 34

• Several means to identifying psychosocial hazards: learn to identify stressors, survey the employees, look for telltale signs of stress, and be attuned to individual employees

Question 35

Preventive Stress Management

Answer 35

o Health of the organization and the health of employees are interdependent
o Encourages primary preventive strategies (organizationally focused as well as individually focused)

Question 36

Primary interventions

Answer 36

the reduction and/or removal of stressors

Question 37

Secondary interventions

Answer 37

focus on minimizing negative consequences once a person is feeling stress

Question 38

Tertiary interventions

Answer 38

used to assist those who are experiencing symptoms of strain

Question 39

CSA Z1003-13

Answer 39

• Canadian Standard on Psychological Safety and Health at Work
• Guidelines to develop a psychological health and safety management system
• Emphasizes:
  o Organizational commitment
  o Leadership support
  o Employee involvement
• Identifies 13 organizational factors that affect psychological health at work:
  o Organizational culture, psychological and social support, clear leadership and expectations, civility and respect, psychological demands, growth and development, recognition and reward, involvement and influence, workload management, engagement, balance, psychological protection, and protection of physical safety

Question 40

Organizational Injustice

Answer 40

perceived organizational unfairness associated with increased reports of strain

Question 41

3 categories of fairness judgements:

Answer 41

1. distributive
2. procedural
3. interactional

Question 42

Distributive

Answer 42

perceived fairness of outcomes

Question 43

Procedural

Answer 43

perceived fairness of decision-making processes

Question 44

Interactional

Answer 44

perceived fairness of interpersonal treatment

Question 45

Creating a fair workplace:

Answer 45

o Organizational leaders should be given training on the importance of fairness at work
o Organizations can try to use decision making processes that are procedurally fair

Question 46

Technology

Answer 46

• Previously considered how use of technology contributes to physical health problems
• However, more recent work demonstrates that technology is also a psychosocial stressor
  o Reduced control
  o Isolation
  o Privacy invasion
  o Increased job demands
  o More interruptions of work

Question 47

Work-Life Conflict

Answer 47

• Type of inter-role conflict in which the pressures of work and life domains are incompatible
• Work and family are the two most central domains in many people’s lives

Question 48

Work to family conflict

Answer 48

a form of work- family conflict in which work demands interfere with the fulfillment of family responsibilities
- receives the most attention

Question 49

Family to work conflict

Answer 49

a form of work-family conflict in which family demands interfere with the fulfillment of work responsibilities

Question 50

Behavioural involvement

Answer 50

the amount of time a person spends in a particular role

Question 51

Psychological involvement

Answer 51

the degree to which a person identifies with a particular role and sees the role as a central component of his or her self-concept

Question 52

Outcomes of Work-Family Conflict - family to work

Answer 52

 Decreased work performance and increased absenteeism

Question 53

Outcomes of Work-Family Conflict - work to family

Answer 53

 Decreased functioning in family role

Question 54

Outcomes of Work-Family Conflict - organizational costs are substantial

Answer 54

 E.g., absenteeism and reduced productivity

 Cost in the billions per year

Question 55

Outcomes of Work-Family Conflict - Individual costs are substantial

Answer 55

 Increased perceived stress
 Lowered physical health
 Increased alcohol use