Problem 6 - Stress And Burnout

Question 1

Stress

Answer 1

• Stress = activation of the fight/flight mechanism.
• mechanism that causes physical changes that makes people ready to fight or flee.
• Seyle: stress is a non-specific response of the body to external demands.

Question 2

Eustress

Answer 2

• eustress: good stress that provides challenges and motivates people to work harder and achieve their goals

Question 3

Distress

Answer 3

• bad stress, which results in long-term stressful situations and that has negative consequences on stress.

Question 4

Stressors

Answer 4

• physical or psychological force that pushes people outside their range of stability.

Question 5

Strain

Answer 5

• the reaction to a stressor.

Question 6

General adaptation syndrome (GAS)

Answer 6

• the same reaction to almost all stressors. 3 phases:
  1. Alarm reaction: defense mechanism is active, heart increases, hormones are released.
  2. Resistance: maximum adaptation and dealing with the stress, by hopefully returning to equilibrium. If not, next phase begins.
  3. Exhaustion: adaptive stress mechanism collapses and person is exhausted. Negative consequences (burnout) if stress is not reduced.
• long-term chronic stress

Question 7

Sources of stress: control and predictability

Answer 7

• perception of control determines how we react to a situation.
• perception of good control = reduced stress.

Question 8

Sources of stress: interpersonal conflict

Answer 8

• conflict with others in the workplace.
• consequences: distraction, aggression, dissatisfaction etc

Question 9

Sources of stress: role stressors

Answer 9

• ambiguity about the role, role conflit, role overload etc.
• unclarity, conflicting demands and contradictory roles.

Question 10

Sources of stress: work-family conflict

Answer 10

• work conflicts with personal life.

Question 11

Sources of stress: emotional labour

Answer 11

• regulation of emotions to meet the demands of the job.
• surface acting: imitating certain emotions
• deep acting: changing the real emotional state.
• suppressing emotions requires cognitive, psychological effort and it is stressful over time.

Question 12

Sources of stress: unemployement

Answer 12

• job insecurity, money etc.

Question 13

Demand-control model

Answer 13

• karasek
• two factors:
  1. Workload, Intellectual requirements and job demands
  2. Autonomy, job control.
• 4 types of jobs:
  1. High strain: high requirements, little control (nurse)
  2. Active jobs: high requirements, high control (manager)
  3. Passive jobs: low requirements and little control (caretaker)
  4. Low strain jobs: low requirements and high control (architect)
• High strain = stress
• active jobs = stimulating

Question 14

Consequences of stress:

Answer 14

• Information processing: negative effect on memory, attention, reaction times, accuracy.
• emotions: negative, mental health
• behavior: counterproductive behavior, absenteeism, accidents, tardiness, alcholo/drug abuse.
• burnout: strain, intense, cant cope.
• physiological: over-activation of sympathetic nervous system, high stress hormones, shrinkage of blood vessels, diseases etc.

Question 15

Burnout

Answer 15

• extreme state of psychological strain due to a long reaction to a chronic stressor at work, which is so intense that the person cannot cope.
• components:
  1. Emotional exhaustion: absence and fatigue
  2. Depersonalization or cynicism: treating others as objects or being hostile
  3. Low personal achievement: achieve little = little motivation and perform less.

Question 16

Yerkes-dodson law

Answer 16

• stress increase = fine at first
• goes above threshold = chronic stress leading to low performance

Question 17

Dealing with stress

Answer 17

1. Problem-focused coping: dealing/coping with the problem that caused the stress first.
2. Emotion focused coping: reducing the emotional reaction to the problem

Question 18

Preventing burnout

Answer 18

• break from work
• emotional support
• positive feedback

Question 19

Job demands-control (support) model (DCSM)

Answer 19

• support was an extra factor added later.
• work demands, work control and social support
• Hypotheses:
  1. Strain hypothesis: job control and social support reduce harmful effects of job demands on health.
  2. Active learning hypothesis: job control and social support helps a person cope with stress, leading to productivity.

Question 20

Antecedents of burnout: situational factors

Answer 20

• demands of the job: physical, emotional, cognitive effort that have physiological/psychological consequences such as fatigue.

Question 21

Antecedents of burnout: individual factors

Answer 21

• personality: threatening situation or not.
• high stability and extraversion = adapt/cope easily
• openness to experience = +ve with personal accomplishment
• other 4 = -ve with the three dimensions
• emotional stability = predicts exhaustion and depersonalization.
• extraversion = predicts personal accomplishment

Question 22

Consequences of burnout:

Answer 22

1. Health: psychological/physical
2. Work: performance/productivity

Question 23

JD-R model

Answer 23

• job demands reduce health and job resources increase motivation and job satisfaction .
• job demands leads to burnout

Question 24

Interventions for burnout

Answer 24

1. Job crafting: shaping own job - structural job resources, social job resources, challenging job demands, less obstructive job demands.
2. Organizational interventions: group of employees, job redesign + training. Optimizing job demands, efforts to reduce heavy demands.
3. Individual interventions: specific needs, personalized support process, strengths/recovery training etc.