Stress Flashcards
Selye
- stress is a biological construct
- adreno cortico enlargement: environmental, transient state, chronic state, physiological, affective, behavioural and cognitive
- 147 million workers in the EU, 28% complained of stress changing
- due to a changing nature of work:
- flexible vs. unflexible
- new colleagues vs. old colleagues
- individual differences
- work technology and shifts
- unsuccessful coping mechanisms
- management and stress
- alarm reaction –> resistance –> exhaustion
Control theory
Spector (1998)
- locus of control and actual environmental control
+ job redesign, autonomous work groups, survey feedback and team building
– fine line between control and becoming your own manager
Cybemetic theory
Cummings and Cooper (1998)
- feedback and homeostasis
- an effort to stabalise
- threat –> stress –> coping strategies, adjustment and failure
- cannot predict self motivated behaviour
Three stages of stress
Selye (1978)
- speed up speech, eating, moving, acting too fast etc
- beginning signs and symptoms of stress
- chest pains, palpitations, depression and anxiety
Yerkes Dodoson law
1978
- social environment
- too much, too little
- achieve optimum
Environmental fit model
Caplan (1983)
- how well the person and the job fit together
Cooper, Cooper and Baker (1988)
- occupational elements intrinsic to a job - danger and pressure e.g. a police officer
- occupational risk of depression - dentist, lawyer, teacher etc
- role ambiguity - lack of clarity, low self esteem and low self motivation
- role conflict of job demands
- burden responsibility
- lack of social support
- stressful relationships at work: superiors, colleagues, subordinates etc
- poor performance appraisal
Cooper occupational stress ratings
- traffic warden
- teacher
- police
BUT … lacks validity
Furnham (1992)
- those with negative effect - anxiety, neuroticism and self depreciation are less productive, less job satisfied and more prone to absenteeism
Spector (1982)
- locus of control related to motivation, effort, performance, satisfaction etc
- type A vs. type B personality
Folkman and Lazarus (1980)
- coping strategies - emotion focused
- stressed individuals are problem focused, not emotion focused e.g. stressed bus drivers are more likely to have accidents
Richardson and Burke (1991)
- high occupational stress rating
- less satisfaction with negative attitudes about medical health care
Organisational interventions
- improve job content and working environment
- better time scheduling
- management development programmes
- career development responsibility
- corporate fitness
- portray job more realistically
- improve communication
- improve organisational management development
- institutionalised occupational health and safety
- have employee assisted programmes
(worrying about job security may increase stress, programmes are preventative and increase and improve worker awareness, also they improve job redesign)
Individual interventions
- time management training
- interpersonal skill training
- promote a realistic image of job
- work-life balance
- encourage peer support
- offer internal coaching and consultation
- encourage personal career planning
- offer counselling and psychotherapy
- offer guidance/ sick leave/ rehabilitation
(diet and exercise releases serotonin, relaxation and medication, cognitive self therapy adapts the way that we conceive a stressor, behaviour therapy overcomes stress by focusing on behaviour)
Richardson et al (2008)
cognitive and behavioural programmes were better compared to other types of intervention e.g. relaxation, organisational, multimodal or alternative
- relaxation is the most frequently used
- organised interventions are scarce
- effect size is calculated on self reports
- validity?
- programmes are normally offered to white collared jobs, stress may be associated with rule deviance, person= health and well being, organisation= performance)
