Week 4 Stress and work design Flashcards
What is the pathway of stress?
Stressor (environment) –> Psychological state –> Strain (psychological and physical sxs)
What are the four types of stress?
Response based (non-specific) Situational based (feature in environment poses threat) Interactional (job related factors interact with individual) Transactional (exceed one's ability to cope)
Explain Seyle’s general adaptation syndrome.
Initial threat causes sympathetic arousal.
Resistance by parasympathetic follows.
If stress occurs for too long, resource depletion leads to system failure, resulting in exhaustion.
This is a multistage, non-specific anxiety system to respond to physical threats. Believed to have an evolutionary advantage.
Explain Lazarus and Folkman’s transactional theory for stress.
Situation leads to primary appraisal.
If nothing at stake, no stress response.
If threat or challenge perceived, this leads to secondary appraisal.
can cope leads to moderate stress, if can’t cope then high stress response.
This pathway decides how strong the stress response is.
In the transactional theory, what is the difference between threat and challenge?
Threat is associated with any kind of loss or harm.
Challenge is associated with potential for growth, gain, or goal attainment.
What is the difference between the primary appraisal and the secondary appraisal in the transactional theory?
In primary appraisal, the individual is assessing whether there is a threat, a challenge or nothing at stake. This decides how we feel about our ability to cope and will influence our thought pattern in the secondary appraisal.
In secondary appraisal we assess our ability to cope, our resources available and how much control we have. essentially a person is deciding what they can do.
What is the difference between a challenge and a hindrance?
A challenge has a sense of growth or potential to gain from the experience.
Hindrance is increasing stress load and decreases ability to cope. This will slow me down.
How are hindrances and threat different?
Hindrance is more considered a threat to resources (such as time).
Hindrance may also elicit different responses and behaviour such as anger rather than anxiety or enthusiasm.
How are coping strategies different from coping success?
Think about how the question is asked. What are you doing vs how are you doing.
What are 5 types of coping strategies?
Problem-focused (what can I do?) Emotion-focused (It's not that bad) Avoidance Support seeking Proactive
What is the difference between a coping style and strategy and which is more effective?
Coping strategy is what is used in the moment, while coping style is a more long-lasting habit of responding.
Styles are more effective, but strategies can be good in certain conditions.
Coping strategies can be learnt, but styles may interfere
What are three ways some people get more stressed?
Differential reactivity (appraisal differences) Differential exposure (more or worse stressors) Differential coping choice (less effective choice of coping strategies)
What puts a person at higher risk of being more stressed?
Negative affectivity/ Neuroticism (percieve the world negatively). This could be because of higher reactivity and poor coping strategy choice.
Their Locus of control (internal/external)
What is involved in the stress process?
Characteristics of the situation
Appraials of situation and consequences
Physiological and psychological responses
Cognitive and behaviour responses (coping)
How high are stress levels in australia?
Moderate to high with 60% of highly stressed people being women. However, males not in the workforce are the most stressed sub group.
What are the top three worries associated with work?
Future career
My achievements
Doing well at work
