Full summary of problem 7, block 1.7

Stress
Problem 7 1.7

 What is work stress and how is it caused?
 What is meant by stressor, strain, and stress complaints?
 How does stress affect our body?
 What happens in the event of too little stress?
 What are possible consequences of work stress and what can be done to alleviate or
prevent them?
 What is burnout?
 What are the causes and consequences of burnout?
 How can burnout be prevented and/or alleviated?
 What is the JDC-model?

Stress
 Stress- an internal psychological state of subjects exposed to threatening/exciting
situations. This state may result in a fight or flight response (short term stress)
- Eustress- stress that provides challenges that motivates individuals to work
hard and meet their goals
- Distress- stress that results from chronically demanding situations that
produce negative health outcomes
 Stressor- a physical/ psychological demand to which an individual responds. It’s a
force that pushes a psychological/physical factor beyond its range of flexibility.
 Strain- reaction or response to a stressor/ the consequence of stress
 Stress complaint- the negative consequence of stress
 Long term stress:
 General adaption syndrome:
1. Alarm stage- body mobilises resources to cope with stress, low resistance
2. Resistance- phase of maximal adaptation, less responsive to other stressors
3. Exhaustion- reached if the stressor is continuous, adaptive mechanisms collapse
 Work-related stress – process that arises where work demands of various types and
combinations exceeds the persons capacity and capability to cope

Stressors
Physical:
 Heat/cold/noise
 Dangerousness -> constantly ready to react to danger -> constant over arousal ->
long term health problems
 Demands of job – if excessive it leads to problems
- Cognitive
- Emotional
- Physical
- Qualitative work overload- too difficult
- Quantitative work overload- too much
- Underload- not being sufficiently challenged
 Working hours- consistently working 40+ hours -> damage to physical and
psychological health
- it is important to psychologically detach from work

, Stress
 Shift work- working at unsociable/unusual times -> stressful
(psychologically/physically) -> increases error rate
Psychological:
 Emotional labour- emotional dissonance -> stressful
- Deep acting- managing one’s feelings
- Surface acting- faking one’s emotions -> Most stressful
 Work-life inference/ inter-role conflict- conflict between one’s role at work and
one’s role at home
- Time based conflict- not being able to meet demands of domain due to time
pressures from the other domain
- Strain based conflict- insufficient resources remain for roles in other domains
- Behaviour based conflict- values/attitudes may clash with expected and
required behaviour in another domain
 Interpersonal conflict vs peer support- negative interactions with co-workers,
supervisors and clients (e.g. heated arguments/subtle unfriendly behaviour)
- May be due to scarce resources, incompatible values, unfair treatment -> job
dissatisfaction, health consequences, depression, violence
 Lack of control/ predictability- perception of little control/predictability determines
stress
- Control of schedule/ pace of work/ flexibility -> feelings of autonomy -> less
stress
- One benefits most from control if one has an internal locus of control and is
psychologically flexible
 Role stressors:
- Role ambiguity- no clear picture of job scope, expectations or responsibility
- Role conflict- attention is torn between job demands or attention is impaired
by having to do things one doesn’t want to do
- Role overload- when an individual is expected to fulfil too many roles at the
same time
 Responsibility- responsibility for people -> increase in demands -> stress
 Change- one may feel insecure about the future -> threat of losing the job ->
negative impact on wellbeing
- Planned change and autonomy reduce stress in times of change
 Organisational work culture- participatory work culture -> increase in performance,
satisfaction and self-esteem, decrease in strain and stress -> increased wellbeing of
the work force

Individual differences
 All big 5 traits except openness to experience correlate negatively to stress –
especially neuroticism
- High negative affectivity -> encounter/perceive more stressful events
- Perfectionism -> less recovery after stress -> more stress, rumination and
worry
- Internal LOC, self-esteem and self-efficacy -> deal better with stress
 Type A personality – people who are in a chronic struggle to obtain things from their
environment in the shortest possible period of time
- Hostility, achievement striving, impatience, irritability and time urgency