,Live Lecture – Stress psychology and Theory (Peter Flach)
WEEK 10
Lecture 6.0 – Leadership & Organizational interventions (Guest Lecture)
Lecture 6.1 – Positive and negative effects of leadership behaviour
Lecture 6. 2 – Sources and consequences of stress at work
Lecture 6.3 – What type of org & leader level interventions aim to reduce stress
Lecture 6.4 – Minilecture Precarious work
• Article 16 – Semmer (2006)
• Article 17 – Harms et al. (2017)
• Article 18 – Dimoff & Kelloway (2018)
Tutorial 4.1 – Mini Lecture Precarious work
Tutorial 4.2 – Stress in immigrant workers
WEEK 11
Live Q&A Session
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, WEEK 1
Lecture 1.1 – Stress Research
A) Trends in working life
• Work intensification = 24/7 connectivity and flexible work, work-home balance and telework
• Rising prevalence of burnout = disability benefits due to psychological problems (11 to 40%)
• Digitalization
• Self-management: pressure to have a healthy lifestyle and manage themselves
• Alienating and competitive nature of capitalism = platform economies & self-employment //
decreasing unionization // temporary contracts.
B) Changing world – Importance of occupational health
• Globalization = long // abnormal working hours
• Demographic change = dual career families // aging workforce
• Knowledge work = social & cognitive skills to do work // ICT – fading boundaries
• Deregulation of work = job insecurity // precarious working conditions
C) Occupational health
Occupational health = interdisciplinary partnerships of psychological and occupational health science
professionals seeking to improve the quality of working life, and enhance the safety, health and well-
being of workers in all occupations. There are dedicated journals & communities + conferences.
- Bad work with high stress levels = dirty jobs, manual labour --> production work // assembly line
jobs (portrayed by media)
- Good work with no stress = Silicon Valley jobs --> engineering jobs with highly educated people
and high pay and health care // having cool offices etc.
D) Definition of Stress & Occupational Health
Stress = a state of mental or emotional strain or tension resulting from
adverse or demanding circumstances. Comes from ‘to draw tight’ &
‘narrowness, constriction, oppression’. It is distress, hardship or force
exerted on a person.
Stress response = physiological, psychological, behavioural effects of stress.
TRANSACTIONAL MODEL OF STRESS (Lazarus & Folkman, 1994)
Stress = an interaction of features of the environment or events (stressors)
AND/OR an individual’s response (psychological, physiological and
behavioural) to environmental demands, threats and challenges (strain).
➔ “A particular relationship between the person and the environment that
is appraised by the person as taxing or exceeding his or her resources
and endangering his or her well-being” = definition
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, E) Symptoms of stress
• Physical = fatigue // muscular tension // headaches // sleeping difficulties etc
• Psychological = burnout (exhaustion, cynicism, lack of accomplishment) // depression // anxiety
// irritability // pessimism // feelings of being overwhelmed and unable to cope // cognitive
difficulties (concentration, mistakes)
• Behavioural = irritability // withdrawal behaviours, absenteeism, turnover // aggression // low
work performance // impatience // disinterest // isolation // poor health behaviours (eating,
exercising, drug abuse) // risk taking
Symptoms in own definitions
- Workload & time pressure
- Cognitive demands
- Social demand and role conflict
- Tricky = the person as well as the environment influence stress. It is never the responsibility of
only the individual.
➔ Poorly designed jobs are universally bad for everyone
➔ Stress affects several life domains
F) Stress Research History
Physiological/behaviouristic perspectives = all the non-
specifically induced changes within a biologic system in
response to an aggressive outside agent, that is, the
stressor. Stress results from disturbance of homeostasis –
the body’s attempt to maintain a stable internal
environment. When homeostasis is endangered, people will
fight or flight (Cannon, 1932).
Allostatic Load Model = stability is achieved through
change. The body tries to reset the set-points of the
physiological and biological systems when they are
confronted with outside demands. This is possible when
demand is only happening for a short time, but when
allostatic load occurs (chronic exposure to repeated
stress), it becomes more problematic.
Selye (1995) = model of general adaptation syndrome.
Homeostasis – Alarm stage – Resistance stage – Exhaustion stage. So in physiological = stimulus,
stressor, direct effect on humans’ bodily systems.
➔ From this physiological perspective research went to a more psychological perspective. It
stressed the importance in people’s cognitions in how they experience stress.
G) Stressful life events
Psychologists started to study the impact of stressful life events. SLE can lead to serious stress issues,
as stressors can affect human health in nonspecific ways // cause a variety of illnesses.
Stressful life events = events that cause different degrees of social readjustment. This builds the
bridge to research interest in general life stress to work-related stress.
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