Transcript Organisational culture, climate & stress

Stressful life events
Andy Smith
Aims of talk
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Provide information about the history,
conceptualisation, description, modelling and
practical relevance of psychological research
on life events and adjustment to them.
I will focus on negative life events mainly
because we know more about this topic than
we do about positive events and associated
processes and states.
Starting point
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History - 40 years ago
Life events research
Social Readjustment Rating
Scale (SRRS)
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Holmes & Rahe (1967):
Social readjustment: “the intensity and length of time necessary to
accommodate to a life event, regardless of the desirability of this
event…”
400 people ranked 43 commonly reported events in order of
disruption. Scaled values out of 100.
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Resulted in Life Change Units (LCU)
Social Readjustment Rating
Scale
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Death of spouse
100
Divorce
75
Marriage
50
Being fired from work
47
Son or daughter leaving home
29
Christmas
12
Rahe (1974): >LCU, > risk of ill-health among 89
physicians. Of 96 major health changes reported, 89
took place in people who reported over 150 LCUs. 70%
of those who reported 300 LCUs became ill. <150
LCUs, no evidence of ill-health
Life events – a more recent study
Kozora et al. (2005):
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measures of depression, mood, perceived health,
stressful life events, coping, and social support.
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Depressive symptoms were associated with major lifethreatening events, disengage coping, and emotional
coping.
.
Problems of SRRS
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Many listed events may not be applicable at certain
times of life
Some may not occur sufficiently frequently to impact on
life
Some vague (change of social activities)
Perhaps more central:
 Most studies that show SRRS to be associated with
illness are retrospective
 Daily hassles may be more important than infrequent
major stresses
Life Events or Daily hassles
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Death of spouse
Divorce
Jail term
Marriage
Pregnancy
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Too many things to do
Not enough time
Too many
responsibilities
Troubling thoughts
Problems with children
Job dissatisfaction
But hassles seem to be more
important…
Kraaij, Arensman & Spinhoven (2002):
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Meta-analysis of 25 studies, the relationship of both specific types of
negative life events and the total number of experienced events to
depression in old age was studied.
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Almost all negative life events appeared to have a modest but
significant relationship with depression.
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Correlation - negative life events levels and depression :
Correlation - daily hassles and depression
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0.15
0.41
A more current view - stress as a process
Stress is a process and one must consider:
Exposure to stressful experiences/job
characteristics.
Perceptions of stress.
Psychological resources that allow one to
cope with the above.
Health outcomes induced by the above.
Appraisal or Perceived Stress
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Stress occurs when demands exceed the
ability to cope
Important to measure perceived stress
Also link with psychosocial resources that
help you cope
Stressor------------Perceived ---------Stress
Stress
Response
Stress and Coping
Primary appraisal
- Is this a threat?
Secondary appraisal
(Coping)
- What can I do about it?
Stress occurs when there is an
imbalance between primary and
secondary appraisal of a situation
Coping
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Evoked by distress…
Broadly divided into:
 Emotion focused: Attempt to reduce
emotional distress – avoidance, cognitive reappraisal etc
 Problem focused: Attempt to change the
nature of the problem causing distress problem solving strategies
A simple model…
Stimulus event
Primary appraisal
Benign/irrelevant
Ignore – no action or emotion
Relevant/potentially harmful
+ secondary appraisal
Emotional response
Coping response
Stress as loss of resources
Hobfoll’s (1989) conservation of resources model proposed that mental
and physical health are determined by the amount of resources
available to the individual.
Resources may be:
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social (for example, family support)
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structural (such as housing)
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psychological (for instance, coping skills, perceived control).
A large number of resources are health protective.
Reduced resources place an individual at risk for
mental health problems.
Social Support – a major
Psychosocial resource.
% Died from All Causes
Connections
I. Least
II.
III.
IV. M ost
20
15
10
5
0
Men
Women
Gender
Berkman & Syme; Am J Epid; 1979
PERCEIVED SOCIAL SUPPORT
& THE STRESS-BUFFERING HYPOTHESIS
TYPICAL QUESTIONS
• Is there someone you can talk
to about intimate problems?
• Is there someone who will loan
you money when you are in need?
High
Symptoms
Low social
support
High social
support
Low
Low
High
Stress
High
High social
support
Low
Low
High
Stress
Cohen & Wills; Psych Bull; 1985
High
Low social
support
Symptoms
Symptoms
Low social
support
High social
support
Low
Low
High
Stress
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Things are more complicated!
Many other factors must be considered –
especially individual differences.
 New models are being developed and tested
(see Mark and Smith, 2008).
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THE DRIVE MODEL AND STRESS AT WORK
Individual Characteristics & Personal Resources & Demands
11
8
12
9
10
Job Stress
3
4
2
Work Demands &
Work Resources
Health Outcomes &
Job Satisfaction
1
5
6
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Work Resources
Y
X
Mediating effect of Y,
Z between X and Z
Main Effect
Moderating Effect
Moderating Effect
of Job Resources
on Job Demands
Prevention and management
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On the basis of such models one can design
different types of interventions (e.g.
organisational or individual).
We should move away from a “one size fits
all approach”.
However, a process based approach can
provide a framework that accounts for
individual variation but has a firm theoretical
basis.