Psychology Essay
Psychology Essay
Outline and evaluate research into workplace stress (12 Marks)
There are many things in a workplace that can be found stressful, it also depends on the type of job a person is in, for example: a soldier would be put under more stress than author. There are many factors in the work environment that can affect the level of stress put on a person.
There have been studies which have took place which look into the stress caused within the working environment including Marmot et al. (1997) and Johansson et al. (1978).
Marmot et al. (1997) investigated what causes stress and how it affects people personally in the real working environments. They found that having a high workload, creating greater job demands as well as low job control, including low control about deadlines and procedures was associated with a greater risk of heart attacks and other stress related illnesses. Therefore, if an employee had greater job control it may reduce the amount of stress and stress related illnesses.
Johansson et al. (1978) did a study which is known as ‘The Sawmill Study 1978’. They wanted to find out how work and the amount of it can affect stress levels and the levels of controls that the workers have over the workload. The put stress-related hormones and stress-relates absenteeism in finishers which were thought to have the most stressful job within a Sawmill. They were measured and those were then compared with other workers in the factory. The study showed that there were high levels of stress-related illnesses and more stress hormones in the finishers than other workers, which shows that both the work environment and work overload and control can contribute towards greater stress.
The stress levels of the two groups of sawmill workers were compared. The finisher’s job was to finish off the wood at the last stage of processing timber. The work was machine paced, isolated, very repetitive yet highly skilled, and the finishers productivity determined the
Outline and evaluate research into workplace stress (12 Marks)
There are many things in a workplace that can be found stressful, it also depends on the type of job a person is in, for example: a soldier would be put under more stress than author. There are many factors in the work environment that can affect the level of stress put on a person.
There have been studies which have took place which look into the stress caused within the working environment including Marmot et al. (1997) and Johansson et al. (1978).
Marmot et al. (1997) investigated what causes stress and how it affects people personally in the real working environments. They found that having a high workload, creating greater job demands as well as low job control, including low control about deadlines and procedures was associated with a greater risk of heart attacks and other stress related illnesses. Therefore, if an employee had greater job control it may reduce the amount of stress and stress related illnesses.
Johansson et al. (1978) did a study which is known as ‘The Sawmill Study 1978’. They wanted to find out how work and the amount of it can affect stress levels and the levels of controls that the workers have over the workload. The put stress-related hormones and stress-relates absenteeism in finishers which were thought to have the most stressful job within a Sawmill. They were measured and those were then compared with other workers in the factory. The study showed that there were high levels of stress-related illnesses and more stress hormones in the finishers than other workers, which shows that both the work environment and work overload and control can contribute towards greater stress.
The stress levels of the two groups of sawmill workers were compared. The finisher’s job was to finish off the wood at the last stage of processing timber. The work was machine paced, isolated, very repetitive yet highly skilled, and the finishers productivity determined the