What Is Rubenstein's Coping With Stress

After reading "Coping with Stress: An Ethnography of Firefighters” I believe Rubenstein completed an ethnography. Through his use of observation and the interviewing of an informant, the author gained insight into how some firefighters deal with stress.

Rubenstein faced a few challenges: he couldn't observe or experience the major causes of stress on firefighters. He couldn't ride with the firefighters to a call or have firsthand observations of a fireman's actions inside a burning building. He gained insight to these by his interviews; but could never actually observe these stressful situations in real life/real time. He also couldn't be witness to pranks or jokes that appear to relieve that stress. The author based his work on the happenings inside the fire station itself and how life in that station can help relieve stress. Unfortunately, there was no way to accurately judge the effectiveness of any of the uncovered stress aids.

Most of the Rubenstein's findings are relayed by taped interview excerpts from his informant about station life and the variety of past calls firefighters responded to. These findings revealed the major cause of stress for firefighters; not knowing what the next call will be
I thought the author could have delved deeper with some research data of firefighters that do seek help for stress related disorders and any systems to help them cope outside the station environment. Humor and pranks may work for some and to a varying degree, but there may be some that need more to overcome it. The "Pranks” section seems a little uncoehisive, starting with the only mention of organized stress coping (CISD), then meanders to a few examples of pranks. He does accomplish his overall message with the use of this fire station as a whole and the way the relaxed atmosphere helps firefighters (since this is the view of only one male firefighter from one station, a greater sample would have been