Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of North Texas, August, 2008. / Title from title page display. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of British Columbia, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 190-222).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Idaho, 2006. / Abstract. "April 2006." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 178-186). Also available online in PDF format.

Woods (2010) points out that research in emotional intelligence has been carried out at school level, but little research has been undertaken with academics in higher education. Research around emotions within the organisational context also appears to be limited in higher education (Briner, 1999, 2005; Kumar and Rooprai, 2009). There, therefore, appears to be an area in which research can be carried out. The overall aim of this study was to evaluate the concept of emotional intelligence (trait EI) in the higher educational context (University) and to investigate the relationship between emotional intelligence, coping and well-being. The research explored: how university academics cope emotionally with interpersonal relationships; if there was a significant correlation between emotional intelligence and well-being; if emotional intelligence can help academics cope; the emotionally challenging experiences academics have and how they cope with them. Mixed methodology was used in this research using a sequential, explanatory approach. Triangulation brings together the findings from the analysis of quantitative and qualitative data. The quantitative aspect of the research included a sample size of 100% (N =533); 45.8% (N = 244) male, with a mean age of 48.78 (SD = 10.9); and 54.2% (N = 289) female, with a mean age of 47.29 (SD = 9.78). All participants worked for universities in different countries around the world. Pearson’s product moment correlation coefficient was used to analyse the quantitative data associated with: coping (Carver, Scheier and Weintraub, 1989), managing emotions (Petrides, 2009a); perceived stress scale (PSS) (Cohen, Kamarck and Mermelstein, 1983); emotional demands (COPSOQ) (Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire, 2003); and home/work recovery (Querstret and Cropley, 2012). The analysis showed that there was an inverse correlation between PSS and managing emotions (r = -0.52) suggesting a relationship between managing emotions and perceived stress. There appeared to be less significant relationships between the other instruments. Curvature analysis was undertaken on the relationship between emotional intelligence (EI squared) and Perceived stress (PSS). The findings identified a small R squared change of 0.007, while the sig F change is 0.036 which suggests significance as it is less than 0.05. However, it is very small. The nonlinear effect (the addition) of the EI squared variable which is associated with the 0.007 change was 4.41 (F change) which again, appeared very small when compared with the linear F change of 168.32. Moderation was undertaken using Hayes’ (2016) “Process” model. The findings showed that when there was a low level of coping there was a significant negative relationship between PSS and EI (b = -0.16, 95% CI [-0.21, -0.11], t = -6.36, p =00). At the mean value of coping, there was a negative relationship between PSS and EI (b = -0.19, 95% CI [- 0.22, -0.15], t = -10.92, p =00). When there was a high level of coping there was a significant negative relationship between PSS and EI (b = - 0.21, 95% CI [-0.25, -0.17], t = -9.33, p =00). The findings suggest that notwithstanding how well academics cope there was a negative relationship between PSS and EI. The conditional effect of x on y values of the moderators showed that at low levels of coping there was a (negative) significant effect (p less than 0.05) of PSS on EI (-12.01, p < 0.05). At average levels of coping there was negative significant effect of PSS on EI (0, p < 0.05). At high levels of coping there was a positive significant effect. Mediation analysis was also undertaken to find out the effect PSS has on EI influenced by coping. The findings suggest that there was a small significant indirect effect of PSS on EI, through coping where b = 0.02, 95% CI [-0.05, 0.08]. The qualitative aspect of the research included interviews with 11 academics aged 29 to 58. Thematic analysis (TA) was undertaken identifying examples of emotional challenges and experience that are integrated into the study to contextualise the findings. The findings suggest that each person has his/ her own coping strategies which may overlap. This does not come out from findings of the questionnaire/ survey, exemplifying the advantages of undertaking interviews. The findings from the interviews were used to provide greater depth and explanation, than if quantitative data was used alone. Limitations identified include individual differences and challenges in generalising beyond the sample size. A further limitation was that different sample types, models and instruments may have been used in earlier research. Fuzzy generalisations are, therefore, made that replace the certainty of scientific generalisations that help contribute to theory and future research. Overall, it was apparent from the findings from the interviews that, whereas academics experience stressful/ challenging experiences, they use emotional intelligence to help them cope in a constructive manner using ways of coping such as: humour, emotional/ instrumental support. The findings from the quantitative data showed that as perceived stress goes down, emotional intelligence goes up. Each of the methods undertaken in this study support the view that academics do use emotional intelligence to help them cope with stressful and challenging experiences, dependent upon context and circumstances that he/ she experience. Recommendations are made that include training academics to understand their own emotions and to identify emotions in others and then to manage the emotions. This could help increase awareness of emotional intelligence. It is recommended that training be voluntary and be extended to all stakeholders. To embed the training into the organisational procedures and to help communication of emotional intelligence, policies should be developed to help academics and other stakeholders to cope with stressful and challenging experiences to help improve student experience.

Organisations today are in a state of ever accelerating rate of change. Globalisation of the economy, increasing competition, technological innovation as well as global competition are seen to bring about the ever-accelerating pace of change in the working environment worldwide (Christen 2005:241). For this reason, employees are challenged by changes in their careers that they never anticipated, changes which in the long-run, result in stress conditions that bring negative consequences for both employees and the organisation in their wake. This chapter will provide the background to the topic of the study and survey what other studies have revealed about it. The objectives of the study, the research questions, the research objectives over and above the necessary hypotheses will also be mentioned and to conclude, the chapter will provide the theoretical framework in support of this study.As we may be aware, we live in a world of change, where everything constantly has reformed. Organisations are also part of that big change especially in the new millennium where re-engineering, downsizing, outsourcing and restructuring have become common terms associated with many organisations. Although a number of studies have tried to determine how organisational restructuring benefits the organisation, little has been done to find out how the welfare of employees is affected by the restructuring initiatives. This study investigates the perceptions that employees have of organisational restructuring. It investigates how their job satisfaction, career mobility and their stress levels are affected by restructuring process after the restructuring process as well the stress that such employees experience due to restructuring. A survey was conducted at Lesotho Highlands Development Authority, where data was obtained from 121 respondents and statistically analysed. The findings reflect a negative association between restructuring and stress levels and career mobility. The findings show that job satisfaction was still experienced by the employees at LHDA and that most respondents see organisational restructuring as something that benefits the organisation and has little to do with the interests of the workers.

This thesis explores how a computer could facilitate emotional support, focusing on the user group of informal carers. Informal carers are people who provide regular mental or physical assistance to another person, who could not manage without them, without formal payment. They save the UK £132 billion per year. However, many carers find themselves isolated by their caring commitments and may suffer from mental and physical health problems. Good emotional support can help reduce the negative effects of stress. We explore how an Intelligent Virtual Agent (IVA) could provide suitable emotional support to carers; how this emotional support should be adapted to the situation and personality of the carer; and how to add emotional context to support messages. To do this, we create a corpus of emotional support messages of different types and devise an algorithm that selects which type of emotional support to use for different types of stress. We investigate whether to adapt emotional support to personality, developing a novel method of measuring personality using sliders. We explore the identity of the support-giver and find that this affects the perceived supportiveness of an emotional support message. We investigate how emoticons add emotional context to messages, developing a proposed set of emoticons that depict core emotions that people use online. We find that gift emoticons can be used to enhance emotional support messages by representing an effort to 'cheer up' the carer. Finally, we explore how emotional support messages could be used by an IVA in six interviews with carers. Overall, we find that an IVA that helps a carer keep in contact with their personal social network and offers emotional support messages would be well-received by carers, but further work needs to be done to implement it within the framework of existing social media.

Tidigare forskning har visat att tidspress återfinns inom revisionsbranschen, vilket i sin tur visat sig vara en stor källa till stress. Forskning indikerar på att stressen kan leda till skadliga konsekvenser på välbefinnandet, men med hjälp av effektiva strategier kan de skadliga konsekvenserna motverkas. Det tycks existera ett forskningsgap gällande strategier för att hantera stress inom revisionskontexten, både ur individ- och organisationsperspektiv. Studiens syfte är därmed att få en förståelse för hur revisorer och revisionsbyråer hanterar stressen som tidspress medför, i form av olika strategier med ändamål att främja välbefinnandet. För att uppfylla studiens syfte har en kvalitativ forskningsmetod använts, i form av intervjuer med revisorer, revisorsassistenter och HR-medarbetare. Ämnet har studerats utifrån litteratur inom följande perspektiv: tidspress inom revision, tidspressens relation till stress, stressens inverkan på välbefinnandet samt strategier för att hantera stress. Studiens resultat visar att revisorer och revisorsassistenter använder strategier som både tar itu med känslorna som kan uppstå av stress och som går direkt till källan till stressen. De identifierade strategierna på individnivå är: planering &amp; prioritering, hjälp &amp; stöttning, gränssättning, återhämtning samt inställning. Det framgår att revisionsbyråernas arbete med att hantera stress är av stor vikt, och de strategier som identifierats är: kapning av toppar, mentorskap &amp; nära ledarskap, externa stöd samt flexibilitet. Studiens slutsats visar på att revisorernas, revisorsassistenternas och revisionsbyråernas strategier är av stor betydelse för att reducera de negativa effekterna av stress inom revision och på så vis främja välbefinnandet. / Previous research shows that time pressure exists in auditing, which has shown to be a major source of stress. Research indicates that stress could lead to harmful consequences on the well-being, and with effective strategies these consequences can be reduced. There seems to exist a research gap concerning strategies to handle stress in auditing, both in an individual- and organizational perspective. The aim of this study is therefore to obtain an understanding of how auditors and audit firms handle stress from time pressure, in terms of strategies aiming to foster the well-being. To fulfill the aim a qualitative research method has been used, through interviews with auditors, audit assistants and HR-workers. The subject has been studied through literature in the following perspectives: time pressure in auditing, time pressure in relation to stress, the impact of stress on well-being and strategies to handle stress. The result of the study shows that auditors and audit assistants use strategies that both tackles the emotions from stress and the source of the stress. The identified strategies on the individual level are: planning &amp; prioritizing, help &amp; support, boundary setting, recovery and attitude. It appears that the work of the audit firms to handle stress is of importance, and the identified strategies are: cutting peaks, mentorship &amp; close leadership, external support and flexibility. The conclusion of the study shows that auditors, audit assistants and auditing firms strategies is of great importance to reduce negative effects of stress and thereby foster the well-being.

Studier visar att många sjuksköterskestudenter upplever sig oförberedda inför ansvaret och stressen som sjuksköterskeyrket innebär och därmed överväger att lämna yrket inom fem år. Redan under studietiden är det många sjuksköterskestudenter som upplever stress- och utmattningssymtom, vilket påverkar det psykiska välbefinnandet samt engagemang och ambition till att leverera en säker och kvalitativ vård i kommande yrkesliv. Stresshantering innebär att individen hanterar en situation på ett adaptivt sätt och inte påverkas psykiskt av den. Syftet med föreliggande studie är att undersöka vilka effekter en KBT (Kognitiv beteendeterapi)- baserad stresshanteringsintervention i storgrupp har på sjuksköterskestudenters resiliens, användning av copingstrategier samt livstillfredsställelse. Studien undersöker även om individens resiliens kan prediceras av livstillfredsställelse och coping. Urvalet bestod av 28 sjuksköterskestudenter på termin 2 vid Karlstad universitet. Deltagarna besvarade frågeformulär för CD-Risc som mäter individens upplevda resiliens, Brief COPE som mäter individens användning av copingstrategier samt SWLS som mäter individens livstillfredsställelse. Frågeformulären besvarades innan stresshanteringsinterventionen startade, 10 veckor senare då interventionen var slut samt tre månader senare vid ett uppföljningsmöte. Studien är ett experiment med inomgruppsdesign för att mäta både kort- och långsiktiga effekter med stresshanteringsinterventionen. Med ANOVA för beroende mätningar visades att deltagarnas resiliens, problemfokuserade coping samt livstillfredsställelse ökade under interventionen, medan den dysfunktionella minskade. Vid uppföljningen var den problemfokuserade copingen, dysfunktionella copingen och livstillfredsställelsen stabil, medan resiliensen hade minskat. Den emotionsfokuserade copingen var oförändrad under både interventionen och fram till uppföljningen. Resiliens ses som individens förmåga att anpassa sig till och övervinna motgångar och att inte påverkas psykiskt. En multipel regression med resiliens som beroende variabel och livstillfredsställelse och copingstrategi som prediktorer beräknades. Regressionen visade att livstillfredsställelsen är en prediktor för resiliensen, medan copingen inte visades vara prediktorer för deltagarens resiliens. Studiens resultat visar att en KBT-baserad stresshanteringsintervention i grupp har effekt på sjuksköterskestudenters stresshanteringsförmåga. / Studies show that many nursing students feel unprepared for the responsibility and stress that the nursing profession implies and thus consider leaving the profession within five years. During the study period, there are many nursing students experiencing stress and fatigue symptoms, affecting mental well-being as well as commitment and ambition to deliver safe and qualitative care in the forthcoming professional life. Stress management means that the individual manages a situation in an adaptive manner and is not psychologically affected by it. The aim of the present study is to investigate the effects of a CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) - based stress management intervention in group on the resilience of nursing students, the use of coping strategies and the satisfaction of life. The study also investigates whether the resilience can be predicted by life satisfaction and coping. The selection consisted of 28 nursing students at Term 2 at Karlstad University. Participants responded questionnaires for CD-Risc, which measure the individual's experienced resilience, Brief COPE, which measures the individual's use of coping strategies and SWLS that measure the individual's life satisfaction. The questionnaires were responded before the stress management intervention started, 10 weeks later when the intervention was over and three months later at a follow-up meeting. The study is an experiment and within-group design to measure both short and long term effects with the stress management intervention. ANOVA for dependent measurements showed that participants' resilience, problem-focused coping and life satisfaction increased during intervention while dysfunctional decreased. In the follow-up, problem-focused coping, dysfunctional coping and life satisfaction were stable, while resilience had diminished. The emotion-focused coping was unchanged during both the intervention and the follow-up. Resilience is seen as the individual's ability to adapt to and overcome adversities and not to be psychologically affected. Multiple regression with resilience as dependent variable and life satisfaction and coping strategy as predictors were calculated. The regression showed that life satisfaction is a predictor of resilience, while coping was not shown to be predictors for the participant's resilience. The study's results show that a KBT-based stress management intervention in a group has an impact on nursing students' stress management ability.

M.Tech. / Stress is a normal physiological response to stressful stimuli. If, however, one is exposed to stress for long periods of time it can be harmful to one’s body. There is a lack of research on the treatment of stress both pharmaceutically and naturally. Many undesirable side-effects are associated with the current pharmaceutical treatment of stress. AdrenoState® is a nutritional supplement indicated for people who live a stressful lifestyle. The aim of the study was to determine whether Adrenostate® would have an effect on salivary cortisol and perceived levels of stress in men. Thirty eight male participants, who scored in the eligible range in the screening questionnaire and who fitted the criteria, completed the study. The study was a double blind placebo controlled study. The participants were placed into either group A or B, with equal distribution of age and levels of physical exercise. The study revealed that Group A was the placebo group and B the experimental group. The study was conducted over six weeks. Salivary cortisol, perceived stress levels, blood pressure and heart rate were measured and obtained at the first consultation (0 weeks), second consultation (3 weeks) and final consultation (6 weeks). The salivary cortisol was measured by means of an enzyme-linked immunoassay (ELISA).

D.Litt. et Phil.. (Psychology) / Please refer to full text to view abstract