The objective of the study was to investigate how individual appraisal of high workload as a challenge or a hindrance stressor correlates with work engagement and burnout. The work environment is fraught with high workloads, resulting in stress for employees. The cost of employee stress and ill health to organisations and society is reported to be high due to lost productivity and healthcare costs. The current study used the challenge-hindrance stressor model to determine the impact of appraisal on the relationship between work overload and work engagement/burnout. The current study proposed that employees experience both work engagement and burnout concurrently depending on whether they appraise work overload as a challenge or a hindrance stressor. An explanatory quantitative design was used to survey employees from multiple organisations in South Africa, yielding 144 full-time, permanently employed respondents. Findings from the study indicated that stressors that were appraised as challenges were linked to work engagement, whereas stressors that were appraised as hindrances were linked to burnout. The study also found that employees appraise work overload as a hindrance not a challenge, resulting in a negative relationship between work overload and work engagement and a positive relationship between work overload and burnout. The implication is that when employees have high workloads, their engagement does not increase; their likelihood of burnout increases. The study determined no positive outcomes of high workloads, only the risk of highly engaged employees becoming fatigued and burnt out. Hence, it is recommended that organisations manage the workloads of their employees.

For the past 3 decades, police officers have been diagnosed with various stress-induced health problems. Police officers are at a greater risk of various environmental health problems due to the stressful nature of their profession. While there is abundant research that explores the relationship between high stress occupations and environmental health, researchers have yet to sufficiently explore the relationships between police officers' job stress and job performance. The purpose of this correlational study was to use Cohen & McKay's conceptualization of the stress-buffering hypothesis to explore whether police officers' physical exercise moderated the negative impact of job stress on their job performance. Data were collected through an online survey administered to police officers from 2 metropolitan police departments in the United States, and data were analyzed using a hierarchical regression procedure. Findings indicted that approximately 80% of the variance in police officers' job performance is explained by job stress, indicating a negative relationship between police officers' job stress and job performance. The findings also indicated that police officers' physical exercise was positively related to their job performance. Positive social change implications stemming from study may include recommendations to police department leadership to emphasize the importance of moderating occupational stress through exercise as a method to improve their job performance. These efforts may contribute to improved public safety outcomes in communities in the United States.

Amphibians are osmotically-challenged due to their highly permeable skin and egg membranes. As such, biologists have mostly ignored their occurrence in saline habitats. The goal of this dissertation was to investigate the ability of amphibians to adapt to inhabit these osmotically-stressful environments. As freshwater resources are increasingly salinized due to a combination of anthropogenic and natural stressors, including road-deicing salt application, coastal storm events, and sea-level rise, it is important to understand the abilities and constraints of sensitive organisms, like amphibians, to persist in these environments. I began by exploring what is known about amphibians inhabiting saline habitats around the world, and reviewed information dating from the 1800s to the present, documenting over 100 species inhabiting inland and coastal environments. I then proceeded to investigate the evolutionary potential for one species in particular, the rough-skinned newt (Taricha granulosa) to adapt to increased salinity in its habitat. I documented the negative effects of salinity (both NaCl and MgCl2 – the two most commonly-used road deicers) on embryonic and larval survival and development through a series of experiments, and explored the importance of both developmental and evolutionary history with a stressor on survival. I investigated the evolutionary potential of salt-naïve populations through examining intrapopulation and interfamily variation in critical early life-history traits, and determined that there is high interfamily variation in the salt tolerances of offspring of individual females within a population, providing the raw material for natural selection and local adaptation. Finally, I discovered a population of newts living in the tidal area of a coastal stream, with a natural source of salinity. Through conducting a series of laboratory salt challenges and assays on osmotic, stress, and immune physiology, I was able to determine that newts in the tidal area appear to be physiologically adapted to increased salinity compared to newts in a freshwater area upstream. All this information suggests that amphibians, while still osmotically-challenged, may also not be helpless in the face of salinization, and populations may be able to locally adapt to habitats impacted by natural and anthropogenic sources of salinity.

The Emergency Department (ED) as a workplace for the Registered Nurse (RN) is a stressful environment. Reasons are thought to include interactions with other members of the interdisciplinary team as well as the situations associated with the environment of the ED such as trauma, death, sadness, joy and the general unpredictability of each moment. Studies have documented general health care workplace stress and its influence on staff, but a very limited number of studies have concentrated on the ED. No widely published studies have identified stressors from the perspective of the ED RN. This dissertation is an interpretive phenomenological study that seeks to understand the experience of being an ED RN through the exploration of the perceptions of stress as lived by individuals who practice their art and science in this unique setting. Materials for evaluation and thematic identification were obtained through personal interviews of practicing nurses. The stories told by the participants communicated what each individual found to be negatively stressful as well as what each found to be positively stressful. Conclusions based on the findings of this work suggest a need for the ED RN to be able to depend on the presence of several factors in order to be able to function with as little distress as possible. The optimal ED environment for the RN is posited to be supportive of the individual goals of the RN, provide adequate resources and foster a communicative interdisciplinary environment. Recommendations are made to improve resource management and interdisciplinary relations

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No description available.

The influence of hostility on the lateralized tasks of cardiovascular regulation, verbal fluency, nonverbal fluency, and dichotic listening was assessed. Twenty-four subjects divided into two groups, high- and low-hostile men underwent physiological measurements of SBP, DBP, and HR before and after verbal and figural fluency tasks, which were used as stressors. In addition, subsequent to the administration of each fluency task, dichotic listening performance was evaluated across unfocused, focus left, and focus right trials. It was expected that high-hostile men would produce results indicative of differential right hemisphere activation when compared with low-hostile men. In addition, it was predicted that high-hostile men would display a weakness in both the performance of the right-frontal nonverbal fluency task and in their ability to maintain relative cardiovascular stability subsequent to the presentation of that stressor. As predicted, high-hostile men produced more perseverative errors than did low hostile men on this task. Further, subsequent to administration of the nonverbal fluency task, high-hostile men produced a reliable increase in blood pressure when compared to baseline and to low-hostile males. Differences in dichotic listening performance were also expected as a function of the fluency tasks. It was predicted that high-hostile men would evidence a priming effect in that a left-ear bias would be detected after the nonverbal fluency task but not the verbal fluency task. This was indeed the case. However, interestingly, the low-hostile men also displayed a priming effect at the left ear during the nonverbal fluency condition. Results are discussed within the context of the functional cerebral systems of emotion and arousal. Implications for further research are explored. / Ph. D.

Magister Psychologiae - MPsych / While there is a growing body of evidence that psychopathology resulting from exposure or victimization to single traumatic stressors is common among adolescents, little is known about the impact of repeated or multiple exposures in South African adolescents. This study examined the impact of exposure to multiple and repeated traumatic stressors in a sample of adolescents from South African schools.This study was a quantitative, quasi-experimental design that drew its data from a larger comparative survey. The larger survey compared traumatic exposure between Kenyan and South African youth. The South African data from 1140 learners was utilized for the present study. The main aim of this study was to investigate whether multiple and/or repeated exposure, rather than single exposure to traumatic events is more likely to be associated with depression and posttraumatic stress disorder in adolescents. The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and the PTSD checklist were used as the outcome measures.ANOVA was used to establish if there were significant differences on psychiatric sequelae between the single and multiple exposure groups.Results revealed that there were significant differences between single traumatic exposure and multiple traumatic exposures on the outcome measures. There were no significant differences found between the no exposure group and single exposure group. The multiple trauma exposure group scored significantly higher when compared to single exposure group on the PTSD symptoms (mean difference = 2.607; CI= 1.67) of which p < 0.01. Results on the BDI indicated that the multiple exposure group scored more than the single exposure group(mean difference = 4.177; CI = 2.05) of which p < 0.01.The results support the hypothesis that greater traumatic exposure is associated with greater distress. These findings have implications for current conceptualizations of PTSD.

Diese Dissertation untersucht, ob, wie und unter welchen Umständen mit Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologien (IKT) zusammenhängende Arbeitsanforderungen für Beschäftigte im digitalen Zeitalter eher ein Segen oder ein Fluch sind. In der ersten von zwei Längsschnittstudien wird basierend auf dem Stressor-Detachment-Modell (Sonnentag & Fritz, 2015) die Interaktion zwischen IKT-Arbeitsbelastung und emotionaler Erschöpfung untersucht. In der zweiten Studie wird auf der Grundlage des Job Demands-Resources Modells (Bakker & Demerouti, 2007) die Beziehung zwischen erweiterter Erreichbarkeit und kontextueller Leistung analysiert. Zusätzlich werden in den moderierten Mediationsmodellen jeweils mediierende Pfade (z.B. gedankliches Abschalten von der Arbeit) und IKT-bezogene individuelle sowie organisationale Faktoren (z.B. Workplace Telepressure, Segmentierungspräferenz) als moderierende Variablen kombiniert. Die Dissertation zeigt, dass die IKT-Arbeitsanforderungen das Wohlbefinden beeinträchtigen (erhöhte emotionale Erschöpfung), was möglicherweise auf einen Mangel an Erholung zurückzuführen ist. Auf der anderen Seite ist erweiterte Erreichbarkeit mit erhöhtem Arbeitsengagement und kontextueller Leistung assoziiert. IKT-bezogene individuelle Faktoren spielen nachweislich auch eine Rolle, da starke individuelle Segmentierungspräferenzen und ein hohes Maß an Workplace Telepressure die Effekte von beeinflussen. Zusammengefasst untersucht die Dissertation mögliche positive und negative Effekte von IKT-Arbeitsanforderungen längsschnittlich und untersucht erstmalig, wie und für wen Erreichbarkeit mit erhöhter kontextueller Leistung verbunden ist. Da sowohl leistungssteigernde als auch das Wohlbefinden beeinträchtigende Effekte der IKT-Arbeitsanforderungen und entsprechender Mechanismen in der Arbeit aufgezeigt werden, werden zudem theoretische Implikationen für die Forschung und praktische Implikationen für Beschäftigte und Organisationen abgeleitet. / This thesis investigates if, how and under which circumstances job demands that are related to information and communication technologies (ICTs) – so called ICT demands – are more of a boon or a bane for employees working in the digital era. In the first of two longitudinal studies, based on the stressor-detachment model (Sonnentag & Fritz, 2015), the interaction between ICT workload and emotional exhaustion is examined. In the second study, based on the job demands-resources model (Bakker & Demerouti, 2007), the relationship of extended work availability with contextual performance is investigated. Moreover, mediating pathways (e.g., psychological detachment) and ICT-related individual as well as organizational factors (e.g., workplace telepressure, segmentation preference) as moderating variables are combined within each moderated mediation model. On the one hand, the thesis demonstrates well-being-impairing effects of the investigated ICT demands (increased emotional exhaustion), potentially due to a lack of recovery. On the other hand, extended work availability is associated with increased work engagement and contextual performance. Overall, the studies reveal the crucial role of ICT-related individual factors by showing that strong individual segmentation preferences and high levels of workplace telepressure influence the impact of ICT demands. In sum, the present thesis explores potential positive and negative effects of the novel ICT demands over time and sheds new light on beneficial effects of extended work availability by exploring how and for whom it is associated with higher levels of contextual performance. Consequently, by showing performance-enhancing as well as well-being-impairing effects of the investigated ICT demands and the corresponding mechanisms, important theoretical implication for future research and practical implications for employees and organizations in the digital era are provided.

Despite recent research advances, there are still several common medical conditions whose underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. In conditions with few or diffuse physical findings, it can be difficult to diagnose and determine the state of the condition and its effects on working ability or performance, and the health care practitioners have to rely on the patient’s self-reports. Identification of objective measurements that are sensitive enough to aid in diagnosis or determination of the state of these conditions would thus be valuable. Psychophysiological measurements are generally non-invasive and have the potential to serve as such diagnostic or prognostic tools. In this thesis, psychophysiological reactions to different stressors were recorded in two selected medical conditions; namely motion sickness and chronic trapezius myalgia (musculoskeletal pain). These subjective conditions are unpleasant, unwanted and apparently serve no survival purpose. It is therefore important to elucidate any physical findings associated with them to, eventually, find new means to prevent the development of these conditions or to ameliorate symptoms. The overall aim of the thesis was to explore the development of psychophysiological responses to stressors in relation to performance and subjective reports in healthy individuals and in women with chronic trapezius myalgia. More in detail, the purpose was to identify psychophysiological responses that could provide information about the mechanisms behind, or serve as candidates for characterization of motion sickness and chronic trapezius myalgia, respectively. Responses to motion sickness, triggered by optokinetic stimulation, were studied in healthy individuals, whereas responses to repetitive low-force work and psychosocial stress were studied in women with chronic trapezius myalgia and in pain-free controls. In both medical conditions, the psychophysiological responses were accompanied by subjective reports. The effects of motion sickness on two different aspects of memory performance were tested during exposure to optokinetic stimulation. In the studies of chronic trapezius myalgia, psychophysiological responses were also related to health status, i.e., being a patient or a pain-free control and measurements of pain intensity, psychological symptoms, sleep-related problems and quality of life. The psychophysiological responses to optokinetic stimulation were inconclusive. Moderate levels of motion sickness did not affect memory performance, whereas decreased short term memory performance was seen in subjects reporting high levels of motion sickness. The autonomic responses and stress hormone secretion in response to low-force repetitive work and psychosocial stress in the chronic trapezius myalgia group were similar to those of the pain-free controls. However, muscle activity in the trapezius muscle was generally higher in the chronic trapezius myalgia group. There were indications of negative psychological states being related to a slower response and lower circadian variations of stress hormone secretion. With the present methods, it was possible to measure general stress responses but none of the measurements showed sufficient specificity to serve as predictors or indicators of motion sickness and chronic musculoskeletal pain, respectively. Summarizing, I cannot objectively measure how you feel; I still have to rely on your description of your condition.