Case 4 Analayse Various Sources Of Stress In Relation To The Transaction Model
Case Study 4.
Stressors are “the demands made from either the internal or external environment that upset balance, thus affecting physical and psychological well being (http://www.utwente.nl, 2015)
Lazarus’s transactional model of stress and coping was created to evaluate the process of how people coped with stressful events. It takes into account firstly the persons appraisal of the stressor, and secondly the social and cultural resources available at their disposal (Lazarus & Cohen, 1977). This is how someone judges the importance of the event and then consequently, how they deal with it.
In 1967, Holmes and Rahe produced a questionnaire called the Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS) that could be used to recognise major stressful life events. The tests was given to a selection of sailors, and were made to assess any life experiences from the last 6 months, which was then measured against their health records for the following 6 months. The results gave a positive correlation, showing that impacting life events increased the chance of sailors getting a stress-related illness. Although this test verified a link between large events and stress, it failed to address the transactional models second appraisal, of how people deal with stressors, because everyone deals with life events in different ways.
Another constraint of the SRRS test is that it only deals with large life issues, while often it is the small everyday things that can generate stressors. Johansson et all’s Sawmills Worker Experiment (1978), proposed that greater intensiveness of the work, the more likely they were susceptive to occupational stress. In the two sets of workers they observed, those with work required greater responsibility and concentration were more often absent and had higher rates of psychosomatic illnesses. Similar to the SRRS, Johansson’s research could be accused of cultural and gender biases, as the participants were all male and Swedish.
Word count. 302 Words.
Stressors are “the demands made from either the internal or external environment that upset balance, thus affecting physical and psychological well being (http://www.utwente.nl, 2015)
Lazarus’s transactional model of stress and coping was created to evaluate the process of how people coped with stressful events. It takes into account firstly the persons appraisal of the stressor, and secondly the social and cultural resources available at their disposal (Lazarus & Cohen, 1977). This is how someone judges the importance of the event and then consequently, how they deal with it.
In 1967, Holmes and Rahe produced a questionnaire called the Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS) that could be used to recognise major stressful life events. The tests was given to a selection of sailors, and were made to assess any life experiences from the last 6 months, which was then measured against their health records for the following 6 months. The results gave a positive correlation, showing that impacting life events increased the chance of sailors getting a stress-related illness. Although this test verified a link between large events and stress, it failed to address the transactional models second appraisal, of how people deal with stressors, because everyone deals with life events in different ways.
Another constraint of the SRRS test is that it only deals with large life issues, while often it is the small everyday things that can generate stressors. Johansson et all’s Sawmills Worker Experiment (1978), proposed that greater intensiveness of the work, the more likely they were susceptive to occupational stress. In the two sets of workers they observed, those with work required greater responsibility and concentration were more often absent and had higher rates of psychosomatic illnesses. Similar to the SRRS, Johansson’s research could be accused of cultural and gender biases, as the participants were all male and Swedish.
Word count. 302 Words.
Bibliography: Astarita, G. (2013). A2 Psychology Revision. Available: http://psychorevision.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/johansson-et-al.html. Last accessed 21st January 2015. McLeod, S. (2010). Stressful of Life Events. Available: http://www.simplypsychology.org/SRRS.html. Last accessed 19th January 2015. NHS. Workplace Stress. Available: http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/stress-anxiety-depression/Pages/workplace-stress.aspx). Last accessed 20th January 2015. Rice, K. ( 2013). Key Study. Johansson 's Swedish Saw Mill Workers.Available: http://jacobpsychology.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/causes-of-stress-work-johansson-et-al.html. Last accessed 8th January 2015. Utwente University. Transactional Model of Stress and Coping. Available: http://www.utwente.nl/cw/theorieenoverzicht/Theory%20Clusters/Health%20Communication/transactional_model_of_stress_and_coping/. Last accessed 18th January 2015.