Job Stress
Chapter 1
The Problem and Its Setting
Introduction Stress is an unavoidable consequence of modern living. Everyone experiences stress in varying forms and degrees. Company directors, teachers, actors, government officials, athletes, navy officers/soldiers, housewives and even students experience stress. With the growth of industries, pressure in the urban areas, quantitative growth in population and various problems in day to day life are some of the reasons for increase in stress. More generally, the term “stress” has been widely used in the social sciences following the pioneering work on psychological stress by Selye in the 1950s (Selye, 1956 as cited by Kyriacou, 2001 and Timothy Kerlin, 2001). According to Selye (1974), the three types of stress demands are physiological, psychological, and environmental. Thus, stress is a condition of strain that has a direct bearing on emotions, thought process and physical conditions of a person. Some of them act as a source of inspiration for us and some causes challenges. It is the human nature to face the challenges boldly or to escape from it. Any challenge that exceeds the coping abilities of the individual becomes stress. And most people would regard experience of stress at work as something to do with the anxiety caused by having to work under pressure. Selye (1974) as cited in Timothy Kerlin (2001) noted that all individuals need some amount of stress in order to be productive. Minimal stress or sometimes referred to as positive stress gives energy to individuals to perform their tasks. Lack of positive stress in a teacher’s daily job for example, can cause problem, the same as too much negative stress can create tension for the person. In many countries teacher’s job is often considered as one of the most stressful profession. In the last two decades, intensive researches have been carried out in USA and Europe concerning the sources and symptoms of teachers’ professional stress (Kyriacou, 1996). Studies in
The Problem and Its Setting
Introduction Stress is an unavoidable consequence of modern living. Everyone experiences stress in varying forms and degrees. Company directors, teachers, actors, government officials, athletes, navy officers/soldiers, housewives and even students experience stress. With the growth of industries, pressure in the urban areas, quantitative growth in population and various problems in day to day life are some of the reasons for increase in stress. More generally, the term “stress” has been widely used in the social sciences following the pioneering work on psychological stress by Selye in the 1950s (Selye, 1956 as cited by Kyriacou, 2001 and Timothy Kerlin, 2001). According to Selye (1974), the three types of stress demands are physiological, psychological, and environmental. Thus, stress is a condition of strain that has a direct bearing on emotions, thought process and physical conditions of a person. Some of them act as a source of inspiration for us and some causes challenges. It is the human nature to face the challenges boldly or to escape from it. Any challenge that exceeds the coping abilities of the individual becomes stress. And most people would regard experience of stress at work as something to do with the anxiety caused by having to work under pressure. Selye (1974) as cited in Timothy Kerlin (2001) noted that all individuals need some amount of stress in order to be productive. Minimal stress or sometimes referred to as positive stress gives energy to individuals to perform their tasks. Lack of positive stress in a teacher’s daily job for example, can cause problem, the same as too much negative stress can create tension for the person. In many countries teacher’s job is often considered as one of the most stressful profession. In the last two decades, intensive researches have been carried out in USA and Europe concerning the sources and symptoms of teachers’ professional stress (Kyriacou, 1996). Studies in