Stress and the bus driver in the UK transport industry

This study was carried out to identify potential sources of stress for bus drivers working for the established operator in a major UK city, six months after the deregulation of bus transport. The focus was to assess the mental health and job satisfaction of the drivers. An interview programme was followed by a questionnaire survey of 376 male bus drivers. Major problem areas related to health and home-related concerns, problems intrinsic to the job, lack of involvement and support during the organizational changes occurring and fears regarding physical assault. Existing problems had been intensified as a result of streamlining and increased competition. The bus drivers were found to demonstrate lower levels of job satisfaction and unfavourable scores on mental-health indices when compared to normative samples, which was associated with their work-related stressors. The impact was significantly reduced for those men driving the newer minibuses in contrast to the traditional 72-seater double-decker buses.     

工作压力与工作效率理论研究述评

工作压力与工作效率关系一直是管理学探讨的主题之一,而工作压力与工作效率理论正是对工作压力研究的发展与深化,国外对二者关系的研究进行了近一个世纪。本文对国外关于工作压力与工作效率关系研究不同理论派别的主要成果给予介绍和综述,并对研究中存在的问题进行了简要的评价。     

Responses of children and adolescents to a fire in their homes

House fires are a common occurrence in the United States, often happening as isolated, personal disasters. This qualitative study examines the responses of 12 children, ages 6 to 17, who were survivors of 12 separate home fires in a Mid-Atlantic city. Two thirds of the families involved were single-parent families receiving public welfare. Children were interviewed between three and four months after the fire. Nine categories concerning the fire experience and its aftermath were identified: exposure, loss, displacement, attribution, stress responses, changes in relationships, self-report of changes in behavior, child's perception of parent's stress and child's view of adulthood and the future. Psychosocial themes that emerged included a sense of fear and blame, sleep disturbances, and a sense of vulnerability. Parents rated their children on a quantitative measure of behavior and social competence. The behavior rating scale revealed that half of the parents rated their child's adjustment after the fire as not normal. Children's reactions to larger-scale disasters are indicated. Implications of these findings for social work practice are discussed.This study was supported by a grant from the Hassel Foundation, Philadelphia, PA.     

The association of work-related worries and anger with home-related worries, and anger at others at home

Studies have found anger at others at home (AOH) to be associated with job-related stress, and work-to-home interference (WHI). These findings suggest that WHI may mediate the translation of stress about work into AOH. This study investigates the associations of work-related worries, and anger about work, with worries about home and AOH. WHI is investigated as a mediator of the translation of job worry into AOH, and spillover of moods between work and home. Gender, age and job control are investigated as moderators of those associations. Data are from a telephone survey of employed residents of Toronto, Canada who are living with others. The results suggest that WHI mediates the spillover of worries between work and home, but not the spillover of anger or the translation of job worries into AOH. The moderation analyses suggest that WHI increases AOH only among people with low job control.     

Transmission mechanisms of financial stress into economic activity in Turkey

Measuring, analyzing and understanding systemic risk in financial system have become very important in the light of the recent global crisis. In this study, we follow Holló, Kremer, and Lo Duca (2012) and evaluate systemic stress of financial system of Turkey with a high frequency (daily) financial stress index which consists of daily 13 financial market indicators. Dynamics of the financial stress index indicate that the index creates proper signals to the well-known financial stress events. The dynamic interaction between financial stress and real economic activity is investigated with application of structural VAR (SVAR) model. Results of the study suggest that deterioration of financial conditions impacts real economic activity significantly and adversely.     

斯德哥尔摩综合症:表现、成因和应对

斯德哥尔摩综合症的命名,缘于发生在斯德哥尔摩的一起银行抢劫案.在这次事件中,作为人质的银行职员产生了对绑匪的认同,他们害怕警察甚于害怕绑匪.这种受害者与施虐者之间"被误置"的情感联结,还体现在许多不平等的权力关系中,如受暴妇女与丈夫、奴隶与奴隶主、第二次世界大战时期的犹太人与纳粹军官.文章以全球风险社会作为背景,探讨了斯德哥尔摩综合症的典型表现及其成因,并尝试基于认知失调论和社会认同论来进行替代解释.最后简要呈现了受害者、警察、心理医生和家庭的相关应对策略.     

An Examination of the Perceptions of Organizational Politics Model: Replication and Extension

This study examined the Perceptions of PoliticsModel (Ferris, Russ, & Fandt, 1989) in a three-phaseprocess. In the first phase, the model was examinedusing Anderson and Gerbing's (1988) two-step approach to structural equations modeling. Themodel was tested on data collected from 786 employees ofa state government agency and 469 employees of anelectric utility cooperative. Results from this phase indicated that the model had acceptablefit and was more parsimonious than any of the competingmodels to which it was compared. In the second phase,understanding as a moderator of the relationships between perceptions of organizational politicsand several outcome variables was examined. Resultsindicated that understanding only moderated the outcomerelationship between politics and job satisfaction, not intent to turnover or job anxiety. Finally,in phase three, the additional outcome variables oforganizational satisfaction, supervisor effectiveness,and self-reported individual performance were included in an effort to expand the Ferris et al. (1989)framework. Additionally, the moderating effects ofunderstanding on the relationships between perceptionsof politics and these new outcome variables were explored. Results from the final step indicatedthat adding the new outcome variables increased theparsimonyof the model without decreasing model fit. Withrespect to the moderating effects, only thepolitics-performance relationship was moderated byunderstanding.Allof these results are discussed in light of theirimplications for future research.     

心理健康教学中的心理训练

在《大学生心理学》课堂教学中结合系统的心理训练 ,并在教学前后对学生施测了《症状自评量表》(SCL - 90 )。结果证实学生们做到了心理学理性知识和感性知识的良好结合 ,在自我意识、人际关系、压力应对等方面有了实质性的进步。证明了在课堂教学中配合相应的心理训练是心理健康教育的一种有效方式     

The Japanese version of the Effort-Reward Imbalance Questionnaire: a study in dental technicians

To test the psychometric properties and criterion validity of the Japanese version of the EffortReward Imbalance (ERI) Questionnaire (Siegrist, 1996), a survey was conducted among 105 male dental technicians. The Japanese version of the questionnaire was developed through a backtranslation process. Internal consistency and factorial structure were tested and the criterion validity with respect to musculoskeletal symptoms was estimated with the help of a correlation matrix and logistic regression analysis. In psychometric terms, the factorial structure of the scales measuring the components of the theoretical concept was replicated satisfactorily, and internal consistencies of the scales measuring the extrinsic and intrinsic components of the model were appropriate. Significant associations between components of the ERI and musculoskeletal symptoms were found. Logistic regression analysis revealed a significantly elevated risk of musculoskeletal symptoms in participants scoring high on the scale measuring the model's intrinsic component, 'overcommitment'. This study indicates that, at least for the occupational group under study, the Japanese version of the ERI Questionnaire is a feasible and psychometrically well justified new measure for assessing psychosocial stress at work with relevance to health.