Deck 8: Occupational Stress

Question 1

The best person to identify your causes of stress is:

A) your doctor.
B) your manager.
C) you.
D) your spouse.

Answer 1

you.

Question 2

The overall process of stressors, strain and coping is best defined as:

A) stress.
B) management.
C) working.
D) ageing.

Answer 2

stress.

Question 3

Which one of the following is not a reason for properly addressing stress in the workplace?

A) Financial burden to the organisation.
B) Sickness, absenteeism and workplace injuries.
C) Road-rage, workplace violence, harassment and bullying, divorce rates, impotence, etc.
D) Increased productivity.

Answer 3

Increased productivity.

Question 4

Stress as a physical or psychological response to demands made upon the organism is a:

A) transactional definition of stress.
B) response-based definition of stress.
C) demand-based definition of stress.
D) stimulus-based definition of stress.

Question 5

Which stage is not one of Selye's general adaptation syndrome (GAS) stress responses?

A) Awareness
B) Alarm
C) Adaptation
D) Exhaustion

Question 6

Stress as a process that includes stimulus, response and individual characteristics is a:

A) transactional definition of stress.
B) response-based definition of stress.
C) demand-based definition of stress.
D) stimulus-based definition of stress.

Question 7

Intrinsic job factors, the individual's role in the organisation, career development, relationships at work, and organisational structure and climate are specific elements of:

A) the person-environment fit (P-E fit) model.
B) Cooper and Marshall's 'work stress' model.
C) Warr's 'vitamin' model.
D) Karasek's job demands-control (JD-C) model.

Question 8

A curvilinear relationship between stressors and strain appears to underpin which two models of workplace stress?

A) Warr's 'vitamin' model and Karasek's job demands-control (JD-C) model.
B) The person-environment fit (P-E fit) model and Warr's 'vitamin' model.
C) The person-environment fit (P-E fit) model and Cooper and Marshall's 'work stress' model.
D) Cooper and Marshall's 'work stress' model and Warr's 'vitamin' model.

Question 9

Karasek's job demands-control (JD-C) model suggests the two main components of work associated with occupational stress are:

A) tasks and outputs.
B) motivation and leadership.
C) perceived levels of job demands and job control.
D) satisfaction and performance.

Question 10

The amount of absence from work attributable to occupational stress:

A) continues to decrease in most countries.
B) has not been changing in most countries.
C) continues to increase in most countries.
D) is negligible in most countries.

Question 11

Which one of the following job attitudes is a widely studied variable in organisational psychology and can be included as both a predictor and an outcome of strain?

A) Hard work ethic
B) Job commitment
C) Work aversion
D) Job satisfaction

Question 12

Which psychological consequence can be triggered by the uncertainty of the situation and the individual's desire to restore balance and equilibrium?

A) Satisfaction
B) Motivation
C) Anxiety
D) Perfectionism

Question 13

Evidence that occupational stress is linked with cardiovascular disease is found to be:

A) especially strong for female workers.
B) especially weak for male workers.
C) especially strong for male workers.
D) especially weak for female workers.

Question 14

Scientific research supports a link between occupational stress and:

A) increased susceptibility to viral infections.
B) increased work motivation.
C) increased immunity levels.
D) leadership success.

Question 15

Incidences of male infertility, gestational hypertension, the delivery of pre-term babies and low-birth weight babies have all been linked to:

A) high levels of motivation in workers.
B) stressful job characteristics such as high job demands.
C) working on any kind of production line.
D) working in any kind of hot environment.

Question 16

Which one of the following options is not associated with occupations that produce the most stress (on average)?

A) Occupations that involve regular contact with other people.
B) Occupations with high workloads.
C) Occupations requiring a high amount of mental activity.
D) Occupations with threat of physical attack.

Question 17

A response to maintain a state of individual wellbeing best indicates:

A) the social stress theory definition of coping.
B) the excess workload theory definition of coping.
C) the psychological theory definition of coping.
D) the transactional stress theory definition of coping.

Question 18

The two most common coping approaches derived from the transactional stress theory are:

A) dealing with the stressor directly and avoiding the stressor.
B) getting depressed and seeking counselling.
C) direct responses and avoidant responses.
D) acting happy and acting angry.

Question 19

Which one of the following is not a component of the tripartite model of stress management interventions?

A) Employee assistance programs
B) Transactional stress analysis
C) Stressor reduction
D) Stress management training

Question 20

An organisation perceived to be actively reducing occupational stress:

A) is positively evaluated by its employees.
B) is negatively evaluated by its employees.
C) pays only lip-service to reducing stress.
D) has a stigma associated with it.

Question 21

What is stress? Respond with support of any reason of occupational stress.

Question 22

What are the three stages of an individual's response to stress?

Question 23

How does the transactional stress theory define stress?

Question 24

Discuss any three sources of stress in Cooper and Marshall's (1976) stress model.

Question 25

What are some of the individual and organisational symptoms of stress listed in Cooper and Marshall's 'work stress' model?

Question 26

From your perspective, how is occupational stress related to employee absenteeism?

Question 27

What are some of the psychological consequences of occupational stress?

Question 28

If you are suffering from occupational stress, what will be some of the behavioural consequences?

Question 29

What is coping and what questions have coping researchers typically focused on?

Question 30

Discuss the differences between trait-based and state-based coping.