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JOB STRESS.
Term Paper ID:20121
Essay Subject:
Defined, general adaptation syndrome, burn-out, police officers & teachers, coping.... More...
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Paper Abstract:
Defined, general adaptation syndrome, burn-out, police officers & teachers, coping.
Paper Introduction:
Stress Defined
The definition of stress, as advanced by Selye (1975, 401), indicates that it constitutes an individual's response to either internal or external demands. The ways in which individuals adapt to stress are divided into three stages, which Selye refers to as the General Adaptation Syndrome. The first stage, alarm, entails the individual experiencing a state of bio-physiological excitement in response to the stressor; while the second stage, adaptation or resistance, involves adjusting to or resisting the given stressor. The final stage, exhaustion, entails the individual's literally succumbing to the stressor when either adaptation was unsuccessful or resistance has broken down. The term stress is sometimes interchanged with burn-out. The term burn-out refers to the worker being exhausted as a result of too
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The generalhypothesis is that police officers who exhibit more advanced phases ofpsychological burn-out also tend to report a lower quality of work settingand more negative work and extra-work outcomes.Responses to Job Stress Given the occurrence of a traumatic event and/or process, which isdefined as being outside the range of experiences police officers can dealwith in a normal manner, the trauma responses can entail agitation,impatience, irritability, frustration, and rage, all of which reflect thesurge of intrusive memory and emotional reaction to post-trauma combinedwith attempts at repression of memory and denial of the impact of thetrauma. There is a considerable amount ofattention given to the emotional, social and academic needs of students,with negligible attention given to these needs among the teaching staff.This too can be viewed as a source of teacher distress (Pines, Aronson, &Kafry, 1986, 34). Theimplications for these professions are that, unless administrators findways to mediate worker distress, the quality of work will markedly decline. (1978). Kellogg, T. Hunter,M. Teacher burnout: A teacher center tackles theissue. AmericanJournal of Psychiatry, 135(1 ). The assumption is frequently false, and acts tofoster unrealistic expectations from parents and/or significant others,students, school administration and society in general regarding how muchinfluence teachers have over the learning process. The term burn-out refers to the worker beingexhausted as a result of too much work or dissipation (Sparks, 1989, 37). Although this phenomenontypically affects those individuals whom are personally and/orprofessionally underchallenged or overchallenged, the latter are more proneto burn-out. Moreover, there appears to be a positive relationship between PTSDamong police officers and police brutality. Paper presented at the annualmeeting of the American Association of School Administrators, Las Vegas,Nevada, 1977. The work setting can either directly orindirectly influence the onset of police officer stress by means of sourcesof stress. However, when distress presents for teachers, therecan ensue several detrimental effects to their work performance. The stress of life. These expectations are,further, a source of frustration, guilt, and a sense of failure fornumerous teachers, not all of whom can successfully mediate them andprevent negative influence on job satisfaction and/or work performance.Zahn (1988) concurs, noting that the performance of educators is measuredby those they teach, which may or may not accurately reflect workperformance. Handling stress. As a result, the roles and duties of teachersare accordingly devised and evaluated. While numerousteachers feel primarily responsible for student learning, they aretypically restrained in their efforts to assure high quality in same due tosuch as vague or absent policies and/or procedures, inadequate budgets,insufficient ancillary staff, and poorly-developed curriculum. & Harrison, M. References Bloch, A. Rudd, W., &Wiseman, S. (1986). Weinberg, C. Sparks, D. The term reduced personal accomplishment refers to adecline in the police officer's feelings of competence and successfulachievement in his or her work with the public. Job burnout, how people cope. stateof mind that frequently afflicts individuals who work with other people andwho put in much more than they get back from their clients, supervisors,and colleagues." The manifestation of this concept is attended by avariety of symptoms that include general malaise; emotional, physical andpsychological fatigue; feelings of helplessness and hopelessness; and, alack of enthusiasm about work and life in general. Pines, Aronson and Kafry (1986) found that a major source offrustration shared by many teachers is the assumption that, if students donot learn, it is because they are not being adequately taught by theteaching profession. Beyond these, there are often vague, poorly thought outschool policies and procedures that more often than not hinder, rather thanhelp, teachers. Stress-reducing attitudes for teachers.Teacher Education Quarterly, XVI, Fall 1989, 73-84. Moreover, the teaching staff is often and intenselyconfronted with value ambiguity and conflict, given the need to parallellearner needs and parent and/or significant other concern with the mandatesof school administration and various levels of government. Kopolow, L. The term depersonalization refers to an unfeelingand callous response toward those with whom the police officer interacts;and, these persons are typically the recipients of the police officer'sservice and/or care. Teacherjob stress can present in a variety of ways, degrees and frequencies.Further, it has been indicated that those teachers having longer tenure aresubject to increased perceptions of distress, possess fewer copingstrategies and mechanisms, evidence decreased job satisfaction, and reporthampered performance more so than do their counterparts not possessingtenure. These canresult in other sources of distress, followed by feelings of helplessnessand hopelessness. Lifelonglearning: The adult years, December 198 , 4-6.----------------------- 12 Post-traumatic stress plays apart in police brutality. Further, workers must learn to effectively mediate job-related stress andstressors. Burke, R. Stress Defined The definition of stress, as advanced by Selye (1975, 4 1), indicatesthat it constitutes an individual's response to either internal or externaldemands. As a result, thiscommitment to memory of these facts can, and often does, produceoverreaction to future such confrontations. Another task that contributes to teacher stress is the maintenance ofdiscipline within the classroom (Rudd & Wiseman, 1986). These rulesinclude: the employee's being aware of his or her reaction to stress andthe three stages of stress (i.e., alarm, resistance, and exhaustion); usingphysical activity (e.g., walking, running, playing tennis, gardening, etc.)to relax, since the employee's mind and body work concertedly; theemployee's sharing stress by talking to someone about his or her concernsand worries, which can include professional intervention; the employee'slearning his or her limits and responding accordingly; the need for theemployee to get sufficient sleep and rest; the need for the employee tostructure his or her schedule to include fun-oriented activities; the needfor the worker to socialize sufficiently; the need for the employee todivest some of his or her interest and effort from the work setting; theacceptance of the need to healthily ventilate negative emotions as needed,rather than allow them to amass; the need of the employee,to structure hisor her schedule to allow for quiet time; and, the need of the employee toavoid self-medication, rather than obtaining the services of professionalswho are trained in stress reduction. The final stage, exhaustion, entails the individual'sliterally succumbing to the stressor when either adaptation wasunsuccessful or resistance has broken down. The sources of stress refer to the stressors. Burnout in adult educators. Pines, A., & Aronson, E., & Kafry, D. Human Relations, 39(6), 487-5 2. The critical part of the evaluation process within theeducation system are the quantity and quality of students' learning. Bloch (1988, 135) notes that the findings of research on teacherstress are closely linked to understanding the problem of teacher burn-out. (1989). 16) characterizes job burn-out as an EmotionalExhaustion Syndrome resulting from the stress of interpersonal contact.Pines, Aronson and Kafry (1986, p. The individualcharacteristics refer to demographic characteristics, career orientations,extra work supports, and demands. (1975). J. Conclusion There are numerous variables, both internal and external to the worksetting, that interact to influence the occurrence of job stress for alloccupations, particularly for police officers and teachers. Here, emotional exhaustion refers to the police officer'sfeelings of being emotionally overextended and drained by interpersonalcontact with the public. Burke and Deszca (1986) report that there are two highly popularmodels of police officer burn-out. New York: McMillan Publishing Co. Prentice Hall. "Many police officers in ourculture suffer from a diagnosable and treatable condition referred to asPTSD" (12). (1988). (1989). For sure, a certain amount of stress isnecessary and can prove beneficial when appropriately perceived andattended by teachers. These include: the teacher's stopblaming others for his or her problems and take self-responsibility for hisor her stress; the teacher's finding ways to fight boredom on the job andin personal life; the need of teachers to keep perspective on the demandsof the job and admit humor into their lives; the need for the teacher tolive in the present and take one day of job responsibility and personallife at a time; the need for the teacher to take his or her ego out of taskperformance; the need to concentrate on personal development; the need ofthe teacher to engage in processes that make time disappear (e.g.,recreation); and the need for the teacher to understand and overcome theconditions leading to alienation on the job and in the personal socialenvironment. Further, 84% of the samplereported that distress constituted a major occupational hazard thatnegatively influenced their attitudes toward work. The occurrence of jobburn-out is insidious, in that it usually does not occur as a result of oneor two traumatic events but, rather, evolves through a general pattern ofstressors followed by unsuccessful mediation. Zahn, J. and Sergiovonni, T. Specifically for police officers, Burke and Deszca (1986) recommendthat the officer discover ways to prevent or minimize emotional exhaustion,depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment both on and off thejob. New York: McGraw-Hill. Burnout from tedium topersonal growth. Cherniss (Burke & Deszca,1986) notes that the work setting, sources of stress, and individualcharacteristics determine police officer stress. (1991). (1986). Thus, regardless of the manners in which investigators conceptualize jobburn-out, they invariably identify job-related stress as the major factorin the etiology of the Burnout Syndrome. Combat neurosis in inner-city schools. Public Welfare,(78)(2). Correlates of psychologicalburnout phases among police officers. Whilethere are most probably several arguments that can be made in favor of theinclusion of such criteria in the evaluation process, there is also theprobability that intervening variables outside of the control of teachersadversely influence student learning. In addition, police experience numerous traumatic events and/ orprocesses that can result in the manifestation of PTSD. Today's Education, November-December 1989, 37-39. Sources of dissatisfaction among a group of teachers.British Journal of Educational Psychology, 32(3), 18-43. Job Stress for Police Officers Kellogg and Harrison (1991) report that police officers are routinelysubject to job-related stress, with many of them eventually developing Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). These officers then commit to memory thecircumstances surrounding the killing and characteristics of theperpetrator, with this usually subconsciously impacting the way in whichthe affected officer performs his or her duties. (1991). (1986). 78) define this concept as a " ... Ifthe specific defense mechanisms are unable to cope with the stress, thenthe general defense mechanisms reactivate to help the body adjust, or deathensues. & Deszca, E. Given this lack of control overevaluative criteria, teachers have little power as to how their workperformance is rated, which constitutes another source of distress. (1988). Counter irritants to teaching. The term stress is sometimesinterchanged with burn-out. While it isclear that not all teacher stress is injurious, excessive job stress canprove detrimental to performance. (1988). Police officers who have lost partnersor other fellow officers may develop concerns about loss leading to anxietyabout their personal safety. The work setting refersto such factors as orientation, workload, autonomy, and style ofsupervision. Washington, D.C.: U.S.Department of Health and Human Services. Distress/Job Burn-Out Maslach (1988, p. The focus in schools is necessarily on the student, or the recipientsof the provided services. This was particularlythe case for those educators who viewed their primary role as teachers, butof necessity found themselves providing guidance and counseling to studentsand their parents and/or significant others, enforcing school policies asrelated to both class and non-class discipline, and balancing emphasisbetween teaching and the completion of paper-work (1988, i). Elliott, D. Educational andorganizational leadership in elementary schools. Maslach, C. The ways in which individuals adapt to stress are divided intothree stages, which Selye refers to as the General Adaptation Syndrome.The first stage, alarm, entails the individual experiencing a state of bio-physiological excitement in response to the stressor; while the secondstage, adaptation or resistance, involves adjusting to or resisting thegiven stressor. Selye, H. Both the sources of stress and individual characteristicsdirectly influence the onset of police officer stress. In addition to these, depression, suicidaltendencies, eating disorders and other addictive behaviors that are commonin law enforcement officers are further effects of stress-related trauma(16). Ways of Coping with Job Stress Kopolow (1991) reports that there are several rules to be applied forcoping with job stress, regardless of the occupation involved. These include:living with unpredictability; being confused about who is friend or foe;fear of making a mistake and possibly injuring innocent people; witnessingor committing atrocities and defensive acts; witnessing grotesque scenes;fear; the loss of friends in what seems often to be meaningless conflict;the need to dehumanize the enemy in order to function; anxiety; anger,which often turns to rage (Kellogg & Harrison, 1991). During the alarm and exhaustion phases, there is an increase inthe production of adrenocortical hormones which subsides during theresistance phase, which is when specific defense mechanisms come into play. Maslach and Jackson (Burke & Deszca,1986) view burn-out as a developmental process resulting from emotionalexhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishmentoccurring in individuals who work with the public in some capacity oranother. When the specific defense mechanism isidentified by the body for dealing with the source of stress (e.g., such asincreased muscular activities), the overactivity of the general mechanismsubsides by such as increasing the oxygen supply for muscular activity. Law Enforcement News, XVII(335), April 3 , 1991,12 & 16. Selye advances that there are five risk factors for the development ofdistress, which include: the individual's personal outlook andunderstanding of stress; pressures of family life; environmental demands;work related stresses and; the inability of built-in biological mechanismsto naturally mediate-stress (411). There are several forces that occur subsequent to PTSD, includingcompletion compulsion (i.e., need to heal causing re-enactments of theevent, intrusive feelings, memories, outbursts or rage); "numbing out"(i.e., repression of the event and the emotions experienced with itsoccurrence); life impairment (i.e., phobic avoidance of events or personsthat trigger memory of the trauma); anxiety state; personality collapse;loss of interests; withdrawal; sexual inhibitions or acting out; activityswings; loss of meaning in life; startle responses; and, physical ailment(Kellogg & Harrison, 1991, 12). There are severalfactors that are involved in the application of discipline within theclassroom, including legislation on a variety of issues (e.g., mode ofdiscipline, child abuse reporting laws, etc.), non-class students causingproblems, vandalism committed-by class and non-class students, and anincreasing amount of emotional and physical assaults being committedagainst teachers. Specifically for teachers, Weinberg (1989) recommends the cultivationof eight stress-reducing attitudes. Here, Bloch refers to job burn-out as the emotional, attitudinal, and physical exhaustion resulting fromjob-related stress.Responses to Job Stress Hunter, a well-respected educator, revealed following the conduct ofresearch on teacher stress that teaching is third highest among occupationsfor its incumbents to experience distress. (1975). There are several possibilities to this goal including: engagement inrecreational activities, reduction in interest vested in the job, increasedpersonal social activities, and putting job tasks into proper perspective. Job Stress for Teachers There can be no doubt that teacher stress constitutes one of the mostimportant issues that currently confronts the education system,particularly in the sense that Sparks (1989) revealed that teacher jobsatisfaction and performance may well be influenced by same. General Adaptation Syndrome Selye's General Adaptation Syndrome (1975, 4 ) entails that theworker first seeks to attain a desired state (i.e., the reduction ofstress) by mobilizing his/her body's general defense mechanism to overactin order to maintain life.
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