Occupational Stress

Occupational Stress

Occupational Stress

Introduction

As nearly as anyone can tell, the word 'Stress' was first used in a non- technical sense in the 14th century to refer to hardship, straits, adversity, or affliction (Lumsden, 1981 as cited by Lazarus, 1999). In the late 17th century, a prominent physicist- biologist, Robert Hook (Hinkle, 1973 as cited by Lazarus, 1999), made a lasting contribution by formulating an engineering analysis of stress (Lazarus, 1999). The term Stress first appeared in the index of Psychological Abstracts in 1944 (Lazarus and folkman, 1984). Some writers like Pollock, (1988) argue that the use of the term as we know it is relatively recent, suggesting that although it was used to some extent throughout the 19th century and was loosely associated with ill health, it is only in the last few decades that it has really become an established term. Newton 1995, however, disagrees that the term is of recent origin, having found stress definitions in the Oxford English Dictionary which are very close to our present understanding of the term dating back to the 16th and 17th century (Jones & Bright, 2001). Furthmore, Individual difference variables that might relate to perceptions should be given more attention in occupational stress research and this prescisely the aim this study assignment is undertaken.

Discussion

Previous studies suggest that there is a growing body of research literature on occupational stress among professionals and workers. It is generally noted that management and professional occupations in almost all the industries are by nature demanding. Stress is also the common response to environmental change by individuals but this portrays the uniformity of responses, yet different people respond differently to the same stressor or different stressors may affect the same person requiring a varied reaction. Most attributes the popularization of the stress concept to Hans Seyle ...