Predicting the Hazard for Bellicosity in the Work - Research Paper Example

A Summary and Synthesis of Articles on Treatment of Workplace Stress Introduction and Overview I was very interested in discussions concerning treatments involving behavioral therapy, for two reasons: they are of shorter duration and more often covered by insurance than other strategies and their strategies which can be applied by a reasonably intelligent layman to resolve his or her own problems. Some of my relatives and even friends have suffered from workplace stress, and I expect many of my future clients will have the same problems. Placed stress can make a job exhausting, prevention employee from advancing or even put job in jeopardy. The toll on their health when people suffer workplace stress can include lowered resistance to disease, a higher than usual vulnerability to unhealthy habits, such as over eating, smoking and substance abuse and behavioral and sleep pattern disturbances. The short duration and possibly insurance coverage make them extremely useful for many people. Therefore, I looked at the current research regarding cognitive behavioral therapy and rational emotive behavioral therapy to see how effective they have been in treating stress in the workplace. I consider stress to be a form of anxiety, so I expanded my search to cover this search term also. Summaries of the Articles Dryden and Windy (Dryden & David, 2008)examined the current status of REBT (Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy) and also looked at CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) for comparison, as they consider these two to be dynamically cross-influential. Choose one looked mostly at the use of REBT in treating anxiety and depression. Since stress in the workplace is largely a result of anxiety this would fit in very nicely with the study of this subject. Another consideration is the fact that most people who suffer from stress in the workplace have to consider the insurance coverage for therapy. Since most behavior modification therapy targets one specific goal, and does not require in-depth analysis or psychotherapy using the client's past, it is often more acceptable to insurance companies, because it takes less time. The target population for their synthesis of current research professionals in the clinical psychology field. However, this article may also be interesting to insurance brokers and HR professionals. Dryden and David began by first defining REBT and CBT. See Appendix A for their list of the distinctive theoretical features of REBT. They went on to say that they believed that REBT is a useful methodology for the treatment of anxiety and depression. They then surveyed the current literature with special attention to current research. Results and Conclusions: After a Very Well-Documented Survey of the Current Literature, Dryden and David concluded that REBT was at least as effective as CBT, and could be considered 60% effective in dealing with anxiety and depression. They did note that REBT and other forms of CBT were ineffective 40% of the time. They did not expand upon this, so it is not known exactly how this therapy was ineffective or in what types of cases. What I Learned This article contributed a great deal to my current knowledge. Specifically, the lists that Dryden and David created concerning the features of REBT and their assumptions about human nature. I have not seen these lists before but they tell me a lot about how REBT can be used. Knowing the features of this methodology and the underpinning assumptions about human nature give me a better understanding of where it might be useful. I found this article to be very valuable, mostly because cognitive behavioral therapy and all of its various mutations have been largely put to the side in favor of more in depth psychoanalysis. However, considering that many people just need help with one emotional or psychological problem, the use of the therapy which targets a specific goal seems to be very practical and cost-effective. Do we really need to know why we get stressed in the workplace if we can manage just simply modify that? Unless the client has a lot more problems related to this one specific problem I don't think in-depth therapy is cost-effective. The bibliography, especially the list of publications by Ellis, the knowledge father of REBT, will be very helpful in the future when I have time to read more on this subject. The article was well-written, thoroughly documenting current literature and explaining how it connected with their thesis in a logical manner. Blonk et. al. (Blonk, Brenninkmeijer, Lagerveld, & Houtman, 2006)assessed the effectiveness of CBT on 122 self-employed people who had applied for disability as a result of stress on the job. First they look at other studies of job related stress and psychological problems. From three empirical studies they concluded that CBT would logically be an effective intervention in these cases. The researchers then conducted their own research program involving the 122 self-employed people. Two interventions were designed: cognitive behavioral therapy given by a professional psychologist and a combination of cognitive behavioral therapy and stressor removal or modification conducted by labour professionals trained specifically in CBT. The target population of this research was the Labor Department of the Netherlands, professional psychologists and HR professionals. The research was well-documented using a very large sampling group from which 122 individuals were selected for participation in the research some of these participants went to professional psychologists for CBT treatment while others went to the labor department for the combined treatment given by labor professionals and the third group acted as the control. Results were taken at four weeks 11 weeks and 30 weeks. Results and Conclusions It was found that those people receiving the combined treatment return to partial work twice as fast as those receiving just the CBT treatment and those in the control group. The returned to full employment was 40% faster than these other two groups in the combined treatment group. One very interesting result was that at 30 weeks, there was no difference among the groups in return to full employment. This suggests that time is a significant factor in stress relief. What I Learned A follow-up study to see how soon these same individuals became disabled again because of stress, if they did would've been interesting. It would have been especially valuable if it were correlated with the results from this study concerning the differences among the three groups for partial return and the full return in under 30 weeks. One thing I learned from this was that follow-up studies are very important. I feel that I would've gotten a lot more useful information had there been a follow-up study in this case. I was not surprised to find that the group getting the CBT with stressor removal as a combination return to work sooner than others here it. In fact, I would not be surprised to find that stressor removal or modification would have nearly equal results. That would also be an interesting follow-up study. The CBT group did return to work sooner than the control group by 40%. That suggests that CBT is actually effective. However, due to the fact that there was no follow-up study, we can't really gauge how effective. Cooper (Cooper & Cartwright, 1994)examined stress management in the workplace, including interventions, prevention strategies and the cost and effectiveness of treatment. They also examined the cost to the organization or no treatment was done. The researchers examined three levels of stress management focusing upon: "the individual, the individual/organisational interface, and the organization." They examined the literature and then focused upon a particular research study for the UK Post Office. Results and Conclusions This particular research was not expected to be immediately successful. However, the caseload over 22 months was 353 individuals from across the organization at every level and type of work. It was found that stress management counseling was extremely effective in raising productivity levels and decreasing sickness absenteeism. However, it was also found that this did not increase job satisfaction level. What I Learned I thought it was an interesting study, especially since individuals taking advantage of the offered stress management literally came from across the organization and encompassed every type of job at every level. This means that even the janitors suffer from stress, or least they think they do. It was found that a combination of stress management techniques for employees and interventions which would remove or modify the stressors was much more effective. The management techniques used and the strategies for removing or modifying the stressors can be found in Appendix C. Harvey (Harvey & Keashly, 2003)examined three factors of stress in the workplace. These included self-esteem, length of time at work and job risk factors. They investigated the issues of self-esteem and job risk factors through a fair review of the literature. However, there did not seem to be much in the literature concerning the length of time spent on the job. It was expected that the longer the time spent on the job the more likely the participants would suffer from stress as a result of a wide range of aggravating factors, including aggression. They assembled a sampling of 115 students who had full-time jobs, and conducted a study of the students over the first six weeks of the semester. Results and Conclusions As expected it was found that the more time the students spent on the job the more likely they would suffer from stress. However, the results of the length of time at work were only correlated with levels of aggression and not the other two factors. The choose one did account for an 8% variance in stress levels and aggression levels. What I Learned Truthfully, I'm not sure. I have to look at this again perhaps in the context of other research on this subject. I may be trapped by the idea that it seems logical that increased time at work would increase exposure and thus increase aggression levels in stress levels. I'm not sure of the value of this research. So really what I learned is that you don't learn from all research. Perhaps the design of research has a strong effect on what we can learn from it. Summary of the Four Articles I investigated articles concerning the relief of stress in the workplace. After a concerted search I found two articles concerning Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy. The third article added several other strategies to the list, but these two were also included. I found the lists in these first three articles to be quite interesting and I shall use them in future for more research. The first two articles were really the most interesting because they examined the different types of interventions that might be used to eliminate stress in the workplace. Dryden and Windy’s (Dryden & David, 2008)examination of REBT was particularly interesting and I think the most useful of all the articles. The idea that self-employed individuals suffer from stress had not actually occurred to me until I read the article by Blonk et. al. (Blonk et al., 2006)Therefore, the study concerning the applications of CBT and combined CBT and elimination of stressors was particularly interesting, considering that the individuals concerned had full control over the stressors involved in their businesses. I was disappointed that there was no follow-up, so that I could not really gauge the value of this study, because I had no way of knowing the percentages of recurrence. Cooper’s (Cooper & Cartwright, 1994)research was informative, especially considering the surprising result of the overall success of the post office experiment in the UK. The last article, by Harvey(Harvey & Keashly, 2003), considered the time factor for job stress. I did not find this article particularly valuable or surprising. Over all the first three articles matched up fairly well with what we've been discussing about workplace stress. It also matches what we read concerning Behavioral Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Rational Emotional Behavioral Therapy. I think these kinds of therapy are much more practical than any in depth interventions, because they get faster results. It is also true that all of the studies found that the removal of stressors was at least as important as stress management therapy. . APPENDIX A The Distinctive Theoretical Features of REBT 1. It espouses postmodern relativism, which is antithetical to rigid and extreme views and holds that there is no absolute way of determining reality. 2. It has a unique position on human nature (see Table 1 and Figure 1). 3. It puts forward a distinctive “ABC” model (see Table 2 for an example), which highlights key inferential aspects of “A” and argues that “C” can be emotive, behavioral, and cognitive in nature. It also stresses that “ABCs” are best understood within a situational context. 4. It holds that rigid beliefs are at the core of psychological disturbance. 5. It holds that flexibility is at the core of psychological health. 6. It argues that extreme beliefs (awfulizing beliefs, low frustration tolerance [LFT] beliefs, and depreciation beliefs) are derived from rigid beliefs. 198 Dryden and David 7. It argues that nonextreme beliefs (antiawfulizing beliefs, high frustration beliefs, and acceptance beliefs) are derived from flexible beliefs. 8. It distinguishes between unhealthy (dysfunctional) negative emotions (UNEs) and healthy (functional) negative emotions (HNEs). For example, guilt (UNE) is distinguished from remorse (HNE). 9. It can explain why some clients’ inferences are highly distorted (i.e., they are so when they are cognitive consequences of irrational beliefs). 10. It has a unique position on human worth and advocates unconditional self-acceptance (USA). 11. It distinguishes between ego and discomfort disturbance and health, but notes that they often interact. 12. It has a decided focus on metaemotional disturbance (e.g., shame for feeling unhealthy anger). 13. It argues that the biological basis of human irrationality is often stronger than its sociallearning basis. 14. It favors what might be called choice-based constructivism and argues that humans frequently have to “go against the grain” when striving for therapeutic change. 15. It has a clear position on what constitutes good mental health with flexibility and nonextremeness at its heart. (Dryden & David, 2008) APPENDIX B TABLE 1. Levels of stress management interventions and outcomes Interventions Focus on individual Relaxation techniques Cognitive coping strategies Biofeedback Meditation Exercise Employee Assistance Programmes (EAPs) Time management Focus on individual/organisational interface Relationships at work Person environment fit Role issues Participation and autonomy Focus on organisation Organisational structure Selection and placement Training Physical and environmental characteristics of job Health concerns and resources Job rotation Outcomes Focus on individual Mood states (depression, anxiety) Psychosomatic complaints Subjectively experienced stress Physiological parameters (blood pressure, catecholamines, muscle tension) sleep disturbances Life satisfaction Focus on individual/organisational interface Job stress Job satisfaction Burnout Productivity and performance Absenteeism Turnover Health care utilisation and claims Focus on organisation Productivity Turnover Absenteeism Health care claims Recruitment/retention success (Blonk et al., 2006) APPENDIX C redesign the task; redesign the work environment; establish flexible work schedules; encourage participative management; include the employee in career development; analyse work roles and establish goals; provide social support and feedback; build cohesive teams; establish fair employment policies; share the rewards. (Cooper & Cartwright, 1994) References Blonk, R. W. B., Brenninkmeijer, V., Lagerveld, S. E., & Houtman, I. L. D. (2006). Return to work: A comparison of two cognitive behavioural interventions in cases of work-related psychological complaints among the self-employed. Work & Stress, 20(2), 129-144. doi:10.1080/02678370600856615 Cooper, C. L., & Cartwright, S. (1994). Stress-management interventions in the workplace: Stress counselling and stress audits. British Journal of Guidance & Counselling, 22(1), 65. Dryden, W., & David, D. (2008). Rational emotive behavior therapy: Current status. Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy, 22(3), 195-209. doi:10.1891/0889-8391.22.3.195 Harvey, S., & Keashly, L. (2003). Predicting the risk for agression in the workplace: Risk factors, self-esteem and time at work. Social Behavior & Personality: An International Journal, 31(8), 807-814.  Read More