Stress - Causes of Stress - Work - Johansson

Stress can be caused by a variety of things. Work related stress can be a factor of this. Most people with a job would experience some level of stress but can vary from job to job. Jobs have different features which can contribute to high levels of stress. They are High resposnibility; repetitiveness and social isolation.

High responsibility = Can cause stress having to manage/supervise staff or even being self-employed can increase stress levels. Repetitiveness = If a persons job is repetitive it can increase boredom and increase stress by secreting more hormones through urine. Social isolation = If you work alone you may become stressed because you can't interact with anyone and you feel lonely. This can cause them to suffer headaches.

Aim/M&P: Investigate whether work stressors such as repetitiveness etc increased stress related illnesses; Natural experiment; Independent measures design; 24 workers; Swedish sawmill; 14 high stress risk group; aka finishers; work at set pace; govern production line; resposnible for their teams wages; worked in social isolation; other 10 were in control group (low risk of stress); give daily urine samples to measure stress-related hormones (adrenaline/noradenaline); Baseline readings taken at home

Results/Conclusion: It can be that the high-risk group of finishers showed a significantly higher level of stress related illness such as headaches or levels of absenteeism. This shows that having high resposibility causes stress in workers as well as every worker.