Cognitive-affective appraisal of technostressors by ICT-based mobile workers and their impacts on technostrain

BACKGROUND: ICT based mobile working gives organizational flexibility, productivity and performance but at the same time it can lead to techno-stress and technostrain perceptions. A high level of technostrain amongst ICT-based mobile workers would impact their well-being, leading to lesser than expected gains from such organizational ICT investments. Given this paradox, we examine the actual transactional and relational stressor-strain coping response processes in this novel context. OBJECTIVE: The broad research aim of this paper is to explain the relative importance of the cognitive and affective processes used amongst ICT-based mobile workers when coping with technostressors. METHODS: Specifically, based on technology frames literature, we develop dual-path serial mediation models, showing the relationships between technostress-technostrain via two processes: (a) the primary cognitive appraisal process mobilization (threat/opportunity technology frame) and (b) the secondary affective resource process mobilization (affect towards ICT use) to account for technostrain perceptions. We use survey data from 165 ICT-based mobile managers from diverse work settings to empirically confirm the theorized models. RESULTS/CONCLUSIONS: A predominant cognitive ‘threat frames’ leads to increase in technostrain, which decreases if ‘affective resource’ is available for coping. This relationship is inverse in the case of ‘opportunity frames’ path, as technostrain perceptions decreases with and without affective resource mobilization. Implications to theory, practice and methods are also discussed.

College Students' Coping and Psychological Help-Seeking Attitudes and Intentions

The relationship between college students' coping and psychological help-seeking attitudes and intentions was examined. Seven hundred and nineteen students participated (180 men, 537 women, and two individuals who did not indicate their gender). Questionnaires were completed online and included the Brief COPE and Beliefs About Psychological Services scales. It was found that for students with previous counseling experience, coping by means of greater use of support seeking and less use of avoidant coping strategies was associated with greater intent to seek psychological help, greater stigma tolerance, and greater belief in psychologists' expertness. Problem-focused coping was unrelated to psychological help-seeking attitudes and intentions among these students. For students without previous counseling experience, coping by means of greater use of support seeking (emotional support, instrumental support, and venting), greater use of problem-focused coping (active coping, positive reframing, religion, and planning), and less use of avoidant coping strategies (denial, substance use, behavioral disengagement, and self-blame) was associated with greater stigma tolerance and greater belief in psychologists' expertness. For these students, coping behaviors were not related to intentions to seek counseling.

Psychophysical well-being profiles in patients before hematopoietic stem cell transplantation

OBJECTIVES

The literature offers very few in-depth reports on the time directly before hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Also, researchers have focused on selected aspects of psychophysical well-being and treated the sample as homogeneous. Thus, we chose to investigate distinct multidimensional well-being profiles (including anxiety, depressive symptoms, and health-related quality of life [HRQOL] domains) among patients just before HSCT, as well as profile predictors (generalized self-efficacy) and outcomes (transplant appraisal) on the basis of the transactional stress model.

METHODS

Depression (CES-D), anxiety (HADS-A), HRQOL (EORTC QOL-C30), generalized self-efficacy (GSES), and transplant appraisal (single-item scale referred to threat and challenge) were measured in 290 patients (56.9% male; mean age = 47.28, SD = 13.79) after admission for HSCT (67.2% autologous). Unconditional and conditional latent profile analyses were applied.

RESULTS

Four latent well-being profiles were identified: well-functioning (51%, highest well-being in all aspects), dysfunctional (10%, weakest functioning in all aspects), and 2 profiles with moderate HRQOL and high (5.6%) or low (33.4%) anxiety and depressive symptoms. Generalized self-efficacy predicted profile membership, controlling for demographic and clinical variables. The highest levels were observed in the well-functioning group (P < .01). Appraisal was predicted by latent profile analyses classes: low threat in the well-functioning group (P < .001) and the highest threat and challenge in the dysfunctional group (P < .01).

CONCLUSIONS

The findings highlight the diverse nature of well-being in pre-HSCT patients and the manner in which transplant appraisal and generalized self-efficacy are related to different profiles of pre-HSCT multidimensional well-being, thus indicating the practical implications of the study.

Occupational Stress, Coping and Personality in the Police: An SEM Study

This article explores the relationships among exogenous factors, such as gender, age, rank/grade, tenure and personality, occupational stress, coping strategies, well-being, organisational commitment and job satisfaction. The sample used for this study comprised 1,535 police officers from a British police force, 20.78 per cent of whom were female. It was expected that personality, gender, age, rank and tenure were associated with ***work-related stress; coping; well-being, and work attitudes. More specifically, it was predicted: (1) that there was a correlation among personality, well-being and work attitudes; and (2) that coping strategies were directly associated with well-being and work attitudes. Using LISREL 8.54 these relationships were examined. The resulting model yielded meaningful and significant relationships and fitted the observed data: χ2 (114) = 291.88; p ≤ 0.01; RMSEA = 0.032; AGFI = 0.96; CFI = 0.99; n = 1510. Personality traits were found to be directly related to work-related stress, coping strategies, tension and burn out as well as negatively related to overall job satisfaction. Gender, age and rank did not show meaningful relationship with any of the endogenous variables. Occupational stressors were associated with low organisational commitment and poor overall job satisfaction. Also coping strategies were directly associated with organisational commitment and job satisfaction.

The AAA (appraisals, attributions, adaptation) model of job stress

The AAA model is presented as an integrative conceptualization of workplace stress that combines research from multiple models and theories to account for the numerous complexities that employees experience when cognitively evaluating organizational demands. The proposed model examines the effects of employees’ organizational stressors on the cognitive appraisal process and describes how employees’ emotions and self-regulation affect individual coping behaviors, adaptation, and learning from stressful experiences. Practitioner applications, theoretical contributions, and directions for future research are presented.

Exploring Coping Strategies Used by National Adolescent Netball Players Across Domains

Coping is highly relevant to performance in any domain where individuals strive to attain personally important goals. Thirty-three female national standard adolescent netball players participated in focus group and one-on-one interviews. Participants reported stressors experienced in not only sport, but also in other areas of life. They also reported coping strategies used and factors that might influence the stressor-coping process. Results identified stressors that derived from attempts to achieve highly important personal goals in different areas of daily life, including academic, sport, and social settings. Usage of future-oriented coping strategies such as planning, prioritizing, time-management, goal setting, and problem solving were associated with successfully managing multiple stressors and a sense of well-being. The present study illustrated the potential contribution of encouraging athletes to use future-oriented coping strategies when seeking the attainment of goals across domains. Future research should look to test the effectiveness of interventions designed to promote usage of future-oriented coping strategies.

Sociocultural beliefs, as well as goodness of fit, influence the effectiveness of coping in Japanese workers

BACKGROUND

Although the goodness-of-fit hypothesis (GOFH) is one of the most important theories in research about the effect of coping on distress related to different stressful situations, there has been a mixed response to it in the literature.

PURPOSE

The present study examined whether the effect of the sociocultural context in stressful situations is consistent with the GOFH. The study investigated sociocultural beliefs about the appropriateness of different coping strategies in a given group as the sociocultural context.

METHOD

Japanese employees (N = 1,156) of an information technology company reported their appraisal of stressors' controllability, the coping strategies they employed for the stressors, their sociocultural beliefs about coping strategies, and their psychological distress in response to the stressors.

RESULTS

The GOFH was supported only for problem-focused coping with task stressors and not for interpersonal stressors. The applicability of the GOFH differed by sociocultural beliefs about coping, namely an appraisal of what coworkers might think about the appropriateness of the coping method.

CONCLUSION

These results suggest that it is important for managing stress to consider the sociocultural context as well as the GOFH.

Socio-cultural power dynamics and coping functions: a narrative case report of a female paralympian

Purpose

This case study explores the lived experiences of an elite female Paralympic powerlifting athlete. The focus is on restrictions and coping responses employed to manage the daily hassles within the cultural and ethnic requirements for achieving athletic excellence.

Methods

With an unstructured interview, the narrative was acquired which ranged to a total of 75 minutes (approx) and 20 single spaced pages. The data was analyzed using Foucauldian discourse analysis in conjuncture to feminist poststructuralist theory.

Results

The results highlight the issues relating to femininity, culture and ethnicity with regard to athletic career. The analysis elicits extracts from the narrative to describe the coping functions reflecting proactive coping, anticipatory coping, and preventative coping.

Conclusions

The narrative draws attention to the socio-cultural restrictions and coping functions that the athlete adopted to overcome the barriers of femininity, culture, ethnicity requirements and athleticism.

Relation of cognitive appraisal to cardiovascular reactivity, affect, and task engagement

The relation of primary cognitive appraisals to cardiovascular reactivity, affect, task engagement, and perceived stress was examined in 56 men (ages 18-29). Systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), heart rate, preejection period, stroke index, cardiac index, and total peripheral resistance were assessed at rest and during performance of a computerized mental arithmetic task. Extending on prior investigations, threat and challenge appraisals were assessed independently from one another and from secondary appraisals. Positive and negative affect, task engagement, and levels of perceived stress were also assessed. Results indicated that threat (R2 =.08, p =.01), challenge (R2 =.14, p =.003), and their interaction (R2 =.11, p =.006) independently predicted DBP reactivity; DBP responses were greatest among participants with a high threat/low challenge pattern of appraisal. Threat appraisals predicted greater negative affect (R2 =.32) and perceived stress (R2 =.48), whereas challenge appraisals were related to greater positive affect (R2 =.44) and task engagement (R2 =.40, ps <.0001). Greater positive affect was correlated with increased SBP and DBP reactivity, and greater levels of task engagement with increased DBP response (ps < or = .002). Results suggest that primary cognitive appraisals are more potent predictors of affect and task engagement than cardiovascular reactivity.

Ethnicity, coping, and distress among Korean Americans, Filipino Americans, and Caucasian Americans

The authors examined appraisal, coping, and distress among Korean American, Filipino American, and Caucasian American Protestants. No interaction effects emerged among ethnic groups, but there were significant ethnic main effects for appraisal and coping. Compared with the Caucasian Americans, both Asian American groups appraised stressors as more challenging, and the Korean Americans appraised them also as greater losses. Both Asian American groups reported using more strategies of accepting responsibility, religious coping, distancing, and escape-avoidance than the Caucasian Americans did; the Filipino Americans also reported more problem-solving strategies than the Caucasian Americans. For all participants, challenge appraisals predicted adaptive coping (problem solving and positive reappraisal) and less distress. Problem solving, seeking social support, and positive reappraisal predicted less distress; self-control, accepting responsibility, and escape-avoidance predicted greater distress. The authors stressed the value of assessing ethnicity in coping research.

Nurse stress associated with aggression in people with dementia: its relationship to hardiness, cognitive appraisal and coping

This study examined the relationship between aggressive behaviour displayed by people with dementia and nurse stress. This was achieved by re-examining the relationships between the hardy personality (total hardiness), primary appraisal (challenge and threat appraisal), secondary appraisal (coping options available), and coping methods (action and palliative coping) from the perspective of nurse stress in response to aggressive behaviour displayed by people with dementia. One hundred and two nurses from 15 nursing homes and hostels were sampled by way of a questionnaire. Hierarchical regression was performed to analyse the strong hypothesized relationships between the variables examined. Results indicated that resident aggression was significantly related to an increase in nurse stress (M=34.79, SD=7.93). Of the variables examined, only threat appraisal was significantly related to nurse stress (beta[94]=0.48, P < 0.05). Perceiving the possibility of aggressive behaviour by the resident as threatening was found related to a high stress level in nurses sampled.

Role-played interpersonal interaction: ecological validity and cardiovascular reactivity

Conflictual role-play scenarios have been used to model brief interpersonal interaction and to elicit cardiovascular reactivity in the laboratory. Here we discuss data suggesting that role-played interactions constitute an ecologically valid laboratory task that may improve laboratory-to-field generalization of cardiovascular response. Specifically, our research indicates that young adults perceive the stress associated with role-play scenarios as similar to that encountered in everyday life. Furthermore, these stress appraisals moderate cardiovascular response to role-play in men. We also find that a social stressor (i.e. speech task) is perceived as significantly more similar to a real-life stressor as compared to other standard laboratory tasks. We propose that particular constellations of cognitive, affective, and behavioral responses to laboratory-based social stressors, such as role-played interaction, may elicit different patterns of hemodynamic response. Further understanding of interrelations among cognitive, affective, behavioral, and physiological response patterns may assist in the study of cardiovascular reactivity as a potential mechanism linking personality factors and the development of cardiovascular disease.

Applicability of the goodness-of-fit hypothesis to coping with daily hassles

This study examined the applicability of Lazarus and Folkman's (1984) goodness-of-fit hypothesis to the relationship between college students' daily hassles and psychological symptomology. Specifically, the model predicts that, given a daily hassle which one may change, it is more functional to alter the source of the daily hassle than it is to let the stressor go unchecked and simply try to manage the negative emotions produced by the event. Conversely, given a stressor one cannot alter, it is more functional to regulate the emotions produced by the event than to engage in repeated futile attempts to change an uncontrollable stressor. It was predicted that subjects who tended to violate these principles across multiple daily hassles would be characterized by the highest psychological symptomology. Although the 69 college students' frequency of daily hassles was positively associated with psychological symptomatology and students tended to match the method of coping with the appraised controllability of their daily hassles, no support for the goodness-of-fit hypothesis was found.