STRESS vs.

DISTRESS
 Lesson Outcome
• At the end of the lesson, you should be able to
– Differentiate the difference between stress and
distress
– Define factors which determine the occurrence of
one or to the other.
– Understand attribution bias and relate it with
incident and accident occur at the workplace
 Outline
• What is stress
• Identifying stress
– Coping with stressors
– Person factors
– Fit for stressors
– Social factors
• Attributional Bias
– The fundamental attribution error
– The self-serving bias
 Introduction
• Stressors can contribute to a near hit or an
injury; they are barriers to achieving a Total
Safety Culture.
• However, stressors can provoke positive stress
rather than negative distress, which can lead to
constructive problem solving rather than
destructive, at risk behavior.
• The concept of “attribution”-as a cognitive
process use to turn stressors into positive or
negative distress.
Definition of stress

• The Emotional state which

results from discrepancy
between the level of demand
and the person’s ability to
cope.
• Job Demands:
– Time Pressure
– Deadline stress
– Excessive workload
– Conflicting demands.
 What is stress?
• Psychological and physiological reaction to
events or situation in our environment.
• Whatever triggers the reaction is called
stressor.
• So, stress is the reaction of our minds and
bodies to stressors such as demands, threats,
conflicts, frustrations, overloads and
changes.
 Constructive or destructive?
1. Focus on the environment: stress as a stimulus
(stressors)
2. Reaction to stress: “anxiety or suffering” stress
as a response (distress)
3. Relationship between person and the
environment: stress as an interaction (coping)
- ‘I work best under pressure” motivational power
of stress.
- But can too much pressure, too many deadlines,
be destructive?
CERTAIN ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITION AND PERSONALITY STATES CONTRIBUTE TO
STRESS AND DISTRESS
Yerkes-Dodson Law (1908)
 This law stated that, up to
a point, performance will
increase as arousal, or
pressure to perform well,
increases, but the best
performance comes when
arousal is optimum rather
than maximum.
 Push a person too far and
his performance starts to
deteriorate.
 In fact, at very high levels
of pressure or tension a
person might perform as
poorly as when he is hardly
stimulated at all.
 Constructive or destructive?
• The eye of the beholder
– Perception play a role.
– When stressors is noticed and caused reaction,
the result can be constructive or destructive.
– If we believe we are in control- that we can deal
with the overloads, frustrations, conflicts or
whatever trigger the stressor- we become aroused
and motivated to go beyond the call of duty and
can achieve more.
 Identifying stressors
• Stress and distress can be provoked by a wide range of
demands and circumstances.
• Some stressors are acute sudden life events, such as
death or injury to a loved one, marriage, marital
separation or divorce, failure in school or at work, or a
job promotion or relocation
• Other stressors include the all-too-frequent minor
hassles of everyday life, from long lines and excessive
traffic to downsized work conditions and worries
about personal finances.
 Coping with stressors
• Understanding the multiple causes of conflict,
frustration, overload, boredom and other potential
stressors in our lives can sometimes lead to effective
coping mechanisms:
– Revising schedules to avoid hassles like traffic and
shopping lines
– Refusing a request that will overload
– Finding time to relax and recuperate from tension and
fatigue.
– Communicating with others to clarify work duties,
reduce conflict, gain support and feel more comfortable
bout added job duties.
Possible stressors at workplace

• Intrinsic to the job

• Poor physical work condition
• Work overload
• Time pressures
• Physical dangers
Possible stressors at workplace

Role in
organization

Role Responsibility
Role conflict
ambiguity for people
 Possible stressors at workplace

Career
developments Under promotion

Lack of job security

Thwarted/dissasstified
ambition
Possible stressors at workplace
• Relationship at work
– Poor relationship with boss, subordinates
and colleagues.
– Difficulties in delegating responsibility
Possible stressors at workplace

Little or no participation
in decision making

Organizational structure Restrictions (Budgets

and climate etc)

Office politics (enemies)

 Possible stressors at workplace
Individual Level of anxiety
characteristics

Tolerance of ambiguity

Behavioral pattern –
aggressiveness,
impatience, competitive

Extra stress: Family problems

Life crisis
Financial difficulties
symptoms of
occupational High blood pressure
ill health due
to stress High cholesterol level
Increased heart rate
Smoking
Depressive mood
Escapist drinking
 What are the work symptoms?
 Increased absenteeism
 Decrease in job satisfaction
 Increased in work accident
 Interpersonal conflict
 Lower productivity
 Less commitment
 Person Factors
• Certain personality characteristics make some people
more resistant to distress.
• Individuals who believe they control their own destinies
and generally expect the best, more likely to gain control
of their stressors and experience positive stress rather
than distress.
• Important to realize that these person factors –self mastery
and optimism- are not permanent in born traits of people.
• They are states of mind or expectations derived from
personal experiences and they can be nurtured, that
increase feeling of being ‘in control’
 Person Factors
• Learning to feel helpless- important psychological
concept called ‘learned helplessness’
• Quest: what do you do regularly to make your
workplace safer?
– Besides following the safety procedures there’s not
much I can do for safety around here.
– It really doesn’t matter much what I do, whatever will
be will be
– There’s not much I can do about reducing work injuries,
if its my time, its my time.
 Person Factors
• Learned Optimism: bad experience does not
necessarily lead to an attitude of learned
helplessness
• People sometimes seem to derive strength or
energy from their failures, and even try harder
to succeed when given another chance.
• This difference between learned helplessness
and learned optimism. Optimist vs. pessimist
 Person Factors
• How can we get them to commit and participate
in the proactive processes of injury prevention.
Work climate play a role.
• This happened when employees are
empowered to make a difference and perceive
they are successful.
• When workers believe through personal
experience their efforts can make a difference in
safety, they develop an antidote for “learned
helplessness” which termed “learned optmism.
 Person Factors
• If the corporate climate empowers workers to
take control and manage safety for
themselves and their coworkers, they can
attribute safety success to their own actions.
• This bolster learned optimism and feelings of
being in control.
• Besides seeing glass as half full, optimistic
people under stress find ways to fill the rest of
the glass.
PERCEPTION AFFECTS EXPECTATION, WHICH AFFECTS BEHAVIOUR, WHICH IN TURN
AFFECTS PERCEPTION
 Fit to stressors
• Fitness is one of a way to increase our sense of
personal control and optimism.
• Being physically fit increase our body’s ability to cope
with the stressors.
• Include steps:
– Stop smoking
– Reduce or eliminate alcohol consumption
– Exercise regularly
– Balance meal
– Enough sleep.
“MOUSE POTATO AND A “COUCH POTATO” CAN REDUCE ABILITY ONE’S PHYSICAL
ABILITY TO COPE WITH STRESSORS.
 Attribution Bias
• Attributions are inferences that people make
about the causes of events and behaviour.
• People make attributions in order to
understand their experiences.
• Attributions strongly influence the way people
interact with others.
• Researchers classify attributions along two
dimensions:
– internal vs. external and
– stable vs. unstable
 Attribution Bias: External vs. Internal

• Example: Maria’s car breaks down on the

freeway.
– If she believes the breakdown happened because
of her ignorance about cars, she is making an
internal attribution.
– If she believes that the breakdown happened
because her car is old, she is making an external
attribution.
 Attribution Bias: Stable vs. unstable
• When people make a stable attribution, they infer that
an event or behavior is due to stable, unchanging
factors.
• When making an unstable attribution, they infer that an
event or behavior is due to unstable, temporary factors.
– Example: Lee gets a D on his sociology term paper. If he
attributes the grade to the fact that he always has bad luck,
he is making a stable attribution.
– If he attributes the grade to the fact that he didn’t have much
time to study that week, he is making an unstable
attribution.
 Attribution Bias
• When people make an attribution, they are
guessing about the causes of events or
behaviors.
• These guesses are often wrong. People have
systematic biases, which lead them to make
incorrect attributions.
• These biases include
– the fundamental attribution error,
– the self-serving bias
 Attribution bias

The fundamental attribution error

• Tendency to attribute other people’s behavior to
internal factors such as personality traits, abilities, and
feelings.
• The fundamental attribution error is also called the
correspondence bias, because it is assumed that other
people’s behavior corresponds to their personal
attributes.
• When explaining their own behavior, on the other
hand, people tend to attribute it to situational factors.
 The fundamental attribution error

Example: Alexis falls asleep in class. Sean

attributes her behavior to laziness. When he fell
asleep in class last week, however, he attributed
his own behavior to the all-nighter he pulled
finishing a term paper.
 Attribution bias

The self-serving bias

• Tendency to attribute successes to internal
factors and failures to situational factors.
• This bias tends to increase as time passes
after an event.
• Therefore, the further in the past an event
is, the more likely people are to
congratulate themselves for successes and
to blame the situation for failures.
 The self-serving bias

• Example: Chad wins a poetry competition but

fails to get the poem published in a magazine
he sent it to. He attributes his success in the
competition to his talent. He attributes his
failure to get it published to bad luck.
The prevalence and cause of occupational stress among
staff nurses in Kuala Lumpur Hospital, 1994 by Rokiah
Muhamad and K.G Rampal

• Prevalence of stress was 49.5 %.

• The nurse who work at intensive care unit has
highest prevalence of stress ( 53.1%) compare
to other nurses.
• The main significant factors associated with
stress were conflict with doctor, heavy work
load, lack of support and conflict with co-
workers.
Study of the prevalence and cause of occupational stress among the
Medical Doctors at Hospital kuala Lumpur ,1996 by Rohani Ismail
and Noor Hassim Ismail

• Overall prevalence of stress for Medical doctors

was 40.4 %.
• The prevalence was highest among the
houseman (65.2 %) >medical officer (41.9%)
>specialist 30.7%.
• Female doctor ( 45.1%) more stressful compare
to male doctor ( 34.4%).
Prevalence of stress among Health Care personals A District
health office ,Selangor. 1996 by Noor Hassim Ismail

• Overall prevalence was 37.0% .

• The doctors and Medical Assistant has highest
prevalence ( 50%) >nurse 44.1%
• The work factors cause the stress were
uncooperative co-worker,
instrument not functioning and no doctors during
emergency.
 Prevalence of stress among Assistance
Pharmacist in Terengganu in 2003 by Harun
and Noor Hassim Ismail

• Prevalence of stress was 40.0% among

Assistant Pharmacist working in the Hospital
and 37.1% among Assistant Pharmacist working
in Health.
• The factors contribute to the stress were less
involvement in decision making and not enough
staff.
The stress level among the teacher in secondary school
in Selangor , 2002 Hanizah & Noor Hassim

• Prevalence of stress among teachers:

Teaching using IT in SMART school= 56.7%
• Teaching did not use IT in SMART school= 40.6%
• Teacher from ordinary school = 55.7%
• Perception of the workload and family stress is the
contributing factor for the stress
 Negative effect of stress

The worker will mentally, physically and social unhealthy.

If the workers unhealthy they cannot perform their task

properly and these situation will lead loss to the company
and the country

Direct and indirect cost loss due to stress was very high.
 Negative effect of stress
We have to initiate preventive activity at
workplace to reduce the incidence of stress at
workplace

Mental health promotion activities should be

conducted regularly at workplace.

Management must make the environment of the

workplace physically and mentally fit to the
workers.
 STRESS MANAGEMENT
(Organization strategies)
• Assessing job satisfaction
– Interview
– Observation
– Questionnaires
– Existing documents
• Job enrichment program
– Direct feedback
– New learning
– Personal accountability
– Schedule their own work
 Organization

• Improving the quality of work

– The work environment
– Task perform
– Reward structure
 Managerial approaches
• Reactive support
– Listening
– Referral
– Confrontation
– Control rewards
 Managerial approaches (cont.)
Organization
development
program

Increase level Open and Increase Positive

support and Increase open genuine in personal reinforcement
trust among confrontation interpersonal enthusiasm and
individual communication self control

Money

Positive work
environment

Promotion
Individual strategies managing stress.

Self
monitoring

Alter irrational beliefs

Coping
strategies Manage self talk Take it less seriously
Take the treat into opportunity
be okay no matter what

Be assertive/self confidence

Manage actions
 Individual strategies managing stress.
• Breathing methods
• Muscle relaxation
• Mental method
Control physical
stress responses • Use effective listening

• Exercise
• Nutrition
Maintain health • Sleep
buffers
Individual strategies managing stress.

• Social support
• Money
Utilize available • Belief and Faith
coping resources

• Alcohol &drug abuse

• Smoking
• Overeating
Avoid maladaptive
reaction to stress • Blaming others
 REFERENCE
• David L. Goetsch, (2002). Occupational Safety and
Health for Technologists, Engineers and Managers.
Prentice Hall.2.
• Occupational Safety and Health Act 1994. (2007).
MDC Publishers Sdn. Bhd.
• Occupational Health Unit, Ministry of Health Malaysia.
(2001). Occupational Health A Manual for Primary
Health Care Workers.
• Ismail Bahari, Ph. D. (2002). Pengaturan Sendiri Di
Dalam Pengurusan Keselamatan dan Kesihatan
Pekerjaan. McGraw-Hill Education.