Beacons of Excellence in Stress Prevention

NoThis report describes the work of Robertson Cooper Ltd and UMIST to identify good practice in stress prevention and then identify organisations within the UK that could be called beacons of excellence in comparison to this model. Part one of this report summarises and draws conclusions from all of the substantive academic studies on stress prevention over the last decade and uses this information, as well as advice gained from a panel of international experts, to develop a comprehensive stress prevention model. Part two of the report uses this model to describe examples of stress prevention practices that Robertson Cooper Ltd has identified within a wide range of UK organisations. Case studies are presented for each aspect of the good practice model. Examples of real documentation and organisational practice are presented.Health and Safety Executive (HSE

Developing an Intervention Toolbox for the Common Health Problems in the Workplace

Development of the Health ↔ Work Toolbox is described. The toolbox aims to reduce the workplace impact of common health problems (musculoskeletal, mental health, and stress complaints) by focusing on tackling work-relevant symptoms. Based on biopsychosocial principles this toolbox supplements current approaches by occupying the zone between primary prevention and healthcare. It provides a set of evidence-informed principles and processes (knowledge + tools) for tackling work-relevant common health problems. The toolbox comprises a proactive element aimed at empowering line managers to create good jobs, and a ‘just in time’ responsive element for supporting individuals struggling with a work-relevant health problem. The key intention is helping people with common health problems to maintain work participation. The extensive conceptual and practical development process, including a comprehensive evidence review, produced a functional prototype toolbox that is evidence based and flexible in its use. End-user feedback was mostly positive. Moving the prototype to a fully-fledged internet resource requires specialist design expertise. The Health ↔ Work Toolbox appears to have potential to contribute to the goal of augmenting existing primary prevention strategies and healthcare delivery by providing a more comprehensive workplace approach to constraining sickness absence

Aerospace medicine and biology: A continuing bibliography with indexes (supplement 359)

This bibliography lists 164 reports, articles and other documents introduced into the NASA Scientific and Technical Information System during Jan. 1992. Subject coverage includes: aerospace medicine and physiology, life support systems and man/system technology, protective clothing, exobiology and extraterrestrial life, planetary biology, and flight crew behavior and performance

Autonomous and controlled motivational regulations for multiple health related behaviors: between- and within-participants analyses

Self-determination theory has been applied to the prediction of a number of health-related behaviors with self-determined or autonomous forms of motivation generally more effective in predicting health behavior than non-self-determined or controlled forms. Research has been confined to examining the motivational predictors in single health behaviors rather than comparing effects across multiple behaviors. The present study addressed this gap in the literature by testing the relative contribution of autonomous and controlling motivation to the prediction of a large number of health-related behaviors, and examining individual differences in self-determined motivation as a moderator of the effects of autonomous and controlling motivation on health behavior. Participants were undergraduate students (N = 140) who completed measures of autonomous and controlled motivational regulations and behavioral intention for 20 health-related behaviors at an initial occasion with follow-up behavioral measures taken four weeks later. Path analysis was used to test a process model for each behavior in which motivational regulations predicted behavior mediated by intentions. Some minor idiosyncratic findings aside, between-participants analyses revealed significant effects for autonomous motivational regulations on intentions and behavior across the 20 behaviors. Effects for controlled motivation on intentions and behavior were relatively modest by comparison. Intentions mediated the effect of autonomous motivation on behavior. Within-participants analyses were used to segregate the sample into individuals who based their intentions on autonomous motivation (autonomy-oriented) and controlled motivation (control-oriented). Replicating the between-participants path analyses for the process model in the autonomy- and control-oriented samples did not alter the relative effects of the motivational orientations on intention and behavior. Results provide evidence for consistent effects of autonomous motivation on intentions and behavior across multiple health-related behaviors with little evidence of moderation by individual differences. Findings have implications for the generalizability of proposed effects in self-determination theory and intentions as a mediator of distal motivational factors on health-related behavior

Psychology in Education and Health- Proceedings of the II Leipzig-Évora Scientific Meeting in Psychology

This ebook contains several papers on the application applied psychology in education, health and well-being, personality,family interactions and emotional and epistemological development.The aim of this volume is to inform the scientific community on the research on Psychology mainly made at Évora and Leipzig Universities, but also in other contexts like Mexico or Brazil.FC

Development of a comprehensive approach to physical and psychosocial safety: The physical and psychosocial workplace safety model

Since the 1860s, workplace accidents have consistently been identified and documented. There are numerous theories, approaches, and methodologies to improving workplace safety. Although there has been consistent growth and improvement in the field, there are still numerous accidents, injuries, fatalities, and near misses every year across numerous industries. Researchers have focused on developing approaches and models to explain, and potentially prevent, negative safety outcomes. Each of these approaches has limitations. One limitation is the distinct separation of physical and psychosocial safety in the literature. Several studies and researchers have tried to merge the research paths, although this has been met with varying evidence of efficacy. Each of the papers presented in this thesis move towards the development of a model that encompasses both physical and psychosocial safety climate to create a comprehensive approach to workplace safety. Each paper builds upon the previous chapter to explain the theoretical foundation, the measurement model, and the structural model of physical and psychosocial safety. In sum, the studies are designed to develop a clear, and more comprehensive, approach to workplace safety. The first paper is a literature review detailing the current research on physical and psychosocial safety climate. The intent of this review was to outline the history and evolution of research on both aspects of safety climate separately and the movement made to address them jointly. The review focused on why the integration is needed both for academics and practitioners. The second paper introduces the new Physical and Psychosocial Workplace Safety (PPWS) model. This provided the theoretical foundation to address the separation between physical and psychosocial safety climate. The PPWS model is an extension of leading theoretical models such as the model of safety performance (Neal & Griffin, 1997) and job-demands resources (JD-R) model of workplace safety (Nahrgang et al., 2011). This paper specifically provided clear definitions and distinctions between variable conceptualization, expanding the leading theoretical models, integrating physical and psychosocial safety, providing a generalizable approach across industries, and considering self-regulatory processes as mediators of safety behaviors. Self-regulatory processes were introduced as safety factors and help understand employee behavior. Safety behaviors were the dependent variable of interest for this model. Specifically, physical and psychosocial safety participation and safety compliance. Therefore, self-regulatory processes were introduced as mediators to explain the relationships between job demands and resources with safety behaviors. This paper laid the foundation to test the measurement model and provide preliminary validation evidence to support researchers in the safety space and help industries understand antecedents of safety behaviors. The third paper describes the assessment of the factor structure of job demands, job resources, safety factors, and safety behaviors through a series of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. Participants (n = 941) were sampled from high-risk physical or psychological occupations, such as fire fighter, police, and healthcare, to participate in a survey. The exploratory factor analyses identified the factor structure of each construct and subsequent the confirmatory factor analyses refined each. This laid the foundation to test the structural model in the fourth paper. The fourth paper focused on validating the PPWS model with a repeated measures design. The final structure identified from the third paper was tested with structural equation modeling. For Study 1 (n = 941), there were 19 models before finding adequate model fit, x2 (60, n = 941) = 526.53, p < .001, SRMR = .07, TLI = .80, CFI = .89, RMSEA = .09 [.08, .10]. The odel served as the baseline model for Study 2. Study 2 (n = 456) tested five models before confirming adequate model fit, x2 (85, n = 456) = 162.36, p < .001, SRMR = .08, TLI = .79, CFI = .85, RMSEA = .10 [.09, .11]. RMSEA = .09 [.08, .10]. Model adjustments were made through modification indices, as aligned to theory. Both studies failed to reach good model fit. The individual factor loading patterns found more support in Study 2 than Study 1. In conclusion, there was some support for the model, but major reconsiderations are required for future research and applied utility. The fifth paper discussed the implications of the previous chapters and suggested paths for future research to further develop the area of psychosocial and physical safety factor modeling. The chapter detailed the research, finding, limitations, and future directions for the PPWS model for the research and applied space. For research, additional sample sizes and populations are recommended. This research attempted to focus on a generalizable model and the variability in industry and occupation reduced the ability to derive specific insights. Taking a more targeted approach would support specific industries while providing practitioners clearer guidance. There are alternative measures of safety control, safety motivation, and employee engagement available in the research literature. This might lead to a more robust measure and ensure the correct construct is being assessed (e.g., employee engagement versus organizational commitment). Additionally, the PPWS model focused on a parsimonious approach. The PPWS model was streamlined throughout the validation process but still fell short of good model fit. Therefore, the model needs to be refined to support parsimony and achieve good fit. Additional next steps and considerations were suggested to continue the integration of physical and psychosocial safety climate research paths. This thesis was designed to create a model, generalizable across industries, that integrated physical and psychosocial safety elements to understand safety behaviors. While the PPWS model fell short of global good model fit, individual components for the model found support. Additional studies and research are needed to deepen the understanding of the relationships between self-regulatory processes and safety behaviors and address the limitations found in this research. The theoretical foundation and organizational need exists for a comprehensive approach to workplace safety. The PPWS model is a foundation to fill that need and future research will refine and establish clear paths and support to improving safety behavior

COVID-19 Outbreak and Beyond

The COVID-19 pandemic drastically changed our lifestyle when, on 30 January 2020, the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus disease outbreak a public health emergency of international concern. Since then, many governments have introduced unprecedented containment measures, hoping to slow the spread of the virus. International research suggests that both the pandemic and the related protective measures, such as lockdown, curfews, and social distancing, are having a profound impact on the mental health of the population. Among the most commonly observed psychological effects, there are high levels of stress, anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic symptoms, along with boredom and frustration. At the same time, the behavioral response of the population is of paramount importance to successfully contain the outbreak, creating a vicious circle in which the psychological distress impacts the willingness to comply with the protective measures, which, in turn, if prolonged, could exacerbate the population’s distress. This book includes: i) original studies on the worldwide psychological and behavioral impact of COVID-19 on targeted individuals (e.g., parents, social workers, patients affected by physical and mental disorders); ii) studies exploring the effect of COVID-19 using advanced statistical and methodological techniques (e.g., machine learning technologies); iii) research on practical applications that could help identify persons at risk, mitigate the negative effects of this situation, and offer insights to policymakers to manage the pandemic are also highly welcomed

Space flight research relevant to health, physical education, and recreation: With particular reference to Skylab's life science experiments

Data collected in the Skylab program relating to physiological stresses is presented. Included are routine blood measures used in clinical medicine as research type endocrine analyses to investigate the metabolic/endocrine responses to weightlessness. The daily routine of physical exercise, coupled with appropriate dietary intake, sleep, work, and recreation periods were considered essential in maintaining the crew's health and well being

Effect of time span and task load on pilot mental workload

Two sets of simulations designed to examine how a pilot's mental workload is affected by continuous manual-control activity versus discrete mental tasks that included the length of time between receiving an assignment and executing it are described. The first experiment evaluated two types of measures: objective performance indicators and subjective ratings. Subjective ratings for the two missions were different, but the objective performance measures were similar. In the second experiments, workload levels were increased and a second performance measure was taken. Mental workload had no influence on either performance-based workload measure. Subjective ratings discriminated among the scenarios and correlated with performance measures for high-workload flights. The number of mental tasks performed did not influence error rates, although high manual workloads did increase errors

Enhancing the Effectiveness of Social Dialogue Articulation in Europe (EESDA) Project No. VS/2017/0434 Stakeholders’ views on and experiences with the articulation of social dialogue and its effectiveness

This report studies the articulation and effectiveness of social dialogue at the European and national levels. It provides an overview of the existing social dialogue structures describing the main actors involved. The overall approach of the study is actor-centred in the sense that the interactions and perception of actors are in the core of this research. The analysis also takes into account the multilevel governance structure in Europe by considering the interaction and vertical/horizontal articulation of social dialogue between the EU and national levels. The study also benefits from original data collection comprised of several layers including both the EU and national levels and through at least two methods. First, semi-structured interviews were conducted with European social partners as well as with national social stakeholders in a selection of six Member States. Second, an EU-wide online survey collected responses from national social partners in 27 Member States. The remainder of the analysis is complemented with desk research