Work characteristics, musculoskeletal disorders, and the mediating role of psychological strain: a study of call center employees

The demands of the modern office are thought to contribute to the development of musculoskeletal disorders. For upper body and lower back disorders, these effects are hypothesized to be mediated by psychological strain. A study of 936 employees from 22 call centers supports this hypothesis. Using logistic regression and structural equation modeling, the authors found that the relationship of workload to upper body and lower back musculoskeletal disorders was largely accounted for by job-related strain. This mediating effect was less evident for arm disorders. Contrary to expectation, job autonomy had neither a direct nor a moderating effect on any musculoskeletal disorder.     

成人日常问题解决的老化研究

日常问题解决能力是近十几年来老年心理学中研究比较活跃的一个领域。本文介绍了有关日常问题解决研究的四种理论,即心理测量的智力内隐理论、形式后思维的辨证思维理论、信息加工理论和社会认知与智慧理论,及其初步的研究成果,并进一步指出在理论上整合和在实践中开展干预的研究方向。     

Incongruence between workload and occupational norms for time pressure predicts depressive symptoms

Workplace aggression poses a significant challenge to organizations due to its potential impact on employees' mental and physical well-being. Using two studies, this article investigates whether emotion regulation could alleviate the negative effects of exposure to workplace aggression on employees' experience of strain, among social workers (N = 77) and emergency services personnel (N = 70). As predicted from coping theories of emotion regulation, Studies 1 and 2 showed that using the emotion regulation strategy of reappraisal during interactions with individuals from inside the organization (e.g., coworkers or managers) attenuated the workplace aggression–strain link. Conversely, but consistent with emotional labour theories of emotion regulation, engaging in reappraisal and suppression during interactions with legitimate outsiders (e.g., clients or patients) strengthened the workplace aggression–strain link. The findings have implications for both theory and practical interventions regarding workplace aggression.     

Minimizing strain and maximizing learning: the role of job demands, job control, and proactive personality

Using a sample of 268 production employees, this study extended research on R. Karasek's (1979) demands-control model of stress in 2 ways. First, results show that R. Karasek's proposed interaction between demands and control when predicting strain occurred only for more proactive employees. This 3-way interaction helps reconcile previous inconsistent findings about the interaction between demands and control when predicting strain. Second, the study extends research by investigating the demands-control interaction and the moderating influence of proactive personality in relation to learning-oriented outcomes (perceived mastery, role breadth self-efficacy, and production ownership). There were no 3-way interactions among the variables when predicting these learning-oriented outcomes, but all were important predictors. These results show (a) that demands and control can influence learning as proposed in the dynamic version of the demands-control model and (b) that proactive personality plays an important moderating role.