Effects of Work-Related Positive Affect on Stress Appraisals and Cardiovascular Stress Response

occupational stress;work related affect;work related positive affect;cardiovascular reactivity;heart rate variability reactivity;cognitive stress appraisals;employee attitudes;job satisfaction;cognitive appraisal;heart rate;positive emotions;Psychology;Social Sciences

Elsiss, FarahDearborn ;

University of Michigan

关键词: occupational stress;    work related affect;    work related positive affect;    cardiovascular reactivity;    heart rate variability reactivity;    cognitive stress appraisals;    employee attitudes;    job satisfaction;    cognitive appraisal;    heart rate;    positive emotions;    Psychology;    Social Sciences;   

Others  :  https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/133951/Elsiss%20-%20EFFECTS%20OF%20WORK-RELATED%20POSITIVE%20AFFECT%20ON%20STRESS%20APPRAISALS%20AND%20CARDIOVASCULAR%20STRESS%20RESPONSE.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

瑞士|英语

来源: The Illinois Digital Environment for Access to Learning and Scholarship

【 摘 要 】

Introduction: Work-based affects have been implicated in employees’ health and well-being and have been identified as predictors of occupational stress and coping mechanisms. Occupational stress has been implicated in the genesis of cardiovascular disease, the number one killer in the US and other industrialized countries. Furthermore, arousal levels within affective experiences lead to differential activation of the central nervous system.Given the lack of research on the different levels of arousal of work-related positive affect (PA) within the context of stress and health correlates, the purpose of this study was to examine the associations between work-related high-arousal and low-arousal PA and cognitive appraisals and cardiovascular reactivity to induced psychological stress. It was hypothesized that: 1) Work-related PA (high and low arousal) will differentially but negatively predict threat appraisals during stress tasks, while challenge appraisals will be differentially but positively predicted; 2) Work-related high- arousal PA would be positively correlated with BP and CRV measures at baseline, while work-related low- arousal PA would be negatively correlated; 3) Work-related high-arousal PA will positively predict cardiovascular reactivity variables and work-related low arousal PA will negatively predict cardiovascular reactivity variables. Methods: The sample consisted of 70 (M= 19.74, SD=3.674) university undergraduate students.Baseline cardiovascular measures were collected including blood pressure and heart rate variability measures.Participants completed the Stress Appraisal Measure (SAM) during both segments of the Trier Social Stress Task (TSST).At the completion of the task, all participants completed the Job Related Affective Well Being Scale.Results: No associations were found between work-related PA (high and low arousal) and appraisals of threat and challenge during the speech and mental arithmetic (MA) tasks.No significant correlations were found between work-related PA (high and low arousal) with any of the cardiovascular variables during the baseline period. No significant associations were present between work-related PA and BP and all cardiovascular reactivity variables during the speech task. However, during the MA task, results showedthat work-related low-arousal PA was associated with a decrease in DBP and the interaction term between high and low arousal PA and DBP was significant. The results also indicated that high-arousal PA was associated with a significant decrease in low frequency, whereas low-arousal PA was associated with a significant increase in low frequency. Low-arousal PA was also associated with an increase in LF /HF ratio, whereas high arousal PA was marginally associated with a decrease in LF/HF ratio.Discussion: In general, work-related high-arousal and low-arousal positive affect did not predict cognitive appraisals of stress.Low-arousal PA did predict decrease in DBP in response to stress.These results demonstrate that low-arousal work-related PA is important to investigate in relation to occupational stress and cardiovascular health.Unexpectedly, high-arousal work related PA negatively predicted LF (ms2), a measure often used as an indicator of sympathetic nervous system domination. [Keywords: Occupational stress, work-related positive affect, cardiovascular reactivity, heart rate variability reactivity, cognitive stress appraisals]