Biomedical subjects

F H Marcelissen

Publications and source records attributed to F H Marcelissen.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1988

Stress research: its present status and issues for future developments.

In this article the contribution of nine approaches to stress research is discussed. These approaches are: (1) the biological approach; (2) the (classic) psychosomatic approach; (3) the life event approach; (4) interactionistic or transactional approaches; (5) life style and behavior; (6) group differences; (7) sociocultural (macro-)factors; (8) work and organizational psychology; and (9) intervention and prevention. It is concluded that, more and more, exchanges take place between different approaches and that the willingness to collaborate increases. Not only do we observe collaboration between different disciplines, there also are examples of an integration of laboratory research and field research. In addition, interest of animal workers for human research and vice versa seems to increase. Although it is realized that stress research has its own inherent characteristic problems (e.g. ethics), the authors feel that the future still can bring important progress.

Forecasting↗

PubMed1988

Social support and occupational stress: a causal analysis.

This study is aimed at gaining insight into the role of social support provided by coworkers and supervisors in the reduction of job-stress. It is emphasized that, despite the inclusion of social support as an important variable in theoretical models of job stress, research on this issue is plagued by a lack of conceptual clarity, disagreement on definitions, and divergent operationalizations. Furthermore, there is little strong empirical evidence for the role of social support in alleviating job stress. Moreover, because of the use of cross-sectional designs, causal interpretations are often impossible. In this study, an attempt was made to assess the causal direction of the relationships between social support, stressors and strains, by employing a longitudinal panel design and LISREL analysis. Subjects consisted of 2034 employees of 21 Dutch companies from the eastern part of the Netherlands. All filled out a questionnaire on organizational stress and social support, and underwent a medical examination. Parts of the sample participated in two follow-up measurements. The results showed that individuals from the highest occupational levels as well as those from the lowest perceived less social support than other individuals. Furthermore, the respondents consistently reported that coworkers provide more support than supervisors. Only in the group with the lower occupational level did social support have a causal effect upon most stressors, indicating that social support indeed reduces role ambiguity, role overload, role conflict and job future uncertainty. However, there was not much evidence for a causal effect of social support by the coworkers upon the stressors.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Humans↗

PubMed1982

Effects of social support in the stressor-strain relationship: a Dutch sample.

Social support may be defined as the social ties an individual has, and which lead the subject to believe that he is cared for. The present study describes research on the hypothesis that social support protects the person against the noxious effects of job stress and will keep the strain and health effects low. A short review of relevant literature is given and 6 hypotheses about the role of support are tested; 3 about the interactive effects and 3 about the main effects. The study resembles the work of LaRocco, House and French, although there are some differences. Like these authors, a moderated regression technique was used on data from a sample of 1246 employees of 13 different industrial organizations. The analysis shows that social support buffers the impact of work-related stressors on psychological and behavioral strains but that there is no such a buffering effect on health strains. A very striking result was the strong buffering effect against employee's high blood pressure (SBP and DBP), of the supervisor giving support in the case of psychological problems.

Adult↗