The Science:

Broadly, the term ‘psychosocial’ refers to the interrelationships between individuals’ thoughts and behaviours, and their social environment.

Whilst it is important to be aware of individual and non-work psychosocial factors, in the OHS context psychosocial hazards have come to refer only to hazards created by work and the work environment (Way, 2012, p. 2).

Specifically, occupational stress can be defined as: The physiological and psychological responses of workers who perceive that their work demands exceed their resources and/or abilities to cope with the work (Way, 2012, p.2).

In 1956, Seyle proposed his seminal ‘general adaptation syndrome’ theory: a three-stage model of the body’s physiological response to stress encompassing:

1. Alarm – where the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal system is activated and there is preparedness for action (fight or flight)

2. Resistance – where there is an attempt to cope with a prolonged stressor by maintenance of high levels of arousal

3. Exhaustion – where the defence systems of the body become exhausted and health effects occur (e.g. high blood pressure). In this phase, responses to any additional stressors also become exaggerated (Way, 2012, p. 5).

The responses of the body are controlled by two systems - The Reticular Activation System and The Autonomic System (Crawford & Viner, 2015, p. 4).

Risk Potential:

Prolonged exposure can lead to ill health (Way, 2012, p. 5)

Work stressors have been empirically linked with negative health outcomes including anxiety, depression, burnout, cardiovascular disease and associated risk factors (e.g. blood pressure, serum cholesterol and distribution of body fat)  and musculoskeletal disorders (Way, 2012, pp. 7-8).  Exposure to work stressors has also been linked with increases in alcohol consumption and smoking, and difficulty sleeping (Way, 2012, p. 8)

Risk Factors:

• Time Pressure

• Cognitive Demands

• Emotional Demands

• Hours of Work

• Work Roles

• Conflict

• Change

• Violence and Aggression

• Job Control/Autonomy

• Cohort and Supervisor Support

• Organisational Justice (comprising of procedural, distributive, interactional and informational justice)

• Recognition and reward (Way, 2012, pp. 10-14)

Measurement and evaluation:

Various questionnaires are used to measure or evaluate the level of stress or mental anguish workers may be experiencing.

Some established instruments include: 

• Occupational Stress Questionnaire 

• Mental Health Questionnaire 

• Practice Environment Scale-Nursing Work Index (PES-NW)

Psychosocial issues are difficult to measure and to find a definitive cause due to their multifaceted nature and because stress only contributes to life debilitating or threatening illnesses. It is therefore, difficult to establish concise measurements of an indirect agent, such as stress (Crawford & Viner, 2015, p. 8)

Risk assessment - undertake an analysis using the following organisational data:

• absenteeism; 

• turnover and lost-work-time injuries; 

• assessing worker complaints;

• observation of the workplace;

• tasks; 

• context;

• practices; and human interactions

• and the use of worker surveys and/or focus groups (Way, 2012, p. 15)