Assessing psychological work demands with an ICF-oriented concept of psychological capacities

Abstract

Exploring psychological work demands is the basis for preventive or rehabilitative action, e. g. mental hazard analysis or work adjustment. Can descriptions from employees be useful to describe work demands? The latter requires that the work description is not confounded with an affective judgment on the workplace, e. g. work-anxiety. Based on an ICF-based work capacity concept which is standard in socio-medical work ability description, we did a study with 124 employees from diverse professions. They were investigated concerning their work demands and their mental health status in a structured interview by a state-licensed socio-medically trained psychotherapist. Additionally, participants filled in a capacity-oriented self-rating questionnaire on their work demands. For discriminant validity purposes, participants filled in the Short Questionnaire for Work Analysis, and a questionnaire on work-anxiety. Results show that different psychological work capacity demands are reported in different professional groups. The work capacity demands self-rating is able to differentiate capacity demands in different professional fields.