CONCEPT OF STRESS AMONG WORKERS WITH DIFFERENT LEVELS OF OCCUPATIONAL STRESS

Abstract

The empirical research of the connection between the stress level and mental representations of stress (concept) is presented. We suggest that workers with high level of occupational stress have more differentiated representations of stress, and also the representatives of different type of routine work (traditional vs. innovative) differ in the concept «stress» and level of stress. The sample consists of 335 employees: 197 plant workers and 138 call centre’s operators. The organisation of the concept (stressors, state, consequences, process, coping) was diagnosed by a directed associative experiment. The level of occupational stress was determined by the system of Anna Leonova. The results highlight the correlation between level of stress and the representations of stress-management – workers with expressed stress signifi cantly more wrote the coping-strategies. Professional differences in the concept of stress and the level of stress were demonstrated. Operators were characterised by more occupational stress, more differentiated representations of state, consequences and process of stress. The similarity of mental representations about stress-factors and stress-management between two groups of participants was obtained.