Occupational Health Psychology

1. Occupational Health Psychology Prepared for SHP 1313 and UHS 2062 students at UTM Malaysia By SitiRokiahSiwok srsiwok@gmail.com

2. Does work contribute to the health and emotional well-being of employees?

3. Of course… • The work environment contributes to the physical health and emotional well-being of employees in many ways; immediate/direct or over a long

4. Occupational Health Psychology : Background and Overview • Occupational health psychology (OHP) is concerned with the psychosocial characteristics of workplaces that contribute to the development of health-related problems at the workplace.

5. Occupational Health Psychology : Background and Overview • OHP also finds ways to effect workplace changes that can benefit workers’ health without adversely affecting productivity.

6. Occupational Health Psychology : Background and Overview • OHP researchers and practitioners are concerned with a variety of psychosocial work characteristics that may be related to physical and mental health problems.

7. Concerns of OHP researchers and practitioners • The physical health problems range from accidental injury to cardiovascular disease. • The mental health problems include psychological distress, burnout, and depression.

8. Concerns of OHP researchers and practitioners • OHP researchers and practitioners are also concerned with the relation of psychosocial working conditions to health behaviors (e.g., smoking and alcohol consumption) and workplace morale (e.g., job satisfaction)

9. Concerns of OHP researchers and practitioners • Examples of psychosocial workplace characteristics that OHP researchers have linked to health outcomes include: • psychological workload • the balance between a worker's efforts and the rewards (e.g., pay, recognition, status, prospects for a promotion, etc.) received for his/her work • The supportiveness between supervisors and co-workers.

10. Also, • With its roots in occupational health, OHP is also concerned with factors that affect workplace safety and accident risk. • OHP document the adverse impact of deteriorating economic conditions, and identify ways to mitigate that impact.

11. OHP: Journals • Two important OHP journals are the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology(JOHP) and Work & Stress(W & S).

12. Physical conditions affecting health and safety • Physical work conditions have direct physical effects on workers either immediate or over long periods of time. • When it takes over a long period of time, difficult to determine the cause. • Illness and injury also bring psychological consequences.

13. Frequent sources of illness and injury in some common occupations (Spector, 2008)

14. Infectious disease Employees dealing with the public. Minor and major infectious disease For major disease such as AIDS, in the USA the disease centres for Disease and Control and Prevention recommends all health workers comply with the universal precautions.

15. Infectious disease: Universal precautions • Disposing sharp objects in a special container. • Wearing disposable gloves when handling blood or body fluids. • Immediate cleaning all bodily fluid spills with disinfectant. • Recapping needles which have been used.

16. Loud Noise: Hearing loss and… • Especially in jobs that involves heavy equipment or machinery. • Extreme exposure to loud noise, greater than 85 decibels can severely damage a person’s hearing; sometimes permanently. • Loud music also can damage hearing. • Common for employees working in noisy work environment suffer from hearing loss.

17. Loud Noise: Hearing loss and… • Also a link between noise exposure and cardiovascular disease ( Cohen and Weinstein, 1981, in Spector 2008) and blood pressure for employees with complex job( although studies not conclusive)

18. Noise

19. Effects of Noise on Health • Hearing loss • Increased blood pressure • More frequent illness

20. Effects of Noise on Performance • Affects quality more than quantity • Decreased performance on cognitive tasks • Decreased job satisfaction

21. Effects of Noise on Behavior • Narrowed focus • Lower altruism • Decreased eye contact • Increased rate of walking

22. Noise at Different Levels

23. Common sounds and their decibels

25. OSHA Noise Limits Hours of ExposureMaximum Decibels 8 90 (city traffic) 6 92 4 95 (food blender) 2 100 1 105 1/2 110 (lawn mower) 1/4 115 (riveting machine) 120 (disco) 130 (jet takeoff)

26. Reducing Noise • Legal limits to noise exposure • Change the environment (e.g., carpet, acoustic tiles) • Reduce noise reaching employee (e.g., ear plugs) • Reduce noise emitted

27. Workplace Violence

28. Workplace Violence • Statistics • Homicide reason for 11.1% of workplace fatalities • 1% of employees annually victims of workplace violence • Types of Workplace Violence • Homicides during commission of a crime (71%) • Homicide of a law enforcement officer (14%) • Acts of vengeance against employee (15%) • Committed by current employee (44%) • Former employees (23%) • Domestic violence (21%) • Other (12%)

29. Workplace Violence Perpetrators • Male (80%) • 20 - 50 years of age (usually in his 40s) • Self-esteem tied to job • Feels there is no other way of resolving his mistreatment other than violence • Demonstrated a recent pattern of problems at work • Has recently tried to get others to take his dilemma seriously by threatening, yelling, etc. • Has begun showing signs of paranoid thinking • Has become isolated and withdrawn • Has ready access to guns

30. Occupations associated with four types of Workplace Violence

31. Physical assaults • Fatal physical assaults are rare ( USA) • Nonfatal physical assaults are common • Health care workers: greatest risk although little or no injury. • Assaults can also by animals. • Meter readers, installers, door-to-door salesmen • Veterinarians, zoo keepers, farm workers etc

32. Reducing Workplace Violence • Security measures • Better employee screening methods • Increased management awareness

33. Repetitive actions

34. Repetitive Actions • Consequence : repetitive strain injuries which causes inflammation or permanent damage. • The most well known injury is the carpal tunnel syndrome, which causes pain, numbness and weakness in the fingers and hands brought on by repeated use of fingers and wrists.

35. Temperature • Body reduces heat by • radiation • evaporation • Body increases heat by • constricting blood vessels • Effective temperature • air temperature • humidity • airflow • temperature of objects in the environment

36. Effects of Temperature • Depend on • temperature • task type • workload • amount of exposure • rest periods

37. Temperature Extremes • People at risks are those who work outdoors in very hot or very cold weather ;threat to health, can cause death. • Ambient or surrounding air temperature has a great role in maintaining core temperature • Intense heat will lead to exhaustion, heat stroke and heat stress.

38. Temperature Extremes: Precautions • In extreme cold weather, wear sufficiently warm clothing. • In extreme conditions, brief exposure only. • Drink lots of water in hot conditions to prevent dehydration • Allow employees to take breaks as needed.

39. Exposure to toxic substances and allergens • Many jobs are exposed to toxic substances and in unexpected places. • Example: cancer. • Difficult to detect as the toxicity takes time to develop and not everybody exposed develop symptoms. • Reactions to exposure vary from minor symptoms such as headache and nausea to serious organs damage.

40. Concerns and actions • Organizations that expose their employees to toxic substances run the risk of lawsuits brought by ill or disable employees. In the United States, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is charged with seeing that workplace safeguards are used to protect workers.

41. Exposure to toxic substances and allergens • When most of the employees in an office become ill, it leads to sick building phenomenon/syndrome, caused by toxic substances or microorganisms. • Allergies are also common, due to dust, mold and pollen, causing reactions such as nasal congestions, coughing, watery eyes, skin rash. • Can be fatal to employees with asthma and respiratory problems.

42. Work Schedules • Three types are of interest to IO psychologist: • Night ( and rotation) shifts • Long work shifts • Flexitime

43. Work Schedules • Night shifts • Health consequences • Upsets circadian rhythm of the body • Sleep problems • Stomach distress • Long breaks of several days helpful, Barton 1995 • Permanent night shift—let people choose it • Long shifts • More than 8 hours • Can cause fatigue and health problems • Allows more days off

44. Physiological Effects of Night Shifts

45. Work Shifts 2 • Long work weeks • 48 hours per week magic number • Leads to heart disease if nonvoluntary • (Sparks & Cooper, 1997) • European Council rule on hours • 11 hours off every 24 • 48 total per week • Flexible schedules • Employees choose some or all of own hours • Reduces absence • Sometimes increased productivity • Small increase in job satisfaction

46. Occupational Stress

47. Occupational Stress • Job stressor: Condition at work requiring adaptive response • Objective • Perceived • Job strain: Negative response to stressor • Psychological: Anger • Physical: Increased blood pressure • Behavioral: Absence

48. Models of Job Stress Process

49. Job Stressors • Role ambiguity: Uncertainty about what you should do • Role conflict: Incompatible demands • Workload: Too much to do or too difficult • Social Stressors: Stressors arising from interpersonal contact • Interpersonal conflict • Mistreatment • Organizational politics: Self-serving behaviors and favoritism

50. Control • Extent to which employees make decisions about work • Autonomy: Control over how, when, where work is done • Relates to many strains • Job satisfaction • Organizational commitment • Health symptoms • Negative emotions • Absence • Machine pacing: Machine determines how fast one works • Leads to strains • Anxiety • Health Symptoms