Abstract
High emotional demands characterize many types of work where people work with people. As part of a major psychiatric work environment study among 4,500 public employees (two years of follow-up), the PhD study examines whether work involving emotional demands can negatively affect our mental health (exhaustion and depression ) and whether other working environment characteristics in that regard may be protective. The role of the stress hormone cortisol in relation to the development of depression has also been studied.
Several scales have been used to measure, respectively, the employee's subjective feeling of general emotional stress (eg: "Are you emotionally affected by your work?"), Two other scales contained specific issues related to emotional characteristics of the work (eg: "Do you take of other people's sorrows and worries? ").
Overall, the studies showed that the effect of emotional demands in the work depends on the personal perception of the general emotional stresses in the work in relation to the development of depression. Specific content-related emotional demands at work had no and little effect on depression and fatigue, respectively. Emotional enrichment and meaningful work reduced the risk of exhaustion as a result of emotional demands, while quantitative requirements in the work increased the risk. Cortisol was not associated with depression in this population and therefore does not appear to be a physiological mechanism behind the development of depression. This dissertation contributes to the current knowledge by showing the need to distinguish between different ways of measuring emotional demands in the work, thereby gaining a greater knowledge of how emotional demands can be prevented.
Several scales have been used to measure, respectively, the employee's subjective feeling of general emotional stress (eg: "Are you emotionally affected by your work?"), Two other scales contained specific issues related to emotional characteristics of the work (eg: "Do you take of other people's sorrows and worries? ").
Overall, the studies showed that the effect of emotional demands in the work depends on the personal perception of the general emotional stresses in the work in relation to the development of depression. Specific content-related emotional demands at work had no and little effect on depression and fatigue, respectively. Emotional enrichment and meaningful work reduced the risk of exhaustion as a result of emotional demands, while quantitative requirements in the work increased the risk. Cortisol was not associated with depression in this population and therefore does not appear to be a physiological mechanism behind the development of depression. This dissertation contributes to the current knowledge by showing the need to distinguish between different ways of measuring emotional demands in the work, thereby gaining a greater knowledge of how emotional demands can be prevented.
Originalsprog | Engelsk |
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Antal sider | 165 |
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ISBN (Trykt) | 978-87-996042-9-6 |
Status | Udgivet - 7 okt. 2016 |