Giora Keinan

Stress and Burnout Among Prison Personnel: Sources, Outcomes, and Intervention Strategies

This study identifies the typical stressors affecting individuals working in the prison system in Israel and assesses the outcomes resulting from these stressors. A representative sample of Israel Prison Service employees (N = 496) participate in the study. Participants complete questionnaires designed to assess the stressors in their work and their levels of stress and burnout, and 11% of them are interviewed in-depth. Results show that prison employees experience high levels of stress and burnout in their work. In addition, significant differences in stress reactions are found among different sectors (security, administration, and treatment) and among employees differing in rank and seniority. The most stressful factors were working extra shifts without compensation, low salary, and heavy workload. Recommendations are offered focusing on ways to prevent and reduce stress and burnout among prison personnel.

The effect of stress on the suppression of erroneous competing responses

Abstract Evidence exists that the intention to perform certain cognitive tasks activates, unintentionally, competing responses and computations that intrude on the performance of the intended tasks. For the intended task to be performed effectively, such intrusions must be controlled. Two experiments were carried out to test the hypothesis that stress heightens the difficulty of exercising effective control over erroneous competing responses, a possible explanation of decrements in the performance of cognitive tasks under stress. Participants performed four tasks, which contained features that could potentially prime or activate erroneous responses. The results demonstrated that the interference of these features with performance was more pronounced among stressed than among less-stressed participants. The need for a more comprehensive theory of the effects of stress on information processing is discussed.

Moving as a stressful life event for adolescents

In this study, 15 stressful elements and 18 supportive elements relating to moving house were identified based on the reports of 69 male and 71 female adolescents and pre-adolescents. Three primary stress factors and three basic support factors were found. It seems that pre-adolescent girls represent the group most sensitive to the level of stress and to the amount of received support surrounding a move. Adolescents who move from one city to another report greater stress than do those who move house within the same city.

Anger In Or Out, Which Is Healthier? An Attempt To Reconcile Inconsistent Findings

Abstract A survey of the literature concerning the relationship between style of anger expression and health disorders does not lead to a clear-cut conclusion. Some studies suggest that the outward expression of anger (anger-out) contributes to health problems of various types, while others present evidence suggesting that it is the suppression of anger (anger-in) which contributes to health problems. The present study examined three conceivable explanations for the contradictory evidence produced in this research area: (1) different aspects of anger expression are differentially related to the individuals health; (2) the pattern of anger expression is related differentially to health disorders of different types; (3) the degree of matching between the individuals style of anger expression and social desirability accounts for the inconsistency in the empirical findings. A sample of 134 men underwent comprehensive medical examinations and also filled in several anger expression questionnaires. The result...

Humor and coping with stress: A test under real-life conditions

Abstract The relationship between humor and coping with stress was investigated for trainees in a course for combat NCOs in the Israel Defense Forces. Measures of humor through self-report and peer-ratings were administered to 159 soldiers. Coping with stress was assessed through ratings by commanders and peers, and through final course grades. The findings showed that humor as rated by peers (but not by self-report) was positively related to performance under stress. This was especially true for active humor (self-produced as opposed to reactive humor). No differences were found between individuals characterized by self-directed humor and other-directed humor in performance under stress. The implications in terms of humor theories and further research are discussed.

The crossover of perceived health between spouses.

The current study examined the crossover of perceived health between spouses and the mediating roles of self-esteem and undermining in this process. Data were collected from a sample of 2,108 couples from the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring survey. Using structural equation modeling, the authors tested a crossover model that incorporated three mechanisms: bidirectional crossover of perceived health between spouses, common stressors (income), and indirect mediated effects (social undermining). The model showed an acceptable fit to the data and provided support for all three-crossover mechanisms. Furthermore, self-esteem mediated the relationship between economic hardship and perceived health. The authors discuss theoretical aspects of the crossover of perceived health and implications of our findings for the design of preventive interventions to help family members cope more effectively with economic hardship.

Procrastination and emotional upset : a typological model

Abstract The study investigated the personality profiles that emerge from dichotomizing subjects on two axes: (1) high vs low procrastination in handling the routines of daily living; and (2) high vs low manifest emotional upset experienced with reference to those routine tasks on which they, in fact, procrastinate. Anticipatory emotional upset was also investigated. It referred to the upset that would be experienced if subjects were to procrastinate on routine tasks that are, in fact, performed promptly and efficiently. The two kinds of emotional upset were found to be moderately intercorrelated and were weakly, if at all, correlated with procrastination. Profile analysis placed 99 of 164 Israeli engineering students in four groups approximating the four hypothesized procrastination-emotional upset types. Groups high in procrastination tended to be higher than groups low in procrastination on three hypothesized antecedents of procrastination: anxiety, the repressor/sensitizer construct, and pessimism. People who do not procrastinate as a rule, but are high in manifest upset when they do, were found to be lowest on these personality measures. The reverse was found for people high in procrastination. It was concluded that the three personality measures presumed to contribute to procrastination are adversely affected by the high frequency of emotional upset about procrastination experienced by those who procrastinate a great deal in handling life routines.

Group importance as a mediator between personality-environment congruence and satisfaction☆

According to J. L. Holland (1985, Making vocational choices: A theory of vocational personalities and work environments, Engelwood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall), there is a positive relationship between personality-environment congruence and satisfaction. The variable “group importance” was used in the present study as a mediator to explain why in some studies Hollands hypothesis was confirmed while in others no support was found. Group importance was measured by an inventory (reliability: .85) and by raters. Spearman rank order correlations between these measures of importance and congruence-satisfaction correlations were .68 (15 groups, p < .01) and .77 (23 groups, p < .01), respectively. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.

The association between cumulative adversity and mental health: considering dose and primary focus of adversity

PurposeThe study addressed the dose–response model in the association of cumulative adversity with mental health.MethodData of 1,725 participants aged 50+ were drawn from the Israeli component of the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe. Measures included an inventory of potentially traumatic events, distress (lifetime depression, depressive symptoms), and well-being (quality of life, optimism/hope).ResultsThe maximal effect of cumulative trauma emerged in the contrast between 0–2 and 3+ events, where the higher number of events related to higher distress but also to higher well-being. While self-oriented adversity revealed no, or negative, association with well-being, other-oriented adversity revealed a positive association.ConclusionsThe study suggests an experiential dose of cumulative adversity leading to a co-activation of distress and well-being. The source of this co-activation seems to be other-oriented adversity.

Teaming up Type As and Bs: The effects of group composition on performance and satisfaction

Malgre la possibilite d’augmenter la comprehension theorique et pratique, tres peu d’attention a ete portee sur le role du style comportemental de Type A dans la mediation de la performance et de la satisfaction des groupes. Cette etude avait pour but de parer a cette lacune en se penchant sur la performance des groupes et la satisfaction mutuelle de membres de Type A et de Type B dans des groupes homogenes et heterogenes. Dans deux etudes, 180 participants ont ete assignes a des groupes de trois membres regroupant des Type A et B en differentes proportions. Les groupes devaient realises des tâches competitives et non competitives. Les resultats ont demontre que les groupes avec une majorite de membres de Type A etaient pius performants que les groupes avec une majorite de membres de Type B, cette difference etant superieure lorsque la tâche etait de nature competitive. De plus, les resultats ont revele que les membres, autant de Type A que de Type B, etaient generalement plus satisfaits lorsque regroupes avec des membres du meme type qu’eux. Enfin, les implications theoriques et pratiques de ces resultats sont discutees. Despite the potential to gain significant theoretical insights and practical inputs, relatively little attention has been paid to the role of Type A behavior pattern (TABP) in mediating the performance and satisfaction of groups. This study aimed to fill up this lacuna, by focusing on group performance and mutual satisfaction of Type As and Type Bs operating in homogeneous and heterogeneous teams. In two studies, 180 participants were allocated to three-member teams consisting of Type As and Type Bs in different proportions. The teams performed competitive and noncompetitive tasks. Results showed that teams consisting primarily of Type A members were more productive than predominantly Type B teams, and that this difference was enhanced when the teams performed competitive tasks. In addition, results showed that both Type As and Type Bs were generally more satisfied when teamed up with same-type members. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.