This paper describes a questionnaire measure of self-reported failures in perception, memory, and motor function. Responses to all questions tend to be positively correlated, and the whole questionnaire correlates with other recent measures of self-reported deficit in memory, absentmindedness, or slips of action. The questionnaire is however only weakly correlated with indices of social desirability set or of neuroticism. It is significantly correlated with ratings of the respondent by his or her spouse, and accordingly does have some external significance rather than purely private opinion of the self. The score is reasonably stable over long periods, to about the same extent as traditional measures of trait rather than state. Furthermore, it has not thus far been found to change in persons exposed to life-stresses. However, it does frequently correlate with the number of current psychiatric symptoms reported by the same person on the MHQ; and in one study it has been found that CFQ predicts subsequent MHQ in persons who work at a stressful job in the interval. It does not d o so in those who work in a less stressful environment. The most plausible view is that cognitive failure makes a person vulnerable to showing bad effects of stress, rather than itself resulting from stress.During the past few years a considerable amount of interest has developed in the assessment of minor everyday slips or errors. This interest is perhaps due more to the work of Reason (1977Reason ( , 1979 than of any other single individual; starting from the analysis of accident reports, he has progressed to the recording of bizarre episodes of 'absentmindedness' in diaries kept during everyday life, and to general questionnaires of the frequency with which such episodes are reported by individuals. The lapses which have interested him can be typified by the pilot who sets his course by the wrong end of the compass needle, or who closes down the suruiuing engine when one fails; or who forgets to change fuel tanks. A particularly interesting detailed example is given by Ruffell-Smith (1979), of a flight engineer who repeatedly miscalculated the safe load of fuel to retain in a (simulated) aircraft during an emergency landing, and finally concluded that his instruments must be in error. Similar though less dramatic episodes occur to all of us during the average week; as the examples show, they may involve perceptual failures, or failures of memory, or actions which are misdirected. The common element is that there is a departure from the normal smooth flow of function, and events do not proceed in accordance with intention. The situation is rather different from the failures of ability which again we all reach at our limits, and which may arise at quite low levels of difficulty for some individuals. In the lapses we are now discussing, the ability is certainly present and the functions may on other occasions be regarded as laughably simple; but they do sometimes fail.Quite apart from the initiative of Reason, there are practical and theore...

The present study tested the hypothesis that direct coping would moderate relations between work stress and mental health outcome, whereas suppression (a form of emotion-focused coping) would show an overall effect on outcome. Data on coping, perceived work demand and support, and affective symptoms were obtained from trainee teachers (N = 157). The results supported the hypothesis. Gender differences also were observed; men reported more use of suppression than did women. In addition, negative affectivity (NA) was examined as a confounding variable and as an index of reactivity in stress-outcome relations. NA acted to inflate associations between work perceptions and affective symptoms, but it was also a significant moderator variable; high NA subjects showed greater reactivity to work demand than did low NA subjects.

Theoretical models emphasize the importance of person and environmental variables in stress and coping processes. This article examines individual differences (extraversion and neuroticism), environmental factors (social support and work demand), and situational characteristics (type of stressful episode and its perceived importance) as predictors of three self-report measures of coping (general coping, direct coping, and suppression) derived from the Ways of Coping Questionnaire. The data analyzed were collected from 135 first-year female student nurses. Individual differences were assessed prior to exposure to the ward environment, and information about stressful episodes was obtained during the initial period of nursing practice. Multiple regression analyses showed that individual differences and environmental and situational factors were significant predictors of the coping scores and that patterns of main and interactive effects were different for each type of coping. For direct coping and suppression, predicted interactions across person, environmental, and situational variables contributed significantly to the explained variance. Curvilinear interactions between work demand and neuroticism were significant for both direct coping and suppression; interactions of social support and extraversion with perceived importance predicted direct coping; and interactions between neuroticism and extraversion and between work demand and importance predicted suppression. These findings are discussed in relation to current substantive and methodological issues in the study of coping and adaptation.

Evidence suggests that internals and externals differ in the nature and effectiveness of their coping behavior. This study investigated locus of control and coping processes in relation to specific stressful episodes reported by 171 female student nurses. Scores on each of three measures (General Coping, Direct Coping, and Suppression) that were derived from the "Ways of Coping" Questionnaire were analyzed to examine the role of appraisal (in terms of the extent to which the situation was perceived as amenable to control) and the perceived importance of the episode as mediators of the relation between locus of control and coping. The results showed significant interactions between locus of control and appraisal for each of the measures. Further examination of the interactions showed that the patterns of coping reported by internals were potentially more adaptive in relation to types of appraisal than those of externals. The perceived importance of the episode was significantly related, negatively, to suppression, but the interaction with locus of control was not significant.

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Research based on Karasek's (1979) model of work stress has produced conflicting results; although some evidence of the demand X discretion interactions predicted by the model has been reported, most studies have failed to demonstrate interactive effects in relation to mental health outcomes. The present article investigates locus of control (LOC) as a potential moderator of demand/discretion effects. In a sample of civil servants (N = 590), regression analyses demonstrated a three-way LOC X demand X discretion interaction (p less than .01) for affective distress, but not for absence frequency. In longitudinal data from student teachers (N = 147), a similar three-way interaction was observed (p less than .05). In this case, the result applied specifically to anxiety as an outcome, and not to social dysfunction. In each study, the form of the three-way interaction was such that demand and discretion combined interactively to predict outcome for externals (-1SD LOC), in a manner consistent with Karasek's predictions, whereas for internals (+1SD LOC) additive findings were obtained. The implications of these results are discussed with reference to the demand-discretion model, and to the issues of stressor-outcome specificity raised by Broadbent (1985).

This article describes a natural experiment that overcomes a number of methodological problems inherent in previous studies of occupational stress and strengthens evidence for the causal role of the work setting in influencing mental health and well-being. Student nurses (N = 164) were randomly assigned to one of four possible combinations of ward types such that two factors-type of nursing (medical/surgical) and sex of patients (male/female)-were systematically varied with counterbalancing of order effects. Self-reported levels of affective symptoms and perceptions of the work environment, together with independent data on sickness/absence, performance, and the objective work environment, were recorded longitudinally over the two ward periods.Within-subjects analyses showed significant differences between medical and surgical wards in affective symptoms and in perceived and objective measures of the work environment. Male and female wards differed primarily in the perceived environment, work satisfaction, and performance. Correlational analyses were used to examine the relationships between different types of measures. Further analysis of the main effects, with control for covariance, indicated that the perceived work environment contributed to the observed differences in affective distress between medical and surgical wards, while mitigating differences between male and female wards.In spite of extensive research, the causal role of the work environment in influencing mental health and well-being has not yet been adequately demonstrated. The difficulties in resolving this important issue are primarily methodological, and several recent papers have emphasized the limitations of