This study examined the influence of psychological capital (PsyCap), on the well-being of university undergraduates during an academic semester. PsyCap, a recently developed, higher-order construct, applied to the world of work has been hypothesized to aid employees cope with stressors in the workplace. The current study extends this concept to work in the academic environment. Psychological capital is hypothesized to empower students with the necessary metal strength to cope up with adverse circumstances. Among undergraduate students from a university in the Western US, Psychological Capital (PsyCap) mediated between stress and indices of psychological and physical well-being. In the case of Psychological Symptoms and Health Problems, PsyCap buffered the impact of stress so that the relationship between stress and negative outcomes was reduced. In the case of Satisfaction with Life, PsyCap augmented a positive psychological outcome. We discuss implications for research on resilience to academic stress, the power of the PsyCap construct to effect positive psychological outcomes in a variety of student situations, and implications for educators in developing and promoting positive outcomes based on this valuable personal capital.

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The experiences and effects of harassment were examined in correctional officers (129 male and 60 female) from one state and three county medium-security facilities. Survey results indicate that women reported significantly more harassment (70%) than did men (44%) (p < .001), and women were less likely to depersonalize (p < .05). Separate multiple regressions were performed for each gender on burnout, organizational commitment, and perceived stress. Harassment significantly contributed to each regression for females, whereas harassment was significant only in the male regression for perceived stress. Although men and women did not differ on burnout or organizational commitment, harassment was a pervasive contributor to these measures for women. It appears that in correctional settings, harassment forms a background stressor differentially affecting women.

Optimism, personality, and coping styles may alter the effects of stressful events through appraisal and stress reduction. The 1999 Kosovo crisis offered an opportunity to test this proposition under real-life, traumatic stress conditions. Dispositional optimism, personality, and coping contributions were predicted based on geographical distance and degree of reported stress for 3 groups: Kosovar refugees, Albanian citizens helping the refugees in Albania, and Albanian immigrants living in the United States. Results showed Kosovars significantly higher on all stress measures, and on maladjustment. Reduced optimism and reduced control coping were related to higher levels of maladjustment. Pessimism and escape coping showed no relation to psychological adjustment. Resilience was related to a combination of higher optimism, extraversion, openness to experience, conscientiousness, and control coping, paired with lower neuroticism. KOSOVO CRISIS 1605crisis, as cruel and tragic as it was, set the stage for the current study of stress, appraisal, and coping. Human resiliency was put to a terrible test.In an attempt to discover how various groups dealt with the stressors of this crisis, the current study will briefly review important components of what Lazarus (1 999) has called background conditions of individual personality, dispositions, and coping. Then, three groups who experienced qualitatively different configurations of stressors will be compared to determine how they dealt with their stressful conditions and what psychological adjustment outcomes resulted. Finally, high and low functioning participants will be compared in an effort to discover possible keys to resilient responses in the face of traumatic stress.According to Lazarus and Folkman (1 984), optimism, personality factors, and coping styles might alter the effects of stressful events through appraisal and stress reduction. Lazarus (1 999) emphasized the person-environment relationship, in which individuals construct meanings concerning specific stressful events based on the combination of the objective stressors themselves and the individuals' subjective interpretations (Figure 1). Contributors to the appraisal component in this process are the personal characteristics of the individual including, but not limited to, personality variables, optimism, and coping styles. According to Lazarus, the relational meaning between the individual and the stressors, rather than the stressors alone, produces the outcomes of emotion and personal well-being or maladjustment. The current study tests the model by focusing on real-life situations that could shed light on how dispositional optimism, personality, and coping might alter perceived stress for individuals under traumatic stress conditions. Prior to examining the methods and results generated by this study, a brief elaboration of key theoretical terms and research findings will set the stage. This review will follow components of the cognitive mediational theory of stress and coping (Lazarus, 1999).

A s the number of studies of burnout and its potential contributors increases, the need to establish the relative importance of these contributing factors becomes more apparent. Our first goal in this study was to examine the relationship between burnout and environmental factors within a design that permits a comparison of the relative importance of several environmental factors. A second goal was to examine the role of moderator variables in the burnout-environment correlations. Moderator variables are those that influence the relationship between two other variables. For example, if there were a significant correlation between years of employment and salary for male employees but not for female employees, then sex would be a moderator variable for the relationship between years of employment and salary.