Session impact in Stress Management Training

Abstract

The evaluation of stress management training (SMT) programmes suggest that benefits to participants may be due to non-specific factors and not to the technical components of SMT. The current study employed a method of psychotherapy process research to assess the extent to which task, i.e. technique driven, impacts and non-specific impacts are related to outcome. Sixty-two female health service workers participated in six standardized sessions of SMT, each of which contained specific techniques. After training participants reported significantly lower levels of psychological distress but no changes in job or non-job satisfaction. Specific task impacts, such as insight and problem definition, and non-specific impacts, support, relief and involvement were significantly related to non-job satisfaction one month after training. In addition, the slope of interpersonal impacts (support and relief) was associated with less psychological distress at one-and three-month follow-up. Process research methods appear to be a promising way of maximizing the benefits attributed to SMT and developing more effective interventions.

The UK perspective: a review of research on organisational stress management interventions

“…less likely to have any impact on organisational measures such as job satisfaction and productivity (e.g., Cooper & Sadri, 1991;Whatmore, Cartwright, & Cooper, 1999), while organisational and organisational-individual level interventions were more likely to lead to improvements in employee health and organisational performance (e.g., Bond & Bunce, 2001;Cartwright, Cooper, & Whatmore, 2000). The second trend was that individual-level programs were often associated with improvements in mental and emotional wellbeing (e.g., Michie, 1992;Reynolds, Taylor, & Shapiro, 1993) although some authors reported that these benefits were short-lived (e.g., Whatmore, Cartwright, & Cooper, 1999). Finally, other researchers, especially those employing the participatory action research methods (e.g., Bond & Bunce, 2001), felt that the particular level of intervention did not matter.…”

Managerial stress: Is work really the cause?

“…Alternatively, organizational interventions could be locused upon preventing or modifying those situations often regarded as stressful (Reynolds, Taylor, & Shapiro, 1993). This approach would appear to be the most appropriate, particularly as the present study demonstrated consistency in perceptions of the stressfulness of particular events.…”

Conducting Effective Stress Intervention Research: Strategies for Achieving an Elusive Goal

“…Although research suggests these types of interventions can be successful (Berridge, Cooper, and Highley, ; Murphy, ; Reynolds et al, ; Sallis et al, ), the evidence also indicates that this success may be short lived (Ivancevich & Matteson, ). As alluded to earlier, this may be because secondary and tertiary programmes do not attempt to reduce or eliminate the source of the stress itself.…”