Effect of Stress on Job Performance

Effect of Stress on Job Performance STRESS AND JOB PERFORMANCE People react to stress in different ways. Some copy much better than others and suffering fewer of the harmful effects of stress. Just as stress differs as a function of the individual, it also differs as a function of ones type of occupation. Some occupations are, of course, inherently more stressful than others. All of the stress-strain-health relationships have an obvious impact on the organization and industry. Both physical and mental illness renders the employee unlit for work, and combine both to lessen the satisfaction obtained from work and reduce job performance and productivity levels. There are various ways that stress symptoms or outcomes are reflected in the workplace. Evidence from a growing body of research suggests that certain individuals, in a variety of occupations, are increasingly exposed to unacceptable levels of job-related stress (Schultz Schultz, 2002). Occupational stress is any discomfort which is felt and perceived at a personal level and triggered by in stances, events or situations that are too intense and frequent in nature so as to exceed a persons coping capabilities and resources to handle them adequately (Malta, 2004) Occupational stress can be defined as the harmful physical and emotional responses that occur when the requirements of the job do not match the capabilities, resources or need of the worker (Sauter and Murphy. 1999). Performance is defined as the outcomes and accomplishments valued by the organization or system that one works in. Each individual is exposed to a range of stressors both at work and in their personal lives which ultimately affect his or her performance. Pressure at work can be positive leading to increased productivity. However, when this pressure becomes excessive it has a negative impact. The individual perceive themselves as being unable to cope and not to possess the necessary skills to combat their stress. Stress is acknowledged to be one of the main causes of absence from work (Mead, 2000). The occupational stressors can be categorized into four major groups. Firstly, the working conditions, including shift and week-end work, inadequate remuneration, hours of work, discrimination and safety at the work environment. Secondly, relationship at work including quality of relationships with peers, subordinates and supervisors. Thirdly, role conflicts and ambiguity including ill-defined role, functions, expectations, and duties. Fourthly, organization structure and climate which includes communication policy and practice, major changes in the workplace, culture of the organization, and lack of participation in decision-making. Another cause is career development including under utilization of skills or failing to reach full potential. Another contributing factor is the nature of the job which might amount to an immense amount of physical and emotional exhaustion (Parikh Taukari, 2004) The main objective of this study is to identify role of different contributing factors of job stress and to investigate level of stress on those factors in the organization. And also to find that how job performance is affected by job stress. There are different factors of job stress i.e. work overload, work under load, supervision role conflicts, career development, physical environment repetitive work, work family conflict and coworkers. RESEARCH HYPOTHESES There is difference in level of occupational stress among the employees of different departments of the organization. High level of stress adversely affects the performance of the employees. STRESS AT WORLKPLACE (OCCUPATIONAL STRESS) In todays changing and competitive work environment stress level is increasing both in WORKERS as well as MANAGERS .As a result of this work stress, more and more managers are showing signs of chronic fatigue and burnout. Research has concluded that stressed out managers are not good for organization and shareholders also .In most case stress reduced efficiency among individuals as well as reduced productivity also. Stress is the problem in amongst all the countries of the world ,irrespective of whether the economy is strong or weak .To know about the actual work stress we should have to know about the behavior of the individuals ,causes of the stress, its consequences and then how it can be reduce . â€Å"Considered from an individual`s points of view stress is our body`s physical, mental and chemical reaction to circumstance that frighten, confuse, endanger or irritate to any person†. If controlled stress, is a friend that strengthens us for the next encounter .if handled poorly, it becomes an enemy which can cause diseases like high blood pressure, ulcer, asthma, and over reactive thyroid. As per the medical explanation of the term â€Å"Stress is the body`s general response to environment situations.† it can lead to Physiological discomfort. Some kind of emotional unhappiness. Strained relationship with other people. In very simple words stress refers to an individual`s reaction to a disturbing factor in the environment. Different discipline and different professional have viewed it differently. Agarwala at 1979 believed that the confusion in definition is primarily due to the fact that the same term is used variously by scholars of different disciplines .Thus, in physic, stress is a force which acts on a body to produce strain. According to Beehr and Newman â€Å"Job stress is a condition arising from the interaction of the people and their jobs, and characterized by changes within people and force them to deviate from their normal functioning.† Stress can be defined as â€Å"Bodys non specific response to any demand made on it. Stress is not by definition synonymous with nervous system tension or anxiety. On one side Stress provides the means to express talents and energies and pursue happiness, on the other side it can also cause exhaustion and illness, either physical or psychological† One of the common accepted views of stress is provided by Selye through THREE STAGE MODEL OF STRESS. He called it General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS). Selye defines stress as â€Å"an adoptive response to the external situation that results in physical, physiological, and behavioural deviation for organizational participant.† He has suggested a three stage model and states that when an organism is confronted with a threat the general physiological response occurs in the three stages . Selye said that †¦There can be up to three phases that our resistance levels go through when we are exposed to a stressor. The first is the alarm phase. The bodys resistance to physical damage drops for a short-time. This is so our bodies can prepare to cope with the stressor by using up available energy and normally protective stress hormones. Temporarily some of our defenses against physical damage drop so that our blood pressure increases, blood-sugar rises, muscle tension increases, we breathe faster and deeper and we get a surge of adrenaline-like substances to give us extra physical capabilities should we need them. If the stressor no longer exists the body returns to its normal level of resistance. However if the stressor persists, (we cant fight or flee from it or and this goes beyond his original thinking we are unable to apply counteracting psychosocial resources) our level of resistance increases beyond normal, relaxed levels When our bodies start to run in higher gear. High levels of stress hormones continue to help us cope with the stressor. This is appropriately called the resistance phase. If there is no relief the body can continue for days, weeks, even years until either the stressor is suddenly removed or because it is very energy-consuming our body collapses often with more dangerous and extreme physical reactions. They are the same as in the alarm phase only more intense and more relentless. It is here in this third or exhaustion phase that our health suffers or even death can occur. Our level of resistance to physical disorder, disease and psychological pressure is at its lowest. It is characterized by feelings of lethargy an absence of energy and bodily resources to cope. MEASUREMENT OF ROLE STRESS: In the context of India two measures have been developed by Indian researchers and have been extensively used in research in India. They are given below: ORGANIZATIONAL ROLE STRESS: This instrument developed by Pareek (1983) this instrument based on the key concept t understand the integration of the organization .It is through this role that the individual interacts and gets integrated with the system. An n organization can be defined as system of roles, where role has been defined by the expectations various significant persons, including himself / herself, have from that position. The concept of role and the related concepts of ‘role space and ‘role set have a built- in potential for conflict and stress (Pareek 1999). From the point of view of an individual, two role systems are important: Role Space and Role Set. ROLE SPACE:- Each individual occupies and plays several roles simultaneously. A person can be a son a father a member of a club and so on at the same time. All these roles constitute role space time. All these roles constitute role space. In the center of the role space is the self. Role space is the self. Role space thus can be defending as â€Å"the dynamic inter-relationship between the self various roles an individual occupies.† ROLE SET;- The individual`s role in the organization is defined by the expectations of other significant roles and those of the individual himself .thus the role set is â€Å"the pattern of relationship between the role being considered and other roles. The organization role stress scale consists of 50 items measuring ten different types of organizational role stresses. These roles stress are Following: Inter role distance (IRD):-it is expected when there is a conflict between organizational and non organizational roles. Role stagnation (RS):- it is the feeling of being stuck in same role. Role expectation conflict (REC):- Stress is generated by expectation of different significant persons such as superior , subordinate, and peers ,about the same role and the role occupant`s ambivalence as to whom to please. Role Erosion (RE); Here stress is the function of the role occupant`s feeling that some function which should properly belong to her role are transferred to some other role. Role Overload (RO) ; when the role occupant feels that there are too many expectations from her. Role Isolation (RI); Stress refer to the psychological distance between the occupant role and other roles in the same role set. Personal Inadequacy; It arises when the role occupant feels that he does not have the necessary skills and training for effectively performing the function expected from his role. Self Role Distance (SRD):- When the role the person occupies goes against his self concept. Role Ambiguity (RA):- It refers to the lack of clarity about the expectation of the role. Resource Inadequacy (RIN):- Stress is evident when the role occupant feels that he is not provided with the adequate resources for performing the function expected from his role. SOURCES OF STRESS It has been said that stress result form a misfits between environmental demands and personal adequacies to meet these demands .However, management of stress is not possible unless the individual is aware of the specific source of stress. Stress can be emanating from variety of sources. Pestonjee (1983) has identified three important sectors of life in which stress originates .These are (a) Job and organization (b) Social Factors (c) Inter Psychic sector .The first namely , job and organization, refers to totality of the work environment (task ,atmosphere, colleagues , compensations, policies ,etc.)The social factors refer to the social / culture context of life .It may include religion, caste, language, dress and other factors. The intra psychic sector encompasses those things which are intimate and personal like temperament, values, abilities, and health. It is contended that stresses can originate in any of these sectors or in combinations thereof. Factor intrinsic to the Job: These are related to poor working conditions shift work, long hours, poor technology, travel, risk and danger, work over load. Role in the organization: When a persons role in an organization is clearly defined and understood, and when expectation place upon the individual are also clear and non- conflicting, stress can be kept to a minimum. Ivancevich and Matteson (1980) have identified three critical factors- role ambiguity ,role conflict , and degree of responsibility for others are major source of stress. Relation -ship at work: The working relationship which one has with people working in the same organization can also be a major source of stress. Career Development : A host of issue such as job security , fear of job loss, obsolescence or retirement and numerous performance appraisals can create pressure and strain. Organizational structure climate: just being part of an organization can present threats to a persons sense of freedom and autonomy. It seems that the position in the organization has something to do with stress. However the research evidence its inclusive .some studies have found that position in the organization does make a difference in job stress. Nature of Profession: The research evidence suggests that certain kind of occupations cause greater stress. Than others in a study of comparative degree of stress amongst professionals Mishra(2001)collected data from 144 doctors and 82 nurses drawn from various hospitals , their result show that nurses experience greater stress in their job as compared to doctors. Predispositional stress: The degree of stress seems vary with the personality and predispositional factor. Some individuals experience greater stress than others. Doctors with internal locus of control reported higher organizational stress than the internal . (Kumar 1988) The below chart shows one example of the structure of a department in an organization, indicating typical causes of stress that may effect stress at certain levels in the structure, and particular. Causes that are affecting individuals. Stress is contagious; anyone who is not performing well due to increases the amount of pressure on their colleagues, superiors, and subordinates. SYMPTOMS OF STRESS As stated earlier Stress is caused by or reaction to the external events and bring about changes in our response and our general behavior. The presence of Stress can be estimated by the analysis of certain symptoms an individual shows. These symptoms can be divided into three different categories. They are Feelings ,Behavoiur and pshysological . When the individual experience Stress, one or more of the following symptoms can be exhibited: Feelings The individual becomes anxious about the outcomes and is scared. The person feels that he has got something to loose or something wrong will take place. In an anxious state the person does not want to be corrected or interrupted. He looks out for other areas where he can forget about the stress-causing event for a while. The person becomes irritable and moody. During high level of Stress the individual develops a negative frame of mind and suffers from low self-esteem. The person loses faith in his capabilities and is afraid of the failures. The individual does not have a focused approach and is not able to concentrate and is involved in his own plans and thoughts. Physiological and Behavioral Changes Speech problems. Impulsive Behavior Crying for no apparent reason. Laughing in a high pitch and nervous tone of voice. Grinding of teeth Increasing smoking and use of drugs and alcohol. Being accident-prone Perspiration /sweaty hands Increased heart beat Trembling/Sleeping problems Diarrhea / indigestion / vomiting/ nausea Butterflies in stomach Headaches Premenstrual tension Pain in the neck and or lower back Susceptibility to illness Loss of appetite Nervous ticks Dryness of throat and mouth. Tiring easily or over eating CONSEQUENCES OF STRESS The effect of stress is closely linked to individual personality. The same level of stress affects different people in different ways each person has different ways of coping. Recognizing these personality types means that more focused help can be given. Stress shows itself number of ways. For instance, individual who is experiencing high level of stress may develop high blood pressure, ulcers, irritability, difficulty in making routine decisions, loss of appetite, accident proneness, and the like. These can be subsumed under three categories: Individual consequences Organizational consequence Burnout Individual consequences: Individual consequences of stress are those, which affect the individual directly. Due to this the organization may suffer directly or indirectly, but it is the individual who has to pays for it. Individual consequences of stress are broadly divided into behavioral, psychological and medical. v Behavioral consequences of stress are responses that may harm the person under stress or others. Behaviorally related stress symptoms include changes in productivity, turnover, as well as changes in eating habits, increased smoking or consumption of alcohol, paid speech, and sleep disorders. v Psychological consequences of stress replace to an individual mental health and well-being from or felling depressed. Job related stress could cause dissatisfaction, infact it has most psychological effect on the individual and lead to tension, anxiety irritability, and boredom. v Medical consequences of stress affect a persons well being. According to a research conducted, it revealed that stress could create changes in metabolism, increase heart and breathing rates, increases blood pressure bring out headaches and induce heart attacks. Organizational consequences: Organizational consequences of stress have direct affect on the organizations. These include decline in performance, withdrawal and negative changes in attitude.  ¯ Decline in performance can translate into poor quality work or a drop in productivity. Promotions and other organizational benefits get affected due to this.  ¯ Withdrawal behavior also can result from stress. Significant form of withdrawal behavior is absenteeism.  ¯ One main affect of employee stress is directly related to attitudes. Job satisfaction, morale and organizational commitment can all suffer, along with motivation to perform at higher levels. Burnout:- A final consequence of stress has implementation for both people and organizations. Burnout is a general feeling of exhaustion that develops when an individual simultaneously experiences too much pressure and few sources of satisfaction. STRESS AND YOUR PERFORMANCE So far, we have seen that stress is a negative experience. We have seen the short-term burnout. The Positive Effects of Pressure Sometimes, however, the pressures and demands that may cause stress can be positive in their effect. One example of this is where sportsmen and women flood their bodies with fight-or-flight adrenaline to power an explosive performance. Another example is where deadlines are used to motivate people who seem bored or unmotivated. We will discuss this briefly here, but throughout the rest of this site we see stress as a problem that needs to be solved. The Negative effect of pressure In most work situations jobs, our stress responses cause our performance to suffer. A calm, rational, controlled and sensitive approach is usually called for in dealing with most difficult problems at work: Our social inter-relationships are just too complex not to be damaged by an aggressive approach, while a passive and withdrawn response to stress means that we can fail to assert our rights when we should. Before we look further at how to manage stress and our performance, it is important to look at the relationship between pressure and performance in a little more detail, first by looking at the idea of the â€Å"Inverted-U†, and second by looking at Flow. This is the ideal state of concentration and focus that brings excellent performance. Pressure Performance – the Inverted U The relationship between pressure and performance is explained in one of the oldest and most important ideas in stress management, the â€Å"Inverted-U† relationship between pressure and performance. The Inverted-U relationship focuses on peoples performance of a task. The left hand side of the graph is easy to explain for pragmatic reasons. When there is very little pressure on us to carry out an important task, there is little incentive for us to focus energy and attention on it. This is particularly the case when there may be other, more urgent, or more interesting, tasks competing for attention. As pressure on us increases, we enter the â€Å"area of best performance†. Here, we are able to focus on the task and perform well – there is enough pressure on us to focus our attention but not so much that it disrupts our performance. The right hand side of the graph is more complex to explain. Negative Thoughts Crowd Our Minds We are all aware that we have a limited short-term memory: If you try to memorize a long list of items, you will not be able to remember more than six or eight items unless you use formal memory techniques. Similarly, although we have huge processing power in our brains, we cannot be conscious of more than a few thoughts at any one time. In fact, in a very real way, we have a limited â€Å"attention capacity†. As we become uncomfortably stressed, distractions, difficulties, anxieties and negative thinking begin to crowd our minds. This is particularly the case where we look at our definition of stress, i.e. that it occurs when a person perceives that â€Å"demands exceed the personal and social resources the individual is able to mobilize.† These thoughts compete with performance of the task for our attention capacity. Concentration suffers, and focus narrows as our brain becomes overloaded. As shown in the figure, this is something of a slippery slope: the more our brain is overloaded, the more our performance can suffer. The more our performance suffers, the more new distractions, difficulties, anxieties and negative thoughts crowd our minds. Other research has shown that stress reduces peoples ability to deal with large amounts of information. Both decision-making and creativity are impaired because people are unable to take account of all the information available. This inability accounts for the common observation that highly stressed people will persist in a course of action even when better alternatives are available. It also explains why anxious people perform best when they are put under little additional stress, while calm people may need additional pressure to produce a good performance. Notes on the research behind the Inverted-U: While this is an important and useful idea, peoples evaluations of stress and performance are by necessity subjective. This has made it difficult to prove the ‘Inverted-U idea formally. Also, for ease of explanation, we show a smooth curve here. In reality, different people have different shaped and positioned inverted-Us at different times and in different circumstances. This is all part of â€Å"lifes rich tapestry†. Entering a State of Flow When you are operating in your â€Å"area of best performance†, you are normally able to concentrate, and focus all of your attention on the important task at hand. When you do this without distraction, you often enter what Professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi of Chicago University describes as a state of ‘flow. This involves â€Å"being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and youre using your skills to the utmost. You perform at your best in this state because you are able to focus all of your efforts, resources and abilities on the tasks at hand. While you are sufficiently motivated to resist competing temptations, you are not so stressed that anxieties and distractions interfere with clear thought. This is an intensely creative, efficient and satisfying state of mind. It is the state of mind in which, for example, the most persuasive speeches are made, the best software is developed, and the most impressive athletic or artistic performances are delivered. Helping Yourself to Get Into Flow One of the frustrations of management is that managers can feel that they lose the ‘right to these periods of deep concentration when they must be readily available to others, and be able to deal with the constantly changing information, decisions and activities around them. Studies of good managers show that they rarely get more than a few minutes alone without distraction. This alone can be frustrating, and can contribute strongly to managerial stress. In jobs where concentration is a rare commodity, there are various solutions to creating the periods of flow that sustain good performance. Solutions include working from home, or setting aside parts of the day as quiet periods. Another solution might be to delegate the activities that require the greatest levels of concentration, allowing the manager to concentrate on problems as they arise, serving to create a flow of its own. One of the key aims of this site is to help you manage stress so that you can enter this state of flow, and deliver truly excellent performance in your career. MANAGING STRESS IN THE WORK PLACE Every responds to stress in a different way, it is only by understanding the nature of individual responses that you can start fighting stress yourself and others. Reduction or elimination of stress is necessary for psychological and physical well being of an individual. Efficiency in stress management enables the individual to deal or cope with the stressful situations instead of avoidance. Strategies like tie management, body-mind and mind-body relaxation exercise, seeking social support help individual improve their physical and mental resources to deal with stress successfully. Apart from helping employees adopt certain coping strategies to deal with stress providing them with the service of counselor is also useful. Many strategies have been developed to help manage stress in the work place. Some are strategies for individuals, and other is geared toward organizations. Individual coping strategies: Many strategies for helping individuals manage stress have been proposed. Individual coping strategies are used when an employee under stress exhibits undesirable behavior on the jobs such as performance, strained relationship with co-workers, absenteeism alcoholism and the like. Employees under stress require help in overcoming its negative effects. The strategies used are: Exercise: One method by which individual can manage their stress is through exercise. People who exercise regularly are known to less likely to have heart attacks than inactive people are. Research also has suggested that people who exercise regularly feel less tension and stress are more conflict and slow greater optimism. Relaxation: A related method individual can manage stress is relaxation. Copying with stress require adaptation. Proper relaxation is an effective way to adopt. Relaxation can take many forms. One way to relax is to take regular vacations; people can also relax while on the job (i.e. take regular breaks during their normal workday). A popular way of resting is to sit quietly with closed eyes for ten minutes every afternoon. Time management: Time management is an often recommended method for managing stress, the idea is that many daily pressures can be eased or eliminated if a person does a better job of managing time. One popular approach to time management is to make a list, every morning or the thins to be done that day. Then you group the items on the list into three categories: critical activities that must be performed, important activities that should be performed, and optimal or trivial things that can be delegated or postponed, then of more of the important things done every day. ROLE MANAGEMENT: Some what related to time management in which the individual actively works to avoid overload, ambiguity and conflict. SUPPORT GROUPS: This method of managing stress is to develop and maintain support group. A support group is simply a group of family member or friends with whom a person can spend time. Supportive family and friends can help people deal with normal stress on an ongoing basis. Support groups can be particularly useful during times of crisis. BEHAVIORAL SELF-CONTROL: In ultimate analysis, effective management if stress presupposes exercise of self-control on the part of an employee. By consciously analyzing the cause and consequences of their own behavior, the employees can achieve self-control. They can further develop awareness of their own limits of tolerance and learn to anticipate their own responses to various stressful situations. The strategy involves increasing an individuals control over the situations rather than being solely controlled by them. COGNITIVE THERAPY: The cognitive therapy techniques such as Ellis rational emotive model and Meichenbaums cognitive strategy fir modification have been used as an individual strategy for reducing job stress. COUNSELING: Personal counseling help employees understand and appreciate a diverse workforce, the holistic approach adopted by the counselor gives him a comprehensive view of the employee as client and enable him to deal the issues of work related problems in a larger context with his awareness of the inter-relationship among problems in adjustment with self, other and environment and that a work concern will effect personal life and vice-versa, the employee would receive help regarding the problem in all life. One of the advantage of the individual interventions is the individual can use these skills to improve the quality of life in offer domains like family, social support and self, thus reducing the negative carry of experiences in these domains into the work life which might effect his occupation mental health. ORGANIZATIONAL STRATEGIES: The most effective way of managing stress calls for adopting stressors and prevent occurrence of potential stressors. Two basic organizational strategies for helping employees manage stress are institutional programs and collateral programs. Work Design Stress Management programs Work schedules Health promotions programs Culture Other programs Supervision Institutional programs: Institutional programs for managing stress are undertaken to established organizational mechanism Effect of Stress on Job Performance Effect of Stress on Job Performance STRESS AND JOB PERFORMANCE People react to stress in different ways. Some copy much better than others and suffering fewer of the harmful effects of stress. Just as stress differs as a function of the individual, it also differs as a function of ones type of occupation. Some occupations are, of course, inherently more stressful than others. All of the stress-strain-health relationships have an obvious impact on the organization and industry. Both physical and mental illness renders the employee unlit for work, and combine both to lessen the satisfaction obtained from work and reduce job performance and productivity levels. There are various ways that stress symptoms or outcomes are reflected in the workplace. Evidence from a growing body of research suggests that certain individuals, in a variety of occupations, are increasingly exposed to unacceptable levels of job-related stress (Schultz Schultz, 2002). Occupational stress is any discomfort which is felt and perceived at a personal level and triggered by in stances, events or situations that are too intense and frequent in nature so as to exceed a persons coping capabilities and resources to handle them adequately (Malta, 2004) Occupational stress can be defined as the harmful physical and emotional responses that occur when the requirements of the job do not match the capabilities, resources or need of the worker (Sauter and Murphy. 1999). Performance is defined as the outcomes and accomplishments valued by the organization or system that one works in. Each individual is exposed to a range of stressors both at work and in their personal lives which ultimately affect his or her performance. Pressure at work can be positive leading to increased productivity. However, when this pressure becomes excessive it has a negative impact. The individual perceive themselves as being unable to cope and not to possess the necessary skills to combat their stress. Stress is acknowledged to be one of the main causes of absence from work (Mead, 2000). The occupational stressors can be categorized into four major groups. Firstly, the working conditions, including shift and week-end work, inadequate remuneration, hours of work, discrimination and safety at the work environment. Secondly, relationship at work including quality of relationships with peers, subordinates and supervisors. Thirdly, role conflicts and ambiguity including ill-defined role, functions, expectations, and duties. Fourthly, organization structure and climate which includes communication policy and practice, major changes in the workplace, culture of the organization, and lack of participation in decision-making. Another cause is career development including under utilization of skills or failing to reach full potential. Another contributing factor is the nature of the job which might amount to an immense amount of physical and emotional exhaustion (Parikh Taukari, 2004) The main objective of this study is to identify role of different contributing factors of job stress and to investigate level of stress on those factors in the organization. And also to find that how job performance is affected by job stress. There are different factors of job stress i.e. work overload, work under load, supervision role conflicts, career development, physical environment repetitive work, work family conflict and coworkers. RESEARCH HYPOTHESES There is difference in level of occupational stress among the employees of different departments of the organization. High level of stress adversely affects the performance of the employees. STRESS AT WORLKPLACE (OCCUPATIONAL STRESS) In todays changing and competitive work environment stress level is increasing both in WORKERS as well as MANAGERS .As a result of this work stress, more and more managers are showing signs of chronic fatigue and burnout. Research has concluded that stressed out managers are not good for organization and shareholders also .In most case stress reduced efficiency among individuals as well as reduced productivity also. Stress is the problem in amongst all the countries of the world ,irrespective of whether the economy is strong or weak .To know about the actual work stress we should have to know about the behavior of the individuals ,causes of the stress, its consequences and then how it can be reduce . â€Å"Considered from an individual`s points of view stress is our body`s physical, mental and chemical reaction to circumstance that frighten, confuse, endanger or irritate to any person†. If controlled stress, is a friend that strengthens us for the next encounter .if handled poorly, it becomes an enemy which can cause diseases like high blood pressure, ulcer, asthma, and over reactive thyroid. As per the medical explanation of the term â€Å"Stress is the body`s general response to environment situations.† it can lead to Physiological discomfort. Some kind of emotional unhappiness. Strained relationship with other people. In very simple words stress refers to an individual`s reaction to a disturbing factor in the environment. Different discipline and different professional have viewed it differently. Agarwala at 1979 believed that the confusion in definition is primarily due to the fact that the same term is used variously by scholars of different disciplines .Thus, in physic, stress is a force which acts on a body to produce strain. According to Beehr and Newman â€Å"Job stress is a condition arising from the interaction of the people and their jobs, and characterized by changes within people and force them to deviate from their normal functioning.† Stress can be defined as â€Å"Bodys non specific response to any demand made on it. Stress is not by definition synonymous with nervous system tension or anxiety. On one side Stress provides the means to express talents and energies and pursue happiness, on the other side it can also cause exhaustion and illness, either physical or psychological† One of the common accepted views of stress is provided by Selye through THREE STAGE MODEL OF STRESS. He called it General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS). Selye defines stress as â€Å"an adoptive response to the external situation that results in physical, physiological, and behavioural deviation for organizational participant.† He has suggested a three stage model and states that when an organism is confronted with a threat the general physiological response occurs in the three stages . Selye said that †¦There can be up to three phases that our resistance levels go through when we are exposed to a stressor. The first is the alarm phase. The bodys resistance to physical damage drops for a short-time. This is so our bodies can prepare to cope with the stressor by using up available energy and normally protective stress hormones. Temporarily some of our defenses against physical damage drop so that our blood pressure increases, blood-sugar rises, muscle tension increases, we breathe faster and deeper and we get a surge of adrenaline-like substances to give us extra physical capabilities should we need them. If the stressor no longer exists the body returns to its normal level of resistance. However if the stressor persists, (we cant fight or flee from it or and this goes beyond his original thinking we are unable to apply counteracting psychosocial resources) our level of resistance increases beyond normal, relaxed levels When our bodies start to run in higher gear. High levels of stress hormones continue to help us cope with the stressor. This is appropriately called the resistance phase. If there is no relief the body can continue for days, weeks, even years until either the stressor is suddenly removed or because it is very energy-consuming our body collapses often with more dangerous and extreme physical reactions. They are the same as in the alarm phase only more intense and more relentless. It is here in this third or exhaustion phase that our health suffers or even death can occur. Our level of resistance to physical disorder, disease and psychological pressure is at its lowest. It is characterized by feelings of lethargy an absence of energy and bodily resources to cope. MEASUREMENT OF ROLE STRESS: In the context of India two measures have been developed by Indian researchers and have been extensively used in research in India. They are given below: ORGANIZATIONAL ROLE STRESS: This instrument developed by Pareek (1983) this instrument based on the key concept t understand the integration of the organization .It is through this role that the individual interacts and gets integrated with the system. An n organization can be defined as system of roles, where role has been defined by the expectations various significant persons, including himself / herself, have from that position. The concept of role and the related concepts of ‘role space and ‘role set have a built- in potential for conflict and stress (Pareek 1999). From the point of view of an individual, two role systems are important: Role Space and Role Set. ROLE SPACE:- Each individual occupies and plays several roles simultaneously. A person can be a son a father a member of a club and so on at the same time. All these roles constitute role space time. All these roles constitute role space. In the center of the role space is the self. Role space is the self. Role space thus can be defending as â€Å"the dynamic inter-relationship between the self various roles an individual occupies.† ROLE SET;- The individual`s role in the organization is defined by the expectations of other significant roles and those of the individual himself .thus the role set is â€Å"the pattern of relationship between the role being considered and other roles. The organization role stress scale consists of 50 items measuring ten different types of organizational role stresses. These roles stress are Following: Inter role distance (IRD):-it is expected when there is a conflict between organizational and non organizational roles. Role stagnation (RS):- it is the feeling of being stuck in same role. Role expectation conflict (REC):- Stress is generated by expectation of different significant persons such as superior , subordinate, and peers ,about the same role and the role occupant`s ambivalence as to whom to please. Role Erosion (RE); Here stress is the function of the role occupant`s feeling that some function which should properly belong to her role are transferred to some other role. Role Overload (RO) ; when the role occupant feels that there are too many expectations from her. Role Isolation (RI); Stress refer to the psychological distance between the occupant role and other roles in the same role set. Personal Inadequacy; It arises when the role occupant feels that he does not have the necessary skills and training for effectively performing the function expected from his role. Self Role Distance (SRD):- When the role the person occupies goes against his self concept. Role Ambiguity (RA):- It refers to the lack of clarity about the expectation of the role. Resource Inadequacy (RIN):- Stress is evident when the role occupant feels that he is not provided with the adequate resources for performing the function expected from his role. SOURCES OF STRESS It has been said that stress result form a misfits between environmental demands and personal adequacies to meet these demands .However, management of stress is not possible unless the individual is aware of the specific source of stress. Stress can be emanating from variety of sources. Pestonjee (1983) has identified three important sectors of life in which stress originates .These are (a) Job and organization (b) Social Factors (c) Inter Psychic sector .The first namely , job and organization, refers to totality of the work environment (task ,atmosphere, colleagues , compensations, policies ,etc.)The social factors refer to the social / culture context of life .It may include religion, caste, language, dress and other factors. The intra psychic sector encompasses those things which are intimate and personal like temperament, values, abilities, and health. It is contended that stresses can originate in any of these sectors or in combinations thereof. Factor intrinsic to the Job: These are related to poor working conditions shift work, long hours, poor technology, travel, risk and danger, work over load. Role in the organization: When a persons role in an organization is clearly defined and understood, and when expectation place upon the individual are also clear and non- conflicting, stress can be kept to a minimum. Ivancevich and Matteson (1980) have identified three critical factors- role ambiguity ,role conflict , and degree of responsibility for others are major source of stress. Relation -ship at work: The working relationship which one has with people working in the same organization can also be a major source of stress. Career Development : A host of issue such as job security , fear of job loss, obsolescence or retirement and numerous performance appraisals can create pressure and strain. Organizational structure climate: just being part of an organization can present threats to a persons sense of freedom and autonomy. It seems that the position in the organization has something to do with stress. However the research evidence its inclusive .some studies have found that position in the organization does make a difference in job stress. Nature of Profession: The research evidence suggests that certain kind of occupations cause greater stress. Than others in a study of comparative degree of stress amongst professionals Mishra(2001)collected data from 144 doctors and 82 nurses drawn from various hospitals , their result show that nurses experience greater stress in their job as compared to doctors. Predispositional stress: The degree of stress seems vary with the personality and predispositional factor. Some individuals experience greater stress than others. Doctors with internal locus of control reported higher organizational stress than the internal . (Kumar 1988) The below chart shows one example of the structure of a department in an organization, indicating typical causes of stress that may effect stress at certain levels in the structure, and particular. Causes that are affecting individuals. Stress is contagious; anyone who is not performing well due to increases the amount of pressure on their colleagues, superiors, and subordinates. SYMPTOMS OF STRESS As stated earlier Stress is caused by or reaction to the external events and bring about changes in our response and our general behavior. The presence of Stress can be estimated by the analysis of certain symptoms an individual shows. These symptoms can be divided into three different categories. They are Feelings ,Behavoiur and pshysological . When the individual experience Stress, one or more of the following symptoms can be exhibited: Feelings The individual becomes anxious about the outcomes and is scared. The person feels that he has got something to loose or something wrong will take place. In an anxious state the person does not want to be corrected or interrupted. He looks out for other areas where he can forget about the stress-causing event for a while. The person becomes irritable and moody. During high level of Stress the individual develops a negative frame of mind and suffers from low self-esteem. The person loses faith in his capabilities and is afraid of the failures. The individual does not have a focused approach and is not able to concentrate and is involved in his own plans and thoughts. Physiological and Behavioral Changes Speech problems. Impulsive Behavior Crying for no apparent reason. Laughing in a high pitch and nervous tone of voice. Grinding of teeth Increasing smoking and use of drugs and alcohol. Being accident-prone Perspiration /sweaty hands Increased heart beat Trembling/Sleeping problems Diarrhea / indigestion / vomiting/ nausea Butterflies in stomach Headaches Premenstrual tension Pain in the neck and or lower back Susceptibility to illness Loss of appetite Nervous ticks Dryness of throat and mouth. Tiring easily or over eating CONSEQUENCES OF STRESS The effect of stress is closely linked to individual personality. The same level of stress affects different people in different ways each person has different ways of coping. Recognizing these personality types means that more focused help can be given. Stress shows itself number of ways. For instance, individual who is experiencing high level of stress may develop high blood pressure, ulcers, irritability, difficulty in making routine decisions, loss of appetite, accident proneness, and the like. These can be subsumed under three categories: Individual consequences Organizational consequence Burnout Individual consequences: Individual consequences of stress are those, which affect the individual directly. Due to this the organization may suffer directly or indirectly, but it is the individual who has to pays for it. Individual consequences of stress are broadly divided into behavioral, psychological and medical. v Behavioral consequences of stress are responses that may harm the person under stress or others. Behaviorally related stress symptoms include changes in productivity, turnover, as well as changes in eating habits, increased smoking or consumption of alcohol, paid speech, and sleep disorders. v Psychological consequences of stress replace to an individual mental health and well-being from or felling depressed. Job related stress could cause dissatisfaction, infact it has most psychological effect on the individual and lead to tension, anxiety irritability, and boredom. v Medical consequences of stress affect a persons well being. According to a research conducted, it revealed that stress could create changes in metabolism, increase heart and breathing rates, increases blood pressure bring out headaches and induce heart attacks. Organizational consequences: Organizational consequences of stress have direct affect on the organizations. These include decline in performance, withdrawal and negative changes in attitude.  ¯ Decline in performance can translate into poor quality work or a drop in productivity. Promotions and other organizational benefits get affected due to this.  ¯ Withdrawal behavior also can result from stress. Significant form of withdrawal behavior is absenteeism.  ¯ One main affect of employee stress is directly related to attitudes. Job satisfaction, morale and organizational commitment can all suffer, along with motivation to perform at higher levels. Burnout:- A final consequence of stress has implementation for both people and organizations. Burnout is a general feeling of exhaustion that develops when an individual simultaneously experiences too much pressure and few sources of satisfaction. STRESS AND YOUR PERFORMANCE So far, we have seen that stress is a negative experience. We have seen the short-term burnout. The Positive Effects of Pressure Sometimes, however, the pressures and demands that may cause stress can be positive in their effect. One example of this is where sportsmen and women flood their bodies with fight-or-flight adrenaline to power an explosive performance. Another example is where deadlines are used to motivate people who seem bored or unmotivated. We will discuss this briefly here, but throughout the rest of this site we see stress as a problem that needs to be solved. The Negative effect of pressure In most work situations jobs, our stress responses cause our performance to suffer. A calm, rational, controlled and sensitive approach is usually called for in dealing with most difficult problems at work: Our social inter-relationships are just too complex not to be damaged by an aggressive approach, while a passive and withdrawn response to stress means that we can fail to assert our rights when we should. Before we look further at how to manage stress and our performance, it is important to look at the relationship between pressure and performance in a little more detail, first by looking at the idea of the â€Å"Inverted-U†, and second by looking at Flow. This is the ideal state of concentration and focus that brings excellent performance. Pressure Performance – the Inverted U The relationship between pressure and performance is explained in one of the oldest and most important ideas in stress management, the â€Å"Inverted-U† relationship between pressure and performance. The Inverted-U relationship focuses on peoples performance of a task. The left hand side of the graph is easy to explain for pragmatic reasons. When there is very little pressure on us to carry out an important task, there is little incentive for us to focus energy and attention on it. This is particularly the case when there may be other, more urgent, or more interesting, tasks competing for attention. As pressure on us increases, we enter the â€Å"area of best performance†. Here, we are able to focus on the task and perform well – there is enough pressure on us to focus our attention but not so much that it disrupts our performance. The right hand side of the graph is more complex to explain. Negative Thoughts Crowd Our Minds We are all aware that we have a limited short-term memory: If you try to memorize a long list of items, you will not be able to remember more than six or eight items unless you use formal memory techniques. Similarly, although we have huge processing power in our brains, we cannot be conscious of more than a few thoughts at any one time. In fact, in a very real way, we have a limited â€Å"attention capacity†. As we become uncomfortably stressed, distractions, difficulties, anxieties and negative thinking begin to crowd our minds. This is particularly the case where we look at our definition of stress, i.e. that it occurs when a person perceives that â€Å"demands exceed the personal and social resources the individual is able to mobilize.† These thoughts compete with performance of the task for our attention capacity. Concentration suffers, and focus narrows as our brain becomes overloaded. As shown in the figure, this is something of a slippery slope: the more our brain is overloaded, the more our performance can suffer. The more our performance suffers, the more new distractions, difficulties, anxieties and negative thoughts crowd our minds. Other research has shown that stress reduces peoples ability to deal with large amounts of information. Both decision-making and creativity are impaired because people are unable to take account of all the information available. This inability accounts for the common observation that highly stressed people will persist in a course of action even when better alternatives are available. It also explains why anxious people perform best when they are put under little additional stress, while calm people may need additional pressure to produce a good performance. Notes on the research behind the Inverted-U: While this is an important and useful idea, peoples evaluations of stress and performance are by necessity subjective. This has made it difficult to prove the ‘Inverted-U idea formally. Also, for ease of explanation, we show a smooth curve here. In reality, different people have different shaped and positioned inverted-Us at different times and in different circumstances. This is all part of â€Å"lifes rich tapestry†. Entering a State of Flow When you are operating in your â€Å"area of best performance†, you are normally able to concentrate, and focus all of your attention on the important task at hand. When you do this without distraction, you often enter what Professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi of Chicago University describes as a state of ‘flow. This involves â€Å"being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and youre using your skills to the utmost. You perform at your best in this state because you are able to focus all of your efforts, resources and abilities on the tasks at hand. While you are sufficiently motivated to resist competing temptations, you are not so stressed that anxieties and distractions interfere with clear thought. This is an intensely creative, efficient and satisfying state of mind. It is the state of mind in which, for example, the most persuasive speeches are made, the best software is developed, and the most impressive athletic or artistic performances are delivered. Helping Yourself to Get Into Flow One of the frustrations of management is that managers can feel that they lose the ‘right to these periods of deep concentration when they must be readily available to others, and be able to deal with the constantly changing information, decisions and activities around them. Studies of good managers show that they rarely get more than a few minutes alone without distraction. This alone can be frustrating, and can contribute strongly to managerial stress. In jobs where concentration is a rare commodity, there are various solutions to creating the periods of flow that sustain good performance. Solutions include working from home, or setting aside parts of the day as quiet periods. Another solution might be to delegate the activities that require the greatest levels of concentration, allowing the manager to concentrate on problems as they arise, serving to create a flow of its own. One of the key aims of this site is to help you manage stress so that you can enter this state of flow, and deliver truly excellent performance in your career. MANAGING STRESS IN THE WORK PLACE Every responds to stress in a different way, it is only by understanding the nature of individual responses that you can start fighting stress yourself and others. Reduction or elimination of stress is necessary for psychological and physical well being of an individual. Efficiency in stress management enables the individual to deal or cope with the stressful situations instead of avoidance. Strategies like tie management, body-mind and mind-body relaxation exercise, seeking social support help individual improve their physical and mental resources to deal with stress successfully. Apart from helping employees adopt certain coping strategies to deal with stress providing them with the service of counselor is also useful. Many strategies have been developed to help manage stress in the work place. Some are strategies for individuals, and other is geared toward organizations. Individual coping strategies: Many strategies for helping individuals manage stress have been proposed. Individual coping strategies are used when an employee under stress exhibits undesirable behavior on the jobs such as performance, strained relationship with co-workers, absenteeism alcoholism and the like. Employees under stress require help in overcoming its negative effects. The strategies used are: Exercise: One method by which individual can manage their stress is through exercise. People who exercise regularly are known to less likely to have heart attacks than inactive people are. Research also has suggested that people who exercise regularly feel less tension and stress are more conflict and slow greater optimism. Relaxation: A related method individual can manage stress is relaxation. Copying with stress require adaptation. Proper relaxation is an effective way to adopt. Relaxation can take many forms. One way to relax is to take regular vacations; people can also relax while on the job (i.e. take regular breaks during their normal workday). A popular way of resting is to sit quietly with closed eyes for ten minutes every afternoon. Time management: Time management is an often recommended method for managing stress, the idea is that many daily pressures can be eased or eliminated if a person does a better job of managing time. One popular approach to time management is to make a list, every morning or the thins to be done that day. Then you group the items on the list into three categories: critical activities that must be performed, important activities that should be performed, and optimal or trivial things that can be delegated or postponed, then of more of the important things done every day. ROLE MANAGEMENT: Some what related to time management in which the individual actively works to avoid overload, ambiguity and conflict. SUPPORT GROUPS: This method of managing stress is to develop and maintain support group. A support group is simply a group of family member or friends with whom a person can spend time. Supportive family and friends can help people deal with normal stress on an ongoing basis. Support groups can be particularly useful during times of crisis. BEHAVIORAL SELF-CONTROL: In ultimate analysis, effective management if stress presupposes exercise of self-control on the part of an employee. By consciously analyzing the cause and consequences of their own behavior, the employees can achieve self-control. They can further develop awareness of their own limits of tolerance and learn to anticipate their own responses to various stressful situations. The strategy involves increasing an individuals control over the situations rather than being solely controlled by them. COGNITIVE THERAPY: The cognitive therapy techniques such as Ellis rational emotive model and Meichenbaums cognitive strategy fir modification have been used as an individual strategy for reducing job stress. COUNSELING: Personal counseling help employees understand and appreciate a diverse workforce, the holistic approach adopted by the counselor gives him a comprehensive view of the employee as client and enable him to deal the issues of work related problems in a larger context with his awareness of the inter-relationship among problems in adjustment with self, other and environment and that a work concern will effect personal life and vice-versa, the employee would receive help regarding the problem in all life. One of the advantage of the individual interventions is the individual can use these skills to improve the quality of life in offer domains like family, social support and self, thus reducing the negative carry of experiences in these domains into the work life which might effect his occupation mental health. ORGANIZATIONAL STRATEGIES: The most effective way of managing stress calls for adopting stressors and prevent occurrence of potential stressors. Two basic organizational strategies for helping employees manage stress are institutional programs and collateral programs. Work Design Stress Management programs Work schedules Health promotions programs Culture Other programs Supervision Institutional programs: Institutional programs for managing stress are undertaken to established organizational mechanism

Key Aspects of PIES in Different Life Stages Essay

Explain what is meant by PIES: Physical- it refers to things to do with your body. It includes the development of each of your body systems and affected by inherited and genetic and lifestyle. Intellectual- it is to do with the growth of the brain and the development of your thought processes. Emotional-it is about the growth and understanding of feelings. Social- making connections with family, friends and community. Life Stage/image Key aspects of growth and development p1 – m1(for merit explain in more detail) Conception to birth Physical Development Intellectual Development Emotional Development Social Development Infancy 0-3 Physical Development When babies are born they are quiet helpless and dependant. To survive they have lots of reflexes: Rooting, sucking, swallowing, grasping, stepping and startle reflex. Babies develop really fast through out the first three years of their life. When they are born they have lots of physical reflexes. A reflex is an uncontroable response e.g. moving your hand away from a hot plate. Rooting Reflex is when the baby turns its head in the direction of the touch, to find the nipple of its mother’s breast to obtain food. Moro Reflex is when a baby throws out its arms and legs then pulls them back curved. Grasp Reflex is when a baby will grab an object in the hand. Walking Reflex is when a baby is held with its feet touching the ground, and then the baby will make forward movements. Intellectual Development Intellectual development means a complete theory about life and growth of human intelligence. We also build up communication skills which allow us to make ourselves understood and to extend relationships. Development of the mind allows us to recognise, remember, reason, know and understand things around us. Language development is also another part of it. At the age of 18 months the child should know at least six words. At the age of one they should start to name objects and two and three year olds put words into little sentences. Sensorimeter Stage: this stage is found between birth and two year old children. During this stage, knowledge about objects and the ways that they can be manipulated is acquired. Through the information about self and the world, the people in it, the baby begins to understand how one thing can cause or affect another, and begins to develop simple ideas about time and space. They have the ability to build up mental pictures of objects around them. Preoperational Stage: children usually go through this stage between the ages of two to seven year olds. In this stage, children’s thought processes are developing, they are still considered to be far from â€Å"logical thought† in the adult sense of the world. The child’s vocabulary is also expanding and developing in this stage. They change from babies in to ‘little people’. Concrete Operational Stage: this period is found between the ages of seven to eleven year olds. In this  stage, the child has the ability to develop logical thoughts about an object, if they are able to manipulate it. Formal Operational Stage: this stage begins around the age of eleven to sixteen. This stage begins to permit adolescents to reason beyond of a world of concrete logically to a world of possibilities and to operate logically on symbols and information that do not necessarily come up with a general theory of all possible factors that might affect the outcome and r educe from the specific hypotheses that might occur. They can focus on verbal assertions and evaluate their logical validity without making references to real-world circumstances. Emotional Development Emotions are feelings e.g. happiness, anger, fear, frustration, jealousy and many more. When infants and children grow up, they will learn to express their feelings. They also learn how to control their feelings. 1 year olds are able to learn about the effect of their behaviour that has on care givers and can communicate their feelings through their facial expressions. 2 year olds are recognized for their tantrums as they put great effort in to their emotions. 3 year olds are more sensitive to feelings and they are willing to share toys and take turns to play with them. When babies are three months old they enjoy cuddles and activities like bath time. When they are six months they laugh and like to be played with. When they are nine months they start getting scared of strangers and they show likes and dislikes of food. When they are 12 months old they try to get attention from their parents and they show affection to parents. They learn about the effects of their behaviour has on care givers and can express emotions. When they are 15 months old they are more adventurous and they have loads of mood swings. When they are 18 months old they are strong enough to show their emotions. At the age of two babies want everything their way and they have lots of temper tantrums. They are able to show a degree of empathy which is expressed through play. At the age of three they are more sensitive and willing to share toys and take turns playing. Social Development Social development is like emotional development. Relationships with the peers become more important as the child gets older. Young children form friendship and tend to show preferences to particular people. When infants start nursery they have an opportunity to spend time with other infants. Language skills are also important in the development of relations, as children develop they can express their feelings in words. There are other social developments like: Solitary play which normally occurs during infancy when the infants will play by themselves. Parallel play is when the children will play next to each other, but not together. Co-operative play is when children play together. Pretend play is that allows the child to learn about their word. Childhood  4-10 Physical The physical development begins to start when the child grows older. They start to lose their body shape and grow into a little adult. The fast rate in infancy begins to slow down in childhood. The child can develop their balance and become good at running, climbing, jumping and many more. Growth continues to be really fast but not as fast as infancy. Gross Motor Skills: large muscle and body control and coordination development of skills like head control, rolling, standing and walking movements primarily require the larger, more proximal muscle groups. Fine Motor Skills: coordination of small muscle movements which occur in the fingers, usually in coordination with the eyes. In use of motor skills of hands and fingers. Activity Gross Motor Skills Fine Motor Skills Both Tying shoe laces Making and decorating a cake Playing football Building a brick tower Playing a musical instrument Throwing a ball Gymnastics Intellectual Gross Motor Skills: large muscle and body control, development of skills like head control, rolling, sitting, crawling, standing and walking movements primarily require the large, more proximal muscle groups. Fine Motor Skills: the coordination of small muscle movements which occur in the fingers, usually coordination with the eyes. To motor the skills of the hand and the fingers. At the same time as the child’s intellectual development grows, the child can do difficult activities, such as: Reading, writing their name, learning the rules of a game and many more. They begin to learn between right and wrong: They have interest in reading and writing. Progress through this stage, they become fluent in language and may develop a good vocabulary. Become less ego centric (meaning: self- centred, selfish, basically it’s always me, I and etc.) Moral develop (meaning: many parents want to raise their children, to be good of moral values. Morality is a critical part of human development, moral means good, honest and all them  words you can describe a well- mannered child.) At the age of three, children have attained a vocabulary of 1,000 words, they know the concepts of big and little and they can count to 5 or more. They know their first name and surname and they can answer simple questions. At the age of 4 they know at least double of words they knew before. They can identify colours and count till atleast 10 or more than that. At the age of five, they start to ask too many questions like what happened, what they are doing and many more. Six to eight year olds develop their ability to understand perspectives or wishes of others and are able to think in reasonable ways. At the age of reading to do more complex tasks like writing, reading and performing mathematics. Pre-operational: when a child wants to say something and he or she doesn’t know how to say it, so they are learning the language and they are learning by listening and looking around them. Concrete Operational: in this time, the child gains a better understanding of mental operations. The child begins thinking logically about concrete events, but has difficulty understanding abstract concepts. Concept Conservation: refers to a ability in logical thinking according to the psychologist Jean Piaget who developed four stages in cognitive development. Emotional Children develop through this period when they start to release the bonds with their main carers although they still need their support. They begin to be more independent and start to develop a sense of ‘self’. Emotional responses are learned from our most important caregivers. They learn to be in control in their emotional responses and to decide conflict and care givers them when this occurs while trying to understand the temper tantrums of frustration that do occur. They begin to show signs of compassion and empathy and again, carers need to give them encouragement. In this stage the child develops the ability to talk about their feelings. Social Social development in children is simply clear as a child’s interaction with others. In this stage, the child depends on her/ his parents. The child’s  interaction is mainly limited to these people. The child begins interacting with other kids and adults. A child stays a lot upon love, safety and care provided by their parents and caregivers. The child finally leans to pass on love and care and shows signs of kind-hearted behaviour. Solitary Play 0-2 years Young children like to explore and play wide range of toys by themselves. They also like games of imagination and make-believe. Parallel Play 2-3 years Toddlers will play alongside others and will even watch what they do but do not play together. Simple Co-Operative 3-5 years Children join in many different activities with others and learn to share and take turns. Complex Co- Operative 5 years onwards Children make up complex games with others, organising themselves and making up their own rules. Adolescence 11-18 Physical Puberty is a period in adolescence where the body develops and matures sexually. This is the stage when teenagers move from childhood to adulthood. At this time they have lots of physical changes which include puberty. During puberty, chemicals in the body that are called hormones. In physical development girls and boys begin to change and look different as they grow into young women and men. Physical changes Female changes: Gains weight Grows body hair Starts periods Breast develops Shape changes Skin and hair change They become taller Hips becomes rounded Male changes: Gains weight Grows body hair Penis and testicles develop Sperm Voice ‘breaks’ Shoulders broaden Skin and hair change They become taller Intellectual This stage is about the structure of development they become abstract, logically organized system of adult intelligence. When it is faced with it creates more complex problems. They are moving out of concrete intellectual stage, into operational. These are the following changes that happen in adolescence: Arguing skills improve The ability to apply concepts to precise examples Learns to reason though problems even in the absence of concrete events or examples Begins to independently differentiate right from wrong and develops a conscience They may challenge the statement and solutions presented by adults, and many more There are two major characteristics of formal operational period. The first one is â€Å"hypothetic- deductive reasoning†. When it is faces with a problem, adolescents come up with a general theory of possible factors that might affect the outcome and deduce from specific hypothese that might occur. The second important characteristic of this stage is that it is ‘propositional’ in nature. They can focus on spoken statements and estimate their reasonable strength without making reference  to the real- world’s situations. Emotional This is an important period of adult personality. Teenagers develop an individual identify and emotional intelligence. Teenagers would rather spend time with friends than with family, they also would like to spend time by yourself in your bedroom or somewhere on their own. Teenagers don’t get on well with their parents as this is the time teenagers want their freedom and independence and this can cause tension and arguments, but these feelings will not last forever and soon they will be able to control their emotions as they get older. Teenagers have a hard time expressing emotions. Teenage boys don’t think about emotional ease of use like girls may do. All teenagers get very moody on small things and they get very emotional on small things. They have lack of self-confident and self-esteem and this could be a problem at this age. Teenagers also start to speak slang language. There are more negative things about teenagers than positive because of the changes that occur f or example: smokings, alcohol, cause anti-social behaviour. Most parents cannot control their teenage children. During this hormones can get out of balance easily and can lead to mood swings and violent behaviour. As teenager they become fewer dependants on family for emotional support, and turn to friends and get influenced by their peer group. This is a negative effect on teenagers because they get put under peer pressure, you get put into situations that are uncomfortable and that you don’t want to get caught in to. When girls are on their periods they often get very stressed out and they might have mood swings. Social As teenagers gain independence, they spend more time with friends. This permits them to practise social skills. Some adolescent’s factors such as living in poverty, living in a dysfunctional family makes this period more difficult. Teenagers turn more to their peers they often struggle because  they want to be liked. Peer pressure can present difficulties as it can challenge many ideas learned from families. Often a period during which issues as experimenting with alcohol, sexual orientation and attitudes towards education. Adulthood  18-65 Physical People in their twenties and thirties are usually at the peak of their physical development. They are fully mature at this stage. Athletes perform their best in their twenties and to think about retiring after this. Good exercise system and healthy lifestyle can help to extend many decide to start to develop their fitness after this age. From the age of 30 the physical development starts and they begin to notice a lot of changes. They are: Wrinkling of skin Greying and thinning hair Hearing and sight decline Bones lose calcium Circulatory system not as efficient Flexibility reduces The menopause for women over 50. Some people have trouble agreeing with these changes. Intellectual Intellectual development doesn’t stop after the age of 18. Getting a job involves new skills. When a person leaves home and living independently also needs lots of skills. In the skills, it includes, managing the house, the budget and other things to do with the house hold. Raising children is also new skills. As adults age they react more slowly and find it more  difficult to remember things under pressure. To balance this they have learned from experience and are better at problem solving and making decisions. This compensates for any decline in intellectual ability over this life stage. They continue to develop problem- solving and decision- making skills. Some adults return to formal education if situations have prevented them from achieving all this when they are younger. Intellectual development is as important as physical development. It includes creativity, general knowledge and common sense. Emotional When we leave home and we can be independent and self reliant on ourselves. Young adults often make sacrifices, such as a lower standard of living, fro the opportunity to leave home. This allows them a new level of freedom and self- confidence. Most young adults move back home after a time away. Career development has a major impact on emotional changes in adulthood. They leave their parents home and become financially independent. Men are more likely to put a heavy investment into these goals, although women are more often to split between family and career development. These savings, tends to effect emotional development and high self-esteem, particularly in men. Social In new types of relationships, they may have a partner or get married, this means they are making decisions, accepting responsibilities and sharing them. Relationships with parents may start to change. Young adults start to relate to their parents more as equal. Their parents start to realise that their children now may take responsibility for themselves. Then they start a job that has a lot of developing working relationships. Formal relationships like those at work where they have rules that have to be followed and informal relationships like friends, causal and social relationships. Old Age 65 plus Physical At old age they start to have lots of physical developments like: Skin wrinkles because of the loss of elasticity. Hair thins and goes grey; men often have hair loss.  Bones are more fragile as thinning makes them lighter and more brittle, especially in women. Body organs are less efficient, including the heart, lungs, kidney and liver. Sights get worse as the eye’s lens stiffens and is less able to focus on close objects, making reading more difficult. The retina becomes less sensitive to light, so an older person may need a brighter light. Hearing get worse. Mobility, may be affected as joint stiffen. Sense of taste and smell is reduced. Older people are less sensitive to cold, making them more at risk of hypothermia. Balance becomes poor and fall more likely. Intellectual They have difficulty remembering things, their reaction time are also slower.Old age people are more experience and more experienced then younger people, they always make better decisions. They are some old people that are puzzled to handle their own relationships. Confusion is quite different from dementia. Dementia is when brain cells stop working and this is everlasting. Confusion is only for some time and passes when a person is less confused. Emotional With all aspects of development in older age there are both positive and negative aspects to emotional development. In many societies the knowledge and understanding of old age is respected so those persons they that they are making a contribution to their communities. If this not the case it can make people feel that they just a burden. Many older people are pleased to  have more free time and are able to spend their retirement visiting family and friends and having time with their hobbies. Older people have come in terms with their lives and have a sense of satisfaction with that they have achieved. Social This is a time of great social change for some people. The official age of retirement is 65 for men. As soon as men have retired then women will retire at the same age. As the lifespan increase, people become increasingly active in later life, they will spend a massive part of their lives in retirement, only if the retirement age has increased. Some old age people miss contact with their workmates at regular bases, other old people like having time to spend on their hobbies and interests The old age people’s children will probably be adults, they will be living their own lives. The old person may feel as they are not needed any more. They have the pleasures of grandchildren, without being responsible. They may endure the deaths of their close friends, partners and relatives. *development chart/poster *stages of pregnancy poster

Down Goes Banking Up Comes Problem-Posing Essay

In the article â€Å"The Banking Concept of Education,† Friere claims that the teacher and student’s relationship is fundamentally narrative in which the students are somewhat being trapped in the system of â€Å"Banking Education†. Freire goes on to say that education is suffering from narrative sickness, which means that information is being repeated constantly to the point where it has no meaning to it or that it is lifeless. â€Å"Students are becoming alienated when learning time is being generated from the teacher,† Friere argues. Students are becoming machine-like-creatures because they are not engaged into the lesson. Friere writes that â€Å"four times four is sixteen†¦The student records, memorizes, and repeats these phrases without perceiving what four times four really means† p.318. Students are too simply just repeating what they are told, but they really do not have an explanation or an understanding as of why the answer is that specific answer. Also the student works on storing the information that they were given, this causes their critical consciousness not to develop at the normal pace. I agree with Freire on this issue. A solution to this issue would be the Jasperian â€Å"split.† Instead of students taking mental notes, they could wright questions in regards to the lesson. For example, if I am writing an essay I would not just being aware of the essay I am writing but also questioning, why I am doing so. Overall I believe that â€Å"The Banking Concept† is rendering our development as students as well as teachers. It has caused many students to not think outside of the box, but to make them become a receptacle to be filled with narrative information passed on from our teachers, Friere explains. Teachers also have grown to become the superior opposite to the absolute ignorance of their students, but just like how the teacher can teach a student, the student can educate the teacher as well. This concept has made much of our generation into the norm. We need to think outside the box and to transform our generation into what we want to become of it.

The Death Of Elizabeth Bouvia - 1287 Words

In 1983 Elizabeth Bouvia, who was a 26-year-old quadriplegic who was affected by cerebral palsy, entered a hospital in Riverside, California wishing to starve herself to death. Elizabeth Bouvia suffered from cerebral palsy and severe arthritis causing her to be in chronic pain and close to being completely paralyzed. Bouvia was only able to make movement in some fingers on her right hand and make a few facial movements. Elizabeth Bouvia was unable to sit up and could only lay flat causing her to be confined to her bed, and further causing her to depend on others for even the simplest of tasks. Bouvia relied on others to feed her, bathe her, and help her defecate. Bouvia had no one in her life able to care for her around the clock like she needed, so out of options Bouvia entered Riverside General Hospital. Bouvia no longer wanted to live the quality of life she had been leading and decided she would rather die. Bouvia’s only request of Riverside General Hospital was to provide her with medication for the unbearable pain she suffered, and provide her a place where she could receive basic care while she tried to die. She decided she was going to end her life by not eating eventually starving herself to death. Believing that Bouvia could survive several more years with proper sustenance the hospital could not allow Bouvia to starve herself, so they began force-feeding her. Bouvia went California county court so she could get the right to be cared for in Riverside GeneralShow MoreRelatedBouvia V. Superior Court1645 Words   |  7 Pages1.3 Bouvia v. Superior Court Dawnyel Donaldson Franklin University Healthcare Law and Ethics HCM742-H1WW (F14) Julia Matthews JD/MPH November 13, 2014 The case of Elizabeth Bouvia v. Superior Court is a well-known case in the patient’s right to refuse treatment. Elizabeth Bouvia was born with cerebral palsy, which worsened, as she grew older and subsequently caused her to become a quadriplegic. She additionally developed severe degenerative arthritis that caused her to be in continuousRead More Euthanasia Essay: The Hemlock Society and Assisted Suicide1080 Words   |  5 Pages Hemlock Society, Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide nbsp; Dori Zook, Hemlock Society public relations director, claims that Hemlock supports legalization of physician- assisted death only in cases of terminal illness. And Hemlocks website asserts that the Society favors physician-assisted suicide strictly for someone who is already in the dying process. But there is a glaring discrepancy between this official stance and what prominent members of Hemlock have said and done. nbsp; ForRead MoreWhat defines a Human Being? The Criteria for Personhood Essay example797 Words   |  4 Pagesthought to the subject or never really considered it relevant to medicine until Medical Ethics class. I always assumed that if someone wanted to die, they could do so without much effort, and never really considered the situations of people like Elizabeth Bouvia and Larry Mcafee. Likewise, I never really considered the situations of comatose patients like Terry Schiavo. To me, it is logical and rational for anyone in severe pain to want to end that pain. I think that if people are physically and mentally