Hardy Personality 09

7/28/2019 Hardy Personality 09

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The Hardy Personality and

Stress

Kobasa and Maddi 1977

Kobasa 1979a


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Hardiness

BATs

AO1 Outline the concept of hardiness and

the research of Kobasa and Maddi.

AO2 Analyse and evaluate Kobasa and

Maddis research

Use the sheet tomake notes

Homework

answer q4 p155

Exploring

Psychology


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Hardiness (Kobasa and Maddi

1977)

The concept of'hardiness' is taken to mean

resistance to illness, orability to deal with

stress. From studies of highly stressed executives,

Kobasa et al were able to identify the

characteristics of those who handled stress

well from those who did not.

They proposed hardiness can be taught and

used to manage stress.


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Kobasa 1979

Studied 800 American business execs,

assessing stress using Holmes and

Rahes SRRS.

150 classified as high stress

Some had high illness scores, but others

had low

Suggests something else modifying

effects of stress


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1977) Those who reported the fewest illnesses showed

three kinds of hardiness.

1.Challenge -They showed an openness to change,

i.e. life changes are seen as challenges to beovercome rather than threats or stressors.

2.Commitment - They had experienced a feelingof involvement or commitment to their job, and asense of purpose in their activities.

3.Control - they experienced a sense of control overtheir lives, rather than seeing their life controlled byoutside influences.


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1977) Kobasa found that the most important of

these factors was the first, openness tochange.

Those who perceived change (such asthe loss of a job) as a challenge ratherthan a devastatingly personal event,were more likely to interpret the eventpositively and show fewer signs ofstress.


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Supporting research

Maddi et al 1987

Studied employees of Illinois Bell

Telephone, which was drastically reducing

the size of its workforce over a year.

66% of employees suffered stress related

health problems

33% thrived. This group showed more

evidence of hardiness characteristics


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Supporting Research

Lifton et al 2006

Measured hardiness in 5 US universities

to see if hardiness was related to how

likely they were to complete the course.

Students scoring low on hardiness tests

were more likely to drop-out than those

with a high Hardiness rating


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Try it out..

Complete the Hardiness questionnaire

What could you correlate this score with?

What ethical issues does thisquestionnaire throw up?

Confidentiality, privacy, right to withdraw

How could you deal with these issues? Anonymity, allow pps to withdraw at any

time


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Evaluation of research

Type A and hardinessMany type Aindividuals resistant to CHD. May bebecause they also possess aspects ofhardy personality. Greer et al (1979) found that women

with a fighting spirit were more likely

to recover from cancer suggestingbehaviour causes health/illness.


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Evaluation of hardiness

The relative importance of the three aspects

of 'hardiness (control, Commitment and

challenge) is uncertain, although it is likely

that control is the most significant of these. Watson and Clark (84) a simper explanation

is that Hardy personalities have low Negative

Affectivity (NA)


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Evaluation of hardiness

Kobasa's studies have tended to involve

middle-class businessmen - results cannot

reliably be generalized to other social and

cultural groups. Most research into link between hardiness

and health has relied on data from self-

report questionnaires, which were difficult to

fill inhowevernew Personal Views Surveyis better.


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Plenary

Some people cope really well underpressure and others just crumble at theslightest hint of stress. Discuss how

differences in personality factors can affectan individuals ability to cope with stressand the damage that having a stressful lifecould do to them. 12 marks

In pairs or small groups plan how youwould answer this question.

Complete the essay for homework


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How can Hardiness be used

to reduce stress?


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1977) Kobasa proposed three ways in which

hardiness could be improved.I. Focusing. People can be encouraged to focus on various

body sensations in order to identify times of stress. This

will help the person to consider what these sorts of stress

might be.

II. Reconstructing stressful situations. This technique

has the person think about a recent stressful situation and

make two lists: ways it could have turned out better and

ways it might have turned out worse. Doing this allows theperson to examine alternative courses of action and

realise that the situation could be worse.


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1977)III. Compensating through self-improvement.

When people face a stressor they cannot avoid

or change, it may be helpful for them to take on

a new challenge they are likely to master. Doing

so reassures them that they can still cope.


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Hardiness at work

Employers can help by giving workers somedegree of control over aspects of their jobs(Quick and Quick, 1984).

One approach involves having employeesworking in groups to make certain managerialdecisions or solve problems, such as how toimprove the quality of the product theymanufacture.

Other approaches include allowing workers tohave some control over their work hours, whichtasks to work on, and the order in which they dothem.


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Hardiness and the elderly

Elderly people in nursing homes and

families can be allowed to do things for

themselves and have responsibilities, such

as in cleaning, cooking, and arrangingsocial activities.

Documents

Hardy Personality 09