Attention, awareness and occupational stress

http://www.hse.gov.uk/research/rrpdf/rr644.pdf


This HSE Research report looks at occupational stress. Symptoms associated with occupational stress, such as muscular pain and fatigue (termed idiopathic), are common in the workforce, but it is often hard to link these to a definite physical cause. Also, these symptoms are often associated with psychological concerns such as anxiety and depression.
Despite these difficulties, these symptoms represent an important index of occupational health however the underlying reasons for these symptoms are not particularly well understood regarding the influence of psychological factors.
This report examines the affect of attentional factors on the perception of idiopathic symptoms associated with occupational stress and discusses the fact that occupational stress may inflate symptom perceptions in two ways:
the psychological route by creating a negative bias and amplifying symptoms by directing attention to the body
the physiological route whereby awareness of symptoms is magnified and intensified by elevated autonomic activity.
The role of attention and awareness during the perception of stress-related symptoms was examined through a laboratory study to investigate the influence of stress on the physiological process of interoception. It was predicted that exposure to stress would increase participants’ accuracy on the heartbeat detection task. It was also believed that participants who exhibited higher levels of interoceptive sensitivity on this task would report a higher frequency of symptoms (due to a higher level of awareness of bodily activity). These hypotheses were not supported by the findings. Exposure to stress resulted in poorer performance on the heartbeat detection task for females and there was no evidence of an association between performance on the heartbeat detection task and symptom reporting.
A longitudinal study on the influence of naturalistic stress on symptom reporting was also undertaken. Self-rated anxiety and symptom reports were collected from 147 participants over five months, which included a stressful event during the fourth month. Symptom frequency tended to decline throughout the study period. Subjective anxiety rose during the fourth month but there was no evidence for any systematic influence on the frequency of self-reported symptoms.
The main hypothesis explored by the project was the influence of individual differences in body consciousness on the perception of stress-related symptoms. It was proposed that high body consciousness would be associated with increased frequency of stress-related symptoms. A pilot survey and occupational survey were undertaken and it was found that body consciousness tended to increase the frequency of stress-related symptoms. There was a strong association between body consciousness and negative affectivity (the tendency to experience negative emotion).
The occupational survey supported a positive link between occupational stress (job demands) and stress-related symptoms. Exposure to occupational stress and high body consciousness increased the frequency of stress-related symptoms, but both effects were independent of one another. There was no evidence that exposure to occupational stress had any influence on body consciousness.
The project concluded that psychological characteristics associated with body consciousness represent a significant influence on self-reported symptoms of stress and psychological distress. It was recommended that body consciousness be an important addition to future studies of self-reported health.