CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1             Background to The Study

Stress has been an inevitable factor of man’s existence, cutting across all spheres of human biological, psychological and social needs. It serves as a core ingredient of all human existence as denoted by Feldman (2003) that human lives will be uninteresting and boring without stress. Stress is a condition that can present itself in either a positive (eustress) or negative (distress) form. However, it is the negative form of stress that poses the greatest problem for teachers. When negative stress is not properly addressed, handled, and released, it can lead to depression, sickness, exhaustion, and ultimately to burnout. When teachers enter into the state of stress known as burnout, the ramifications can be numerous, observable, and detrimental both directly and indirectly. Therefore, it is vital to have an understanding of the factors that often serve as catalysts for teacher stress.

Antoniou and Cooper (2005) define stress as a form of emotional and automatized response to the perception of threat. These implies that stress which is defined above as the perception of threat can and will never cease to exist, therefore it will be a misconception and an illusion to imagine the world of works without stress as we are constantly exposed to threat.

Stress is a physical and mental response emerged through interaction of an individual with working environment and mismatching his or her work needs with his or her abilities and demands. This anxiety occurs in all jobs, but this issue receives little or no attention, as most individuals has poor knowledge of the concept of stress in working environments such as teaching or training, health related issues etc. Therefore, everyone's job serves as a source of providing life needs, as a factor of creating social identity and social relationship which has been considered as the most important reasons for anxiety.

Hans Selye (1974) explained stress reactions in terms of general adaptation syndrome. The general adaptation syndrome is a model of the body’s stress response, consisting of three stages: alarm, resistance and exhaustion. In the first stage, an alarm reaction occurs when an organism first recognizes the existence of a threat: physiological arousal occurs as the body musters its resources to combat the challenge. However, Seyle took his investigation of stress a few steps further by exposing laboratory animals to prolonged stress, similar to the chronic stress often endured by humans. As stress continues, the organism may progress to the second phase of the general adaptation syndrome, the stage of resistance. During this phase, physiological challenges stabilize as coping efforts get under way. Typically, physiological arousal continues to be higher than normal, although it may level off somewhat as the organism becomes accustomed to the threat. If the stress continues over a substantial period of time, the organism may enter the third stage, the stage of exhaustion. According to Seyle, the body’s resources for fighting stress are limited. If the stress cannot be overcome, the body’s resources may be depleted, and physiological arousal will decrease. Eventually, the organism may collapse from exhaustion. During this phase, the organism’s resistance declines. This reduced resistance may lead to what Seyle called “diseases of adaptation.” Schermerhorn, Hunt and Osborn (2005) defined stress as a state of tension experienced by individuals facing extraordinary demands, constraints, or opportunities. Also, Gibson, John and James (1988) defined the concept as a person’s adaptive response to a stimulus that places excessive psychological and physical demands on the person. This definition implies two components: first, is the notion of adaptation, which means that people adapt to stressful circumstances in any of several different ways. Second is the role of the stimulus. The stimulus is generally called a stressor. A stressor is anything that induces stress. In addition, the demands placed on the individual by the stressor must be excessive for stress to result and of course, what is excessive for one person may be perfectly tolerable for another. A person must therefore view the demands placed on him or her as excessive for stress to occur as can be witnessed in marriages.

 The liability of political players, economic and social activist to resolve completely the numerous challenges (Economic, terrorism, disease, collapsing educational structure and insecurity) facing humanity across the globe for some reason, has been one of the core factor of marital stress as the family is one of the key component in societal classification (Olaitan, 2009). Many studies have implicated marital stress in the etiology of a number of physical and psychological ailment such as ulcers, emotional exhaustion, reduced personal accomplishment etc. which has buttress the importance of eliminating marital stress and the danger of histilling one in the family.

            Marital stress is the circumstance in which people face constraints, opportunities or loss of something that they do desire, excessive pressure, threat and demand by one member of the marital bliss or both and thus otherwise stressful (Tandon, Mahaurs & Gupta, 2014). Marital stress has been a core factor in poor psychological health and well-being among couples (Omolayo, 2012). It has been accepted that people married to spouse where they are expected to handle daily stress, settle daily challenges and marital discomfort and also spousal dissatisfaction may suffer more from marital stress (Finn & Tomz, 1998).

            Marital stress has also been linked with emotional exhaustion as noted by Finn & Tomz (1998) women mostly suffer from marital exhaustion due to marital stress as they continuously support their spouse both physically, socially, emotionally and spiritually and when down physically, psychologically or spiritually, they are not supported therefore suffering intense emotional exhaustion. According to Finn & Tomz (1998), this may also contribute and exacerbate into reduced personal accomplishment in the wife or spouse in carrying out house chores or doing what is expected.

Marital stress has also been linked with depersonalization as spouse considered to be maritally stressed out starts to develop depersonalized ideas such as; he does not consider me a person, he does not eat my food etc. and others who inflict the depersonalization refusing to show emotional support when the need arises, poor rapport in the family, not taking spousal ideas, not eating home cooked meals, refusing sex and romances etc. According to Andrew (2009), marital stress occur as a result of when the conditions of marriage are not met, both Individualistic (personal promises, to support, defend and care) and Universal (emotional and legal commitment) and so can prompt severe emotional exhaustion, suicidal thought and suicide eventually in cases of no intervention.

One of the major occupational problems usually seen as a reaction to job and organizational pressures among human services employees is the job burnout (Emotional exhaustion, Depersonalization and Reduced personal accomplishment) syndrome. Job stress is the reduction of individual's ability to adapt to stressors. It is a syndrome consisting of physical and emotional fatigue leading to a negative self-concept in the individual, negative attitude toward the job and the lack of communication with clientele while performing duty.

Generally, individuals who work face to face with people may experience Emotional exhaustion, Depersonalization and Reduced personal accomplishment (EEDRPA). This can be a primary cause to an individual who suffers from this syndrome and also people around them (Landeche, 2009). Moreover, this syndrome affects people who work in helping professions or other client-centered fields (Schutte, Toppinen, Kalimo & Schaufeli, 2000).

The idea of EEDRPA was formed by Herbert Freudenberger in 1974 as wearing down or draining out of energy. In addition, Freudenberger (1974), states that EEDRPA is not a situation that gets better by being ignored, or a kind of disgrace to an individual facing it. But on the opposite, it is a problem borne of good intentions. EEDRPA may render people unable to cope with their problems; however, those who are able to cope with their problems of work may perform better at their jobs. In the teaching profession, the concept of EEDRPA has often been studied and has globally been well accepted as being problematic and uncertain for teachers (Chernis, 1995; Guglielmi & Tatrow, 1998).

According to Demerouti, Bakker, &Nachreiner (2001), the syndrome of EEDRPA is more prevalent among human service providers. The three core dimensions of EEDRPA can be distinguished as emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and reduced personal accomplishment. Job stress is a syndrome characterized by emotional exhaustion that results in depersonalization and decreased personal accomplishment at work. The emotional exhaust clinicians are overwhelmed by work to the point of feeling fatigued, unable to cope with others.

According to Maslach, Schaufeli, and Leiter (2001), EEDRPA can be caused by stressors in which a person is unable to cope with fully. EEDRPA often develops slowly and may not be recognized until it has become severe, when one’s expectations about a job and its reality differs, then EEDRPA can begin, how pressure builds, how much stress someone feels and how close they are to emotional exhaustion. One individual can experience few stressors, but be unable to handle the pressure well and thus experience a far greater number of stressors but effectively deal w

You either get what you want or your money back. T&C Apply

Talk to us right now: (+234)906-451-7926 (Call/WhatsApp)

---