Hardiness and Demographics
Introduction
Demographics such as age, education, marital status, number of children, and even race and religion are variables that are commonly associated with many aspects of life. These variables are taken into account in studies concerning many topics. The demographics of age, education and marital status, along with the personality disposition of hardiness will be examined in the following section. There has not been much research conducted concerning hardiness and demographics so the evidence presented here is important as it can begin to shed light on the significance of the hardiness personality. The first section will concern evidence regarding age.
Age
Older individuals are less focused on the negative aspects of life as they age, which leads them to become more optimistic in life experiences. Hardiness would be an additional benefit to the optimism already possessed by older individuals. Younger individuals are still progressing through life with many unexpected life experiences awaiting them. Adjustment from adolescents to adulthood can be stressful and hardiness could be beneficial. The following study includes results that focus on age and hardiness.
Schmied & Lawler, (1986) examined what the impact of hardiness, type A personalities and stress is on secretarial working women. Eighty two secretaries between the age of 21 and 59 were the sample for the study. The mean age of these women was 35 years. Hardiness was measured using The Alienation from Work Scale, and The Alienation from Self scale to measure commitment, The Security Scale to measure challenge, and finally, the Internal versus External Locus of Control Scale and The Powerlessness Scale to measure control. The higher t...
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An individual’s personality and character structure portrays a major reflection of how they age. Personality style and character structure both incorporate the conscious and unconscious motivational, cognitive and affective mental states, as well as defense mechanisms (Silver 1992). Biopsychosocial factors-broken down into biological, psychological, and sociocultural-also play a huge role in personality and aging (Notes 10/08). Some examples of biological factors are health, genetics, and physiological function. Thoughts, feelings, and emotions would be considered psychological factors. Sociocultural factors include family, religion and community. Additionally, people endure unique experiences and circumstances throughout their life course,
the psychological health of police, fire, and ambulance officers.” International Journal of Stress Management, Vol. 11, pp. 227-44.
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Some of the world’s most-loved and well-known superheroes include Superman, Batman, and Spiderman. However great these superheroes may appear, their fictional stories also include stressors that they face everyday, such as the villains that they encounter and the pressure of being a hero and an everyday citizen. In this way, stress often negatively impacts the lives of the ones who watch over every neighborhood, every street, and every house. Such is the job of a police officer. Because stress has become an important topic in the community of law enforcement, things that are commonly discussed are the causes of stress, the effects of stress, and the handling of stress in the lives of police officers.
Police stress is viewed as a structural problem that is amongst the police culture (Kappeler & Potter, 2005). The argument made is that the working environment causes the stress. Even though a police officers job is not as dangerous officers still determine the danger as a source of stress. Police stress can be split up in to three sources: occupation, job-related and external stress (Kappeler & Potter, 2005). Just the thought of the job gives officers stress. Job-related circumstances such as responding to calls can also create stress. Finally, external sources such as personal stress can all lead to an officer being highly
According to the American Psychological Association, resilience is the process of adjusting enough in the presence of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats or major sources of stress such as financial and workplace problems, family/ relationship problems, and severe health problems or workplace and financial stressors (American Psychological Association, 2013).
Resnick, B., Gwyther, L., & Roberto, K. (Eds.). (2011). Resilience in aging: Concepts, research and outcomes (1st ed.). New York: Springer Science & Business Media, LLC.
The General Strain Theory scope has an intention of providing a clear explanation for why and why not crime occurs across all levels of society, while maintaining that stress is a major cause of criminal involvement. When people experience negative emotions, such as anger, frustration, or depression, they are in result unhappy and upset, thus experiencing strains or stressors (Ganem, 2010). Crime is then a way of reducing or escaping from these strains, and it is their method of coping with their emotions. According to Agnew, “Strains refer to events or conditions that are disliked by individuals (1992,
Ageing is a continuing life cycle, it is an ongoing developmental event that brings certain changes in one’s own psychological and physical state. It is a time in one's own life where an elderly individual reminisce and reflect, to bask and live on previous accomplishments and begin to finish his life cycle. There is a significant amount of adjusting that requires an elderly individual to be flexible and develop new coping skills to adapt in the changes that are common in their new life. (Dhara & Jogsan, 2013).
Roberts, Ed. “Stress Tests? State Employees Says, ‘Yes, Please.’” Credit Union Journal. 17.37 (2013): 1. Print.
People while at work are often under psychological pressure. In the "risk group" fall supervisors and managers, people who work with clients, secretaries, salesmen, teachers and indeed, almost any job - the source of stress. According to a 2007 nationwide poll by the American Psychological Association, “three-quarters of Americans list work as a significant source of stress, with over half of those surveyed indicating that their work productivity suffered due to stress” (2013). Why the cause of stress is usually related to our performance at work? Because we spend a third of our life time at work and there are different surprises awaiting for us.
Aging and being old was dominated by negative characteristics and conditions such as illness, depression, and isolation for a long time (Eibach, Mock, & Courtney, 2010). At first glance the terms “success” and “aging” seem to be in conflict to each other. When asking people about aging, their answers have many facets that are also found in psychological definitions: successful aging is seen as health, maturity and personal growth, self-acceptance, happiness, generativity, coping, and acceptance of age-related limitations. In the psychological sense successful aging is also often seen as the absence of age-associated characteristics (Strawbridge, Wallhagen, & Cohen, 2002). It seems that successful aging means is not aging.
Since the inception of this niche in psychology, there has been a greater appreciation for the use of police psychological services. Now almost every police department has a separate psychology department with a number of psychologists working with its other employees. This specialized subset of psychology delivers a number of services to its employees, from assessing qualified applicants, counseling, to suspect profiling and providing expertise during hostage situations. The field has grown tremendously, especially over the last 40 years and has developed into its own sub-specialty with its own dedicated research, journals and professional organizations. During that time, there have been great strides made in developing this relationship betwe...
However, few studies focus solely on the plasticity of personality in the elderly, as they too are confronted by various life changes (Maiden, Peterson, & Caya, 1999). A longitudinal study conducted by Maiden, Peterson, & Caya (1999), is significant in measuring personality change among the elderly through a sample of elderly women, averaging eighty years old. Maiden, Peterson, & Caya (1999) hypothesized that personality change takes place predominantly in times when the conditions of one’s existence change dramatically, anticipating moderate change. Participants were sampled multiple times, revealing that as negative life changes were made, personality followed suit. For example, Maiden, Peterson, & Caya (1999) found that participants felt they were less extroverted when suffering poorer health. Likewise, participants indicated that nervousness and irritability intensified, also owing mainly to undesirable life changes. The conclusions drawn by Maiden, Peterson, & Caya (1999) allow the confirmation of their hypothesis. Therefore, the plasticity of an individual’s personality throughout their life, even in it’s final stages, is undeniably