Do positive emotions help us cope with occupational stress?
Authors
Michael Galanakis
Panteio University of Social and Political Sciences, Athens, Greece
Fotini Galanopoulou
Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences
Anastasios Stalikas
Associate Professor, Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, Athens, Greece
Abstract
Occupational stress is considered as one of the most important work-related psychological problems. To date, research findings demonstrate that specific coping strategies lead to positive results, via the impact of specific positive elements such as relaxation and reframing. The broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions (Fredrickson, 1998, 2001, 2003) provides an alternative approach suggesting that positive emotions experiencing leads to beneficial psychological results. In this study we examined the relationship between positive emotions and strain in a sample of 2775 professionals. The results indicate that the experiencing of positive emotions is negatively correlated with occupational strain and that overall and discrete positive emotions predict strain over and beyond stressors.
