First Psychology blog

Your boss may be incompetent, but hellish co-workers can bring turmoil to your working life, as well as your emotional and physical well-being. Every organisation has one, if not many, and they come in different guises; the bully, the know-it-all and the suck up, to name a few. But don't worry, help is at hand with some useful advice on how to cope with these nightmare colleagues, and reduce stress at work in the process. Predict and prepare Work colleagues may be annoying but they tend to be pretty predictable as well. For instance, the work gossip will always gossip and the complainer will always complain. Although it is difficult to predict what people will do in every situation, we can anticipate the theme of this drama or conflict and prepare a response. Without this preparation, we are likely to react with anger or annoyance which will only make the situation worse. Role playing with someone you trust, and trying out a few responses can help you find the most effective wa...

With the recent, alarming statistics from the USA that women earn 84.6% and 78.3% of their male counterparts, in accordance with the number of hours they work (41-44 hours and over 60 hours respectively), it seems that women are still getting a raw deal in the workplace. However, men are getting a hard time in another way it seems. According to a new study, conducted by the Pennsylvania State University, male bosses who make mistakes are judged more harshly than women leaders who make the same errors. We all make mistakes but it seems the consequences of these errors can damage the perceptions of leaders who make them, for some more than others. Indeed, male bosses who make errors were deemed less competent and less effective as leaders and, as a result, employees were less likely to trust their decisions and were less willing to work for them. The findings, published in Springer's Journal of Business and Psychology online, went further to evaluate the effects of gender when the ...

According to a popular belief held for over 100 years, humans always exhibit the ‘fight or flight’ response to stress. This is a physiological, primitive, inborn reaction our bodies experience in order to prepare us to ‘fight’ or ‘flee’ from a perceived threat or danger. It has been common belief that when men experience stress they become aggressive. However, in line with our blogs on men’s health, it seems researchers at the University of Freiburg in Germany have discovered stress in men does not always lead to aggressive behaviour.  It has always been assumed men demonstrate aggression under stress and since the late 1990s, scientists have suggested that women exhibit a protective and befriending reaction to stress, which they labelled the ‘tend-and-befriend’ response. More recently, researchers revealed that positive social contact before a stressful situation reduced the stress response in men but they wanted to investigate whether stress could produce other behaviour in men...

Many people wrongly assume eating disorders only affect teenage girls when in fact they are not exclusive to any age, cultural/racial background or gender. They usually develop around the age of 14-25 but can appear in middle age, and 10-20% of those diagnosed with an eating disorder are male. This figure however, is likely to be higher as the symptoms are less likely to be recognised in men and in addition men are less likely to seek help. Therefore eating disorders go largely undiagnosed in men and boys. We use food when we are bored, anxious, angry, lonely, stressed, unhappy and struggling to cope with relationship and work problems, grief and traumatic events among other things. Many people develop an eating disorder because they feel ‘too fat’ or ‘not good enough’ and believe it is the only way they can feel in control of their life. Eating disorders are often not the product of a single cause, but a trigger commonly cited for men is teasing or bullying about weight and body shape...

Fatherhood for the vast majority of men is filled with joy and happiness. According to a study, conducted at Melbourne’s Parenting Research centre however, new dads are just as likely as new mums to suffer from the ‘baby blues’. The ‘baby blues’ describe a condition which includes symptoms of anxiety, worry, stress, feeling unable to cope, feeling blue and despairing that things won’t get better. Surprisingly, research published in the journal Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology revealed the rates of these problems were the same for both fathers and mothers with 9.7% of fathers reporting symptoms of post-natal depression in the child’s first year of life, compared to 9.4% for mothers. This risk of ‘baby blues’ in men also changed with age and income. The younger the father, the higher the risk and men on lower incomes were reported to be 70% more likely to experience post-natal depression. Furthermore, when they compared new fathers to childless men of a similar age and bac...

It is well documented that men seek psychological help far less than women even though they encounter as many mental health problems. Each June in the run up to Father’s Day we celebrate Men’s Health Week with the sole purpose of trying to increase awareness of preventable health problems and to encourage early detection and treatment of disease amongst men and boys. In honour of Men’s Health Week this year from 11-17 June, we are going to look at how some mental health issues, which are traditionally thought to be women’s problems, can affect men too. While the rate of self-harm is higher in women, it is four times more likely to lead to suicide in men. Although the triggers for men and women are similar, i.e. abuse in childhood, domestic violence, breakdown of a relationship, problems with alcohol and employment, self-harm is becoming a growing issue for men, particularly those aged 20 to 35. Self-harm includes overdosing, swallowing chemicals like bleach, and cutting, gouging or scr...

How many times have you driven somewhere to arrive without remembering anything about the journey? Quite often probably, because our lives are so busy and we have so many conflicting demands to juggle that we often go on automatic pilot to cope. In doing so, we lose awareness of the present moment. Our last blog discussed the idea of happiness in relation to a balanced time perspective, but the founder of modern day Mindfulness, Jon Kabat Zinn, suggests the key to well-being and happiness is to be more present in our own lives. He reasons we are too easily distracted by thoughts of the past and the future that we are too self-critical and fail to notice the good things happening around us. Mindfulness involves paying attention to our thoughts, feelings and sensations in the present moment in a non-judgmental and purposeful way which allows us to step back from our automatic responses to everyday events and see things how they really are. In doing so, it is believed we can improve our q...

Some people regularly look back to the good old days whereas others can’t wait to see what’s around the corner and some just focus on the here and now. According to researchers at San Francisco State University however, the happiest people are those with a balanced time perspective. That is to say, individuals who live in the present, look fondly towards the past, and anticipate the future, are more satisfied with their lives. The findings of this study, reported in the Journal of Happiness Studies, reveal that relying too heavily on any one time dimension can make it difficult for us to move forward, can limit our cognitive flexibility in certain situations and also lead to destructive behaviours. For instance, a very hedonistic, live in the moment attitude could lead us to over-indulge or live to excess. Living in the past may keep us from enjoying the present; living too much in the present may stop us from achieving future goals; but at the same time, looking to the future too much...

We all feel stressed at work and have bad days from time to time, but burnout is different. The term ‘burnout’ was coined in 1974 and has since been described as a condition ‘induced by chronic stress that is characterised by emotional or physical exhaustion, cynicism and a lack of professional efficacy’. According to psychologist Christina Maslach, burnout results from a significant mismatch between our beliefs and factors in our lives such as workload, sense of control and reward (or lack of), and fairness. One factor on its own might not be a problem, but a combination of too much work and a boss who treats you unfairly might cause burnout. Burnout is a silent condition that creeps up on us slowly. Here are some tips on how to identify the warning signs and prevent burnout before it takes hold. Recognise it – Do you dread the thought of going into work? Are you passionate and motivated about things or is everything just a burden? Are you irritable with co-workers? Are you ...