Catanduanes State University

College of Arts and Sciences

Social Science Department
Virac, Catanduanes

Module in PA 7 (Human Behavior in the Organization)

CHAPTER 5

FRUSTRATION, STRESS AND BURN-OUT, MENTAL

HEALTH AND MENTAL HYGIENE

Learning Outcome:

After studying the chapter, the students shall be able to:

a. Define frustration
b. Explain effects of burn-out/stress in behavior
c. Discuss mental health/mental hygiene
d. Determine ways on how to become mentally healthy individuals

Lesson 1

What is Frustration

All adjustment processes, whether they are of birth, individual relationship, getting through
college, or seeking a job, take their toil on human effort in physical energy, in material resources, in
mental anguish, or in taxing the goodwill of one’s friends and association. (Reed 1973)

There is no topic of great interest to most of us than frustration and its impact on human
behavior. Many of men’s pronounced stirred-up state of mind such as fear, anger, disgust and
contempt have posed the question why? What has caused such a reaction/What has brought a
change to his/her behavior?

Frustration
Life’s problems are numerous and as long as one is alive and kicking he will always be faced
with problems, be they big or small. Such as problems stir-up one’s emotion or feelings which maybe
pleasant or unpleasant. Unpleasant encounters result in frustrations. Frustrations vary from person to
person.
First let us define frustration before we indulge in the problems that they bring about.
Frustration is a stirred-up state of hopelessness that results when a person is prevented from
reaching a particular value-goal to which he has aspired or is prevented from satisfying his
physiological needs.

Frustration, simply defined is the condition of being thwarted in the satisfaction of a motive.

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 The three main problems in life that bring out certain degree of frustration are physiological,
environmental and psychological.

Physiological Problems

These physiological problems more or less are our basic needs such as food, water, shelter,
sex. Meeting such needs is temporary. Once satisfied, the frustrating feeling is subdued. When there
is a strong deprivation of these needs, one experiences an unpleasant thwarting circumstances A
disequilibrium has taken place and when this has been restored, man reverts to his former self.

These basic physiological needs of man seem easy to cope with but when there is so much
deprivation of such needs because of economic dislocation, the frustration maybe irreversible and will
affect the psychological condition of the individual. Take this situation, which is the last few years has
been a picture of grave concern. A man’s means of livelihood, be he a worker in an office or in the
farm, are taken away from him because of economic depression or the unscrupulous manipulation of
people. His manner of facing such a situation will depend on the strength of his survival. Because of
great personal suffering, the disorganization of family life, and disintegration of personality brought
about by depression, man’s frustrations may go beyond the limits of his tolerance.

Environmental Problems

Man is born in a social environment surrounded by cultural norms and values. He is faced
with cultural taboos and acceptable social behavior. Numerous environmental factors come to fore
which may or may not be easily overcome. On of the most difficult problems in this area is one’s
cultural do’s and don’ts. Environmental frustrations can not be avoided, for there are always certain
factors in a person’s situation which keep him from achieving a degree of personal growth and
achievement. Take for example the transition from home and high school to the college campus. One
experiences frustration in this new situation. Registration day, finding a place to live in, new faces to
relate to classrooms to find, teachers to size-up – all present the new student with an array of
frustrating situations.

Psychological Problems
Psychological or internal problems are the most difficult to resolve as they are within the inner
feelings of a person. You may not be able to detect his frustration through his overt behavior. You
may be able to infer what his inner thoughts and feelings are but will not know what caused such a
frustrating feeling. Psychological frustrations represent a more serious threat to the personality of the
individual than do environmental frustrations. If severe enough, they may create considerable
emotional tension with accompanying behavior disorders.

Personal Deficiencies

Reacting to frustration varies from person to person because of their personality differences.
These reactions maybe defensive, neurotic or psychotic. Frustrations as we have seen, involve
thwarting or blocking of a person’s dominant motives, needs, desires or purposes. Some
psychologists palace greater stress on what brought about frustration rather than the individual’s
reaction to it.

Self-Assessment Questions (SAQ)/ Activity

1. What is frustration?
2. Explain the three main problems inn life that give rise to frustration.

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 Lesson 2

Stress, Burnout: Their Effects on One’s Behavior

Signs of Stress

 Difficulty in sleeping or other changes in sleep habits

 Chronic irritability or anxiety
 Changes in eating habits
 Increased use of alcohol, tobacco or other drugs
 Increased use of alcohol, tobacco, or other drugs
 Frequent illness

Stress seems to be an inevitable result of today’s mode of living. Relaxation, one’s temporary
respite from stress, often cannot be employed as a coping device today simply because few people
have mastered the art of relaxation.

Stress is the non specific psychological and physiological response of the body to any
demand upon it. According to Schwartz (1980):

“ anything pleasant or unpleasant – that interferes with the body’s equilibrium is a stressor, or
source of stress. Whenever you’re fired or promoted, hit with a brick or caressed by a lover, you
experience stress. Your body has the same reaction everytime. Any change, positive or negative,
evoke stress. Selye calls positive stress unstress and negative stress which most of us think of when
we think of stress – “distress”.

In “Stress Without Distress,” Selye defined this stress syndrome as the General Adaptation
Syndrome (GAS).First your body goes into the “alarm reaction” to fight the demand – the well-known
“fight or flight’ response. Next there is the “resistance stage” which the body adapts to the demand.
The stress response raises the level of resistance to the stressor that provoked it and to other
stressors that tend to decline. For awhile, you feel more capable, resistant and energized. Finally, the
“ exhaustion stage” sets in, when over adaptation to continued stress may cause the body to fall prey
to stress-linked illnesses.”

Another way of thinking about all this is to look at Jeff Bisch’s cartoon.

At the top of the Stress-mobile is 1. the input valve for all of life’s stressors – job, family,
customers, inflation, the environment, etc. How you respond to these stressors depends on 2.) your
“awareness and choice valve.” You’ll notice that the cutaway view of the interior of the Stress-mobile
reveals that you need a certain amount of stress to help you reach your goal. When that level is
exceeded, however, you obtain some 3.) stress relief by taking a vacation, relaxing, following proper
guidelines, for exercise and nutrition and having varied interests. If you don’t get any relief from
excessive stress, you’ll reach 4.) the overflow level, which will affect whatever is your weakness point.
This tension and anxiety may show up as a headache, ulcer, or coronary attack which you may try to
avoid or ignore with drugs or alcohol.

Now let’s look at what actually happens when your body experiences the “fight or flight”
response. It releases a quick spurt of adrenalin, and your adrenal glands become enlarged and
discolored. The lymphatic gland, crucial to the immune system, shrinks intensely, Numerous blood-
stomach ulcers appear. Your cardiovascular system speeds up, your breathing rate and heart rate
increase 25%, your blood pressure rises, and more cholesterol is released into your blood stream.
Chemicals that cause the blood to coagulate are released into your blood stream to help your body
form scabs more easily in case of an ensuing injury. Your heat beats more forcefully, perhaps even
irregulary. Adrenalin dilates the bronchi to allow a maximum intake of oxygen, as your need for

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oxygen is momentarily increased. Blood goes from your extremities to your vital organs, leaving your
hands and feet cold and lowering your skin temperature. Your gastro-intestinal functioning slows
down, your sweating increases, and your pupils dilate to provide a maximal field of vision. All your
senses become more acute. Even the patterns of your brain waves change.

Now your body is fully in gear for “fight or flight” that critical alarm response to stress, but you
can’t stay in this stage very long. Generally you advance to the resistance level, when the symptoms
of ‘Fight or flight” disappear and your body seems to adapt so well that you may feel like you’re
functioning normally. Often, mistakenly, you believe that the problem has been overcome.

How well you are able to advance to the resistance level depends upon how much adaptive
energy you have. Everyone is born with a genetically determined amount of adaptive energy.
Theoretically, we could be expected to live to a hundred but few of us do. Selye speculates that this is
because our adaptive energy is continually being drained in order to combat stress. Too often, we
used adaptive energy to combat stressors that we do not even think about, such as excessive noise,
over-crowding, pollution, interruptions, distractions, high mobility with its consequent loss of a stable
supportive community, commuting in heavy traffic, increased social and community demands, threats
to our personal safety, general fear of nuclear destruction and economic depression and of course,
the self-inflicted stressors of smoking, drinking alcohol and taking prohibited drugs, improper eating
and inadequate exercise.

Another kind of stressor is that which comes from having too little or too much stress in one’s
life. To be productive and energized, one should have an acceptable range of stress so that one is
neither overloaded or understimulated.

Basically, you have three choices in dealing with stress:

1. You remove the stress from your environment.

2. You can get out of the stress environment.
3. You can learn to use relaxation techniques to counter toxic effects directly of a stressful
environment.

Major Causes of Stress in Organizations

Occupational demand: Some jobs are more stressful than others. A survey of 130 different
occupations confirmed the basic fact that some jobs are more stressful than others. Results indicated
that several features of the jobs are related to the levels of stress they generate.

For example, the greater the extent to which a given job requires (1) making decisions, (2)
constant monitoring of devices or materials, (3) repeated exchange of information with others, (4)
unpleasant physical conditions, and (5)performing unstructured rather that structured tasks, the more
stress stressful it tends to be. Moreover-and this is the most important point-such greater the extent to
which virtually any job possesses, these characteristics, the higher the level of stress it produces
among persons holding it, regardless of the specific tasks being performed. This is certainly a point
worth considering when planning a career, or choosing between potential jobs.

Role Ambiguity: Stress from uncertainty. This occurs when individuals are uncertain about
several matters relating to their jobs, the scope of responsibilities, how to divide their time between
various duties, etc.

Overload and underload: Doing too much or too little. Employees are asked to do more
work than they can handle in a given period of time or employees believe that they the required skills
to perform a given job.

Underload leads to boredom and monotony. “The hardest job in the world is doing nothing –
you can’t take a break.”

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 Responsibility for others: A heavy burden. In any organization some persons are primarily
concerned with, is the physical side of the business (supplies, maintenance etc.) other
financial(budget, accounting etc.) and still others with people like, supervisors or managers. Research
findings report that in general individuals who are responsible for other people, who must motivate,
reward, punish, communicate etc. – experience higher levels of stress than persons who handle other
organizational functions.

Lack of social support: The cost of isolation. Social support helps individuals deals with
stress. One study shows that persons who felt they had the support of their immediate supervisors
reported fewer physical symptoms associated with stress than managers who did not enjoy friendship
and support from others at work. (Baron and Greenberg 1991)

Lack of Particiaption in decision: Helplessness, strikes. People who want a certain degree
of control over their own fate feel that they know a good deal about their work. Thus when thay are
prevented from particiapating in decision making, they experience considerable stress.

Nonwork Demands
Nonwork demands create stress for people which may carry over into the work environment.
Although not all workers are subject to family demands related to marriage, child rearing, parental
care, etc. these may create conflicts or overloads that are difficult to manage. In addition to family
demands, people have personal demands related to nonwork organizational commitments such as
religious activities, public service involvements, traumatic events such as death of a loved one,
examination failures, job less, attachments which may lead to distress if not properly handled and
resolved.

Physical Demands

Extreme environments, strenuous activities and hazardous substances crate physical

demands for people at work. Work environments which are very hot or very cold may lead to
dehydration or frostbite.

Not all stress is bad. But too much stress can be harmful . Our greatest need today is not
eliminating stress. It is being able to cope with it. Here are some suggestions to cope with stress:

1. Express your feelings openly before stress builds up.

2. Have a realistic expectation of yourself and others.
3. Accept that you can’t control every situation or decision.
4. Get plenty of rest , exercise regularly and eat a well balanced, low-fat, high-fiber diet.
5. Make time for activities that help you relax. Some people like reading or listening to music,
others physical activities.
6. Solve problems one step at a time.
7. Learn to accept changes and be flexible
8. When things get tense, close your eyes, relax your body and breath deeply several times.
You’ll be surprised how it helps.

Burnout

Another disease the work environment has and also a result of stress is called “burnout”.
Burnout is a cumulative process of gradual wearing down of your reserve, with little recharging of
your energies. It is mental, physical and emotionl exhaustion. It strikes all ages, sexes and job levels,
yet themost frequent victims are those who seemingly are the most productive years of their life.

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 It is people with high expectations and a high sense of purpose whoa are the greatest victims.
People with high standards for themselves and others, who attempt to do a “perfect” job, have a
“perfect” marriage and be “perfect” at their hobbies are the greatest danger of burning out. Potential
burnouts are often also idealistic individuals with single-minded purpose for their lives. They often set
goals that are unrealistic for themselves. Rather than modify the goal to fit the reality of the situation,
the burnout candidate keeps striving to achieve it.

Burnout in Organizations
The “hurried executive” or the kind of person who is burn-out prone is often drawn to fast
moving organizations that would hasten his/her burning out. The fast moving achiever who
competently handles all tasks that are given to him/her is rewarded by having the number of tasks
increased. “No” is a word hardly used by the perfectionist; therefore he/she continues to handle a
greater than average amount of work.

Work overload is a major contributor to burnout. This concept can be presented in the
following formula:

Susceptible Individual + Overload or Criss = Burnout

Self-Assessment Questions (SAQ)/ Activity

1. What causes stress and how does one cope with it.?
2. What is a burnout feeling/ Why are idealistic people often the victims of burnout?

Lesson 3

What is Mental Health?

Most people are sympathetic to people who develop physical ailments, but regard an
individual with mental disorder as “crazy.” There is now a stigma associated with this
disease.

Definitions of mental health vary considerably. Sigmund Freud when asked what he
thought a normal, healthy person should do well replied “love and work”

Karl Menninger’s (1956) definition is quite similar to Freud’s. He states:

“ Let us define mental health as the adjustment of human beings to the world and
each other with a maximum of effectiveness and happiness. Not just efficiency, or just
contentment, or the grace of obeying the rules of the game cheerfully. It is all together. It is
the ability to maintain an even temper and happy disposition. This,, I think, is a healthy
mind.”

Sydney Jourad arrived at what he felt was a general definition of healthy personality.
He states:

“Healthy personality is manifested by the individual who has been able to gratify his
basic needs through acceptable behavior such that his own personality is no longer a
problem to him. He can take himself more or less for granted and devote his energies and
thoughts to socially meaningful interests and problems beyond security or even, ability or
status.”

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 Many of man’s personal activities affect his health both physical and mental.
Common saying is that a healthy body produces a healthy mind. The life-style of the
individual has a great impact on his mental health –nutritional habits, patterns of physical
exercise, his social life and environment in which he resides. When we therefore, try to
define mental health, we have in mind the adjustment process which an individual brings into
force when he is faced with a problem situation. Adjustment is defined as an individual’s
manner of reacting or responding adequately to a perceived problem. From the standpoint of
mental health, adjustment refers to a happy and socially acceptable response to the life
situations. Mental health, therefore is the ability of the individual to function effectively and
happily as a person in one’s expected role in a group and in the society in general. It is a
condition of the whole personality and is not merely a condition of the “mind” as is often
supposed. It is an outgrowth of one’s total life and is promoted or hindered by day to day
experience, not only by major crises as some assume.

Mental health is the capacity to live harmoniously in a changing environment: to face

and solve one’s problems in a realistic manner; to accept the inevitable, and to understand
and accept one’s own shortcomings as well as the shortcomings of others.

Mental health is a matter of degree. There is no hard and fast line that separates
health from illness. It is not a simple matter to divide the population iinto two distinct groups-
those who should be institutionalized and those who should not be . Many of us at one or
another exhibit traits and pattern of behavior which, if accentuated and continous, would
necessitate psychiatric care.

Some Characteristics of Mentally Healthy People

Below are some characteristics by which we can identify those who are mentally
healthy:

1. Self-acceptance. Indicators of self-acceptance are:

a. Self-respect;
b. Acceptance of one’s own shortcoming;
c. Control over one’s emotion;
d. Ability to resign to the inevitable and to face the realities of life;
e. Ability to laugh at one’s self, see one’s own mistakes and make efforts to
overcome them;
f. Ability to look at one’s self objectively so that there is neither underestimation
nor overestimation of the self.

2. Acceptance of others. This includes:

a. The ability to give love and to consider the interests of others;

b. The ability to establish and maintain satisfying personal relationships;
c. The ability to stimulate trust in other people;
d. The ability to like and trust other people;
e. The ability to respect individual difference;
f. Respect for the individual’s human dignity and rights;
g. Social adaptability and a sense of cooperation.

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 3. Ability to meet the demand of life. People who are able to meet the demands
of life feel that:

a. They can do something about their problems as these arise:

b. They can accept responsibilities;
c. They can share their environment at times but will have to adjust to it on other
occasions;
d. They are making use of their potentials and capacities;
e. They are setting realistic goals for themselves and make their own decisions;
f. They are putting in their best efforts and deriving satisfaction out of whatever they
are doing;
g. Change is part of life;
h. Refusing to face problems is not the best way to solving them

Role of Mental Health in Business and Industry

Mental health is a factor that plays an important role in all life situations – in the
relations between teachers and students, between hospital personnel and patients, between
management and labor.

It finds its simplest and most common expression in good human relations between
individuals and between groups. The basic idea is concern for other people’s interest and
feelings in self-centered.

Such insight can help each individual to get along well with himself and with other
people and thus develop his own capacities to the fullest.

This insight, this concern for other people’s feelings, this factor of metal health is vital
in such a field as business and industry where the personal element plays such a crucial
role.
Machines are as good only as the men who operate them and these men are driven
by complex feelings, attitudes and emotions that must be considered in any comprehensive
company program.

Where this hidden drives are ignored, the result is a psychologically sterile work
situation in which the workers are regarded merely as parts of a giant mechanisms that
move along regimented lines and given no opportunity for individual initiative and creativity.

A study once conducted in the United States showed that the 60% of industry’s
manpower loss is due to emotional disturbances. And this figure does not include
productivity losses when the emotionally disturbed worker is still on the job.

A similar study has yet to be conducted in the Philippines but a sizeable percentage
of manpower loss due to emotional problems probably exists here, too, esp. since the
Philippines is behind the United States when it come to providing personal services that
could minimize such problems.

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Principles of Mental Health Applied to the Operations of Business and Industry

The basic principles on mental health in business and industry is this – that the
responsibility of management in any enterprise is not limited to the efficient and profitable
production of goods and services. It also includes the satisfaction or the psychological wants
of its workers.

The primary application of these principles so far has been in labor-management

relations, with emphasis on providing services to assist workers make adjustments to
problems arising from their work.

Many establishments today have personnel relations departments whose concern is

to assure the smooth operation of the firm by attending to personnel questions that used to
be that exclusive concern of top management.

Thus personnel relations departments make undertake some of all of the following
functions:counseling management on certain personnel matters, compiling records and
reports and manpower studies, employment, promotions, transfers, lay-offs, training of
personnel, administration of company medical and health services, administration of
recreation programs for employees, and providing information to employees.

The human factor is vital in all of these functions. Promotions and transfers, for
example, involve certain changes whose effects on employee morale and consequently on
production affectivity could be far-reaching.

To understand these effects and the effects on any other developments in any
business enterprise, one has to understand feelings and the role they play in the actions of
workers.

It is important therefore, for management men o consider the feelings and attitudes of
the men under them. Being human, these workers may have feelings of anxiety when
speaking to the boss, worry about meeting production goals, resentment over the close
presence of a supervisor and becomes relieved of his departure.

Knowledge of the presence of these feelings that motivate men in their action can
help in guiding those who program the work. This is human relation at work.

Feelings of course are not readily observed and this is one difficulty. But the
supervisor who really cares can train himself to be sensitive to the subtle signs of feelings –
a quick glance, knitted eyebrows, a sharp remark, a smile, restless hand. He must be alert to
those non-verbal signs which can be as meaningful and precise and revealing as any
deliberately worded letter.

What is Mental Hygiene

Mental hygiene is a branch of psychology which ideas with the mental, behavioral and emotional
adjustment through the application of principles and practices which have some scientific foundations
or truth.

It consists of those patterns of living which promotes the development of wholesome and
socially adequate personality and helps an individual get along with himself and with his fellowmen.

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Through it, the goal of mental health is achieved, so that mental hygiene maybe considered as the
means to an end.

There are three known ways to which the principles and practices of metal hygiene are done.

1. The preventive approach. This is based on the principle that the best way to insure a
well-adjusted individual is to surround him with environmental influences that will enable
him to develop his full potentialities, to obtain emotional stability and achieve personal
and social adequacy.
2. The therapeutic method. The therapeutic aspect of mental hygiene is concerned with
the attempt to correct minor behavioral adjustments through the various counseling and
techniques of psychotherapy, or adjust to the social or physical environment of the person
in order to help him obtain the amount of emotional security and self-confidence
necessary.
3. The curative approach. This phase of mental hygiene is sometimes called “preventive
psychiatry.” It is concerned with the detection and correction of serious but curative
behavioral maladjustments. Although this is the work of a trained clinician or psychiatrist,
it is helpful for the layman to have at least a fundamental knowledge of the major types of
behavioral maladjustments in order that he may have a basis in determining behavioral
maladjustments that need the attention of competent specialists.

Employer-Employee Relationship and Mental Hygiene

It is common fact that in every business concerns, the employees and employers there in
know one another. To some extent, familiarity exists between then. To maintain unity among tem,
there should be continuous harmony and mutual cooperation. No matter what condition is obtained,
they enjoy contact as normal individuals. Cooperation between the employers and employees is
indeed very essential particularly towards the operation of the business. Stress, tension, serious
misunderstanding, conflict of roles must not take place within the framework of their functions and
organization. If the groups of personnel are in conflict, the management should put measures
appropriate to prevent contradictory actions, duties, thoughts and convictions. Incentives and
promotional work should be the tide in the office. The job should provide him not only sufficient
material returns but more of emotional and psychological returns. This is very important to the
maintenance of peace of mind, unclouded consciences, happiness and consistency of the individual
personnel.

Employers and employees may well attain sound mental hygiene if they will consider the
following salient points of view of mental hygiene:

1. Respect for one’s own personality and for the personalities of others.
2. Recognition of limitations in self and in others.
3. An appreciation of the importance of the cause sequence in behavior.
4. A realization that behavior is a function of the whole individual.
5. An understanding of the basic need that motivates behavior.

Self-Assessment Questions (SAQ)/ Activity

1. How would you differentiate mental health from mental hygiene?
2. What role does mental health and/ or mental hygiene play in business and industry?

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