Abstract
M.A. (Psychology)
Interest has grown over the past decade in the study of stress
and more recently in the development and Implement at Ion of
primary prevention programmes for various forms of stress related
illnesses. Such programmes hold great promise for reducing ,
illness reactions in combination with, or, as an alternative to
pharmacological medication. None of these programmes have been
conducted amongst a sample of South African black blue-collar
workers and it is important that these procedures are tested in
order to evaluate their efficacy for specific cultural contexts.
In this dissertation, an extensive review of the literature on
the various models of stress is included as well as a proposed
model for South African blue-collar workers. The stressors
inherent in the lives of the sample population are also
discussed.
The sample consisted of sixty six male black blue-collar workers
between the ages of twenty five and fifty five employed in the
milling industry. Over a period of six weeks the effects on
work-related stress of five different treatment regimes
consisting of the following are evaluated: just lying down,
relaxation tape, placebo, Royl 6 (vitamin B) and Panado
(paracetamol).
sUbjects completed the Job-related tension questionnaire and the
Anxiety-stress questionnaire upon commencement of treatment and
two weeks after' they had concluded treatment. An analysis of
variance and a multivariate analysis of variance showed that
there was no significant difference in the levels of work-related
stress at the post-measurement stage of assessment.' This
indicates that none of the five treatment regimes had any affect
on the work-related stress levels of the subjects...