The idiosyncratic construction of stress: examples from medical work settings

This paper is concerned with the subjective understanding of the work context and how it becomes stressful for an individual. It seeks to establish the individual dimensions of each person's situation in terms of the factors that are perceived to be stressful and also the ideas that underlie the meaning of stress for each person. Five case studies from medical work settings are used in this idiographic analysis of work stress. The situational...