1) Psychological stress can develop from daily hassles, major life events, and internal stressors like irrational beliefs, cognitive distortions, and personality traits. 2) Achieving work-life balance requires managing stress through changing thought patterns, attitudes, and behaviors using strategies like ABC (Awareness, Balance, Control) and thought restructuring. 3) Positive thinking techniques like focusing on strengths, adjusting perspectives, and using humor can also help modify thoughts and reduce stress. Seeking professional help may be necessary if stress becomes too difficult to manage alone.

1. WORK-LIFE
BALANCE AND
PSYCHOLOGICAL
STRESS
OLURONKE OGINNI AJAYI
CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST

2. Outline
• Introduction to Psychological Stress
• Defining Stressors
• Dimensions of Psychological Stress
• Irrational Beliefs Leading To Stress
• Cognitive Pathways/Identifiers
• Achieving Work-Life Balance
• Managing Psychological Stress
• Conclusion

4. Introduction to Psychological Stress
• Psychological stressors are emotional, social and physical environmental
circumstances that challenge the adaptive capabilities and resources of an
organism.
• Susceptibility to psychological stressors is subject to individual differences.
• This may alter the impact and adverse consequences of exposure to such
circumstances.

5. Defining Stressors
• Are all stressors negative?
• Stress could be Eustress or Distress

6. Dimensions of Psychological Stress
• PS can develop from three dimensions:
• Daily hassles – acute and less severe
• Major life events – positive or negative in nature
• Internal stressors

7. Dimensions of Psychological Stress contd
• Daily hassles
• Include – traffic, pollution, punctuality to work, school runs, home and
work pressures
• Outcome – difficulty with attention and concentration, poor sleep, poor
appetite, feeling sick

8. Dimensions of Psychological Stress contd
• Major life events – create major emotional changes and/or require
overwhelming amounts of adjustments.
• Include –health challenges, loss of significant others, financial difficulties,
role adjustment/transition (change in marital state, birth, career move,
retirement), trouble with in-laws, insecurity of life and property

9. Dimensions of Psychological Stress contd
• Internal Stressors - this includes:
• Lifestyle choices (excessive intake of caffeine or use of other psychoactive
substances, work/schedule overload, inadequate sleep patterns, poor
nutrition)
• Negative perception of self and cognitive distortions - low sense of self,
overanalyzing, persistent pessimistic thought patterns, all or nothing
thinking, unrealistic expectations, dysfunction beliefs and schema, attitude
• Personality traits – “Workaholics”, “Perfectionists,” Paranoid behaviour

10. Irrational Beliefs Leading To Stress
• Demand from self : “ I should be perfect ”
• Demand from Others : “ Others should behave as I want them to behave ”
• Demand from the world : “ All the conditions in the world should be in my
favour ”

11. Cognitive Pathways/Identifiers
• Thought Processes
• Feelings
• Behaviour
• Consequences

12. Cognitive Pathways/Identifiers contd
• Thought Processes
Thought Disharmony
Mental Imbalance
Automatic Negative thoughts
Suicidal Ideations

13. Cognitive Pathways/Identifiers contd
• Feelings
Overwhelmed
Frustrations
Mood swings
Fear
Anxiety
Depressive symptoms

14. Cognitive Pathways/Identifiers contd
• Behaviour
Social withdrawal
Irritable mood
Uncontrollable aggressive tendencies
Difficulty relaxing properly for
increasingly long hours
Weepy spells
Presenteeism
Poor concentration/coordination
Absenteeism
Poor work productivity
Lack of Confidence
Psychoactive substance use
Sexual disinterest
Poor sexual performances

15. Cognitive Pathways/Identifiers contd
• Consequences
Poor physical health
Inattention to spouse, children and extended family
Marital conflicts
Organizational downturn
Company Bankruptcy
Staff retrenchment

16. Achieving Work-Life Balance
• Work-life balance is a bidirectional interface of work and personal life (family,leisure
health, religion).
• All these intersect on a day-to-day basis and periodically.

17. Managing Psychological Stress
• To achieve work-life balance, manage your psychological stressors
• By changing your thought patterns
• By changing your attitudes
• By changing your behaviour

18. Managing Psychological Stress contd
• Utilize the ABC strategy
• Modify your thoughts/thinking patterns
 ABC Strategy
• A – Awareness
• B – Balance
• C - Control

19. ABC Strategy
The following is required:
• A – Awareness
Identify your stressors
How do you react to them?
• B – Balance
Identify the fine line between positive and negative stressors
How much can you cope with stress before it becomes negative?

20. ABC Strategy contd
With this strategy, do the following
• C – Control
What can you do to combat negative stress?

21. Modify Your Thoughts
• Thought Restructuring – a technique to aid in changing the ways in which an
individual perceives or interprets events or stressors in order to feel better about
them.
• This does not change the reality of the situation, but it gives a different perspective
to the event and reduces the induced stress

22. Modify Your Thoughts contd
• Positive Thinking
• Stress is a gateway to negative thinking which results in despair,
frustration, negative suggestions.
• However, with a re-focus on positive thoughts, there is a boost to the
feelings psychological well-being.
• Steps to Positive Thinking

23. Modify Your Thoughts contd
• Steps to Positive Thinking
Focus on your strengths
Unlearn and Relearn
Concentrate on new opportunities
Adjust your lifestyle choices
Be assertive
Get organized
Ventilate when you need to let out
steam
Humour
Diversion and distraction

24. Conclusion
• If all these seem inadequate to resolve the psychological stress and attain
work-life balance, seek the expertise of a certified and licensed clinical
psychologist or other mental health experts.