Occupational Health Psychology concerns the application of psychology to improving the quality of work life and to protecting and promoting the safety, health and well-being of workers. In the occupational health psychology area, we are committed to advance understanding of how demanding and stressful aspects of work such as time pressure or frequent interruptions from colleagues influence worker well-being and behavior.
Projects in this area focus on how stressful working conditions affect organizational members’ well-being (e.g., emotions, job satisfaction, psychosomatic complaints), their behavior at work (e.g., task progress, sharing of ideas and concerns), and outside of work (e.g. family dynamics). In addition, we investigate individual differences in how workers actively deal with work demands (e.g., emotion regulation, time and energy management), and which strategies are effective or ineffective.
We conduct projects on multiple topics in this area adopting short-term (e.g., within days) and long-term (e.g., over ten years) perspectives. Examples are:
- How can people manage their energy levels throughout the workday and be effective at work?
- How do emotional job demands and emotional functioning evolve with age?
- What are predictors and consequences of work interruptions for workers and organizations?
- Are there meaningful differences in regulation behavior between subgroups (e.g., leaders vs non-leaders, age groups) that affect organizational functioning and individual well-being?
Relevant publications
- Keller, A.C., Meier, L. L., Elfering, A., & Semmer, N. K. (2018). Please wait until I am done! Longitudinal effects of work interruptions on employee well-being. Work & Stress.
- Scheibe, S., Spieler, I., & Kuba, K. (2016). An older-age advantage? Emotion regulation and emotional experience after a day of work. Work, Aging and Retirement, 2(3), 307-320.
- Schmitt, A., Belschak, F. D., & Den Hartog, D. N. (2017). Feeling vital after a good night’s sleep: The interplay of energetic resources and self-efficacy for daily proactivity. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 22(4), 443-454.
- Schmitt, A., & Weigelt, O. (2023). Negative work events impede daily self-efficacy through decreased goal attainment: Are action orientation and job autonomy moderators of the indirect effect? European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359432X.2023.2166832
- Van Dellen, S. A., Wisse, B., & Mobach, M. P. (2022). Effects of lactation room quality on working mothers’ feelings and thoughts related to breastfeeding and work: a randomized controlled trial and a field experiment. International Breastfeeding Journal, 17(1), 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13006-022-00499-0
