Gollwitzer Peter M, Mayer Doris, Frick Christine, Oettingen Gabriele
Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, NY, United States.
Department of Psychology, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany.
Front Psychol. 2018 Jun 15;9:838. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00838. eCollection 2018.
The aim of our internet-based intervention study was to find out whether healthcare professionals can autonomously down-regulate the stress they experience at their workplace, using an established self-regulation tool called Mental Contrasting with Implementation Intentions (MCII). Applying MCII to reduce stress implied for our participants to repeatedly engage in a mental exercise that (1) required specifying a wish related to reducing stress, (2) identifying and imagining its most desired positive outcome, (3) detecting and imagining the obstacle that holds them back, and (4) coming up with an if-then plan on how to overcome it. We recruited on-line nurses employed at various health institutions all over Germany, and randomly assigned participants to one of three groups. In the MCII group ( = 33), participants were taught how to use this exercise via email and the participants were asked to engage in the exercise on a daily basis for a period of 3 weeks. As compared to two control groups, one being a no-treatment control group ( = 35) and the other a modified MCII group ( = 32), our experimental MCII group showed a reduced stress level and an enhanced work engagement. We discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the present study as well as ways to intensify MCII effects on stress reduction.
我们这项基于互联网的干预研究的目的是，利用一种名为“心理对照与执行意图”（MCII）的既定自我调节工具，探究医护人员能否自主降低他们在工作场所所经历的压力。对我们的参与者而言，应用MCII来减轻压力意味着要反复进行一种心理练习，该练习包括：（1）明确一个与减轻压力相关的愿望；（2）识别并想象其最期望的积极结果；（3）察觉并想象阻碍他们的障碍；（4）想出一个关于如何克服该障碍的“如果……那么……”计划。我们招募了德国各地不同医疗机构的在线护士，并将参与者随机分为三组。在MCII组（n = 33）中，通过电子邮件向参与者教授如何进行这项练习，并要求他们在为期3周的时间里每天进行该练习。与两个对照组相比，一个是无治疗对照组（n = 35），另一个是改良MCII组（n = 32），我们的实验性MCII组显示出压力水平降低且工作投入度提高。我们讨论了本研究的优缺点以及强化MCII对减轻压力效果的方法。
