ABSTRACT
Researchers have attempted to identify and categorise the major sources of stress in work environments. Intrinsic factors include both the content and the context of the job, and range from the quantity and quality of work, through the conditions of work to an extensive range of contextual factors such as noise, lighting and environmental design. Despite vast differences in attitudes and behaviour outside work, people come to behave and to think in similar ways within the work environment. Warr argues that environmental factors in terms of stress operate in a similar fashion. Essentially, a stressful family environment can be defined as lacking the factors that contribute to resilience. In environmental psychology such stressors are described as ambient and include noise, weather, air pollution and other aspects of the enduring physical environment. Community-wide sources of stress, such as living in a high-crime environment, or in overcrowded conditions, are perhaps underestimated in terms of their effects on individuals.
