TABLE OF CONTENTS It is indisputable that etiologic research demonstrating the relationship between psychosocial workplace stressors, and a number of key health outcomes, would not have been possible without generic instruments to measure these exposures. The very success of this line of research, coupled with the global trends towards a deterioration in working conditions, oblige us to sharpen our tools, so that efforts to protect working people against these deleterious job exposures are maximally effective.
As discussed in the previous chapter, cognitive ergonomics and brain research provide a complementary approach vis- -vis constructs such as the Job Strain and Effort-Reward Imbalance Models that are based heavily upon sociological theory. We have seen that the burden of work processes upon the central nervous system (CNS) can be described in objective terms. This is particularly important for the dimension of psychologically demanding work, which has often been mired with problems of report bias (both over-report and denial), and insufficient internal consistency (Theorell 1996, Kristensen 2002). Kristensen and colleagues (Ibid), consider that this problem is due to poor conceptualization of work demands and suggest a more quantitative and dimensionalized approach. The psychological demand dimension of the Job Strain Model has not proven to be as robust a predictor of outcomes such as ischemic heart disease, in comparison to the control dimension. On that basis, some have even called into question the validity of the Job Strain Model itself. However, from the vantage point...
