Occupational Psychology in Practice - the Individual

Whilst ‘work’ is commonly understood as an activity to generate income (Oxford Dictionary, 2009), all of us work in some way or another, whether this is paid or unpaid, inside the home or outside the home. There is also no doubt that being in work is good for us. A now classic study by Marie Jahoda and colleagues (reference to add) showed the effects of unemployment on a small community, the findings leading her to conclude that work is central to our identity sense of worth and thus vital in modern day industrial societies. Jahoda went on to develop the deprivation theory of unemployment (1981) identifying five different categories important for well being, such as structure, time and social contact. She argued that the unemployed are deprived of these, which she claimed accounts for reported impaired physical and mental health in unemployed people. There is no doubt that work is central to our lives, as one of the first question that we are typically asked when meeting new people is ‘so what do you do?’ Individuals and organisations are now part of a world of work where the only constant is change and this chapter will outline on a practical level how we can understand the world of work from the individual’s perspective