What is OHP?
Many psychologists have argued that the psychology field needs to take a more active role in research and practice to prevent occupational stress, illness, and injury. This is what the new field of Occupational Health Psychology (OHP) is all about. Although research and practice in OHP may cover a wide range of topics, NIOSH has urged that this new field give special attention to the primary prevention of organizational risk factors for stress, illness, and injury at work. This viewpoint is expressed in the NIOSH-proposed definition of OHP: OHP 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. The notion of health "protection" in this definition refers to intervention in the work environment to reduce worker exposures to workplace hazards, while health "promotion" refers to individual-level interventions to equip workers with knowledge and resources to improve their health and thereby resist hazards in the work environment. Although both of these types of interventions can be defined as primary prevention, the NIOSH-proposed definition places priority on health protection. OHP is especially concerned with the dramatic transformation of work and employment that has been underway in industrial economies since the 1980s (e.g., flexible employment and production processes), and how changing organizational structures and processes are influencing the health and well-being of workers and their families. Refer to the articles listed under the OHP Bibliography for a more extensive discussion of this emerging field.
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3:23 AM
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