Motivation and emotion/Book/2024/Conservation of resources theory and stress

Conservation of resources theory and stress:
How does COR theory explain stress and how can it be applied?

Multimedia presentation (3 min)

Case Study: Billy comes to work on a sunny Monday morning expecting a relatively easy start to the day. They are told that the key stakeholder they were working with the week before has suddenly asked for an urgent report. Billy sighed heavily as their dream of an easy day melted away and that they were likely going to be working late that day.

Overview

A picture of gold bars - a physical resource desired by many.

Understanding psychological stress is key to understanding how human beings are motivated and over the last 60 years two key stress theories have risen that look sat the causes of stress. Lazarus' Appraisal theory focus more on individualistic factors (a person's perceptions expectations) to situations as the cause of stress while the Hobfoll Conservation of Resource theory looks to explain stress without those individualistic factors, arguing that stress results when a person's stockpile of resources is threatened or lessened in some way.

COR would suggest that our friend Billy in the above case study is likely experiencing stress due to a loss of resources, primarily time. Throughout this chapter we will take a deep dive into what COR is and how it explains the causes of stress in human beings as well as it's impacts on current day psychological research. We will come back to our friend Billy in multiple case studies to look at the different types of resources and impacts of resource loss and gain.

At the end of this chapter you will be able to answer the following questions:

1. What is the Conservation of Resources theory?
2. How does COR explain stress?
3. What are the applications for COR?

What is Conservation of Resources (COR) theory?

Conservation of resources theory described the cause of stress as real or perceived loss or threats to your resources.

Introduction

• COR arose as a response to existing theories that focused on individuals perceptions of imbalance as the cause of stress. (Lazarus,1966)(Hobfoll, 1989)
• these existing theories involve individualistic factors and it is difficult to use them in modelling methods for stress prevention and coping for large populations. (DiClemente et al, 2002)
• Fundamentally COR suggest that everyone is driven to conserve and grow their resources and that resources can be more than just physical things and that stress is a result of resource loss (Hobfoll, 1989 and 2001a) (then set out the key principles as detailed in Hobfoll 1998 and 2001a and Halbesleben et al 2014)

Tenet, principles and corollaries

Note: This section will provide plain English descriptions of the tenet, principles and corollaries as set out in Hobfoll, 1998 and 2001a as well as Halbesleben et al, 2014. each section will also include a mini case scenario that scaffolds off of the base scenario above and which will all ultimately feed into a quiz in the conclusion section

Tenet

Humans are driven to both conserve their current resources and seek out new resources.

Case Study: Billy continued

Principle 1: The Primacy of Resource Loss   

This principle states that human's feel the impact of resource loss more than the impact of resource gain.

Case Study: Billy continued

Principle 2: Resource Investment

Humans have a tendency to invest their current resources to prevent against resource loss into the future.

Case Study: Billy continued

Corollary 1: individuals with existing resources are better positioned to grow those resources

Naturally if you have an existing pool of resources it is easier to invest those resources and grow your 'pool'. the opposite of this is also true, in that if you have no resources it can be incredibly difficult to make future gains.

Case Study: Billy continued

Corollary 2: Initial gains leads to future gains

This corollary suggest that making initial gains increases your chances of resource gains in the future.

Case Study: Billy continued

Corollary 3: Initial losses leads to future losses

The opposite of Corollary 2, immediate losses will increase your chances of future losses.

Case Study: Billy continued

Corollary 4: those with a lack of resources will be defensive of their remaining resources

people with few resources will be incredibly defensive of their remaining resources and seek to avoid future losses at all costs.

Case Study: Billy continued

How does COR explain stress?

This section will delve deeper into how COR explains stress focusing mainly on Hobfall's 2011 chapter in the Oxford handbook of stress, health and coping.

What are the applications for COR

• This section will detail the notable research already conducted on applications for COR:
  • burnout (Hobfoll & freedy, (Van Woerkom et al., 2016)
  • major stress (Hobfoll et al., 2016) (Hobfoll et al., 2019)
• we will also examine recent research to glean the future direction and applications for COR. (Hobfoll et al., 2021) (Hobfoll et al., 2022)

Criticism of COR

• COR is not without criticism. Notably Hobfoll revisited COR in 2001 with a paper that further examined the theory and looked forward at the next steps and potential applications. This paper was met with both support and criticism from the academic community. (Hobfoll, 2001a)
  • The criticism can largely be summerised as arguing that COR is too dismissive of Lazarus' Appraisal theory and that greater work needed to be done to find balance between the two theories. (Schwarzer, 2001), (Thompson & Cooper, 2001)
  • The support came from Quick and Gavin who provided evidence supporting the the theory after reviewing COR with focus on physiological, faith, and wealth. (Quick & Gavin, 2001).
• Hobfoll rebutted the articles later that same year, acknowledging the criticism but drawing attention to the merits that each critical article found in COR and ultimately his findings that COR merits further study to incorporate the work and arguments of his critics. (Hobfoll, 2001b)

Conclusion

• Understanding that stress is caused through the loss or perceived loss of resources has clear impacts on both research and clinical psychology.

Suggestions for this section: What is the answer to the sub-title question based on psychological theory and research? What are the answers to the focus questions? What are the practical, take-home messages? (Even for the topic development, have a go at the likely take-home message)

See also

• Burnout (Book Chapter, 2023)
• Conservation of resources theory (Wikipedia)
• Remote work, stress and well-being (Book Chapter, 2024) * Note this is highly likely to be a relevant link but should be rechecked once work has begun properly on both chapters

References

DiClemente, R. J., Crosby, R., & Kegler, M. C. (2002). Emerging theories in health promotion practice and research: Strategies for improving public health, 285-312. John Wiley & Sons.

Halbesleben, J. R., Neveu, J. P., Paustian-Underdahl, S. C., & Westman, M. (2014). Getting to the “COR” understanding the role of resources in conservation of resources theory. Journal of management, 40(5), 1334-1364.

Hobfoll, S. E. (1989). Conservation of resources: a new attempt at conceptualizing stress. American psychologist, 44(3), 513.

Hobfoll, S. E. (2001a). The influence of culture, community, and the nested-self in the stress process: Advancing Conservation of Resources theory. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 50(3), 337–370. https://doi.org/10.1111/1464-0597.00062

Hobfoll, S. E. (2001b). Conservation of Resources: A rejoinder to the commentaries. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 50(3), 419–421. https://doi.org/10.1111/1464-0597.00064

Hobfoll, S. E. (2011). Conservation of resources theory: Its implication for stress, health, and resilience. The Oxford handbook of stress, health, and coping, 127, 147.

Hobfoll, S. E., Halbesleben, J., Neveu, J. P., & Westman, M. (2018). Conservation of resources in the organizational context: The reality of resources and their consequences. Annual review of organizational psychology and organizational behavior, 5(1), 103-128.

Hobfoll, S., Birch, K., Steijnberg, H., Lewis, J., Nkholongo, N., & Van Wyk, G. (2019). Conservation of Resource Theory (COR) in stress and trauma: An overview of theory, applications, limitations and examples. Trauma Clinic Emergency Counselling Network.

Hobfoll, S. E., Ennis, N., & Kay, J. (2021). Loss, resources, and resiliency in close interpersonal relationships. In Loss and Trauma (pp. 267-285). Routledge.

Hobfoll, S. E., & Freedy, J. (2017). Conservation of resources: A general stress theory applied to burnout. In Professional burnout (pp. 115-129). Routledge.

Egozi Farkash, H., Lahad, M., Hobfoll, S. E., Leykin, D., & Aharonson-Daniel, L. (2022). Conservation of resources, psychological distress, and resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic. International Journal of Public Health, 67, 1604567.

Hobfoll, S. E., Tirone, V., Holmgreen, L., & Gerhart, J. (2016). Conservation of resources theory applied to major stress. In Stress: Concepts, cognition, emotion, and behavior (pp. 65-71). Academic Press.

Lazarus, R. S. (1966). Some principles of psychological stress and their relation to dentistry. Journal of dental research, 45(6), 1620-1626. https://doi.org/10.1177/002203456604500609

Quick, J. C., & Gavin, J. H. (2001). Four perspectives on Conservation of Resources theory: A commentary. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 50(3), 392–400.

Van Woerkom, M., Bakker, A. B., & Nishii, L. H. (2016). Accumulative job demands and support for strength use: Fine-tuning the job demands-resources model using conservation of resources theory. Journal of Applied Psychology, 101(1), 141.

External links

• Managing stress and anxiety ( Parliamentary Workplace Support Service)
• Stress and trauma (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare)