Research on cognitive appraisal of stressful achievement events has emphasized threat appraisals and anxiety. The present research also focused on challenge and positive emotion. Study 1 used hypothetical scenarios of stressful events. Study 2 explored temporal pattems of appraisal and emotion prior to an exam. Compared with threat appraisals, trait and state challenge appraisals were associated with more confident coping expectancies, lower perceptions of threat, higher positive emotion, and more beneficial perceptions of the effects of appraisal and emotion on performance. Beneficial perceptions of state appraisals were associated with higher exam performance. These findings were interpreted in the context of theoretical perspectives on the cognitive appraisal of stressful events and the adaptive functions of challenge and positive emotion.

Work time in the form of long hours or control over work scheduling (flexibility) dominates much of the debate, and organisational policies and interventions, around sustaining a healthy work-life relationship. In this study we challenge this assumption, and argue instead for the importance of the quantity of work (work overload). Using data collected in a national Australian study, we found that work overload was the strongest predictor of full-time employees' work-life conflict. Work hours, their fit with preferences, and control over work scheduling also demonstrated small to moderate associations with work-life conflict. This study indicates that time-based work-life policies, procedures and interventions are necessary, but not sufficient, for addressing work-life conflict. Effective management of work overload, with its potential to contribute to emotional strain/exhaustion and long work hours, should be considered as a keystone strategy to support a healthy work-life relationship.Time is a prominent feature of work-life discussions, policies and strategies, particularly around issues of long work hours and flexibility in work scheduling. In this paper we question whether a time-based approach to work-life issues is sufficient to guide effective policies and interventions. Instead we argue that addressing issues of workload, work overload in particular, should

National surveillance of psychosocial risk factors in the workplace is important to record the changing work environment and for the development (and monitoring) of policies and programs to prevent stress and promote mental and physical health and well-being at work. This paper overviews national surveillance systems for psychosocial risks and outcomes (35 national systems across 20 different countries, and an additional four multi-country systems), and then looks for convergence between the systems and the current research literature. This paper is the first to provide a compendium of current national surveillance systems on psychosocial risk. It describes the content of each system and gives an overview of sampling methodology, providing an evaluation of comprehensiveness rather than of quality of tools and methods. Recommendations include: (1) surveillance should be the priority for any national research agenda for psychosocial risk management; (2) stakeholders should cooperate with international systems operators to work towards the development of ''state of the art'' systems;(3) issues for priority inclusion in surveillance systems are emotional demands/emotional labour, workplace bullying, harassment, and violence, exposure to acute stressors, organizational justice, the occurrence and impact of global organizational change, and positive psychological states; (4) systems should be flexible to identify and assess emerging risk factors/groups; and (5) an international surveillance system should be implemented.

The influence of negative emotions such as anxiety on athletes’ preparation and performance has been studied extensively. The focus of this review is on more adaptive approaches to competition such as the experience of positive emotion and beneficial perceptions of emotion. Evidence on the antecedents and adaptive consequences of positive emotions is reviewed, and implications for research and practice in a sport context are suggested. We focus on the cognitive appraisal of challenge as a significant antecedent of both positive emotion and beneficial perceptions of emotion. A theoretical model of beneficial and harmful perceptions of emotion is presented which incorporates appraisals of challenge, coping expectancies, and valence (positive vs. negative) of emotion. Research that supports the model is reviewed, and implications for research, coaching, and training in the sport context are suggested.

A large body of empirical research now exists about ‘work and family’, much of it in agreement on critical issues. However, it is under‐conceptualized, it over‐researches professional and managerial workers and it under‐attends the larger terrain of work, family and community. This contribution argues the case for a stronger analytical framework around work, family and community and the ways in which they intersect, drawing on concepts commonly used in the field of employment relations. The article utilizes a body of empirical research about work, family and community in Australia to develop Voydanoff's ecological systems model of work, home and community, arguing that it is vital to unpack the ‘black box’ of ‘work’ in a multi‐layered way, to give appropriate weight to various sources of power, and to avoid an individualistic approach to the reconciliation of work, home and community life by locating analysis in a larger social and political context. The contribution proposes a ‘socio‐ecological systems’ model of work, home and community that delineates the four issues of power, time, space and life stage.