Mass psychogenic illness in organizations: An overview

Colligan, Michael J.; Murphy, Lawrence R.

doi:10.1111/j.2044-8325.1979.tb00444.x

Cited by 93 publications

(53 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…Even today, when outbreaks are investigated and found to have an apparently psychologic cause, often no attempt to understand the illness further is made beyond publishing the results of the investigation. Failure to do so may result in the inability of health officials to prevent future outbreaks (49,66,105).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Boredom, production pressures, physical stressors, poor communication, and labor-management relations are key factors (66). Dissatisfaction with one's job (59) and conflicts between demands at work and at home (4, 56, 59) have also been cited.…”

Section: Underlying Precipitating Factorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Any of these triggers may precipitate response to underlying factors, which can be broadly categorized as psychologic conflict, anxiety, or stress that not only must be high, but also inescapable (2). In the work setting, this stress may be related to factors such as boredom, production pressures, physical stressors, lack of communication, labor-management relations (66), dissatisfaction with the job, or conflict between one's job and other obligations, particularly those at home (4,56,59).…”

Section: Triggering Factorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Epidemic Hysteria: A Review of the Published Literature

Boss

1997

Epidemiologic Reviews

132

128

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Underlying Precipitating Factorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Triggering Factorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Epidemic Hysteria: A Review of the Published Literature

Boss

1997

Epidemiologic Reviews

132

128

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“…In a well conducted survey of an episode of mass anxiety hysteria they showed a significant difference in rates of family disruption between hospitalized and non-hospitalized chil- Table 6. Individual factors in mass hysteria Author(s) Colligan & Murphy (1979) Goldberg (1973) Knight el al. dren.…”

Section: Individual Factors In Mass Hysteriamentioning

confidence: 99%

Mass hysteria: two syndromes?

Wessely

1987

Psychol. Med.

100

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SynopsisOn the basis of a literature review it is concluded that mass hysteria can be divided into two syndromes. One form, to be called ‘mass anxiety hysteria’, consists of episodes of acute anxiety, occurring mainly in schoolchildren. Prior tension is absent and the rapid spread is by visual contact. Treatment consists of separating the participants and the prognosis is good. The second form, to be called ‘mass motor hysteria’, consists of abnormalities in motor behaviour. It occurs in any age group and prior tension is present. Initial cases can be identified and the spread is gradual. Treatment should be directed towards the underlying stressors but the outbreak may be prolonged. In mass anxiety hysteria the abnormality is confined to group interactions; in mass motor hysteria abnormal personalities and environments are implicated.

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“…In addition to high job dissatisfaction, boredom has been linked to greater anxiety and stress [17,25], particularly for military personnel [26], as well as premature death due to cardiovascular disease [27,28]. Other long term consequences of boredom can include absenteeism and poor retention [17].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Boredom and Distraction in Multiple Unmanned Vehicle Supervisory Control

Cummings¹,

Mastracchio²,

Thornburg³

et al. 2013

Interacting With Computers

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Operators currently controlling Unmanned Aerial Vehicles report significant boredom, and such systems will likely become more automated in the future. Similar problems are found in process control, commercial aviation, and medical settings. To examine the effect of boredom in such settings, a long duration low task load experiment was conducted. Three low task load levels requiring operator input every 10, 20, or 30 minutes were tested in a four-hour study using a multiple unmanned vehicle simulation environment that leverages decentralized algorithms for sometimes imperfect vehicle scheduling. Reaction times to system-generated events generally decreased across the four hours, as did participants' ability to maintain directed attention. Overall, participants spent almost half of the time in a distracted state. The top performer spent the majority of time in directed and divided attention states.Unexpectedly, the second-best participant, only 1% worse than the top performer, was distracted almost one third of the experiment, but exhibited a periodic switching strategy, allowing him to pay just enough attention to assist the automation when needed. Indeed, four of the five top performers were distracted more than one-third of the time. These findings suggest that distraction due to boring, low task load environments can be effectively managed through efficient attention switching. Future work is needed to determine optimal frequency and duration of attention state switches given various exogenous attributes, as well as individual variability. These findings have implications for the design of and personnel selection for supervisory control systems where operators monitor highly automated systems for long durations with only occasional or rare input.

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Mass psychogenic illness in organizations: An overview

Cited by 93 publications

References 33 publications

Epidemic Hysteria: A Review of the Published Literature

Epidemic Hysteria: A Review of the Published Literature

Mass hysteria: two syndromes?

Boredom and Distraction in Multiple Unmanned Vehicle Supervisory Control

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