So far, so good: Up to now, the challenge-hindrance framework describes a practical and accurate distinction

摘要

There are many ways to categorize work-related stressors, and in recent years, a common distinction in occupational health psychology is between stressors viewed as challenges versus hindrances. Is this a useful conceptualization that provides practical and theoretical implications for IO psychologists? As Kurt Lewin famously prescribed, "there is nothing so practical as a good theory," and we discuss the challenge-hindrance framework as a developing theory that can be useful for researchers and practitioners. We note that some of the early thinking and development of the challenge-hindrance distinction relied on both resource and appraisal theories of stress. Overall, we find that the challenge-hindrance distinction can be viewed as a framework that is useful by producing interesting, valuable, and innovative research. Simply striving to find meaningful and useful categorizations of stressors can lead us to discover new insights into the occupational stress domain, and the challenge-hindrance categories have already spurred a great deal of research.