Research

Screening of Mental Workload (in German: SPA - Screening psychologischer Arbeitsbelastung) – serves to analyze and evaluate work related psychic impairments within the scope of risk assessment according to the German labour protection law of 1996.

SMW combines condition- and personnel-related analysis procedures.

The condition-related procedure SMW-S is designed for the external assessor trained as an occupational psychologist. The features to be assessed form the analysis framework. They refer to the areas of decision latitude (DL),) complexity/variability (CV), qualification requirements (QU), risky work situations/special requirements on reliability of action (R), and physical and psychosocial work conditions (WC).

The personnel-related procedures SMW-P1 and SMW- P2 are designed as questionnaires. The employees describe the experienced work situation with the help of the given features and then assess the stress experienced.

The features of SMW-S and SMW-P directly relate to each other.

The evaluation is done separately for each procedure component; the overall evaluation is the result of the combination of the procedures. Limiting values are stated.

Beyond evaluation, hints on the manner of necessary or desired interventions are given from the combination of the partial results.

Prof. Dr. Anna-Marie Metz
Prof. Dr. Heinz-Jürgen Rothe

Metz, A. M. & Rothe, H.-J. (2016) (Hrsg.). Screening psychischer Arbeitsbelastung. Ein Verfahren zur Gefährdungsbeurteilung. Berlin: Springer.