An 8-week Stress Management Program in Information Technology Professionals and the Role of a New Cognitive...

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Information Technology
• Health Sciences

Background:

• Stress significantly impacts the well-being and performance of IT professionals.
• Effective stress management techniques are crucial for this demographic.
• Short-term interventions require evaluation for their efficacy.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare the short-term benefits of an 8-week stress management program versus Pythagorean Self-awareness Training (PSAT) in IT professionals.
• To evaluate the effects on perceived stress, health locus of control, anxiety, and depression.
• To assess improvements in cognitive speed, verbal memory, emotional intelligence, lifestyle, and personal control.

Main Methods:

• Parallel randomized controlled trial involving 81 IT professionals.
• Intervention groups: Standard Stress Management (SM) (n=40) and PSAT (n=41).
• Validated self-reported measures assessed psychological and cognitive outcomes.

Main Results:

• Both groups showed significant improvements in cognitive speed and verbal memory.
• PSAT demonstrated superiority over SM in reducing depression, enhancing emotional intelligence, lifestyle, personal control, and verbal memory.
• Cognitive speed improvements were attributed to both interventions, while verbal memory gains were primarily linked to PSAT.

Conclusions:

• Stress management interventions, particularly PSAT, offer significant short-term benefits for IT professionals.
• Findings highlight the potential of PSAT for improving mental health and cognitive function.
• Further research with larger samples and longer follow-up periods is recommended.