In so doing they hope to distil two years' work into a more manageable and memorable form. W ith GCSEs and A-levels only a few months away, now is the time that many students will start making their revision notes. Before, Stirling academics already dealt frequently with the medical profession, especially with local GPs through the Forth Valley General Practice Research Group. Funding for the centre comes from the university's core resources, the NHS, and pharmaceutical companies. Professor Power believes the centre's research should be "something with theoretical value and clinical relevance".. The trauma project is likely to use individual interviews as the core research method.The centre is cementing co-operation between medical and clinical researchers. This will focus on the aftermath of road traffic accidents, rather than large, headline-grabbing disasters.

In both cases, the projects will span a wide range of occupational groups. These will be on a larger scale than the projects to date, which have involved samples of between 170 and 976 employees.The centre is also expecting to begin work on post-traumatic stress disorder. But because the research deals with day-to-day occupational stress, it applies to a much wider range of careers.Plans are under way to examine stress in large organisations, including an NHS trust and the staff of Stirling University itself. Researchers have also examined coping strategies, including the use of humour as a way to deal with stressful situations.Work with the medical profession and the emergency services stems from the department of psychology's existing connections. In the police research - the university agreed not to identify the force concerned - Stirling academics found that stress related to "organisational factors" was more wearing than dealing with potentially life-threatening situations while on patrol. Data was obtained through questionnaires distributed in Scotland and the United States. The centre has examined links between stress and the physical health of American firefighters; stress and distress in a Scottish police force; and the effects of occupational stress on the family life of GPs and consultants, also in Scotland.The findings show that day-to-day problems such as poor communications between management and staff, a lack of resources and time pressures weigh heavily on employees and reduce their productivity.

The centre's honorary professor, Dr Richard Simpson, is a practicing GP and psychiatrist, and several research programmes are funded by the local Forth Valley Health Board and the Central Scotland NHS Trust.Work on stress, and occupational stress in particular, grew out of research into anxiety, according to Professor Kevin Power, director of the centre. A large number of patients, referred by GPs to Stirling psychologists for anxiety treatment, were suffering from stress Research into the subject grew from there "There is a big overlap," Professor Power explains. "Both stress and anxiety are triggered by life events."Work to date on occupational stress includes studies of doctors and hospital consultants, police officers and the fire service. In some people, this can have more serious consequences, such as heart disease and cancer.The Stirling centre brings together expertise from the university's department of psychology, which has been researching stress and anxiety for 12 years, and health service specialists.