SASS Lab

Stress and Social Support (SASS) at Work Research Lab

The Stress and Social Support (SASS) at work lab is focused on research within the domain of Occupational Health Psychology. The focus of our lab is to understand workplace stressors, the outcomes of excessive stressors, and resources to help employees cope with inevitable stressors.

Here's some of the current projects underway!

Barriers to positive mental health: Research has supported that quality recovery time away from work can be extremely beneficial, yet many workers do not take time for self-care and recovery. A main goal of our current research is to understand why workers do not take time for recovery and what can be done to remove barriers. Further, we are also interested in why workers do not take advantage of mental health resources, like counseling or other forms of therapy, when they experience high levels of stress or emotional problems.
Optimal social resources: Social support can be one of our greatest resources. Our lab is interested in understanding how social support can help to contribute to better worker health and well-being, as well as when support can become unhelpful. For instance, we are interested in when our social social support networks form unhelpful norms (e.g., gossip, comparisons) and when support doesn't meet an individual's true needs (unintentionally unhelpful support).
Stress as a badge of honor: Do you sometimes feel like you're in a competition with others to be the "most stressed"? Or, when you're taking a break, do you almost feel weird or guilty about not being "stressed"? This is a phenomenon I studied for my doctoral dissertation and am continuing to investigate. I have developed a measure of stress as a badge of honor (Black & Britt, 2023), and examined its relationships with health and well-being outcomes. We are continuing to understand this construct through daily diary studies and applications in new samples.
Economic stress: Money is one of the central resources we need to survive in our modern society. It makes sense then that stress associated with insufficient income can take a toll on well-being. Our lab is interested in understanding the predictors and outcomes of income-related stress, both in student and working adult populations.

Completed Graduate Thesis Projects from the Lab

Amira Marquez Moreno (2024). Understanding the experience of immigrant workers: A qualitative examination of work demands, resources, and barriers to achieving optimal well-being. https://scholar.utc.edu/theses/869/
Julia Anglin (2024). Developing and validating a measure of workplace recovery motives. https://scholar.utc.edu/theses/870/
Brittany Ikner (2023). Investigating the Role of Emotional Stability in ‘Unplugging’ from Work. https://scholar.utc.edu/theses/812/
Laura Waldron (2022). When helping hurts: Understanding resource recovery in non-profit work places. https://scholar.utc.edu/theses/762/
Stephanie Penpek (2022). Experiences of employees with chronic health conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic. https://scholar.utc.edu/theses/751/
Camille Wheatley (2021). “Are you busy right now?” Stressor appraisal and interruptions to workflow. https://scholar.utc.edu/theses/717/
Jacquelyn Keaton (2021). Using the Job Demands-Resources model to predict burnout in police officers. https://scholar.utc.edu/theses/708/
Destiny Burns (2020). Working with wildlife: Stress in relation to safety climate and calling. https://scholar.utc.edu/theses/654
Linsey Klein (2020). Perceptions of inequity among NCAA intercollegiate athletes: responses and outcomes. https://scholar.utc.edu/theses/661

Completed Honor's Thesis Projects from the Lab

Luke Wiley (2023). The effect of perceived union support as a resource on stress, well-being, and burnout among electrical workers.
Molly Martin (2023). Perceptions of stress: A gendered comparison of undergraduates.
Emily Halvorson (2020). “Sticks and stones”: Experiencing microaggressions from the perspective of the victim, bystander, and perpetrator. https://scholar.utc.edu/honors-theses/295/
Jaylee Oliver (2020). Yoga as a means for reducing college student stress. https://scholar.utc.edu/honors-theses/243

Other published works from the undergraduate research lab

*Lobins, S., *Lesswing, A., *Anglin, J., *Johnson, K., Black, K.J. (in press). The innocent bystander: A scenario-based study on the impact of leadership gossip. Modern Psychological Sciences (undergraduate research journal), 29 (1), Article 14. https://scholar.utc.edu/mps/vol29/iss1/14
*Hudson, M., *Halvorson, E., *Oliver, J., *Johnson, K. *Lane, G., & Black, K.J. (2020). Student perceptions of stress and relaxation at the beginning and end of the week. Modern Psychological Sciences (undergraduate research journal), 26 (1), Article 1. https://scholar.utc.edu/mps/vol26/iss1/1

Research Team News

2025 SIOP conference

Graduate students Sawyer Robinson and Audrey Pennington presented their research comparing job attitudes of workers who had a criminal background to those who did not. They found that those with a criminal background actually reported significantly higher levels of commitment and similar levels of turnover intentions to comparable employees with no criminal background. This adds some data to claims that those with a criminal background will be loyal and hardworking if given a chance.

2023 SIOP conference

Deyana Siddiqui, graduate student, presented some of her research on economic stressors and worker well-being.

Luke Wiley, undergraduate student, presented his thesis research on the importance of union support for worker burnout and engagement.

Research Dialogues Spring 2023

The SASS lab was busy at UTC's Spring research conference!

Amanda Lesswing presented her research on attorney mental health.
Brittany Ikner presented her research on factors that relate to detachment from work.
Luke Wiley presented his research on his thesis, investigating the role of union support for worker well-being.

Congratulations to our Spring 2022 Graduates!

Undergraduate researchers, Katrina Johnson and Julia Anglin (pictured right)
Graduate thesis students, Stephanie Penpek and Laura Waldron

Research Dialogues Spring 2022

Undergraduate researchers, Julia Anglin, Katrina Johnson, and Samantha Lobins, presented their research on the impacts of workplace gossip on bystanders. Using a vignette design, the team found that individuals tended to have more negative reactions to a hypothetical scenario where they overheard gossip about a co-worker versus hearing gossip about themselves.
Laura Waldron, I-O Psychology graduate student, shared her thesis work, which was supported by a UTC SEARCH grant. She found that taking time for recovery, especially psychological detachment, can benefit the well-being of non-profit workers.
Stephanie Penpek, I-O Psychology graduate student, shared her thesis work, which was also supported by a UTC SEARCH grant. She studied workers with chronic health conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic, finding that job insecurity was related to worse well-being, but resources like support and flexibility can benefit well-being.
Emma Vosika, I-O Psychology graduate student, presented her research on the impacts of microbreaks on end of day energy. She found that breaks did not necessarily improve energy as expected, in a sample of attorneys who completed a daily diary study. However, feeling a sense of positive energy toward their work (engagement) was related to more energy at the end of the day.

Research Dialogues, April 2019

Celeste Bremmer (graduate student) worked on a project examining anticipated burnout among college students. She found that many college students fear they will "burn out" of their future work, but viewing work as a calling may help students keep a more positive outlook.

The SASS undergraduate research team presented two posters at Research Dialogues. These posters addressed stress that college students face, like impostor syndrome and academic stressors, as well as how stressors may affect student well-being. The team members included Natalie Parks, Emily Halvorson, Jaylee Oliver, Molly Hudson, and Gracelyn Lane.

Christian Saenz presented his research on political skill as a predictor of workplace performance and relationship quality at the River Cities I-O (RCIO) Psychology conference in 2018.

The first members of the SASS lab, Christian Saenz and Gracelyn Lane, presented about barriers to academic help seeking at UTC's Research Dialogues in 2018.

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