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Researchers and counsellors have observed a range of stress reactions in emergency service workers even after extreme and putatively traumatic incidents. Various studies have sought to delineate characteristics of incidents or of individuals which account for differences in appraisal and stress reactions. Few studies have examined expectations of stress and stressors in recruits to emergency work. Looks at such expectations in firefighter recruits, measured at the beginning and end of their training program, and compares their predictions with actual ratings from a group of experienced firefighters in the same organization. Most of the recruits already had some familiarity with the emergency environment. Stress ratings for items dealing with other people in the emergency work context increased over training. Discusses the relationships between predictions of stress, training, and task performance.

Recruits entering a firefighting training program gave predictions about the likelihood of positive or negative reactions after a stressful emergency call‐out. Their results were compared with a group of experienced firefighters. Recruits more frequently checked positive than negative reactions, a pattern resembling that of the experienced firefighters. The recruits, however, were generally more optimistic than the experienced group, and this did not change significantly across training. Expectations of positive reactions are not necessarily good or bad. Excessive expectation about positive reactions may increase vulnerability when emergency workers cannot do anything to save lives or prevent destruction. Alternatively, an excessive reliance on positive reactions may form a type of addiction making the emergency worker vulnerable to subsequent breakdown in coping and performance. Recruits' expectations can be addressed during training, especially those expectations that put emergency workers at risk in disaster and emergency environments.

Emergency workers vary in their levels of experience, both in terms of years of service and involvement with traumatic incidents, and both types can influence vulnerability to stress. Opposing arguments can be made that experience has a sensitising or desensitising effect. Experienced emergency workers are shown to be more at risk in some studies and less so in others. It is proposed that the relationship between experience and stress is not necessarily linear, as is frequently assumed in such studies. This paper presents a test of linear and quadratic trends on stress and related variables across three groups of experienced firefighters. The results support the proposition that the relationship between stress and experience is quadratic, with stress highest in the middle experience group, and lowest in the low and high experience groups. This result is not explained by differences in actual traumatic exposures or coping practices. Other possible reasons are discussed.

AbstractA new form of program evaluation, called inspections, is changing the evaluation landscape in a number of federal agencies.

Firefighters completed a questionnaire which examined both positive
and negative reactions following major call‐outs. Positive reactions
were more frequently checked than negative ones. Factor analysis of
positive reactions resulted in four factors, suggesting that positive
reactions after a call‐out represented more than an increased sense of
general wellbeing. The type of reactions reported were related to the
type of incident attended. Differences in reaction patterns were related
to self‐reported coping style and age of the firefighters.