The Relationship between Gratitude and Job Stress Guard Officers at

State Prison

Kartika Sari, Devy Novianty, Mirza, Arum Sulistyani

Department of Psychology, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Syiah Kuala, Indonesia

Keywords: Gratitude, Job Stress, Guard officers, State Prison

Abstract: Job is one of the primary needs of individuals. In working, not only have individuals always be in the

enjoyable situation, they also have pressures that lead to stress. Individual workers face a different stress;

some people deal it negatively, while the other deal it positively. Gratitude encourages positive emotions.

The presence of positive emotions can eliminate the negative emotions which reduce the job stress levels of

individual. This research aims to determine the relationship between the gratitude and job stress on guard

officers in the state prison. The sampling technique used in this study is saturated sampling where all the 40

guard officer populations were used as the sample. The two measuring instruments used in this study were

adaptation scale-6 Gratitude Questionnaire (GQ-6) developed by McCullough, Emmons, and Tsang and the

scale of occupational stress scale (OSS) developed by House, McMichael, Wells, Kaplan, and Landerman.

The results of data analysis using Pearson correlation technique showed a correlation coefficient (r) of -

0.492 with p = 0.001 (p <0.05). Based on these results, the hypothesis is accepted which can be concluded

that there is a significant correlation between the negative emotions and gratitude with job stress on guard

officers in state prison. The results also indicated that the State Prison guard officers have a high category of

gratitude with low job stress.

1 INTRODUCTION

Job is the main part of life and is required

professionalism which can raise some pressures for

an individual in workplace, the pressures may

happen continuously and make workers stress

(Rizkiyani & Saragih, 2012). Job stress is a

condition presenting as the result of one’s interaction

with his/her job and workplace (Anoraga, 2001). Job

stress can be experienced by everyone, one of whom

is the state prison guard.

Actof The Republic of Indonesia No 8 Year 1981

on Criminal Code Procedures states that a prison is a

place in which suspects or defendants are prisoned

during investigation, prosecution, and trial in

Indonesian court. A prison is prisoning facility of a

city or a state for the guilty who could not be

detained for more than a year in most states. A

prison functions to provide service and regulation

for prisoners, foster and guide inmates in the frame

of punishment, prevention and overcoming as well

as development and protection of Human Rights

(Machmud, 2013). According to Database system of

correctional service (2015), Aceh has 6 prisons, as

follows:

Table 1: Total of Prison in Aceh

Name of

Prison

Total of

Prisoners

Capacity %

%

Over

capaci-

ClassIIB

Prison in

Banda

Aceh

455 464 98 0

Class IIB

Prison in

Sabang

23 55 45 0

Class IIB

Prison in

Takengon

290 65 446 346

Sari, K., Novianty, D., Mirza, . and Sulistyani, A.

The Relationship between Gratitude and Job Stress Guard Ofﬁcers at State Prison.

DOI: 10.5220/0009437000290039

In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Psychology (ICPsy 2019), pages 29-39

ISBN: 978-989-758-448-0

Name of

Prison

Total of

Prisoners

Capacity %

%

Over

capaci-

Class IIB

Prison in

Sigli

278 120 232 132

Class IIB

Prison in

Jantho

275 140 196 96

Class IIB

Prison in

Tapaktuan

121 75 161 61

(Source: Database System of Correctional Service, 2015)

Based on the table above, four prisons are over

capacity i.e. Class IIB Prison in Takengon, Class IIB

Prison in Sigli, Class IIB Prison in Jantho, and Class

IIB Prison in Tapaktuan. Based on interview with

the head of Prison in Jantho, initial SM and 47-year-

old male, it is known that generally the prisoners in

the prison are from various cases like Narcotics,

corruption, and other crimes as follows murder,

thievery, and domestic violence.

Like other occupations, workers in prisons have

certain sources and levels of stress. A research from

Nigeria shows that prison guards’ stress is caused by

inadequate workplace and working facility. Those

are riots in prison, the lack of water, bad procedures,

improper building and others (Okoza &Aluede,

2010). It is different from what happens in

Indonesia, too much workload, not providing proper

welfare and the lack of resource and inadequate

facility become the causes of stress to the prisons

guards in Indonesia. Job stress experienced by the

prison guards in Indonesia tends to be caused by

workload (Rizkiyani & Saragih, 2012).

High workload is from various aspects, as the

reality told by the head of Jantho prison that job

stress of the guards is responsibility pressure.

According to House, McMichael, Wells, Kaplan,

and Landerman (1979) responsibility pressure is as

the result of the lack of human resource making

prison guards work improperly, the number of

guards is unequal with the number of prisoners, one

guard should have guard ten prisoners, however in

fact one guard guards tens of prisoners,

consequently control and overseeing are not

maximum.

Workload, as the result of the lack of resource in

prison, is unequal number between guards and

prisoners affecting on the number of guards who

secure the main door. Based on interview with one

of prison guards, initial RS, he said that he became

difficult in controlling the guests in a day whose

number was expected about 100 people, and difficult

to guard the prisoners trying to escape through the

main door.

Another problem experienced by the guards in

Jantho prison was also told by a guard with initial

name R, he said that the problem happened when the

exchanging shift of guards was often late and made

the current guard have to make additional time to

wait the next guard came. Based on the interview, it

can be known that there is the indiscipline among

guards which can be seen from the lateness in

exchanging shift happening because of several

reasons like laziness in recounting the prisoners in

one block to another block, going to university to

study, walking and picking up family. It makes them

feel ashamed with the previous guard, consequently

it has bad impact to interpersonal relationship among

guards like not greeting or even not talking to each

other anymore. Robbins and Judge (2011) explains

that bad interpersonal relationship among employees

can cause stress, and role load is also experienced

when an employee is expected to work longer than it

should be. Moreover, emphasized by Mangkunegar

and Prabu (in Martini & Fadli, 2011), job conflict is

a cause of job stress.

In addition, another source of job stress in prison

is inadequate required facility at prison in Aceh.

Based on interview with the head of Jantho Prison,

SM, told that the lack of facility to support the job in

the prison like no gun, no security camera and tool

to check guests automatically. According to Istijanto

(in Martini & Fadli, 2011), a stress trigger is the

absence of facility to work. The condition is

contradict with Act of the Republic of Indonesia No.

12 year 1995 on correctional service at article 48, it

says that during working, the guards in prison should

be provided with gun and other security facilities.

Job stress is more frequently found in

organization (Robbins &Judge, 2011). According to

Hidayati, Purwanto, and Yuwono (2008), the

problem of job stress in organization is important

symptom to observe, if it is not overcome well, the

job stress can threaten and disturb job itself, like

getting angry and aggressive easily, being difficult

to be relax, having unstable emotion, committing

uncooperative behavior, having unable to be

involved feeling, and experiencing sleeping

problem, meanwhile symptoms suffered by the

prison guards are being anxious, difficult to sleep,

and depressed. Those happened because the threat of

the workplace, and other problems happening in

prison (Shanoon, 2001).

Based on the causes of job stress above, gratitude

has important role to reduce job stress. The

ICPsy 2019 - International Conference on Psychology

interview with one of the prison guards, initial M

said that working as prison guard was a grace in this

life, it was not only to earn for living but also to

reassure the soul and calm the heart, even though

this job was not easy to do, an individual did the job

by thinking positively. Thinking positively means

that if an individual faces problems in her/his job,

the individual will review the problem and consider

it not as frightening or avoidant matter. Despite

problems in job, an individual keep working

willingly and without complaining. An individual

keep having gratitude with the job one has because

one realizes that jobs are not necessarily pleasurable.

Jobs must feel easy if an individual has great

gratitude. As Emmons and McCullogh (2003)

explain that if one is grateful, one’s daily behaviors

and attitudes are positive, in contrary, if one is not

grateful, one’s daily behaviors and attitudes are

negative. Gratitude is not just words, but it is about

how our perspective to face something in life either

good or bad.

Al-Munajiid (2012) explains that an individual

who considers stress as positive thing will be able to

reduce stress by dzikir (remembering Allah),

performingshalat and prayer, improving self-quality,

and always being grateful to every grace from Allah.

Cahyono (2014) explains that stress can be

overcome by an individual by being grateful to

Allah as always.

According to Emmons and McCullough (2003),

gratitude is feeling about something great, feeling

thankful and appreciating advantages received

interpersonally or transpersonal from God. A

grateful individual is an individual who receives a

grace of appreciation and value of the appreciation.

A grateful individual is able to identify him/herself

as a person who is aware and thankful to the grace

by God, by others and willingly spends time to

express the gratitude (Peterson & Seligman, 2004).

When an individual cannot be grateful in facing job

problems, one is easy to suffer from job stress

(Dwijayanti, 2008). Gratitude can make an

individual accept his/her condition as part of job

which should be undergone. It will make an

individual consider the stress able to be overcome

easily (Krause, 2006).

Based on the explanation above, it can be

explained that one thing can be done to reduce job

stress is gratitude, based on this, the researchers are

interested in seeing whether there is relationship

between gratitude and job stress, especially for state

prison guards.

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Gratitude

The word “gratitude” is from Roman “gratia”

literally meaning elegance or thankful, performing

something with kindness, generosity, and beauty in

giving and accepting (Peterson& Seligman, 2004).

According to McCullough, Emmons, and Tsang

(2002) explain that gratitude can emerge as a trait,

feeling, mood or emotion. Gratitude is defined as

general tendency to be aware and respond to others’

kindness in the frame of positive experience and

respond what an individual gained.

Rey (2009) defines gratitude as an emotion

characterized with thankful and sufficient expression

obtained from the awareness of advantages gained

from others and the relationship between the giver

and the receiver of the advantages. Wood (2008)

states that gratitude is a form of personal character

who think positively, presenting life more positively.

2.1.1 Aspect of Gratitude

According to McCullough, Emmons and Tsang

(2002), gratitude has four aspects, as follows:

a. Intensity of gratitude

An individual that is grateful when

experiencing positive event is expected to have

more intense gratitude than one who is not

grateful.

b. Frequency of gratitude

A grateful individual repeatedly and daily

expresses his/her gratitude, while one without

gratitude rarely expresses his/her gratitude.

c. Span of gratitude

Gratitude is based on how much life

condition one should be grateful, one with

gratitude will be more grateful to their family’s

condition, job, health, and their own lives. An

individual with little gratitude may be less

grateful to life aspects.

d. Density of gratitude

It is based on number of people whom will be

grateful to when one is asked to whom one feel

grateful, one with gratitude will mention many

names including family, friends, and one’s

advisor.

2.1.2 Forms of Gratitude

Emmons and McCullough (2004) state that gratitude

can be personal or transpersonal. Forms of gratitude

are as follows:

The Relationship between Gratitude and Job Stress Guard Ofﬁcers at State Prison

a. Thankful

Thankful is a pattern of behavior to thank

someone or others personally.

b. Grateful

Gratefulis thank to what has been accepted,

or one’s full response to what he/she has even

though what he/she has is implicit.

2.1.3 Factors of Gratitude

McCullough, Emmons and Tsang (2002) state that

there are three factors of gratitude, as follows:

a. Emotion and well-being

A basic tendency to experience positive

emotion and happiness, moreover it is expected

that one with gratitude will perceive high

positive emotion

b. Prosocial

Prosocial character shows that grateful

character is from a character of how one is

oriented to sensitivity and cares of others.

Prosocial character is seen from one’s tendency

to be accepted in one’s social neighborhood.

c. Spirituality and religiousness

Gratitude is related to religion, faith and God.

2.1.4 Function of Gratitude

According to McCullough, Killpatrick, Emmons,

and Larson (in Froh, Yurkewicz, & Kashdan, 2009),

gratitude consists of three moral functions, as

follows:

a. As themoral benchmark

Gratitude functions as the moral benchmark

for an beneficiaries characterized with value of

the relationship with benefactor, a giver who

gives advantages and goodness.

b. As a moral reinforcement

Gratitude is the moral reinforcement, to

reinforce the possibility of benefactor to give

benefits or goodness in the future.

c. As the moral motif

Gratitude as the moral motif is encouraging

an individual (beneficiaries) who gets benefit to

provide prosocial response to others who provide

benefits (benefactor).

2.2 Job Stress

House, et al. (1979) defined job stress as a condition

as the result of an individual’s subjective

appreciation which can be in form of interaction

between the individual and workplace which is able

to threat and suppress psychologically,

physiologically, and individual’s attitude. Job stress

is a manifestation of a pressure of given

responsibility, concern to restlessness, role conflict,

workload, and work-excluding conflict.

Ivancevich, Konopaske, and Matteson (2006)

define job stress as an adaptive response chained up

by individual’s difference as consequence of every

action, situation, or event that give certain demand

to the individual. Moreover, according to Robbins

and Judge (2011), job stress is a dynamic condition

in which an individual faces an opportunity,

demand, or resource related to what the individual

desires and the result of which is considered

uncertain but important. Robbins and Judge also

specifically explain about stress related to demand

and resource. A demand is a responsibility, a

demand, an obligation, and even uncertainty faced

by an individual in the workplace. Resource is things

under and individual’s control being able to employ

to comply the demand.

According to Kreitner and Kinicki (2011), job

stress is adaptive response chained by individual’s

characters and psychological process as the

consequence of every external action, situation, or

event toward physical and psychological demand.

2.2.1 Dimensions of Job Stress

According to House, et al. (1979), there are 5

dimensions of job stress, as follows:

a. Responsibility Pressure

Bearing to many responsibilities on tasks given

by others either because of process or the lack of

human resource or the lack of supporting

material.

b. Quality Concerns

Worrying about not being able to perform job as

good as it should be like other people’s doing

c. Role Conflict

Having unobvious expectation and/or conflict

with other people in workplace.

d. Job vs. Non-job Conflict

Perceiving that the job is influenced by condition

and other situations in life (e.g. family)

e. Work load

Having much job to do in limited time

2.2.2 Sources of Job Stress

According to Robbins and Judge (2011), there are

three potential factors to trigger stress (stressor), as

follows:

A. Environmental factor

ICPsy 2019 - International Conference on Psychology

a. Uncertain economy, a change in business

cycle causing uncertain economy. When

economy becomes poor, a person worries

about the sustainability of his/her job.

b. Uncertain politics, uncertain political

situation occurring around the organization

in which an individual works.

c. Technological changing, the third

environmental factor to cause stress because

innovations can make skills and experiences

of an individual become obsolete in short

time, computer, robotic system, automation,

and other technological innovations that

become a threat for many people and make

them stress

B. Organizational factors

a. Task demand, a factor related to someone’s

job. The demands consist of individual’s job

design (autonomy, task variety, and level of

automation), working condition, job’s

physical layout.

b. Role demand, a factor related to pressure

given to someone as a certain role function

run in an organization. Role conflict creates

an expectation which is possibly hard to

finish or comply. Excessive role load

experienced when an employee is expected to

do much job than the available time. Role

ambiguity emerges when role expectation is

not understood clearly and the employee is

not sure about what he/she should do.

c. Interpersonal demand, a factor related to

pressure caused by other employees. No

support from colleague and the presence of

bad interpersonal relationship can cause

stress, especially among employees who have

high social needs.

C. Personal Factors

a. Family matters, some problems in marriage,

broken relationship, and problem on

children’s discipline as a relationship

problem which cause stress to employees

then it is carried to workplace.

b. Economical problem, a personal problem

causes stress to employees and disturbs

working concentration, an individual with

stress due to economical problem is one

whose need is greater than income

c. Personality, a personal factor which is an

individual’s trait, significantly influences

stress. It means that stress symptoms which

are expressed during working could be from

the individual’s personality.

2.2.3 Job Stress’s Symptoms

According to Robbins and Judge (2011), stress

symptoms can be classified into three categories, as

follows:

a. Physiological symptoms, changing metabolism,

increasing heart rate and breathing rate,

increasing high blood pressure, resulting in

dizziness, and triggering heart attack.

b. Psychological symptoms, stress, anxiety, easily

angry, boredom, and procrastination.

c. Behavioral symptoms, stress symptoms related to

behavior are productivity level change

(decreasing of working result), absent (disobey

rule), and employees rotation. In addition,

change of eating habit, smoking pattern,

consuming alcohol, stammer, anxiety and sleep

disorder.

3 RESEARCH METHOD

This study is quantitative with correlation research.

The sampling employed non-probability sampling

by using saturation sampling (Sugiyono, 2014).

Samples are 40 prison guards from Class IIB Jantho

Prisonand Class IIB Sigli Prison. Samples are some

of prison guard population in Aceh Prison who are

eligible for a criterion as follows, a prison guard in

Sigli and Jantho Prison.

3.1 Data Collecting Method

Data collecting method used in this research is

psychological scale, a gratitude and job stress scale.

Gratitude scale was adapted from Gratitude

Questionnaire-6 (GQ-6) by McCullough, Emmons,

and Tsang (2002) which has 6 questions,it used

Likert scale model containing 7 answers (response).

Job stress scale was adapted from The Occupational

Stress Scale (OSS) by House, et al (1979). The OSS

scale contains 15 items divided into 12 questions

and 3 questions, it used Likert scale model

consisting of 5 answers (response).

Adapted Gratitude Questionnaire-6 (GQ-6)

scale, developed by McCullough, Emmons, dan

Tsang (2002), uses a construct validity which is

related to the quality of what aspect is measured by a

measurement and consists of an evaluation that a

construct is able to make performance of

The Relationship between Gratitude and Job Stress Guard Ofﬁcers at State Prison

measurement run well. Testing construct validity is a

continuous process that is in away with the

development of measured variable-related concept.

On the other hand, adapted the occupational stress

scale (OSS), developed by House, et al (1979),

employs a validity which is measured by combining

some other instruments such as work stress is

negatively related to social support in workplace,

internal locus of control, dan job satisfaction. Work

stress is also positively correlated with the ambiguity

of role, role conflict and personal discrimination.

Five stress dimensions that consist of responsibility

pressure, role conflict, workload, quality concern,

job vs non-job conflict are not positively correlated.

However, those dimensions become negatively

correlated with job satisfaction and job honorarium.

They are also positively correlated with the

employee with type A personality. Therefore, the

validity of job stress scale is measured by combining

and identifying the correlation among the variables

mentioned above.

Gratitude Questionnaire-6 (GQ-6) scale reaches

coefficient reliability of Alpha Cronbach for 0.599.

Meanwhile, The Occupational Stress (OSS) has

coefficient reliability of Alpha Cronbach for 0.823.

Based on the score, the reliability of The

Occupational Stress (OSS) scale and Gratitude

Questionnaire-6 (GQ-6) scale are categorized good

and reliable. It is supported by Azwar (2013) that the

closer the coefficient reliability to 1.00, the higher

its reliability, so that Gratitude Questionnaire-6

(GQ-6) and The Occupational Stress (OSS) scale are

considered as reliable instrument.

3.2 Data Analysis Method

The collected data was analyzed by using

Pearsoncorrelation technique with SPSS 20.0

version for Windows.

4 RESULT

4.1 Description Data of Gratitude

Based on statistic result of research data, descriptive

analysis hypothetically shows that the minimum

answer is 6, maximum is 42, mean is 24 and

standard deviation is 6. Meanwhile, empirical data

shows that minimum answer is 25, maximum

answer is 42, mean is 34.3 and standard deviation is

4.3. Based on the description of result data, the

research samples can be categorized into three

categories, low, moderate, and high. The subject

categorization method used by the researcher is

difference significance-based categorization method

because the number of individuals in researched

group is not too many (Azwar, 2013). Categorizing

way can be found by determining score interval

containing moderate category.

Based on data description above, it can

categorize research sample into three categories,

low, moderate, and high. Method of categorizing

subject employed by the researcher is based on

difference significance because total individuals in

studied group is not many (Azwar, 2013). The

categorizing method is obtained by establishing an

interval score consisting moderate category.

The researcher used significance level for 95%,

therefore:

t(α/2, n-1) = (0,05/2;40-1)

=0,025;39

= 2,023

(1)

Based on categorization formula, significance

score, and t-value(α/2, n-1), the result of Gratitude

Scale categorization as follows:

24 – ((2.023)(4.3/√40)) ≤ X ≤ 24 +

((2,023)(4.3/√40))

24 – ((2.023)(0.680)) ≤ X ≤ 24 +

((2.023)(0.680))

24 – 1.38 ≤ X ≤ 24 + 1.38

22.62 ≤ X ≤ 25.38

23 ≤ X ≤ 25

(2)

After obtaining interval score, therefore

categorization norm is diagnosed based on score.

Sample’s score for gratitude variable is as follows:

Table 2: Categorization of Gratitude

Norm

Category

Formula

Category Jumlah

Persentase

(%)

X < 23 Low - -

23 ≤ X < 25 Moderate 1 2.5

25 < X High 39 97.5

TOTA

40 100

Categorization result of gratitude variable shows

that majority of guards have high categorization

level, 39 guards (79,5%), the other, 1 guard, is at

moderate category (2,5%) and no subject has low

gratitude.

ICPsy 2019 - International Conference on Psychology

4.2 Data Description of Job Stress

According to statistics result, descriptive analysis

hypothetically shows that the minimum answer is 0,

maximum is 60, mean is 30 and standard deviation

is 10. Meanwhile, empirical data shows that the

minimum answer is 10, the maximum is 45, mean is

26.9 and standard deviation is 8.1. Based on

description of result data, it can be used to make

division for categorizing research subjects into three

category, low and high. Subject categorization

method is standard error in measurement. According

to Azwar (2013), standard error consideration in

measurement is deviation of standard error which

shows error variation score for measurement of a

group of subjects.

Result data description can be used as the

standard to categorize the subjects into two

categories, high and low.

Researcher used significance level for 95%,

therefore the result is:

X ± z

α/2

) = X ± z

0,05/2

(3,4)

= X ± z

0,025/2

(3,4)

= X ± 1,96 (3,4)

= X ± 6,7 or integer X ± 7

Mean = 60/2 = 30

(3)

The categorization divides subjects into two

categories, high score and low score category. The

categorization uses mean value as division value of

category. Score higher than mean is diagnosed

positive, while score below mean is diagnosed

negative.Based on the norm formulated above, the

researcher categorized score of each subject in each

variable. The result can be seen in the table below:

Table 3: Job Stress Categorization

Score Category Total

Percentage

(%)

X < 23

23 ≤ X ≤

Low

No Category

X > 37 Hi

h 6 15

The result of job stress categorization shows that

job stress levels suffered by prison guards in the

Jantho Class IIB Prison and the Sigli Class IIB

Prison are at low for 16 guards (40%), while the

guards in high category are 6 guards (15%).

4.3 Testing of Assumption

The result of assumption test shows that the data is

normally and linearly distributed. The result of

normality test done in 40 subjects shows K-S Z =

0.979 p = 0.293 > 0.05 for gratitude variable,

meaning the variable is distributed normally (p >

0.05). Moreover, normality test for job stress

variable results in K-S, Z = 0.973 p = 0,300 > 0.05,

it means that the variable is also normally distributed

(p > 0.05). Linearity test result done in 40 subjects

by ANOVA test for linearityshows that significance

value of linearity is for 0,001. The significance value

of 0,001 is less than 0.05 (p = 0.001 < 0.05). It

shows the linear relationship between gratitude

variable and job stress variable.

4.4 Testing of Hypothesis

Analysis result shows that significance value in this

study is p = 0.001 (p < 0.05). It shows that the

hypothesis of this study is accepted, there is

relationship between gratitude and job stress of

guard officers in State Prison.

5 DISCUSSION

This study is conducted to know the relationship

between gratitude and job stress of guard officers in

State Prison. Analysis result shows that there is

negative and significant relationship between

gratitude and job stress of guard officers in State

Prison. The negative relationship shows that the

higher gratitude is, the lower job stress is. It is

proven by statistical calculation, correlation analysis

shows that significance value is p = 0,001 (p < 0.05)

and correlation = 0.492, therefore it can be said that

the hypothesis of this research is accepted.

Based on the result of this conducted research,

guard officers’ high gratitude is related to low job

stress. It is in accordance with study by Cahyono

(2014), gratitude significantly decreases job stress.

Gratitude has a role to raise positive emotion toward

the experienced condition, so that the life

satisfaction emerges. The presence of positive

emotion and life satisfaction, negative emotion is

disappeared, as the result stress level suffered by the

subjects decreases. Another research by Emmons

and McCullough (2003) found that experiment

group provided gratitude treatment had higher

subjective well-being than the group without

gratitude treatment. It can be said that gratitude can

increase individual’s subjective well-being. In

The Relationship between Gratitude and Job Stress Guard Ofﬁcers at State Prison

addition, the result of this research is in line with the

research by Wood (2008) which states that gratitude

is related to life satisfaction because it is positive

emotion.

According to Emmons (2007), gratitude is

cognition, emotion and behavior construction.

Gratitude as cognition construction is shown by

acknowledging the kindness and the blessing, and

focusing on positive thing in him/herself. Gratitude

as emotional construction is characterized by the

ability to alter emotion responses to an event, so it

becomes more meaningful. Grateful emotion

involves amazement, thankfulness, appreciation and

happiness toward grace and life. Gratitude as

behavioral construction is replying others on

advantages and grace that have been received.

The more frequent someone becomes grateful,

the more positive emotion and memory will be

experienced. The positive emotion will be recalled

when needed, for instance when facing stressing

condition or even depressing condition (Dewanto &

Retnowati, 2015). It is in line with the research

conducted by Wood, Maltby, Gillett, Linley, and

Joseph (2008), gratitude can decrease stress and

depression level. Being grateful principally begins

with good intention and positive attitude to

appreciate good values by acting well and morally. It

is explained by Emmons and McCullough (2004) as

moral function of gratitude. Being grateful can be a

benchmark how high one’s moral is. A grateful

person is believed as a person with moral, and vice

versa. It is in line with Surah Ibrahim, verse 7: And

(remember) when your Lord proclaimed: “If you are

grateful, I will surely increase you (in favor), and if

you deny, indeed, my punishment is severe.”

The research by Mutia, Subandi, and Mulyati

(2010) shows that gratitude therapy can reduce stress

and depression level of an individual. Makhdlori

(2007) states that by being grateful, an individual

can be calmer when facing a problem. This present

study shows that 75% of subjects have high

gratitude, it can occur because gratitude is related to

religion, faith and God (McCullough, Emmons &

Tsang, 2002), the majority of subjects, 40 guards

(100%), are Muslim.

The result of this research shows that for 39

guards(97.5%) in Jantho Class IIB Prison and Sigli

Class IIB Prison are at high gratitude category and 1

guard(2.5%) is at moderate category. McCullough,

Emmons, and Tsang (2002) says that one’s gratitude

is affected by personality and religiosity. An

extraversion and low neuroticism individual has

higher gratitude. A research by Rosmarin,

Pirutinsky, Cohen, Galler, and Krumrei (2011)

proved that religiosity consistently influences

gratitude. Those believing in God and performing

religion teaching consistently are more grateful than

the grateful individuals but no faith in God. It is

similar to study by Lambert, Fincham, Braitwaite,

Beach, and Graham (2009), they found that those

who prayed to God frequently had high gratitude

level.

Data analysis result shows that descriptively, 16

guards (40%) in Jantho and Sigli class IIB Prison

experience job stress at low category, and 6 guards

(15%) are at high category, moreover majority

subjects in this research have low job stress.

According to Okoza and Aluede (2010), individuals

with low job stress are able to make stress as

motivator which provides positive impact for

attitude in working, while individuals with high job

stress usually perceive threats, suffer from physical,

psychological, and working behavior disorders.

In this research, majority guard officers, 38

guards (95%), are married, marriage is also

influential factor to an individual’s stress level. A

married individual usually has lower stress level

than unmarried one. It occurs if the worker has

carrier support from partner, job stress decreases

because of support by partner. However, marriage

will positively influence stress if the marriage runs

well (Fink, 2010).

Besides marriage, gender is also an influential

factor in facing job stress. According to ILO (2003),

women are riskier than men to suffer from stress

resulting in disease and the desire to leave the job. In

addition, women responded stress differently from

men. According to research by Wichert (2002), men

tend to cope stress by changing their behavior, like

committing smoking, drinking alcohol, and

consuming drug, etc. Meanwhile, women tend to

cope stress by changing emotionally. In addition,

men tend to experience health-quality decline

physically during stress. Women tend to experience

psychological health decline (Bickford, 2005). In

this study, majority subjects perceive low job stress

because 40 subjects (100%) are men. It is in line

with the research conducted to workers in Thailand,

it found that men suffer from lower stress level than

women (Tawatsupa, Lim, Kjellstrom, Seubsman, &

Sleigh, 2010).

The length of employment is a factor that

influences a person to face job stress. In this study,

majority subjects, 14 guards (35%), have been

working for 6 to 10 years. Sarwono and Purwono

(2006) state that the longer a subject works, the

lower job stress he/she suffers, because the subject

has a lot experience and quick response to face job

ICPsy 2019 - International Conference on Psychology

problems. It is in accordance with the result of this

research which states that majority prison guards

have low job stress.

Impact of gratitude on job stress among guard

officers can be seen from analysis measures of

association, it shows R Square (R

) = 0,242 meaning

that there are 24.2% are influenced by gratitude

impact on job stress, while 75.8% are influenced by

other factors like social support, effective

communication, self-esteem, and locus of control as

well as lifestyle (Dodiansyah, 2014; Susanti, 2004;

Dwijayanti, 2008; Cicei, 2012). According to the

explanation above, it can be concluded that gratitude

has role on high and low stress level among guard

officers in State Prison. Both have significantly

negative correlation, it means that if gratitude is

high, job stress will be low, and vice versa.

During the process of this research, the

researchers realize that there are some limitations.

First, this research employed job stress theory that is

only measured through 5 dimensions namely

responsibility pressure, quality concern, role

conflict, job and non-job conflict, as well as

workload, therefore measurement to other things like

leadership style and organizational behavior which

are related to working field cannot be researched

with the theory developed by House, et al (1979). In

addition, sampling technique is another limitation

because employing saturation sampling technique as

the result of small population or samples are only

guard officers in Jantho and Sigli Class IIB Prisons,

moreover this research cannot be generalized with

two other prisons undergoing prisoner overload.

6 CONCLUSIONS

The result of this study shows that there is negative

and significant relationship between gratitude and

job stress of guard officers in State Prison.

Furthermore, the result shows that generally the

guards have high category gratitude and low level

job stress.

For the guard officers in State Prison, it is

expected to control negative emotion and manage

some skills to cope the stress. For State Prisons,

especially Jantho and Sigli Class IIB Prisons, it is

expected to maintain the gratitude level and support

positive activities in the prisons. For future

researcher who is interested in conducting research

using gratitude and job stress variables, it is

recommended that those variables be researched by

using qualitative method with observation and in

depth interview. The next researcher is also

recommended to conduct the research in Takengon

and Tapaktuan prisons which undergo overload

capacity.

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