The ERI model is based on the
premise that occupational status can provide an opportunity to increase self-esteem and self-efficacy, through effeective role performance, but that the psychological benefits associated
with work depend upon a reciprocal relationship in which the individual’s investment of
effort is matched by adequate rewards (money, esteem and career opportunities). Lack of reciprocity, i.e. jobs that entail high costs and low gains, leads to emotional distress and the arousal of the autonomic nervous system, which in turn has consequences for health, for instance, in highly demanding but insecure jobs. A distinction is drawn between extrinsic
effort (situational factors that make work more demanding) and intrinsic effort (personal
factors such as motivation) and it is claimed that a combination of both sources provides a
more sensitive indicator of stress than the model of Karasek, and Theorell (1990), which
only considers objective characteristics.