Burnout syndrome in psychologists providing emergency and long-term psychological assistance

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BURNOUT SYNDROME IN PSYCHOLOGISTS PROVIDING EMERGENCY AND LONG-TERM PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSISTANCE

Tamiliia Ivanovna Dotsevich,

Doctor of Psychological Sciences, Professor of the Department of Psychology, SHEI “Pereiaslav-Khmelnitskii State Pedagogical University Named after Grigorii Skovoroda ”

Summary

The article is devoted to an interesting and little-studied problem of the manifestation of burnout syndrome in psychologists providing emergency psychological assistance. Modern approaches to determining the burnout syndrome and its structure are considered. The results of the empirical study of the burnout syndrome in psychologists providing emergency psychological assistance are presented. The internal factors initiating the occurrence of emotional burnout and its various manifestations are highlighted. It is proved that psychologists who provide long-term psychological assistance are characterized by a stable style and a high level of development of self-regulation, adequate self-content and an uncritical level of aspiration, an average level of development of selfactualization, and an average level of empathy. It is empirically established that among psychologists providing emergency and long-term psychological assistance, there are differences in the manifestation of the syndrome and in the peculiarities of its course. Similar and different characteristics are shown, which is mainly due to the type of psychological assistance and is normatively set by the profession.

Keywords: “burnout”, emotions, stress, burnout syndrome, burnout phases and symptoms, emergency psychological assistance, professional activities, burnout components.

emotional burnout syndrome psychologists

The problem setting. The phenomenon of burnout syndrome is one of the most complex and little- studied in the field of human psychology. It is hardly possible to find specialists who are not in conflict with one another, can describe the phenomenology of the syndrome itself and, moreover, can give an exact definition of this concept. In psychology textbooks, special sections devoted to this topic are rarely found. At the same time, a certain number of empirical and theoretical studies have been accumulated that try to explain the burnout syndrome from the point of view of various psychological approaches and scientific schools.

So, theoretically, there is an ambiguous interpretation of the emotions that provoke the development of the syndrome, their functions and real relationships with human activity and behavior, with other mental processes, states, and properties, with the psychological structure of the personality as a whole. The practical, applied aspect of the problem of emotions follows from the above stated: how really to investigate, diagnose, measure, modify or use, to take into account the burnout syndrome. Also the little- studied are the causes and mechanisms of the occurrence of the emotional burnout syndrome.

The analysis of the recent studies and publications. The theoretical and empirical studies of the phenomenon of emotional burnout are presented in foreign psychology (M. Anderson, M. Buriach, R. Burke, M. Leiter, C. Maslack, A. Pines, W. Schaufeli, etc.) [8-14]. Fewer studies are devoted to the study of “burnout syndrome” in domestic science (M. A. Markova, L. M. Mitina, V. E. Orel [5], T. V. Formaniuk [7]). Until now, this phenomenon has been considered in relation to representatives of socionomic professions (“helping”): doctors, psychotherapists, lawyers, teachers, and others. There are a small number of works devoted to the study of the phenomenon of burnout syndrome in the professional activities of psychologists.

We agree with the opinion of L. A. Kitaev-Smyk, who in the work “Psychology of Stress” determines the mistaken approaches to understanding the “emotional burnout syndrome” [4]:

Inadequate approaches to “burnout”, considering exclusively its emotional component, not paying attention to its other components (the expression “emotional burnout” appeared). An even more hopeless view of “burnout” is only with the assessment of the loss of a person's professional success (the so-called “professional burnout”).

The syndrome of “burnout” of a person can be compared with the symptoms of “stress of life”, but do not mix them. If this is done, then the distinct idea of “burnout” as a specific, independent state completely disappears. The attempts by some authors to find, with increasing “burnout”, the three phases inherent in the dynamics of stress (described by Hans Selye) destroy the concept of “burnout of the personality”, “burnout of the staff', proclaimed by Christina Maslach [11].

There is an opinion that “burnout” is a mechanism of psychological protection from traumatic effects. Based on the studies of E. G. Lunina it is shown that negative personality changes (including a distortion of moral standards) arisen in the course of professional activity are not “protection”, but a violation of the protective systems of the human psyche. They are based on the weakening of the adaptive capabilities of the organism. And the main thing is not their “professional deformation” but “personality destruction”.

Some protective conditions that occur during stress need not calling “burnout”. In a person emotionally rigid in extreme situations, his/her rigidity can increase. This is not “burnout,” but psychological protection against stress with intense or even dangerous monotony.

From our point of view, the emotional burnout syndrome is a reaction of the organism to exhaustion in the form of personal detachment and in the form of complete or partial exclusion of emotions in response to psycho-traumatic effects, leading to personality deformation and the acquisition of a functional stereotype due to prolonged emotional stress.

Proposed by Ch. Maslach [11], and V. V. Boiko [1] the main components of the emotional burnout, namely: 1) the feeling of emotional exhaustion; 2) the tendency to develop a negative attitude towards customers, “dehumanization” or “depersonalization”;

1) the development of a negative attitude towards himself/herself and his/her work, allow us to distinguish the three inherent signs (attributes) of this phenomenon. Firstly, the emotional burnout syndrome is a protective reaction to stressful effects. Secondly, the emotional burnout syndrome occurs under conditions of intense communication, manifests itself as communicative fatigue, the inability to empathize and is associated with a violation of the identification mechanism - alienation. Thirdly, the emotional burnout syndrome is characteristic of social professions, where the subject of activity is constantly involved in the problems of a partner experiencing emotional distress.

In fact, the origin of the emotional burnout syndrome cannot be unambiguously associated with any organizational, personal, or situational factors, rather, it is the result of a complex interaction of a person's personality characteristics, the situation of his/her interpersonal relationships with his/her professional and working situation in which he/she is. Selecting the factors which initiate the occurrence of the emotional burnout syndrome allows us to highlight two aspects of the further study of the manifestation of this phenomenon. The first one is the presence of an external (organizational) factor that allows considering the content of the professional activities of psychologists, namely psychological assistance as a form of practical activity. The second aspect - the existence of internal (individual) factors - allows considering the issue of the personal characteristics of psychologists who provide emergency and long-term psychological assistance.

The setting of previously unresolved parts of the general problem. The choice of the topic of our research is due to its relevance and insufficient research on this problem in domestic psychology. Until now, the psychological burnout syndrome has been considered in relation to representatives of socionomic professions: doctors, psychotherapists, lawyers, teachers, etc. However, the internal factors, especially manifestations of the emotional burnout syndrome in psychologists providing emergency and long-term psychological assistance, have not been identified.

The purpose of the research is to identify empirically the factors leading to the emotional burnout in psychologists providing emergency psychological assistance, to analyze the essence of the emotionalburnout syndrome, its models, stages, and symptoms, the factors initiating the occurrence of the emotional burnout syndrome and the peculiarities of its manifestation in psychologists providing emergency and long-term psychological assistance.

Presenting the main material. To determine the peculiarities of the professional activity of psychologists providing emergency and long-term psychological assistance, we turn to the analysis of the profession of the psychologist (professiogram) compiled by E. S. Romanova and T. A. Verniaeva, and the results of the description of this profession [2]. After a comparative analysis of the professiograms of psychologists providing emergency and long-term psychological assistance, the author notes that there are differences in these related professions:

1. in the content and basic actions (operations) of psychologists providing emergency psychological assistance, there are no scientific-practical, pedagogical, research activities; the main form of work of psychologists who provide emergency psychological assistance is consulting, but the main forms of work of psychologists who provide long-term psychological assistance are diagnostics, prophylaxis, education, consulting, correction and development;

2. psychologists providing long-term psychological assistance do not have night shifts, the arrhythmic nature of work, and uneven workloads;

3. psychologists providing emergency psychological assistance must have knowledge in the field of psychotherapy of crisis conditions and acute grief, while psychologists providing long-term psychological assistance need knowledge of all branches of psychology;

4. the range of skills and abilities of psychologists providing long-term psychological assistance is quite wide (psychodiagnostics, psychocorrection, psycho-prophylaxis, psychotherapy, etc.), and psychologists providing emergency psychological assistance should have the developed constructive telephone communication skills;

5. differences in professionally important qualities (professional characteristics of the psyche and professional characteristics of the individual).

Based on the theoretical analysis of the essence of the emotional burnout syndrome, its models, stages, and symptoms, factors initiating the occurrence of the emotional burnout syndrome, as well as the analysis of literature reflecting psychological research (V. V. Boiko, V. E. Orel [5], T. V. Formaniuk, T. V. Skugarevskaia, T. I. Ronginskaia [6], N. E. Vodopianova, E. S. Starchenkova [3], etc.), we organized an empirical study of the manifestation of the emotional burnout syndrome in psychologists providing emergency and long-term psychological assistance.

The investigation involved 97 psychologists providing emergency psychological assistance (“helpline”), 49 persons are psychologists who provide long-term psychological assistance (preschool educational institutions, secondary comprehensive educational institutions, psychological centers). There were 3 stages of empirical study. The first stage was aimed at determining the socio-demographic characteristics of the samples based on the analysis of the survey results. In the second stage, determining the level of manifestation of the emotional burnout syndrome among psychologists using the method of V. V. Boiko was made of. In the third stage, the empirical study of internal (personality) factors of the occurrence of burnout syndrome was carried out [1]. The study was based on the following techniques: “Behavior Self-Regulation Style (BSS-98)” of V. I. Morosanova, the technique of Dembo- Rubinshtein (modified by A. M. Prikhozhan), “Value Orientations” of M. Rokeach, “Self-Actualization Test” SAP (complied by L. Ia. Gozman, Iu. E. Aleshina, M. V. Zagika and M. V. Kroz), “Subjective Level Control Questionnaire (LSC)” (E. F. Bazhin, E. A. Golynkina, A. M. Etkind), the “Technique of Personality Diagnostics on Motivation to Avoid Failures” by Th. Ehlers, the questionnaire of A. Mehrabian.

Empirically, it was revealed that the differences between psychologists providing long-term and emergency psychological assistance in sociodemographic (external) factors are insignificant and normatively set by the specifics of professional activity.

The emotional burnout syndrome is mostly characteristic of psychologists providing emergency psychological assistance (44% of psychologists). Here the phases are formed: 1) tension, while in this phase the following symptoms are most pronounced: experiences of psycho-traumatic situations, dissatisfaction with himself/herself, driving into the dead-end, anxiety, and depression; 2) resistance, with the prevalence of the formation of the following symptoms: inadequate selective emotional response, expanding the scope of saving emotions; 3) exhaustion, in which the following symptoms predominate: personal detachment and psychosomatic and psycho- vegetative disorders. All these manifestations of the emotional burnout syndrome among psychologists providing emergency, long-term assistance are explained by the main content (consulting customers), their working conditions (night shifts, work on weekends and holidays, uneven and unpredictable workload, arrhythmic nature of work).

Among the psychologists who provide long-term and emergency psychological assistance, dissatisfaction with the size of wages, relations with the immediate supervisor in the team, and the organization of work are noted.

Conclusions and prospects of the research.

Summing up the results of the study, the data on internal factors are obtained (the style and level of selfregulation, self-content and level of claims, the level of self-actualization and subjective control, the level of development of empathy, value orientations) that trigger the occurrence of the emotional burnout syndrome and the difference in their manifestation among psychologists providing emergency and longterm psychological assistance. So, for psychologists providing emergency psychological assistance, thefollowing is characteristic: a stable style and an average level of self-regulation, high self-content and an optimal level of claims, an average level of selfactualization and a low level of communication flexibility, an average level of empathy.

Psychologists who provide long-term psychological assistance are characterized by a stable style and a high level of development of self-regulation, adequate self-content and an uncritical level of aspiration, an average level of development of selfactualization, a predominance of a high level of selfunderstanding, an average level of subjective control, and an average level of development of empathy.

Thus, we have found out that between psychologists providing emergency and long-term psychological assistance, there are differences in the manifestation of the emotional burnout syndrome, these groups of psychologists have both similar and different characteristics, which is mainly due to the type of psychological assistance and is normatively determined by the profession.

Prospects for further research in this area can be outlined in the following direction: on the basis of the empirical results obtained in this study, it is necessary to develop and test a psychocorrectional program for preventing and managing the effects of the emotional burnout syndrome in psychologists providing emergency and long-term psychological assistance. We are planning to publish the results of psycho-correction work.

Литература.