New approach to the study of burnout syndrome of civil servants (on the example of law enforcement employees)

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Oles Honchar Dnipro National University

New approach to the study of burnout syndrome of civil servants (on the example of law enforcement employees)

Arshava Iryna Fedorivna, Doctor of Psychological Sciences, Professor,

Head of the Department of General Psychology and Pathopsychology,

Baratynska Anastasiia Volodymyrivna, Senior lecturer

at the Department of General Psychology and Patho- psychology

Abstract

The article is devoted to the problem of researching the syndrome of professional burnout among civil servants on the example of representatives of law enforcement officers. The main aspects of positive psychology are considered and a new approach to the study of the above-mentioned phenomenon among this category of employees is substantiated. The latest psychodiagnostic inventory "Values in Action" was used in the study to identify "positive" character traits taking into account universal human virtues and individual psychological features (personal values/virtues that included in the classification of this technique are the following: wisdom, courage, humanity, justice, temperance, transcendence), developed by American scientists M. Seligman and K. Petersen, as well as methods for determining the presence of phases or symptoms of professional burnout syndrome and personality traits of law enforcement officers. It has been found that neuroticism, shyness, depression and emotional lability are characteristic of the subjects at the first stage of burnout syndrome, stress phase. At the stage of resistance, the second phase of professional burnout, law enforcement officers exhibit such properties as neuroticism, spontaneous aggressiveness, depression, irritability, reactive aggressiveness, shyness, openness and emotional lability. At the phase of exhaustion, the last stage of burnout syndrome, there is an aggravation of all personal characteristics of law enforcement officers, which were inherent for the previous two components ofprofessional burnout - stress phase and resistance phase. There are statistically significant negative correlations between value "Humanity" and stress phase, as well as between exhaustion phase and such virtues as "Wisdom", "Courage", "Humanity".

Key words: syndrome of professional (emotional) burnout, civil servants, law enforcement officers, positive psychology, universal human virtues (values), phases of burnout, personal characteristics.

Анотація

Новий підхід до дослідження вигорання держслужбовців (на прикладі працівників правоохоронних органів)

Стаття присвячена проблемі дослідження синдрому професійного вигорання у держслужбовців на прикладі представників правоохоронних органів.

Розглянуто основні положення позитивної психології та обґрунтовано новий підхід до вивчення вищезазначеного феномену у даної категорії співробітників.

У дослідженні використано новітній психодіагностичний інструментарій «Цінності у дії» («Values in Action») для виявлення «позитивних» рис характеру з урахуванням загальнолюдських чеснот та індивідуально-психологічних особливостей (цінності/чесноти особистості, які включені до класифікації даної методики: мудрість, сміливість, гуманність, справедливість,помірність, трансцендентність), розроблений американськими вченими М. Селігманом та К.Петерсеном, а також методики щодо визначення наявності фаз або симптомів професійного вигорання та особистісних рис характеру працівників правоохоронних органів. Встановлено, що на першій фазі вигорання, фазі напруження, для досліджуваних характерними є невротичність, сором'язливість, депресивність та емоційна лабільність. На стадії резистенції, другій фазі вигорання, у працівників правоохоронних органів мають прояви такі властивості, як невротичність, спонтана агресивність, депресивність, дратівливість, реактивна агресивність, сором'язливість, відкритість,емоційна лабільність.

На фазі виснаження спостерігається загострення всіх особистісних характеристик працівників правоохоронних органів,які були притаманні попереднім двом складовим професійного вигорання - фазі напруження та фазі резистенції.

Спостерігаються статистично значущі дані негативного кореляційного зв'язку між цінністю «Гуманність» та фазою напруження, а також між фазою виснаження та такими чеснотами, як «Мудрість», «Сміливість», «Гуманність».

Ключові слова: синдром професійного (емоційного) вигорання, державні службовці, працівники правоохоронних органів,позитивна психологія, загальнолюдські чесноти (цінності), фази вигорання, особистісні характеристики.

Introduction

Problem identification. Large number of works in both domestic and foreign psychology are devoted to the study of professional burnout, which is the multicomponent construct in the form of mental, physical and emotional exhaustion.

This is a study of the content and structure of burnout; development of the psychodiagnostic tools for its measurement; analysis of determinants of occupational burnout, determination of means of prevention and correction of the consequences of this syndrome.

Burnout syndrome has been widely studied among medical professionals, teachers, air traffic controllers, managers (M.A. Gavrilenko, 2002; T.V. Bolshakova, 2004; J. Roland, M. Santinello, 1993; J. Van Horn, W. Schaufelli, R. Burke, 1997; I.F. Arshava, 2002; V. Evers, V. Tomik, 2002; W. Demirel, N. Guler, A. Toktamis, 2005; E.L. Nosenko, N.V Grisenko, 2010) [1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6].

Law enforcement officers are no exception in the light of this problem, which is objectively related to the content, conditions and features of professional activities. burnout syndrome psychological stress officer

This problem is especially important in the stage of military conflict and during the confrontation of different political forces on the territory of our country.

The increasing number of studies of maintaining mental health among police officers, occupational stress and burnout syndrome among law enforcement officers, especially in the last decade (O.V. Timchenko, 2003; E.M. Potapchuk, 2004; O.V. Krapivina, 2004; Don Kurtz, 2008; I.O. Motsonelidze, 2010; O.M. Khairulin, 2014) [7; 8; 9; 10; 11], testify to the constant relevance of this problem and the need for more detailed study of the causes of formation, features of manifestation, and most importantly - the conditions of preventing the syndrome among civil servants.

It is important to note that despite the significant increase of scientists'interest in the study of burnout syndrome among law enforcement officers, consideration of this problem in the light of the ideas of positive psychology still remains outside the research field.

The objective of the article is to analyze the problem of studying and means of preventing burnout among law enforcement officers from the ideas of positive psychology.

Presentation of the main material

As it's known, one of the main tenets of positive psychology is the study of the role of positive emotions in ensuring successful human functioning and the importance of individual differences in personality traits that contribute to positive human functioning [5].

Based on this, it is possible to assume that certain positive values and the corresponding "strong" personality traits may act as the predictors of preventing burnout syndrome among law enforcement officers.

This hypothesis can be tested with the help of using the latest psychodiagnostic tools, which will be discussed below.

Representatives of positive psychology, American researchers K. Peterson and M. Seligman (2004) developed the questionnaire to identify "positive" traits, taking into account universal virtues and individual psychological characteristics. According to the authors, the isolated individual psychological properties ensure the observance of virtues in the life of the individual, that's why this technique is called "Values in action" ("VIA") (adapted by E.L. Nosenko & L.I. Baysara at Oles Honchar Dnipro National University).

Consider these values more detail [12]:

1. Wisdom gives an idea of the cognitive abilities of the personality, which are manifested in his active prediction to the acquisition of knowledge and their application in life. Such positive traits as creativity, curiosity, judgment, love of learning and perspective characterize wisdom.

2. Courage identifies the resilience and vital energy to ensure active human efforts for achieving goals in spite of difficulties and obstacles. It "combines" such traits as bravery, perseverance, honesty and zest.

3. Humanity provides the ability to form and maintain friendly social ties. This value is characterized by love, kindness and social intelligence.

4. Justice is manifested in citizenship and the promotion of social well-being; this value includes: leadership, fairness and teamwork.

5. Temperance is characterized by humility, self-regulation, forgiveness and prudence.

6. Transcendence - the presence of ideas about the meaning of life and sense of connection with the world. This value is characterized by appreciation of beauty and excellence ; gratitude, hope, humor and spirituality.

It is important to note that the traits selected by K. Peterson and M. Seligman characterize all the most important features of personality as the subject of life, as they reflect the functioning of personality as the subject of knowledge (traits united around the virtue "Wisdom"); as the subject of activity (traits united around the virtue "Courage"); as the subject of communication and interaction (traits united around the virtues "Humanity" and "Temperance") [5].

For testing our hypothesis, we conducted the empirical research of the peculiarities of the occurrence and course of burnout syndrome among law enforcement officers in several stages.

The study involved officers from various departments (the total number of respondents - 200 men and women: investigators, police officers, inspectors, operatives, duty officers, drivers and others).

Age of subjects - from 23 to 45 years, work experience - from 2 to 15 years.

The following data tools were used in the research: "FPI" (J.Fahrenberg, R. Hampel, H. Selg) - to study personality traits; "Diagnosis of emotional burnout" (V.V Boyko) - to diagnose occupational burnout; "Values in action" ("VIA") (K. Peterson, M. Seligman) in the adaptation of E. Nosenko, L. Baysara - to determine the values inherent in law enforcement officers.

Author's questionnaire was also developed, which included questions about autobiographical information, the relations of police officers at work with colleagues and in the family, data on the state of physical and mental health, etc.

With the help of the r-linear Pearson correlation coefficient, the answers of 180 law enforcement officers (117 male and 63 female) were processed according to the methods of "Diagnosis of emotional burnout" (V. Boyko) and the personal Freiburg questionnaire "FPI" (J. Fahrenberg, R. Hampel, H. Selg), form B (adapted by A. Krylov, T. Ronginsky). Consider the features of the manifestation of professional burnout among law enforcement officers at each stage of the syndrome. In the first stage, tension phase, the subjects are characterized by neurosity (0.159; p < 0.05), shyness (0.189; p < 0.05), depression (0.228; p < 0.01) and emotional lability (0.232 p < 0.01).

This indicates that law enforcement employees are prone to stressful situations, they are somewhat constrained, insecure, which may be one of the possible causes of difficulties in establishing social contacts with others in the future and there is a high probability of depressive and neurotic syndrome by asthenic type.

High scores on the scale of emotional lability indicate instability of the emotional state of police officers, frequent mood swings, irritability, lack of self-regulation, etc.

In the second stage of burnout syndrome, resistance phase, law enforcement officers have the following properties: neurosity (0.352; p < 0.01), spontaneous aggression (0.282; p < 0.01), depression (0.227; p < 0.01), irritability (0.359; p < 0.01), reactive aggression (0.245; p < 0.01), shyness (0.274; p < 0.01), openness (0.360; p < 0.01), emotional lability 0.198, p < 0.01).

Thus, police officers at this stage are characterized by the emergence of unstable emotional state with tendency to affective response and high level of psy- chopathism, which is manifested in impulsive behavior and aggressive attitude towards the social environment.

High scores on the "openness" index may indicate either a trusting attitude of law enforcement officers towards other people, or high level of truthfulness, as this scale replaces the scale of lie.

Consider what personal characteristics are manifested in the last stage of burnout - the phase of exhaustion.

Thus, the personality characteristics inherent law enforcement officers on the phase of exhaustion are neurosity (0.315; p < 0.01), spontaneous aggression (0.278; p < 0.01), depression (0.251; p < 0.01), irritability (0.320; p < 0.01), reactive aggression (0.217; p < 0.01), shyness (0.263; p < 0.01), openness (0.294; p < 0.01), emotional lability 0.215, p < 0.01).

We can sum up, that in the phase of exhaustion there is an aggravation of all personal characteristics of law enforcement officers, which were inherent in the previous two components of burnout syndrome - the phase of stress and the phase of exhaustion.

According to the results of the inventory "VIA" (K. Peterson, M. Seligman) in the adaptation of E. Nosenko, L. Baysary and "Diagnosis of emotional burnout" (V. Boyko) were obtained the following data.

Table 1

Analysis results of correlation between indicators of personality values of law enforcement officers and the phase of professional burnout "Tension" (using the r-linear Pearson correlation coefficient)

Note: * р 0,01

N= 40 (17 female and 23 male)

From Table 1 we see that there are statistically significant data on the negative correlation between the value of "Humanity" and tension phase.

This may indicate that law enforcement officers lose the ability to be friendly to others, have difficulty in establishing relationships with people around, low level of social intelligence, they are becoming more rude, both at work and in everyday life. Feeling of hopelessness, emotional and intellectual congestion, dissatisfaction with themselves and their chosen profession, inability to constructively address issues are characterized for police officers on this stage.

In the second stage of professional burnout, the phase of resistance, there is no statistically significant correlation with universal virtues according to the method of "VIA" (Table 2).

As you know, this phase is characterized by saving the emotional resources of the professional(establishing emotional contacts is selective, on the principle of "want - don't want"; expanding the scope of saving emotions is outside of professional activities (in communication with family, friends, other people).

Table 2

Analysis results of correlation between indicators of personality values of law enforcement officers and the phase of professional burnout "Resistance" (using the r-linear Pearson correlation coefficient)

Note: N= 40 (17 female and 23 male)

The employee unconsciously tries to overcome the emerging symptoms of burnout, perhaps it explains the lack of negative statistically significant differences between the values of law enforcement officers and the resistance phase.

Table 3 provides an opportunity to analyze the correlation between indicators of personal values of law enforcement officers and the last stage of burnout syndrome.

Thus, there are statistically significant data between the phase of exhaustion and such values as "Wisdom", "Courage", "Humanity".

Table 3

Analysis results of correlation between indicators of personality values of law enforcement officers and the phase of professional burnout "Exhaustion" (using the r-linear Pearson correlation coefficient)

Note: ** р 0,05

N= 40 (17 female and 23 male)

It is known that this stage is characterized by a decrease in general tone and weakness of the nervous system and includes such symptoms as emotional deficit, emotional withdrawal, depersonalization and psychosomatic disorders. Saving emotions is gaining momentum in this phase, the employee almost completely excludes emotions from the sphere of professional activity. Along with this, the love of knowledge, creativity, honesty, perseverance in professionally important issues, courage and enthusiasm are lost.

Conclusion

Despite the noticeable surge of interest of scientists in studying the burnout syndrome among law enforcement officers, consideration of this problem in the light of ideas of positive psychology still remains outside the research interests.

Research of the value sphere of civil servants (on the example of police officers) is possible with the use of the latest tools - the method of "Values in action" (VIA), developed by representatives of positive psychology M. Seligman and K. Peterson in adaptation by E. Nosenko and L.Baysara.

Statistically significant results were obtained between the phases of professional burnout and the values that are characteristic of law enforcement officers. Thus, there is negative correlation between indexes of tension phase of burnout syndrome and humanity as well as statistically significant differences between exhaustion phase and such values as wisdom, humanity and courage.

The data obtained as a result of the study will contribute to the creation of differentiated psychoprophylactic programs to promote mental health, as well as prevent the occurrence of psychosomatic disorders and burnout among law enforcement officials.

We see the prospect of the further research in a deeper study of the positive values of law enforcement officers, as well as the impact of these values and their inherent positive features in the process of preventing burnout among this category of civil servants.

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