Personality characteristics and proneness to burnout: A study among internists

Burnout syndrome is commonly conceived as resulting from prolonged emotional load. Thus, it was hypothesized that people with certain personality characteristics, which make them more liable to extensive emotional arousal, are likely to be burnout‐prone. The personality characteristics chosen were: repression‐sensitization (R‐S). emotional reactivity (ER), learned resourcefulness (LR), Type A behavior (TAB), and hostility. Also recorded were age and tenure at current job. Subjects for the study were doctors of internal medicine employed in public hospitals. Burnout was found to be positively related to R‐S, ER and hostility, and negatively related to LR. No significant results were obtained with TAB. In addition, burnout was negatively (but not significantly) associated with tenure. It was concluded that subjects who display an increased tendency to emotional arousal, and/or lack LR skills, are likely to suffer burnout.