Personality characteristics and proneness to burnout: A study among psychiatrists

Burnout syndrome is commonly considered as resulting from prolonged emotional load. Thus, it has been hypothesized that people with certain personality characteristics which make them more liable to intense emotional arousal are likely to be burnout‐prone. Forty‐nine psychiatrists, residents and specialists from three hospitals participated in the study. The personality characteristics chosen weree: repression‐sensitization (RS), anxiety state (AS) and learned resourcefulness (LR), Also recorded were age, tenure at job, time in workplace, marital status, and country of origin. Burnout was found to be positively related to AS and to RS and negatively related to LR. Burnout was negatively correlated with tenure and years in place of employment (but not significantly).