Burnout: The effect of psychological type on research findings*

Abstract

In this study dimensions of burnout were compared in a human services sample of 81 nurses and a non‐human services sample of 194 mid‐career managers on an MBA course. A measure of burnout, and certain postulated facets of burnout, were assessed through a self‐report questionnaire. An indicator of psychological type was also administered since, it is argued, a confounding of personality with occupation may have occurred in early studies of burnout. It was found that emotional demands and a lack of caring for others were associated with the measure of burnout only for that psychological type which is overrepresented in the human services. For a different psychological type, which is over‐represented in managerial occupations, the measure of burnout was associated instead with mental demands and lower ambitiousness. This suggests that previous findings about burnout may merely be a product of research being conducted in an occupation, the human services, within which is a predominance of a particular psychological type.

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