Psychologi Psychological Burnout Essay

A study conducted by Burke (1993) had 828 Canadian officers that participated, 62 of them were female. The variables that were used included individual demographics, situational variables, and job related stress. Psychological burnout was measured using three constructs: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and lack of personal accomplishment. Emotional exhaustion occurs when officers feel worn out by their job, and, depersonalization manifests when they begin to lack feelings and concern for the public. When officers feel incompetent and ineffective they lack a sense of personal accomplishment. Emotional exhaustion was measured via responses to statements such as “I feel emotionally drained from my work.” The officer’s sense of depersonalization was weighed by his or her answers to assertions such as “I feel I treat some of the public as if they were impersonal objects,” and lack of personal accomplishment was evaluated by means of the response to expressions like “I feel I’m positively influencing other people’s lives through my work.”
Police officers who reported greater isolation and feelings of tiredness and preoccupation also reported greater emotional exhaustion. Those officers in larger forces, having lower education, and occupying lower ranks reported higher depersonalization. Officers who reported less autonomy, a narrower range of client contacts, and less stimulation also reported less personal accomplishment. Police officers that had high levels of psychological burnout were more likely to display anger and to be uninvolved in family matters, and have unsatisfactory marriages (Burke, 1993). Having experiences of stressful events was significantly related to all three components of psychological burnout (Burke,