Assessing the impact of anxiety and aggression on the level of emotional burnout in helping professionals

Abstract

In a context of increasing social tension, professional uncertainty, and emotional overload, the problem of emotional burnout is becoming especially pressing, especially in helping and socionomic professions. We examined emotional burnout as a multifactorial process, in the development of which the individual and typological characteristics of the professional play a significant role. The methods of N.E. Vodopyanova, E.S. Starchenkova (“Professional (emotional) burnout”), V.V. Boyko (“Diagnostics of the level of emotional burnout”), as well as the methodological approach of L.N. Sobchik were used. In this study, the influence of anxiety and aggression on emotional burnout is analyzed within the context of examining individual typological personality traits as factors in its formation. The theoretical and methodological basis of the study was L.N. Sobchik's theory of leading tendencies, according to which eight basic personality characteristics form four pairs of polar properties: introversion/extroversion, spontaneity/sensitivity, aggressiveness/anxiety, and rigidity/lability. This article focuses on the analysis of one of these polar pairs—aggression and anxiety—as significant intrapersonal predictors of emotional burnout. This pair was chosen due to its key role in regulating emotional states, interpersonal interactions, and stress resilience in helping professionals. The result of the experiment was a direct positive correlation between the indicators of aggressiveness/anxiety and the severity of the indicators of the subfactors of emotional burnout. Another result of the study should be called the principle of taking into account the individual-typological characteristics of the personality and the need to compile his psychological profile at the first stage of psychotherapy in the implementation of the request for restoration of motivation for professional activity. The latter, in our opinion, will ensure a comprehensive and personal approach in psychocorrectional work with BS.