Characteristics of Job Burnout and Humor among Psychotherapists

Abstract

AbstractJob burnout is one factor that has led many individuals to be ineffective in their profession. Psychotherapists have been shown to be especially vulnerable to the effects of job burnout in their field of specialization. Because of this fact, coping strategies are needed to protect the psychological well-being of the therapist and the therapeutic process. Humor is one coping technique that has been used in dealing with job burnout in various professions, but humor has also been shown to be detrimental to psychological well-being. In this study, a total of 133 doctoral degreed psychotherapists responded to a survey to determine the relationship between different types of humor (affiliative humor, self-enhancing humor, aggressive humor, and self-defeating humor) and various characteristics of job burnout (emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and lack of a sense of personal accomplishment). Regression results indicated that self-defeating humor contributed to the job burnout characteristics of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization, whereas self-enhancing humor contributed to a therapist's sense of personal accomplishment. The results seem to indicate that different types of humor may either buffer or contribute to job burnout depending on how humor is used.