Comparison of job satisfaction, work–life quality, and compassion level between psychologists and psychological counselors

Abstract

Introduction: Various studies have been conducted in the literature on job satisfaction, work-related quality of life, and compassion with different sample groups. Our aim is to compare psychologists and psychological counselors (PC) in terms of these variables. Methods: It consists of 60 participants; 41 women and 19 men, 30 psychologists and 30 PC, aged between 23 and 52 years, working in schools, clinics, hospitals, and other institutions. Participants filled out a sociodemographic information form and were subjected to the Minnesota job satisfaction scale, the work-related quality of life scale, and the compassion scale. Ethical Aspect of the Study: This study was approved by the T.R. University of Uskudar, Non-Interventional Studies Ethics Committee. Results: It was determined that as the age of psychologists and PC increases, their level of disconnection decreases in terms of compassion (r = −0.264; P = 0.041); thus, their ability to create a rapport increases with age, their compassion fatigue decreases as the workplace changes (r = −0.256; P = 0.048), their job satisfaction decreases as the noise level in the workplace increases (r = −0.433; P = 0.001), their job satisfaction increases as the work-related quality of life increases (r = 0.373; P = 0.003), their humaneness increases as their professional satisfaction increases, and their level of indifference and conscious awareness decreases as their compassion fatigue increases. Conclusion: Compassion fatigue is considered to be more related to the traumatic burden of the work done, because as the frequency of workplace changes increases, compassion fatigue decreases. The findings indicate that psychologists and PCs not only need to have suitable working areas available for their work but also need to change their work fields from time to time. It can be argued that the job satisfaction and work-related quality of life of psychologists and PCs working in private clinics are higher than those working in schools; moreover, the reason for the lower levels of burnouts may be due to the noise levels, as well as the workload at the workplace, other occupational groups, and the culture of the institution.