PROFESSIONAL BURNOUT AND TIME PERCEPTION IN POSTTRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER

Abstract

The professional burnout and its prevention is one of the central issues in clinical psychology and organizational psychology. Despite a big array of this subject publications, the study of professional burnout predictors and search for the tools providing its effective prevention continues. Objective: studying of individual psychological characteristics of persons with PTSD within the framework of professional burnout and proactive coping. Type of the study: analytic, prospective. Sampling: 148 people who sought psychotherapy, of which Group 1 is comprised of people with PTSD - 65 people, and Group 2 is comprised of people without PTSD - 83 people. Methods of research - psychological tests: "Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory» (ZTPI), "Maslach Burnout Inventory" (MBI), "Proactive Coping Inventory" (PCI), "BAK-conflict". Results: According to the MBI questionnaire, 75 % of the people examined in Group 1 and 28 % those in Group 2 had high and extremely high rates of professional burnout; differences on the scales of the ZTPI questionnaire are "negative past" and "fatalistic present". According to the "BAK-conflict" questionnaire, the following indicators were detected in Group 1: low self-esteem, poor quality of relationships in a dyad (the "You sphere") and relationships in a team (the "Us sphere"); disorders of perception of time parameters (the "Grand-Us sphere"); as well as the risk factors of psychosomatic diseases - an excess in the corporeality sphere, a deficit in the spheres of sociability and spirituality. According to the PCI questionnaire in Group 1, the subjects used "proactive overcoming", "reflexive overcoming", "preventive overcoming", and the "search for emotional support". Conclusions: Due to the changes in perception of time (the predominance of negative past and fatalistic present) patients with PTSD undergo a deformation of the personality relations system of attitudes and a reduction of proactive coping, which may be a cause of relations development. For the prevention of relationships in individuals with PTSD during the psychotherapeutic intervention it is necessary to take into account the "traumatic experience", to form a strong "Me-concept" of the personality based on the adequate development of the perception of time, harmonious You-relations, relying on the experience of ancestors (Grand-Us) that allows to reduce the importance of the "negative past" and the "fatalistic present," and to build a long-term perspective of the future.