PSYCHOLOGICAL DETERMINANTS OF PROFESSIONAL BURNOUT OF SPECIALISTS IN SOCIONOMIC PROFESSIONS

Abstract

The article presents the problem of psychological burnout of socionomic profession representatives, which is manifested in emotional exhaustion, aggressiveness, loss of interest in the profession. The term “burnout” or “burning” outlines the feelings of demoralization, disappointment in life, and energy depletion. This term describes the state of extreme exhaustion of healthy people who work in the field of social assistance and are in close contacts with people in the emotionally intense environment. The specific feature of the socionomic professions, to which we refer the professions that labour subject is social relations at different levels of social interactions (their study, formation, correction, management, expertise, etc.), is that such specialists at their professional work deal with different kinds of social problems that lead to their professional burnout. The article emphasizes that the emotional exhaustion is manifested through the feelings of emotional strain, emptiness, the lack of personal emotional resources. The employees with a tendency to professional burnout are characterized by depersonalization, a formal attitude to their professional duties, nervousness and irritability. Emerging negative attitudes can initially have a latent character and can be identified by internal, restrained irritations that eventually break out in the form of anger. There is a strict competition for success among the representatives of socionomic professions in the present conditions of their professional work. Sophisticated professional life, characterized by a large number of social contacts during a working day, extremely high responsibility, the underestimation of the employees’ professional significance by their management and colleagues, the need to be at all times in the "form", contribute to the development of the job-related burnout syndrome. The socially approved image of a socially successful person is the image of a self-confident person, independent and determined, and successful in their career. Therefore, many people are trying to correspond to this image in order to be in-demand in society. There is a strong correlation between the syndrome of burnout and a person’s locus of control. If a specialist takes responsibility for the events occurring in his/her life, explaining them by own behaviour and personal traits, this specialist has internal locus of control. Such people are less tended to professional burnout, in contrast to those who are inclined to transfer the responsibility for events onto external factors. The carried out theoretical analysis of scientific literature devoted to the phenomenon of professional burnout, suggests that this is a long-term, unfavourable state for the personal development connected with the negative influence of the social environment on the person. &nbsp