Negative Emotional Responses Research Articles

Novel five-phase model for understanding the nature of misophonia, a conditioned aversive reflex disorder.

Background: Misophonia is a recently identified condition in which a person perceives a subtle stimulus (e.g., eating sounds, hair twirling) and has an intense, negative emotional response. Misophonia cannot be classified with established nosological systems. Methods: We present a novel five-phase model of misophonia from a cognitive-behavioral framework. This model identifies a learned reflex of the autonomic nervous system as the primary etiology and maintenance of misophonia. Phase one is anticipatory anxiety and avoidance. Phase two is a conditioned physical reflex (for example, the tensing of calf muscles) that develops through stimulus-response Pavlovian conditioning. Phase three includes intense negative emotional responses and accompanying physiological distress, thoughts, urges, and emotion-driven behavior. Phase four is the individual's coping responses to emotional distress, and phase five is the environmental response and resulting internal and external consequences of the coping behaviors. Each phase helps explain the maintenance of the response and the individual's impairment. Results: Anticipatory anxiety and avoidance of phase one contributes to an increased arousal and awareness of triggers, resulting in increased severity of the trigger experience. Both the Pavlovian-conditioned physical reflex of phase two and the emotion-driven behavior caused by the conditioned emotional response of phase three increase with in vivo exposure to triggers. Phase four includes internal and external coping behaviors to the intense emotions and distress, and phase five includes the consequences of those behaviors. Internal consequences include beliefs fiveand new emotions based on environmental responses to anger and panic. For example, the development of emotions such as shame and guilt, and beliefs regarding how 'intolerable' the trigger is. Conclusions: We assert misophonia is a multi-sensory condition and includes anticipatory anxiety, conditioned physical reflexes, intense emotional and physical distress, subsequent internal and external responses, and environmental consequences.

Trait- and State-Components of Mathematics Anxiety versus Perceived Mathematics Anxiety

Negative emotions such as mathematics anxiety (MA) may lead to the avoidance of mathematics, which can have dire consequences for future career-related decisions. This paper compared Grade 10 learners’ levels of trait-MA with perceived MA according to the type of school and gender. Both quantitative and qualitative data through a survey conducted with 427 Grade 10 mathematics learners from seven schools were collected. Quantitative data were descriptively analysed, while qualitative data were inductively coded and categorised. Participants from an independent school reported higher levels of trait-MA than those from the other types of schools. Female participants experienced higher levels of trait-MA than their male counterparts. More participants reported perceived MA as opposed to those who measured high levels of trait-MA. MA was viewed as a negative emotional response to activities and situations related to mathematics with a wide range of causes and consequences. This study provides valuable insight for the development of an instrument to measure perceived MA.

Do emotion intensity, variability, differentiation, co-occurrence, and positive-negative ratios make unique contributions to predicting longitudinal change in psychological distress and well-being?

A burgeoning array of affective indices are proposed to capture features of affect that contribute to mental health and well-being. However, because indices are often investigated separately, it is unclear what-if any-unique role they have. The present study addresses this question in a high-stress naturalistic context by prospectively testing the relative contributions of eight affective indices to psychological outcomes during the first acute lockdown phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. Across six fortnightly waves of data collection, participants (N = 613, aged 19 to 87 years) reported how much they experienced five positive and five negative emotions in response to images showing the health and social impacts of the pandemic. We used these ratings to calculate participant-level indices of intensity, variability, and differentiation for positive and negative emotions separately, and positive-negative co-occurrence and ratios. Psychosocial outcome measures were general psychological distress, loneliness, work, and social impairment specifically due to the pandemic, well-being, and coping. On average, psychosocial functioning improved across the lockdown period, and, for most affective indices, bivariate relationships with psychosocial functioning supported existing theory and empirical work. However, multiple regression analyses suggested that the contributions of the individual indices were rarely unique, with most of the change in psychosocial functioning over time being explained by affect intensity and variability. These findings highlight that affective indices should be studied in concert to build a comprehensive and integrated understanding of their role in mental health and well-being. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Pre-COVID brain network topology prospectively predicts social anxiety alterations during the COVID-19 pandemic

BackgroundSocial anxiety (SA) is a negative emotional response that can lead to mental health issues, which some have experienced during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Little attention has been given to the neurobiological mechanisms underlying inter-individual differences in SA alterations related to COVID-19. This study aims to identify neurofunctional markers of COVID-specific SA development. Methods110 healthy participants underwent resting-state magnetic resonance imaging and behavioral tests before the pandemic (T1, October 2019 to January 2020) and completed follow-up behavioral measurements during the pandemic (T2, February to May 2020). We constructed individual functional networks and used graph theoretical analysis to estimate their global and nodal topological properties, then used Pearson correlation and partial least squares correlations examine their associations with COVID-specific SA alterations. ResultsIn terms of global network parameters, SA alterations (T2-T1) were negatively related to pre-pandemic brain small-worldness and normalized clustering coefficient. In terms of nodal network parameters, SA alterations were positively linked to a pronounced degree centrality pattern, encompassing both the high-level cognitive networks (dorsal attention network, cingulo-opercular task control network, default mode network, memory retrieval network, fronto-parietal task control network, and subcortical network) and low-level perceptual networks (sensory/somatomotor network, auditory network, and visual network). These findings were robust after controlling for pre-pandemic general anxiety, other stressful life events, and family socioeconomic status, as well as by treating SA alterations as categorical variables. ConclusionsThe individual functional network associated with SA alterations showed a disrupted topological organization with a more random state, which may shed light on the neurobiological basis of COVID-related SA changes at the network level.

Development and Validation of the Workplace Affective Events Survey.

Background Work, a central aspect of human life, serves vital economic and social functions. There is a burgeoning interest in positive emotions in the workplace, which can enhance creativity, foster social connections, and improve problem-solving abilities. These emotions are pivotal in key organizational outcomes, including employee performance and health. Despite the extensive examination of factors like job satisfaction and workplace stressors, a knowledge gap exists regarding the everyday workplace events that influence emotions and their contribution to overall workplace emotional health.The present study introduces the Workplace Affective Events Survey (WAES), a new tool that can facilitate the advancement of research in this field. Purpose This study aimed to develop a tool to assess daily workplace events that lead to positive or negative emotional responses and the intensities of such responses. The study also examined the relationship between theseevents and the associated affect-intensities with trait affect, and social companionship at work for convergent validation. Methodology The tool development entailed a multi-phase approach which encompassed item generation, content validation, pre-pilot trials, and pilot testing of the WAES. Participants were entry and mid-level service sector employees aged 25-55 years. Themes generated using focus group discussions and one-to-one interviews were mapped against a known taxonomy of workplace affective events. Expert validation and pre-pilot trials helped inrefining the final items. The main phase engaged 300 individuals from nine service industries across 29 organizations in an urban metropolitan city in India. WAES was administered alongside standardized measures of trait-affect and workplace social companionship. Results WAES subscales demonstrated acceptable reliability. Participants reported positive daily affective events more often than negative ones, with the average intensity of positive emotions surpassing that of negative emotions. Notably, trait affect scores and social companionship exhibited significant correlations with daily affectiveevents and their intensity. Conclusions The WAES offers a novel tool to investigate daily emotional experiences in the workplace. The data suggest that a within-person disposition such as trait-affect might play a lesser role in generating positive affective events than contextual factors.These findings underscore the value of creating work environments that consistently nurture positive emotional experiences.

Centering Negative Emotional Responses: The Utility of Strategic Membership Researcher Status in Sino-German Cross-Cultural Trainings

This article explores the utility of strategic membership researcher status in the case of Sino-German cross-cultural training courses to understand the paradoxical practices that reinforce and mitigate cross-cultural conflicts in transnational contexts. Drawing upon autoethnographic positioning analysis, I connect my own negative emotional experiences with positioning dynamics to reconstruct conflictual social events. This approach not only exposes the implicit field logic but also reveals the arrangement of social relations in an unexpected way. These findings highlight the epistemic potential of combining position-analytic and emotion-analytic reflexivity. In so doing, this article provides a practical, methodological model and furthers scholarship on the utility of autoethnography for the study of social relations.

A mixed study on the “wow” of impulse purchase on Instagram: insights from Gen-Z in a collectivistic environment

PurposeGeneration Z (Gen-Z), sometimes known as “digital natives”, represents the first generation to become immersed in digital communication. In a multicultural environment, this study aims to explore which types of factors are most beneficial in connection with Gen-Z’s impulsive purchase behaviour.Design/methodology/approachThis study adopts an exploratory sequential mixed-method design, incorporating both qualitative and quantitative approaches. In Study 1, focus group discussions are conducted to address “why” and “how” questions, whereas Study 2 uses a quantitative method to test the hypothetical model. The model is assessed using structural equation modelling. This study used the stimulus–organism–response (SOR) framework in the context of Instagram.FindingsBuilding on Mehrabian and Russell’s (1974) concept and focus group discussions, Study 1 introduces a novel SOR model tailored to Instagram. In Study 2, the model is tested, and results confirm most hypotheses, except for three. Factors such as aesthetic appeal, scarcity promotions and discounted prices stimulate impulse buying behaviour in Gen-Z. Positive emotional responses evoked by these factors also influence impulse buying, whereas the impact of negative emotional responses is found to be insignificant.Originality/valueThis mixed-methods study enhances the theoretical understanding of Gen-Zers’ impulse buying behaviour by highlighting the influence of diverse independent variables. By using the SOR framework, it reveals the intricate emotional aspects impacting impulsive purchase decisions. The research provides new insights into online impulsive buying behaviour, particularly relevant to consumer psychology and behavioural economics among young collectivist consumers.

"We got there in the end…. somehow, we got there": a qualitative study of healthcare professionals providing care in the community to people with chronic aphasia, and how technology could assist

Purpose Little is known about the experience of healthcare professionals (HCPs) in the community providing healthcare to people with aphasia. In this study we aimed to explore the experiences of community HCPs in healthcare conversations with people with aphasia, and whether a high-tech, purpose-built aphasia app could assist. Methods A generic qualitative study was conducted. HCPs from seven different clinical backgrounds were interviewed and data was thematically analysed. Results The experiences of healthcare providers providing healthcare to people with aphasia were identified in six major themes. These were: (1) Healthcare communication topics; (2) HCP knowledge; (3) Communication exchanges during the interactions (4) Communication impacts on care; (5) Interactions and relationships grew easier over time; and (6) How technology could help interactions. Conclusions HCPs with more aphasia knowledge reported having more positive experiences. Unsuccessful interactions were believed to lead to negative emotional responses in people with aphasia and HCPs, and that miscommunications could lead to compromised care. HCPs reported that interactions and relationships with people with aphasia grew easier over time. HCPs need system level support to acquire the knowledge and skills needed to engage people with aphasia in effective healthcare conversations. Technology has potential to improve interactions.

The impact of language socialization in the context of family, education, and sojourn on emotional, psychological, and identity responses to language learning

The paper examines the impact of language socialization in the context of family, education, and sojourn on multilingual learners’ emotional, psychological, and identity responses to language learning and use. Since language and culture are interwoven in second language acquisition (SLA) (Kramsch, 1998), learners respond to language learning and use on the levels of language and culture, shaping learners’ linguistic, cultural, and social identities on the individual and on the collective levels alike. This classroom research is a qualitative case study involving four cohorts of learners in a multicultural classroom: 1) students having learned English only in the formal context of education, 2) learners having grown up in a multicultural and multilingual environment speaking several languages including English, 3) a learner raised bilingually by a non-native second language (L2)-speaking parent, and 4) a multilingual learner learning languages in formal contexts but also experiencing sojourn. Data were collected via a linguistic autobiography (an unstructured essay) written by the fourteen participants. The findings point out that negative experiences associated with unfavorable teaching methods, discriminative educational practices, or bullying lead to negative emotional, psychological, and identity responses to learning. Learners experience ‘language socialization shock’ when a sudden change occurs in their language socialization processes – irrespective of whether the change is positive or negative. In an effort to attain positive experiences and self-fulfillment via language learning and use, learners rid themselves of the old socialization context haunted by negative experiences by moving on to a new socialization context or by learning a different foreign language through which they can ‘start over’. The findings also point out some of the long-term psychological and social effects of raising bilingual children by non-native L2-speaking parents and the impact of multilingual and multicultural socialization contexts on learners’ linguistic and life choices that transform their lives. / Keywords: language ecology, language socialization, identity, emotions, bilingualism, multilingualism, multicultural classrooms, psychological well-being, language learning, sojourn, classroom research

Academic Resilience and Religiosity Among College Students Facing Post-Pandemic Learning

Objective: The shock of rapid shifts in academic activity patterns affects students' mental health and academic progress. Resilience and religiosity in dealing with adversity are vital to surviving the post-pandemic transitional period. Method: This research is qualitative-quantitative descriptive with a combination of concurrent embedded methods, and the primary method is qualitative. Three hundred forty-one samples from 18,537 populations were taken using a simple random sampling technique with an error rate of 1.00% x 5.00%. Data was collected through an electronic questionnaire (G-Form). The instruments used were ARS-30 Cassidy and 4-BDRS Saroglou. Results: The results showed that students' academic resilience and religiosity were positive, with very high, high, and moderate scores and none in the low or shallow range. In all the religions studied resilient students are also religious. This shows that persistent children can describe events, adapt, and avoid negative emotional responses; they also have trust, determination, and faith in God. The implication is that when students face problems, risks, and academic difficulties in face-to-face learning during the post-pandemic transition period, they show the ability not to give up easily; they believe that God will help them through challenges and difficulties. Novelty: The novelty of the research is that good academic resilience and religiosity positively impact student’s academic activities.

Communicating emotions, but not expressing them privately, reduces moral punishment in a Prisoner’s Dilemma game

The existence of moral punishment, that is, the fact that cooperative people sacrifice resources to punish defecting partners requires an explanation. Potential explanations are that people punish defecting partners to privately express or to communicate their negative emotions in response to the experienced unfairness. If so, then providing participants with alternative ways to privately express or to communicate their emotions should reduce moral punishment. In two experiments, participants interacted with cooperating and defecting partners in a Prisoner’s Dilemma game. After each round, participants communicated their emotions to their partners (Experiments 1 and 2) or only expressed them privately (Experiment 2). Each trial concluded with a costly punishment option. Compared to a no-expression control group, moral punishment was reduced when emotions were communicated to the defecting partner but not when emotions were privately expressed. Moral punishment may thus serve to communicate emotions to defecting partners. However, moral punishment was only reduced but far from being eliminated, suggesting that the communication of emotions does not come close to replacing moral punishment. Furthermore, prompting participants to focus on their emotions had undesirable side-effects: Privately expressing emotions diminished cooperation, enhanced hypocritical punishment (i.e., punishment of defecting partners by defecting participants), and induced an unspecific bias to punish the partners irrespective of their actions.

Addressing the second victim phenomenon in Israeli health care institutions

BackgroundThe ‘second victim’ phenomenon (SVP) refers to practitioners who experience a negative physical or emotional response, as well as a professional decline, after participating or witnessing an adverse event. Despite the Israeli Ministry of Health’s implementation of specific protocols regarding the overall management of adverse events in health organizations over the past decade, there is limited knowledge regarding healthcare managers’ perceptions of the ‘second victim’ occurrence.MethodsA phenomenological qualitative approach was used to identify an accurate view of policy. Fifteen senior risk manager/and policy makers were interviewed about their knowledge and perceptions of the ‘second victim’. Topics addressed included reporting mechanisms of an adverse event, the degree of organizational awareness of ‘second victim’, and identifying components of possible intervention programs and challenges to implementing those programs.ResultsExamining current procedures reveals that there is limited knowledge about uniform guidance for health care organizations on how to identify, treat, or prevent SVP among providers. The employee support programs that were offered were sporadic in nature and depended on the initiative of a direct manager or the risk manager.ConclusionsCurrently, there is little information or organizational discussion about the possible negative effects of AE on healthcare practitioners. To provide overall medical care that is safe and effective for patients, the health system must also provide a suitable response to the needs of the medical provider. This could be achieved by establishing a national policy for all healthcare organizations to follow, raising awareness of the possible occurrence of SVP, and creating a standard for the subsequent identification, treatment and future prevention for providers who may be suffering.

When emotional responses conflict with self-interested impulses: A transcranial direct current stimulation study of cognitive control in cooperative norm compliance

This study proposes a conflict between the impulse to express negative emotions and the temptation to behave selfishly in the cognitive control processes of complying with cooperative norms. We conduct an experiment with two tasks (cost and no-cost) in a prisoner’s dilemma game with third-party punishment and apply the transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to modulate the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). The results indicate significant differences in tDCS effects on third-party punishment between two cost conditions. In the no-cost task, third parties in the cathodal condition report higher negative emotional responses and assign more punishment to norm violators than those in the sham condition. However, the tDCS effect on third-party punishment is not significant in the cost task. Our results help address the inconsistent findings in prior literature regarding the role of the right DLPFC in norm compliance and deepen our understanding of the cognitive control process in enforcing cooperative norms by third parties.

Verbal violence and missed nursing care: A phenomenological study.

To define the missed care experiences of nurses exposed to verbal violence from patients. Verbal violence takes the first place among the types of violence that nurses face in healthcare settings. This can cause negative emotional and physical responses in nurses and issues in patient and nurse interaction. As a result, it may lead to missed nursing care, defined as skipped, postponed or incomplete care during the patient's care. This is a phenomenological study. The study sample included 16 nurses working in inpatient clinics who reported experiencing verbal violence at least once in Turkey. The study was conducted between January and February 2022 with institutional permission and ethics committee approval (09/12/2021-2021/357). A semi-structured interview method was used to collect data. The information gathered from the interviews underwent thematic analysis using an inductive approach. The 'Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research (COREQ)' was used to report this qualitative study based on a comprehensive protocol. The types of verbal violence most frequently faced by nurses were determined as swearing, insulting, shouting and threats. Study findings were classified into three main themes: (i) response to verbal violence, (ii) missed nursing care experiences and (iii) suggestions to cope with verbal violence. The most felt emotions in the face of verbal violence were feeling sad, unsafe and worthless. Nurses common behaviours, in response to verbal abuse were ignoring, getting used to, and wishing to get away. The examples of missed care included using non-therapeutic communication, postponing care or withdrawing from care. Verbal violence caused negative emotional and behavioural responses in nurses, which, in turn, negatively affected the nurse-patient interaction. These findings mean that verbal violence may pave the way for missed nursing care. According to these findings, an uninterrupted nursing care process needs to focus on preventive measures against verbal violence and increase the administrative and legal support offered to nurses.

Sustainable Energy Siting, Affect, and Climate Mitigation: Questions for a Future Research Agenda

The affective sciences are essential to research regarding sustainable transition towards renewable energy. We focus on important questions that should be addressed by affective science in relation to the siting of large-scale renewable energy projects like wind and solar. Considering the recent acceleration of the transition, a more holistic understanding of negative and positive emotional responses to energy development will be essential. This is particularly important as the least controversial sites begin to dwindle in number. We break this commentary down into four primary question categories for future research. These are the causal relationships between emotional elicitations and their sources, dual processing through cognitive and affective response, affect and its relationship with place, and how all of these elements change over time.

Novel five-phase model for understanding the nature of misophonia, a conditioned aversive reflex disorder

Background: Misophonia is a recently identified condition in which a person perceives a subtle stimulus (e.g., eating sounds, hair twirling) and has an intense, negative emotional response. Misophonia cannot be classified with established nosological systems. Methods: We present a novel five-phase model of misophonia from a cognitive-behavioral framework. This model identifies a learned reflex of the autonomic nervous system as the primary etiology and maintenance of misophonia. Phase one is anticipatory anxiety and avoidance. Phase two is a conditioned physical reflex (for example, the tensing of calf muscles) that develops through stimulus-response Pavlovian conditioning. Phase three includes intense negative emotional responses and accompanying physiological distress, thoughts, urges, and emotion-driven behavior. Phase four is the individual’s coping responses to emotional distress, and phase five is the environmental response and resulting internal and external consequences of the coping behaviors. Each phase helps explain the maintenance of the response and the individual’s impairment. Results: Anticipatory anxiety and avoidance of phase one contributes to an increased arousal and awareness of triggers, resulting in increased severity of the trigger experience. Both the Pavlovian-conditioned physical reflex of phase two and the emotion-driven behavior caused by the conditioned emotional response of phase three increase with in vivo exposure to triggers. Phase four includes internal and external coping behaviors to the intense emotions and distress, and phase 5 includes the consequences of those behaviors. Internal consequences include beliefs and new emotions based on environmental responses to anger and panic. For example, the development of emotions such as shame and guilt, and beliefs regarding how ‘intolerable’ the trigger is. Conclusions: We assert misophonia is a multi-sensory condition and includes anticipatory anxiety, conditioned physical reflexes, intense emotional and physical distress, subsequent internal and external responses, and environmental consequences.

Parents' Emotional Responses to Behavior Analysis Terms: A Comparative Analysis.

Behavior analysts are concerned with developing strong client-therapist relationships. One challenge to the development of such relationships may be a reliance on technical language that stakeholders find unpleasant. Previous research suggests that some behavior analysis terms evoke negative emotional responses. However, most relevant research was conducted with individuals from the general public and not individuals with a history of interaction with behavior analysts. The current study evaluated how parents of individuals with disabilities, who accessed behavior analytic services for their child, rated their emotional responses to 40 behavior analysis terms. We found that half of behavior analysis terms were rated as less pleasant than the majority of English words by parents. Furthermore, word emotion ratings by our stakeholder sample corresponded closely to norms obtained from the general public (Warriner et al. Behavior Research Methods, 45(4), 1191-1207, 2013). Our findings suggest that, while learning history may mediate some emotional responses to words, published word emotion data could be a useful guide to how stakeholders may respond to behavior analysis terminology. A need remains for additional studies examining word emotion responses that may be unique to particular sub-categories of stakeholders and evaluating how emotional responses impact the development of effective relationships.

Knowledge of an insect pest negatively affects sensory perception and emotional response to blueberries

Managing insect pests is a major challenge for sustainable food production. Beyond the impacts of insects in reducing food quality and quantity, insects often elicit negative emotions in humans including disgust and fear. Negative emotional responses might lead to impaired enjoyment of food when insects are encountered alongside food. Using a sensory trial, we asked how providing information about an insect pest (Blueberry maggot, Rhagoletis mendax (Diptera: Tephritidae)) affects the sensory perception and emotional response to blueberries (the fruits it infests). Participants in the sensory trial consumed and evaluated an initial sample of blueberries. Participants were then randomly assigned to receive information about the blueberry maggot (Maggot-Informed) or a bumblebee (Bumblebee-Informed) that functioned as a control, before they evaluated a second blueberry sample of identical origin. Maggot-informed participants rated blueberries lower with respect to flavour, texture, and overall liking compared to Bumblebee-Informed participants. Maggot-Informed participants were less likely to describe blueberries as “sweet”, “juicy”, “fruity” and purple compared to initial samples. Maggot-Informed participants reported lower frequencies of “happy”, “joyful”, “pleasant”, and “satisfied” emotions but more frequently reported disgust compared to the initial sample. Bumblebee-Informed participants did not perceive any differences beyond a reduction in the frequency of reporting the emotion “happy” compared to the initial sample. Our results demonstrate that knowledge of an insect pest can negatively impact the sensory evaluation and emotional response to food. This study reaffirms the low tolerance of consumers towards insects in fresh fruit and demonstrates the importance of effective pest control.

You’re red, I’m blue, so I don’t like you: the political dissimilarity-disliking effect

ABSTRACT Decades of research suggest that people like politically similar others more than dissimilar others, yet few studies use a control group in their design, making it unclear whether similarity drives liking or, consistent with negative partisanship and affective polarization, dissimilarity drives disliking. Two studies tested a political similarity-liking effect in the current polarized political climate by examining whether sharing real news articles suggesting endorsement of political parties or politicians (Study 1; N = 452) or sharing events supporting partisan issues or parties (Study 2; N = 713) on Facebook would influence people’s initial impressions of a Facebook profile-owner. Participants did not report liking political ingroup members more than a neutral control. Instead, participants disliked political outgroup members more; this pattern was mediated by both positive and negative emotional responses to the profiles shared. These results suggest not a partisan similarity-liking effect, but rather a dissimilarity-disliking effect consistent with negative partisanship that may stem from the emotional reactions associated with the current political landscape.

Levels of burnout and exposure to ethical conflict and assessment of the practice environment in nursing professionals of intensive care

BackgroundNursing professionals working in Intensive Care Units (ICU) are at high risk of developing negative emotional responses as well as emotional and spiritual problems related to ethical issues. The design of effective strategies that improve these aspects is determined by knowing the levels of burnout and ethical conflict of these professionals, as well as the influence that the practice environment might have on them. ObjectivesTo analyze the relationship between levels of burnout, the exposure to ethical conflicts and the perception of the practice environment among themselves and with sociodemographic variables of the different intensive care nursing professionals. MethodsDescriptive, correlational, cross-sectional, observational study in an ICU of a tertiary level university hospital. The level of burnout was evaluated with the Maslach Burnout Inventory Human Services Survey scale; the level of ethical conflict with the Ethical Conflict Questionnaire for Nurses and the perception of the environment with the Practice Environment Scale of the Nursing Work Index. Descriptive and inferential statistics were performed. The association between categorical variables was analyzed using Fisher’s exact chi-square test (χ2) Results31 nurses and 8 nursing assistants were evaluated, which meant a participation rate of 82,93%. 31,10% of the nursing professionals presented signs of burnout, 14,89% considered that they work in an unfavorable environment and 87,23% presented a medium-high index of exposure to ethical conflict.The educational level (χ2=11.084, p=0.011) and the professional category (χ2=5.007, p=0.025) influenced the level of burnout: nursing assistants presented higher levels of this.When comparing the level of burnout with the environment and the index of ethical conflict, there were no statistically significant differences. ConclusionsThe absence of association found in the study between Burnout and ethical conflict with the perception of the practice environment suggests that personal factors may influence its development.