the relationship between the big five personality traits and burnout in south african university

185 Pages·2010·0.75 MB·English

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE BIG FIVE PERSONALITY TRAITS AND
BURNOUT IN SOUTH AFRICAN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS
by
Brandon Morgan
DISSERTATION
submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of
MAGISTER ARTIUM
in
PSYCHOLOGY
in the
FACULTY OF HUMANITIES
at the
UNIVERSITY OF JOHANNESBURG
SUPERVISOR: DR KARINA DE BRUIN
OCTOBER 2008
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
“Every man I meet is my superior in some way.
In that, I learn of him”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
I am deeply indebted to the following people:
Dr. de Bruin, Prof. H.G. Pretorius, Dr. Arndt, Prof. Salanova, Prof. Bakker, Prof.
de Bruin, Ms. Taylor, and Statcon.
A special thank you to all the students for participating in this research. Without
your willingness to respond, this dissertation would not exist.
ABSTRACT
From the conceptualisation of burnout in the 1970’s until present day, burnout
has been recognised as a significant problem for both individuals and
organisations. Although originally confined to the helping professions, the notion
that burnout can also occur in university students has recently emerged.
University students experience a myriad of stressors on a daily basis, and may
develop burnout and several of the symptoms of burnout. This in turn may have
deleterious consequences for both the student and the university. With the
recently developed Maslach Burnout Inventory - Student Survey, the examination
of burnout in university students has received increasingly more research
attention. However, the psychometric properties of this instrument has received
limited research attention in South Africa. The relationship between burnout and
personality has also received limited attention, both internationally and in South
Africa. The role of personality in burnout is considered pertinent to a complete
conceptualisation of the antecedents to burnout. Recent research suggests that
Neuroticism and Extroversion tend to consistently demonstrate a relationship
with burnout.
The present study aimed to explore the notion of burnout in university students in
the South African context, relying on the three-factor structure definition of
burnout as forwarded by Maslach and Jackson (1981). These three factors,
namely emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation and reduced personal
accomplishment were complemented with a fourth structure, namely professional
inefficacy, as suggested by Bresó, Salanova and Schaufeli (2007) and Schaufeli
and Salanova (2007).
The aim of this study was to explore the psychometric properties of the Maslach
Burnout Inventory - Student Survey, and to investigate the relationship between
the Big Five personality traits and burnout in South African university students (N
= 297). Participants completed the Basic Traits Inventory - Short Form (BTI-SF;
Taylor & de Bruin, 2006), the Maslach Burnout Inventory - Student Survey (MBI-
SS; Schaufeli, Martínez, Pinto, Salanova & Bakker, 2002), and a biographical
questionnaire.
In order to examine the reliability and construct validity of the MBI-SS, Cronbach
alpha coefficients were determined and confirmatory factor analysis were
performed. The results indicated coefficients of 0.87 for emotional exhaustion,
0.88 for personal accomplishment and 0.78 for professional efficacy. The
confirmatory factor analysis supported the three-factor structure of burnout. Only
one item was found to load on two factors.
The relationship between the Big Five personality traits and burnout was
investigated by means of Pearson product moment correlations, and multiple
regression analyses. The results indicated that Neuroticism demonstrated a
positive relationship with emotional exhaustion (r = 0.343; p <0.01) and
depersonalisation (r = 0.266; p < 0.01) and a negative relationship with
professional efficacy (r = -0.245; p < 0.01). Extroversion was negatively related to
emotional exhaustion (r = -0.129; p < 0.05) and cynicism (r = -0.139; p < 0.05),
and positively related to professional efficacy (r = 0.211; p < 0.01). Openness to
Experience demonstrated a positive relationship with professional efficacy (r =
0.25; p < 0.01). Conscientiousness showed a negative relationship with
emotional exhaustion (r = -0.167; p < 0.01) and cynicism (r = -0.229; p < 0.01)
and a positive relationship with professional efficacy (r = 0.44; p < 0.01).
Agreeableness demonstrated a negative relationship with cynicism (r = -0.174; p
< 0.01) and a positive relationship with professional efficacy (r = 0.226; p < 0.01).
The multiple regression analyses revealed that the personality traits were able to
predict approximately 13% of the variance in emotional exhaustion (R² = 0.133,
F(5, 288) = 8.835, p < 0.001). The personality traits accounted for 12.8% of the
variance in cynicism (R² = 0.128, F(5, 288) = 8.480, p < 0.001) and almost 25%
of the variance in professional efficacy (R² = 0.248, F(5, 288) = 19.037, p <
0.001). In the presence of the other traits, only Neuroticism was statistically
significantly related to emotional exhaustion (β = 0.316, r = 0.308, t = 5.612, p <
0.001). In regards to cynicism, Neuroticism (β = 0.227, r = 0.221, t = 4.015, p <
0.001) and Conscientiousness (β = -0.180, r = -0.168, t = -3.058, p < 0.005) were
found to be statistically significantly related to the cynicism factor in the presence
of the other traits. Neuroticism (β = -0.157, r = -0.153, t = -3.000, p < 0.005) and
Conscientiousness (β = 0.368, r = 0.343, t = 6.722, p < 0.001) were also found to
be statistically significantly related to professional efficacy in the presence of the
other traits.
The investigation indicated the importance of taking student burnout into account.
Furthermore, the results demonstrated that personality traits are related to
burnout, and thus knowledge of personality traits may assist with preventative
counselling in burnout. The importance of a valid and reliable instrument to
measure burnout in university students was also demonstrated.
Key words: burnout, personality, Big Five, student, psychometric properties,
correlations.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Abstract
Table of contents
List of figures
List of tables
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION, PROBLEM STATEMENT AND FRAMEWORK
OF THE STUDY
1.1 Introduction 1
1.2 Rationale, problem statement and aim of the study 3
1.3 Research questions 7
1.4 Definition of key terms 7
1.4.1 Stress 7
1.4.2 Burnout 8
1.4.3 Engagement 8
1.4.4 Personality 9
1.4.5 The five-factor model 9
1.4.6 Student 10
1.5 Preview of the contents of the following chapters 10
CHAPTER 2: BURNOUT
2.1 Introduction 12
2.2 The historical background of burnout 12
2.3 The three-factor structure of burnout 15
2.4 The development of the burnout dimensions over time 19
2.5 The Maslach Burnout Inventories 20
2.6 Theories and models of burnout 22
2.7 The structural model of burnout 26
2.7.1 The job demands-resources model 27
2.7.1.1 Job demands 29
2.7.1.2 Job resources 31
2.7.1.3 Research evidence of the job demands-resource model 33
2.7.2 Individual factors 36
2.7.2.1 Demographic factors 36
2.7.2.2 Personality factors 38
2.7.2.3 Coping styles 39
2.7.3 Summary of organisational and individual factors leading to burnout 40
2.7.4 The costs of burnout 41
2.7.4.1 The individual level 41
2.7.4.2 Organisational aspects 44
2.8 Stress and burnout in students 45
2.9 Conclusion 52
2.10 Preview of the contents of the following chapter 53
CHAPTER 3: THE FIVE-FACTOR MODEL OF PERSONALITY
3.1 Introduction 54
3.2 The trait approach to personality 54
3.3 Historical developments of the trait approach 56
3.3.1 Gordon Allport 58
3.3.2 Raymond Cattell 60
3.3.3 Hans Eysenck 62
3.4 The five-factor model of personality 63
3.5 Research findings and critiques of the five-factor model 65
3.5.1 Heritability and biological basis 66
3.5.2 Stability of traits 67
3.5.3 Cross-cultural studies 68
3.5.4 Factor disagreement 69
3.5.5 Critiques from Mischel 70
3.6 The five factors 71
3.6.1 Neuroticism 71
3.6.2 Extroversion 73
3.6.3 Openness to Experience 74
3.6.4 Agreeableness 76
3.6.5 Conscientiousness 77
3.7 Personality and burnout 79
3.8 Conclusion 86
3.9 Preview of the contents of the following chapter 86
CHAPTER 4: RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHOD
4.1 Introduction 87
4.2 Research design 87
4.2.1 The quantitative research paradigm 87
4.2.2 Descriptive and inferential statistics 88
4.2.3 Survey design and correlational research 88
4.3 Hypotheses 89
4.4 Research method 90
4.4.1 Participants 90
4.4.2 Instruments 94
4.4.2.1 The Basic Traits Inventory - Short Form 94
4.4.2.2 The Maslach Burnout Inventory - Student Survey 96
4.4.2.3 Biographical questionnaire 98
4.4.3 Administration of the questionnaires and procedure 98
4.5 Data analyses 98
4.6 Ethical considerations 100
4.7 Preview of the contents of the following chapter 101
CHAPTER 5: RESULTS
5.1 Introduction 102
5.2 Psychometric properties of the MBI-SS 102
5.2.1 Descriptive statistics of the MBI-SS 102
5.2.2 The reliability coefficients of the MBI-SS 103
5.2.3 Confirmatory factor analysis of the MBI-SS 104
5.2.3.1 Factor rotation 106
5.2.3.2 Correlations of the factors 107
5.2.4 Hypotheses related to the reliability and validity of the MBI-SS 107
5.2.5 Summary of the statistical findings of the MBI-SS 108
5.3 The relationship between the Big Five personality traits and burnout 108
5.3.1 The correlations between the Big Five personality traits
and burnout 108
5.3.2 The combined effects of personality traits on burnout 111
5.3.3 Hypotheses of the relationship between personality traits
and burnout 115
5.3.4 Summary of the relationship between the Big Five personality traits
and burnout 116
5.4 Conclusion 117
5.5 Preview of the contents of the following chapter 117
CHAPTER 6: DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
6.1 Introduction 118
6.2 Hypotheses 118
6.3 Discussion of the results of the study 119
6.3.1 Discussion of the reliability and construct validity of the MBI-SS 119
6.3.2 Discussion of the relationship between the Big Five personality
traits and burnout 122
6.3.3 Discussion of the predictive effect of the Big Five personality
traits on burnout 128
6.4 Limitations and recommendations 131
6.5 Implications of the study 134
6.6 Conclusion 134
References 137