Measuring Spirituality as a Universal Human Experience: A Review of Spirituality Questionnaires

Spirituality is an important theme in health research, since a spiritual orientation can help people to cope with the consequences of a serious disease. Knowledge on the role of spirituality is, however, limited, as most research is based on measures of religiosity rather than spirituality. A questionnaire that transcends specific beliefs is a prerequisite for quantifying the importance of spirituality among people who adhere to a religion or none at all. In this review, we discuss ten questionnaires that address spirituality as a universal human experience. Questionnaires are evaluated with regard to psychometric properties, item formulation and confusion with well-being and distress. Although none of the questionnaires fulfilled all the criteria, the multidimensional Spiritual Well-Being Questionnaire is promising.     

Demographic and occupational correlates of workaholism

Drawing on a convenience sample of 9,160 Dutch employees, the present study examined whether commonly held ideas about the associations between demographic, professional, and occupational characteristics and workaholism would be observed. For example, it is sometimes assumed that managers are more likely to display workaholic tendencies than others. Analysis of variance was used to relate workaholism scores (measured as the combination of working excessively and working compulsively) to participant age, sex, employment status (self-employed or not), profession, and occupational sector. Relatively high average scores on workaholism were obtained by workers in the agriculture, construction, communication, consultancy, and commerce/trade sectors, as well as managers and higher professionals. Low scores were found for those in the public administration and services industry sectors, and for nurses, social workers, and paramedics. The other characteristics were not or only weakly related to workaholism.     

Crossover of burnout: An experimental design

Two studies tested the hypothesis that burnout may cross over from one person to another. In Study 1, teachers were randomly exposed to a bogus newspaper article in which a colleague expressed himself negatively about his work (burnout condition), or about a topic unrelated to work (control condition). The results showed that participants' burnout (exhaustion and depersonalization) was higher in the burnout condition compared to the control condition. In Study 2, soldiers were randomly exposed to a videotape of a burned-out or an engaged colleague who was either similar in profession and status (soldier), or who had a considerably higher status (squadron leader). The results were partly consistent with those of Study 1, and confirmed the crossover of burnout (cynicism and reduced professional efficacy). In line with predictions, a significant interaction effect for cynicism revealed that the crossover of burnout is moderated by similarity with the stimulus person.     

Introduction to special issue on burnout and health

Abstract

In recent years, the issue of occupational stress and burnout have received increasing research attention. Given the amount of time people spend on work-related activities and the central importance of work to one's sense of identity and self-worth, it is not surprising that occupational stress is regarded as a central area of study. Although burnout is linked to the extensive literature on occupational health, burnout goes beyond occupational health by focusing on specific stressors in the workplace to emphasize total life and environmental pressures affecting health.     

on the clinical validity of the maslach burnout inventory and the burnout measure

Abstract

Current knowledge about burnout suffers from a healthy worker bias since only working - and thus relatively healthy - employees have been investigated. The main objective of this study is to examine - for the first time among employees who sought psychological treatment - the validity of the two most widely used burnout instruments; the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) and the Burnout Measure (BM). Two groups were distinguished: a “burned out” group (n = 71) that suffers from work-related neurasthenia (according to ICD-10 criteria), and a “non-burned out” group (n = 68). Results show that: (1) the validity of the three-factor structure of the MBI and the BM is confirmed; (2) burnout can partly be differentiated from other mental syndromes (e.g., anxiety and depression); and (3) two MBI-scales (Emotional Exhaustion and Depersonalization) and one BM-scale (Exhaustion) are able to discriminate between burned out and non-burned out employees. The practical implications of these results are discussed.     

Stability and change in burnout: A 10‐year follow‐up study among primary care physicians

The aim of the present study is (1) to investigate the impact of patient demands on primary care physicians’ burnout and (2) to examine the stability and change of burnout across time. Participants were drawn from the official Dutch registration system for primary health care, and longitudinal panel data (n= 165) from three waves with a 5‐year time interval were used. They filled in the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) and a validated scale for the assessment of patient demands. The results of various stability and change models that were tested using structural equation modelling (SEM) indicated that demanding patient contacts lead to increased burnout among physicians. In addition, the findings suggested that about one quarter of the variance in physician's actual burnout levels across one decade is accounted for by a stable component, whereas about three quarters is accounted for by a change component. Hence, physician burnout seems to be a rather chronic condition that may be aggravated by exposure to demanding patients.     

Burnout and work engagement among teachers

The Job Demands–Resources Model was used as the basis of the proposal that there are two parallel processes involved in work-related well-being among teachers, namely an energetical process (i.e., job demands → burnout → ill health) and a motivational process (i.e., job resources → engagement → organizational commitment). In addition, some cross-links between both processes were hypothesized. Structural equation modeling was used to simultaneously test the hypotheses in a sample of Finnish teachers (N = 2038). The results confirmed the existence of both processes, although the energetical process seems to be more prominent. More specifically, (1) burnout mediated the effect of high job demands on ill health, (2) work engagement mediated the effects of job resources on organizational commitment, and (3) burnout mediated the effects of lacking resources on poor engagement. The robustness of these findings is underscored by the fact that they were obtained in one half of the sample (using random selection) and cross-validated in the other half.     

Job control and burnout across occupations

Researchers have reported that, for individual workers, low job control is associated with high burnout; however, as yet it is unclear whether this association holds for occupations as well. Whether differences in job control between occupations as assessed by eight expert judges could account for individual-level and occupational-level differences in burnout rates. Data were obtained from 9,503 incumbents of 28 occupations in The Netherlands (M age = 37.9 yr., SD = 8.7; 50% were men). Burnout was measured on the Maslach Burnout Inventory. Occupational-level job control was inversely correlated with burnout, explaining 16% of the variation in occupational-level burnout. Thus, between-occupation differences in job control are somewhat systematically related to burnout.     

Effect of multiple images on associative learning

The present research investigated the effects of multiple images on associative learning. In Experiment 1, subjects formed either a noninteractive image of two words, a single interactive image, a multiple interactive image consisting of multiple copies of the same image, or a multiple interactive image consisting of different images. In Experiment 2, the different multiple images were formed across trials instead of simultaneously during the same trial. Both experiments showed that, although interactive images are superior to noninteractive images, there is no reliable facilitation from multiple images as compared with single images. The results were discussed in terms of the variable-encoding hypothesis and previous findings that multiple retrieval paths facilitate verbal learning.