NAKANISHI Daisuke    Department   Hiroshima shudo University  The Faculty of Health Sciences    Position   Professor
Date	2017/08/28
Presentation Theme	Is burnout triggered by hard work?
Conference	The 12th Biennial Conference of Asian Association of Social Psychology
Conference Type	International
Presentation Type	Poster
Contribution Type	Collaborative
Venue	Auckland, New Zealand
Publisher and common publisher	Igawa, J., Wang, W., & Nakanish, D.
Details	A previous experimental study indicated that enthusiasm levels did not affect mental fatigue (Igawa et al., 2014). This is inconsistent with the assumption “that a typical burnout victim is a professional full of idealism and a sense of mission (Price and Murphy, 1984).” However, Igawa et al (2014) suggests that a high sense of mission is associated with enthusiasm regarding work, without rewards. We used a fictional vignette to investigate whether people with a high sense of mission maintain enthusiasm without rewards. Participants were 112 care workers in a Japanese welfare facility (Mage = 46.0, SD = 11.03; 27 males and 85 females). Participants read a scenario comprising 3 continuous episodes, wherein a nurse supports an alcoholic, then guessed the nurse’s feelings. A 2 × 2 experimental condition was adopted (sense of mission: with/without; reward: with/without). Enthusiasm levels and mental fatigue were measured 4 times (before the experiment and after episodes 1–3), using a 5-point scale. One-way ANOVA showed that mental fatigue accumulates with episode progression (F(3,321) = 2.66, p < .05, η2 = .24). Next, we conducted a three-way ANOVA (within-subject factor: change in enthusiasm (times 1–4); between-subjects factors: sense of mission (with/without) and reward (with/without)). The main effects of enthusiasm (F(1, 107) = 2.66, p < .05, η2 = .02), reward (F(1, 107) =33.22, p < .01, η2 = .24), and sense of mission (F(1, 107) =3.10, p < .05, η2 = .03) were significant. Mental fatigue accumulated according to episode progression and participants’ enthusiasm levels were influenced by rewards. Matching those in previous experimental study (Igawa et al., 2014), the results suggest that a sense of mission independently affected rewards. Future experimental studies should discuss the mechanism of burnout and elaborate on the burnout theory.