Personality and Stress in Consultant Psychiatrists

Abstract

A randomly selected group of consultant psychiatrists (n = 39) working within the NHS in Scotland was compared with a combined group of physicians and surgeons (n = 149) on several variables related to the stress process, including personality traits, coping strategies, psychological distress, burnout, job stress and work demands. Psychiatrists reported fewer clinical work demands (p < .001), and their mean personality scores were significantly different from physicians and surgeons by being high in neuroticism (p = .009), openness (p = .003) and agreeableness (p = .002), and low in conscientiousness (p = .04). Psychiatrists reported higher work-related emotional exhaustion (p = .03) and severe depression (p = .02). However, psychiatrists did not report more work-related stress than physicians and surgeons. Many stress-related variables were highly correlated within the group of psychiatrists, suggesting that there is a very general disposition to experience negative emotion (including job-related stress) in some individuals. Organisational and personal contributions to stress in the practice of psychiatry are considered. There are personality characteristics that might dispose some people toward psychiatry as a career and toward stress. However, there is no evidence to suggest that screening for admission to psychiatry in terms of per sonality or other psychological factors would be useful or advisable.