| The reviewed literature regarding job satisfaction and burnout among psychologists and psychiatrists suggested that as clinical experience increases, idealism and stress decrease, and the use of coping mechanisms increases. The present study was designed to clarify the nature of the hypothesized relationship between all three of these variables across three levels of experience: low, medium and high experience levels. First year psychiatric residents and first year clinical psychology doctoral students (low experience level), third year residents and clinical psychology interns (medium experience level) and clinical psychologists and psychiatrists (high experience level) were surveyed to determine their attitudes towards the mental health profession. Their answers were analyzed through analysis of variance by level of experience and discipline (clinical psychology or psychiatry) to determine significant differences in idealism, burnout levels, and coping mechanisms. As predicted, the low experience level was more stressed, more idealistic and used fewer coping techniques than the high experience level. The results for the medium experience group were equivocal. Significant differences between clinical psychology and psychiatry included higher stress for psychiatrists, and differences in the areas in which clinical psychologists and psychiatrists were idealistic. Significant interactions between level of experience and discipline suggested a different progression through the three levels of experience for clinical psychology than for psychiatry. |
