Thesis

5.4. BURNOUT AND PERSONALITY
Hypothesis 4: The relationship between personality and burnout was investigated in this
study and more specifically, psychological immunity (as the personality factor) was expected
to have an effect on burnout. Since the psychological immunity has been shown to be higher
in Sweden than in Hungary (Olah, Nagy & Toth, 2009), it was anticipated that the
psychological immunity for these Swedish nurses would be higher. It was also expected that
the higher psychological immunity in the Swedish sample would serve as a protective factor
against burnout and thus would give lower burnout scores for the Swedish nurses in relation
to this.
The first part of the hypothesis, that the psychological immunity for the Swedish nurses would
be higher, was supported by the fact that the Swedish nurses had higher means for all of the
16 subscales except for the subscale Sense of Control. Thus, the first part of the fourth
hypothesis was supported since the Swedish nurses scored higher on the majority of the 16
psychological immunity subscales. When looking at only the three main factors of the
psychological immune system, it was again shown that the Swedish nurses attained higher
means for all of them, the Approach-Belief System, the Monitoring-Creating-Executing
System, and the Self-Regulating System. Consequently, it can be concluded that the first part
of the fourth hypothesis was supported also in connection to the three main factors of the
psychological immune system for the Swedish nurses. There has not been research done in the
field of comparing Swedish and Hungarian emergency nurses and their levels of
psychological immunity, as far as this author knows. It would be interesting to look into this
are since the history of Hungary and Sweden is very different. Hungary had to go through
very difficult times during the communistic era, which Sweden never had to face. The
experience of the people during that time must have made an immense impact on people and
their personality. In the hospitals in Budapest, some of the nurses taking part in this study
must have experienced those difficult times personally. Other nurses, or the younger
generation, have not experienced those difficult times personally but have probably been
exposed to it secondarily. It can be assumed that experiencing the events secondarily, through
experiences and stories told by parents, grandparents, and other relatives, must also have had
an impact on younger people since they could relate to the stories being told by the close
immediate family. Also, since Hungary is still carrying around the burden of the difficult
communistic times, like for example the slow changes in the health care system and the low