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urnout. The factor which has been highlighted has been the lack of support from supervisors<br />

(see also Brewer & Shapard, 2004), which has been shown to play a more important role in<br />

relation to burnout than the lack of support from colleagues. Also in connection to research<br />

done about social support, the so called buffering hypothesis has been looked into. This<br />

hypothesis states that social support should work as a mediator between job stressors and<br />

burnout, which means that the connection between job stressors and burnout will be stronger<br />

if there is a low level of social support and this connection will be weaker if there is a high<br />

level of social support. Different studies which have looked into this area of social support<br />

have yielded mixed results and the reasons for these mixed results have not yet been<br />

explained. Other areas of job characteristics which have been looked into by researchers have<br />

been related to information and control (see also Maslach, 1982). For example, if there is a<br />

lack of feedback at a nurse’s workplace then this has consistently been connected to burnout.<br />

Also participation in decision making and a lack of autonomy has been looked into in<br />

relation to job characteristics. It has been shown that nurses who play a diminished role in the<br />

decision making at her workplace are suffering from increased burnout. A lack of autonomy<br />

has also been linked to burnout but the relationship between these two variables has not been<br />

as strong as for the previous ones.<br />

2.7. LIFE SATISFACTION<br />

2.7.1. Life Satisfaction in general<br />

According to Diener (2000) life satisfaction stands for a global judgment of subjective well-<br />

being (SWB). The meaning of subjective well-being is the manner in which people are<br />

appraising their lives. One way in which people can assess their lives is life satisfaction and it<br />

can be made in relation to areas such as marriage, work and general life. According to Diener,<br />

Suh, Lucas & Smith (1997) SWB is looking at someone’s mood over a certain time period<br />

and it thus measures the inner experiences for a person over a period of time.<br />

Diener & Lucas (2000, in Lewis & Haviland, 2003) pointed out the fact that when someone is<br />

talking about the different reasons for emotional well-being and factors associated with it,<br />

researchers are first and foremost focusing on factors which are causing people to be more<br />

happy than other people. The way people are evaluating their lives are occurring differently<br />

due to the person’s prior experiences, different values, and life expectations. Researchers

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