Running head: CORRELATION BETWEEN HAPPINESS AND BURNOUT

Correlation of Happiness and Burnout between Students of Catholic Universities in Manila Karl Ian H. Maliwat University of the Philippines-Manila

Author Note Karl Ian H. Maliwat, Department of Pharmacy, University of the Philippines-Manila. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Karl Ian H. Maliwat, Department of Pharmacy, University of the Philippines-Manila, 123 Avenue, Manila. E-mail: pleasenot4@up.edu.ph

CORRELATION BETWEEN HAPPINESS AND BURNOUT

Abstract The core of my work can be read as having a meditative quality, passages which are at their quietest, contemplative and at their most energized, fully brazen. My inspiration is interior and is impacted by natures kaleidoscope of patterns and forms. I am drawn to and respond to the multiplicity of r epetitive patterns which occur at different scales in nature. These forms repeatedly surface throughout my paintings. Acknowledgement of the Zen experience is also a major influence in my life and work and is related to the literary works and teachings of the great Hindu and Zen Masters. What we need is art not knowledge. Appreciation of art lets you outrage yourself making you the best in the world. One could be the best if one will master the art of reading one thing. You will never find knowledge without the appreciation of it which is under art. This thing makes us human, a human that will never fail and can endure anything. A human that will persevere no matter what; even faced with monsters of this world and false images that might change ones perception of life. This thing I learned while writing the sudden flush of words from my mind actually says something. It is pointing something that we can achieve. As Voltaire told us, we dont know where we are heading but we are still going on our way. This de fines how one can go on in life and defeat these monsters that are waiting for you. Keywords: Happiness, Burnout

CORRELATION BETWEEN HAPPINESS AND BURNOUT

Correlation of Happiness and Burnout between Students of Catholic Universities in Manila Happiness and burnout are only two of the things every human being experiences. Such emotions have negative or positive effects on one person. Schwartz, Ward, Monterosso, Lyubomirsky, White, and Lehman (2002) stated that people choose so as to maximize their preferences, or values, or utilities and that is because people are naturally interested in improving thyself (p. 1178). Happiness, as told by Robbins, Francis, and Edwards (2010), is comprised of three components: the frequency and degree of positive affect or joy; the average level of satisfaction over a period; and the absence of negative feelings, such as depression and anxiety (p. 3). Happiness also is defined as a stable extraversion since happiness has a strong relationship with extraversion than neuroticism (Robbins et. al, 2010, p. 1077). Burnout has many definitions but varies on what point of view you are looking from. Burnout is defined socially and not medically in parts of North America (Schaufeli, Leiter, & Maslach, 2008, p. 214). Many researchers consider burnout to be a job-related stress condition or even a work -related mental health impairment (Awa, Plaumann, & Walter, 2010, p. 184) (Morse, Salyers, Rollins, Monroe-DeVita, & Pfahler, 2012, Introduction, para. 1). But what does burnout really mean? According to Schaufeli et. al (2008), At the outset, burnout was predominantly identied within the human services: Burnout is a syndrome of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment that can occur among individuals who work with people in some capacity (Maslach et al., 1996, p. 4). However, by the late 1980s, researchers and practitioners began to recognize that burnout occurred outside the human services, for instance, among managers, entrepreneurs, and whiteand blue collar workers. Thus, the burnout metaphor was extended from the intense requirements of client service to other work requiring creativity, problem solving, or mentoring. In this more general form, burnout was dened as ...a state of exhaustion in which one is cynical about the value of ones occupation and doubtful of ones capacity to perform (M aslach et al., 1996, p. 20).The term burnout, then, was transferred from a literal reference to a depletion of physical resources supporting combustion to the psychological domain. (p. 206) Burnout could also result from too much perfection at work (Fairlie & Flett 2003, p. 4).

CORRELATION BETWEEN HAPPINESS AND BURNOUT

The study aims to correlate our two constructs--happiness and burnout. It is aimed to correlate happiness and burnout within two catholic universities in Manila, De La Salle-Taft (DLSU-T) and De La Salle College of Saint Benilde (DLS-CSB), and between year levels. It is also to see if happiness and burnout is interdependent with each other or is it dependent on college year levels or the school itself. To look for factors that will explain how year levels can affect burnout only or happiness itself. It is aimed to find a correlation of happiness or burnout in relation with a universitys year levels and to validate thoroughly if the correlation possesses a negative value as inferred, the higher the year level the happier you are and is suffering less burnout. Method Respondents One hundred twenty college students of both universities (N = 120), half of which came from De La Salle-Taft (DLSU-T) (n = 60) and half came from De La Salle College of Saint Benilde (DLS-CSB) (n = 60), participated in the survey correlating happiness and burnout. Fifteen students, each from year level-which there are four year levels, and were randomly selected, were chosen to be the respondents of this study. Instruments Happiness. The questionnaire used for determining the respondents happiness was developed by Hills and Argyle (2002, pp. 1080 - 1081). It is a 29-item questionnaire endorsed to be answered using a uniform 6-point Likert scale that can assess how happy they were. This questionnaire is evaluated by answering a numeral 1 to 6 wherein each number corresponds to strongly disagree, moderately disagree, slightly disagree, slightly agree, moderately agree, and strongly agree, respectively and vice versa on the items marked with R . Burnout. The questionnaire developed by Martinez, Mohandro, and Ramiro was used to assess burnout levels of the respondents. It is a 20-item questionnaire adapted from the Psychology 10 module of Martinez et al. at which it can be evaluated by answering true or false on certain numbers. A false on numbers 2, 5 , 6, 11, 12, 13, 16, 19, and 20 and a true on the remaining items will give you 5 points indicating that you are burnout. Procedure
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CORRELATION BETWEEN HAPPINESS AND BURNOUT

Data collection. Series of questionnaires was distributed to respondents, considering their year levels and to what school do they belong. They were asked to answer the questionnaire and were also given enough time to answer as precise and accurate as they can. A total of 120 questionnaires were disseminated or dispersed to the 120 respondents. Data Analysis. Data Collected was then analyzed using SPSS version 21. Tthe statistician used different tests or statistical tools in order to process these data, particularly Mean, Bivariate Correlation, Independent Sample t-test, Oneway Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and others, more of parametric tests. Results It has been found through the use of a Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient and with the results of 118 students, that there was a strong negative relation between happiness and burnout, as shown in table 1, r(118) = -.619, p < .01. A high happiness level shows that you have a low burnout level. For the DLS-CSB group, through a One-Way ANOVA it has been found out that there was a significant difference between happiness test scores, F(3,56) = 5.97, p = .001. It was observed through the analysis of happiness mean scores that juniors (M = 4.57, SD = .67) were the happiest among all the other year levels followed by the freshmen (M = 4.42, SD = .77). The sophomores (M = 3.78, SD = .50) and the seniors (M = 3.74, SD = .75) were unhappier than the other two. As for burnout levels of the DLS-CSB group with significant happiness test results, it is also expected to have burnout test results which are also significant, F(3,56) = 4.29, p = .009. It was observed through the analysis of burnout mean scores that sophomores (M = 50.67, SD = 14.00) were the most burnout among the other year levels followed by the seniors (M = 47.67, SD= 14.38). The juniors (M = 42.00, SD = 11.31) and the freshmen (M = 34.67, SD = 12.74) suffer less burnout than the other two. Comparison of happiness levels, determined by test scores, between the two universities was also insignificant, t(118) = 0.41, p > .05 even though DLSU-T (M = 4.18, SD = .68) accumulated a higher happiness mean score than DLS-CSB (M = 4.13, SD = .76). It has been discovered that the effect of year level on happiness, not considering on what university they were enrolled in, turned to be insignificant, F(3,116) = 1.82, p>.05, where in DLSU-Taft, F(3,56) = 1.30, p > .05, happiness test scores were insignificant.
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CORRELATION BETWEEN HAPPINESS AND BURNOUT

Comparison of burnout levels, determined by test scores, between the two universities, based on the t-test, proved to be insignificant t(118) = 1.27, p > .05 even though DLSU-T (M = 47.33, SD = 16.56) accumulated a higher burnout mean score than DLS-CSB (M = 43.75, SD = 14.22). It has been discovered that the effect of year level on burnout levels, not considering on what university they were enrolled in, turned to be insignificant, F(3,116) = 1.03, p > .05, where in DLSU-Taft, F(3,56) = 0.17, p > .05, burnout score results were insignificant. Discussion There is a strong negative correlation between happiness and burnout which means that the happier you are, the less burnout you are and vice versa which can be further seen in a scatterplot (see figure 3). Juniors of DLS-CSB which are the happiest experience a low burnout which confirms the hypothesis since their seniors, less happy, is also burnt-out . DLSU-T has no significant findings until now. As we predicted, those with significant findings, the happier they were, the less burnt-out they were. But it seems that in this study, juniors who were the happiest experiences more burnout than freshmen and the same goes for the sophomores who was more burnt-out than the seniors. The findings of study could be told as it followed what has been known for years that the happier, the more you suffer less stress or burnout. But some anomalies such as in the case of the juniors which are happier but still suffer more burnout than freshmen can be explained because other factors such as age, sex, and others were not taken into account. Such as stated in a news article, happiness grows as you grow older regardless of the time or generation you were born (Happiness increases, 2013). In the contrary, the sophomores are insignificantly happier than the seniors because of small differences in the happiness mean score but are significantly burnt-out, as shown in figure 1 and figure 2 respectively. Depletion is specific to business such as it defines what are the reactions and responses one can do to cope stress of the rivalries in workplace and to sustain and to keep up against co-workers. Burnout results from stress as defined by Morse et. al (2010) as an accumulative stress from jobs (Introduction, para 1). Such stressors could give a boost to something such as it can boost the immune system (Andris, Denaglaire, Baus, Rongvaux, Steuve, Flavell, & Oberdan, 2011, p. 2247). Stress has always been here and there everytime taking any form.
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CORRELATION BETWEEN HAPPINESS AND BURNOUT

Research between happiness and burnout could continue in several ways adding and considering new variables and having other factors in control in this way such errors and anomalies could disappear. Also in addition, research could be affected because of the time and the day the research was conducted signalling a new reason of the anomalies. In all, the results of this study provide some fascinating insights about the two constructs, happiness and burnout. Contrary to what was predicted, happy people could also be experiencing burnout because of other factors which are not considered in this research. On the other hand, burnout too could be affected of factors that it might cause some anomalies in the research. Many people
students, employees, and those affected by stresswill experience happiness and burnout in such ways. This research and others following this could contribute to knowledge of happiness and burnout and with these

CORRELATION BETWEEN HAPPINESS AND BURNOUT

References Andris F., Baus E., Denaglaire S., Flavell R., Oberdan O., Rongvaux A., & Steuve J. (2011). Metabolic StressBoosts Humoral Responses In Vivo Independently of Inflammasome and Inflammatory Reaction. Journal of Immunology, p. 2247. doi: 10.4049/jimmunol.1002333 Argyle, M., & Hills, P. (2002). The Oxford Happiness Questionnaire: a compact scale for the measurement of psychological well-being. Personalit and Individual Differences, 33, pp. 10801081. Retrieved from http://www.louisianaparadox.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Hills-Argyle2002.pdf Edwards, B., Francis L., & Robbins, M. (2010). Happiness as stable extraversion: Internal consistency reliability and construct validity of the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire among undergraduate students. Current Psychology, 29, p. 3. doi: 10.1007/s12144-010-9076-8 Fairlie, P., & Flett, G. L. (2003). Perfectionism at work: Impacts on burnout, Job Satisfaction, and Depression. Perfectionism at work, p. 4. Retrieved from http://paulfairlieconsulting.com/docs/Perfectionism%20At%20WorkImpacts%20On%20Burnout,%20Job%20Satisfaction%20and%20Depression.pdf Leiter, M., Maslach C., & Schaufeli W. (2008). Burnout: 35 years of research and practice. Career Developmental International, 14, p. 208. doi: 10.1108/13620430910966406 Morse G., Salyers M., Rollins A., Devita M., & Pfahler C. (0). Burnout in Mental Health Services: A Review of the Problem and Its Remediation. Administration and Policy in Mental Health, 31 (5), p. 342. doi: 10.1007/s10488-011-0352-1 Ramiro, L., Martinez, A., Monsada, M. (2013). Reflection activity: Am I burnout. Psychology 10: Journey into the Self (4th ed., p. 44). Schwartz B., Ward A., Monterosso J., Lyubomirsky S., White K., & Lehman D. (2002). Maximizing Versus Satisficing: Happiness Is a Matter of Choice. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,83 (5), p. 1178. doi: 10.1037//0022-3514.83.5.1178

CORRELATION BETWEEN HAPPINESS AND BURNOUT

Footnotes
1

R means reverse wherein in this question, what was the answer will be reversed. Statistical Product and Service Solutions is a statistical package use to interpret and analyse

statistical results.
3

Burnt-out is the state of being too exhausted from stress.

CORRELATION BETWEEN HAPPINESS AND BURNOUT

10

Table 1 Relationship of the Correlation Coefficients

Burnout

Happiness
-.619**

Burnout Happiness

1
-.619**

Note. **correlation is significant at the 0.01 level

CORRELATION BETWEEN HAPPINESS AND BURNOUT

11

5 4.5 4 Mean Happiness Score 3.5 3 2.5 2 1.5 1 0.5 0 Freshmen Sophomores Year Level Juniors Seniors

Figure 1. Mean scores of happiness per year level of DLS-CSB showing that there is a statistical significance between college level years.