Browsing by Subject "burnout"
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(2024)The thesis aims to investigate the palliative function of ideology that research has found in system justification theory. The purpose of the master's thesis is hence to investigate if belief in meritocracy can work as a protective factor against work-related exhaustion and burnout, in Finnish youth and young adults with the help of data gathered through The Finnish Youth Barometer. This type of research on burnout and belief in meritocracy is unique for the Nordic welfare countries, and the thesis aims to fill a gap in the research, through contributing with results from Finland. The thesis aims to respond to five research questions; Is there an association between gender and work exhaustion? Is there an association between gender and belief in meritocracy? Do the minority and majority differ in terms of work exhaustion? Do the minority and majority differ in terms of belief in meritocracy? Is work exhaustion associated with belief in meritocracy? The data used in the thesis was gathered through the Finnish Youth Barometer in 2019 as phone interviews based on a questionnaire. A work-related exhaustion variable was constructed from seven items in the data. Belief in meritocracy was measured with one item from the conducted survey. Correlation and regression analysis were utilized to explore the associations. The thesis found statistically significant support for both of the hypothesis that women scored higher than men on the work-exhaustion variable, and also that men scored higher on the belief in meritocracy variable. Research is divided regarding the well-being differences of the genders, and the results from previous studies are hence contradictive. The last hypothesis was partially supported, where belief in meritocracy was associated with lower work exhaustion, but only for women. The hypothesis was not supported for men, or for the minority group. However, the latter finding can be explained by an insufficient sample size. There may not have been sufficient statistical power to detect an effect for the minority sample. The results of the thesis indicated that belief in meritocracy can be predictive of lower work-exhaustion scores, just as previous research has found. Literature has named this phenomenon the palliative function of system justification. Future research could be conducted on a larger sample to further investigate the role of the minority in the complex relation of belief in meritocracy and burnout.
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(2019)There has been increasing research attention on wellbeing of students in higher education both in Finland and internationally. Because of its goal-oriented nature, higher education resembles working in many ways. Thus, research on students´ wellbeing has started utilizing concepts derived from occupational research. Burnout and study engagement are concepts that are being used in research on both lower educational levels and higher education. Burnout describes feelings of exhaustion, cynicism and inadequacy experienced when demands of studying exceed available resources. Engagement on the other hand means feeling vigorous, dedicated and absorbed in studying and arises when demands and resources are better balanced. The goal of this thesis was to increase understanding of social resources that can guard against the negative effects of demands and foster engagement in higher education. It investigated how social support, guidance and counselling from the educational institution and sense of belonging to studying related groups are related to burnout and engagement experienced by students. The data for this study was the Finnish Student Health Service´s Student Health Survey from 2016, which is a representative sample of students in universities and universities of applied sciences in Finland (N=3110). Burnout symptoms were measured using the SBI-9 measure and engagement using the Schoolwork Engagement Scale. The total scores on these two scales were analyzed together with social support, guidance and counselling and sense of belonging to studying related groups. Pearson´s correlation coefficients were obtained to reveal the bivariate associations of these variables followed by two hierarchical regression analyses on burnout and engagement individually. All of the social resources were included as predictors in these models and the stage of studies, gender and feeling of being in the right field of study were controlled for as background variables. The results supported both hypotheses and existing literature. It was found that those students who were able to talk about their matters with someone, had received guidance to their studies and felt like they belong to studying related groups had lower levels of burnout symptoms. Similarly, students with sufficient social resources were more engaged in their studies. The results indicate that social resources are an important factor in wellbeing of higher education students. Future research should continue to further study these resources using more accurate measures incorporating different types of social support or different groups in the educational context.
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(2023)The camera recognises the face, the bank card connects to the payment terminal, and the database aggregates the consumer profile. Digital and cybernetic machines change society, but they also change the production premises. For a code to connect with another code, the unclear must become clear and the indefinite definable. The trend, however, is not recent: for instance, a bureaucrat has demanded to fill out forms for a long time. Likewise, language has always required syntax. Such productions demand a component, and it increasingly determines the terms of the overall production. I examine the social, affective, and ecological effects of such production premises (definability, reliability, predictability), and I assert that their unifying factor is a crisis of creativity. My essay examines the possibility of creativity in a society produced under componential logic. I address this issue by applying Franco ‘Bifo’ Berardi's dichotomy of connective and conjunctive concatenations. Connection refers to the definable, repeatable, and predictable (i.e., componential) production. Conjunction, in turn, refers to the production of unrepeatable, ambiguous and open-ended qualities. I assert that the crisis of creativity unwraps when the poetic openness gets closed, contradictions resolved, and the undefinables defined. In other words, when connection overtakes conjunction. In the increasingly connective society, general production turns repeatable and predictable, and poetic flights and qualitative mutations become rare. Interestingly enough, qualitative mutations are a prerequisite for capitalism, as capitalism must constantly expand on new territories. It needs to establish new markets, as Rosa Luxembourg has theorised, and to capture decoded desire, an argument known from Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. Therefore, a paradox determines the social system: on the one hand, capitalism demands qualitative mutations for its expansion, but on the other hand, the componentised production slows the creative production down. I argue that by examining this contradiction, we can understand some of the most central pathologies of modern capitalism, such as burning out, depression and concentration disorders. Namely, modern capitalist culture has produced the spectacle to substitute qualitative mutations with a large amount of quickly consumable ephemeral production.
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(2021)Uupumuksesta puhuminen on yleistynyt, mutta aiheeseen liittyy edelleen hiljaisia kohtia. Uupumisen yleisyys jää edelleen arvailujen varaan. Yleisyydestä ei ole tutkimusta ja lukuja on vaikea saada diagnoosien perusteella, sillä uupumus ei itsessään ole sairaus vaan ”terveydentilaan vaikuttava tekijä”, joka voi olla liitoksissa esimerkiksi masennukseen. Uupumuksesta puhuminen ja sen esittäminen tuottavat tietynlaista kuvaa uupumuksesta ja sen muotojen ilmenemisestä. Diagnostiikan kautta olisi mahdollista luoda legitiimi määritelmä uupumukselle, jolloin yhteiskunnallisesti todettaisiin uupumuksen olemassaolo. Arkikielessä ja mediassa muodostetaan tietynlaista narratiivia ja puhetapaa uupumuksesta. Puhetavoilla ja sanoilla luodaan suhtautumistapoja, hyväksyttäviä ilmaisumuotoja, ja niiden vakiintuminen määrittää, miten uupumuksesta puhutaan ja mitä siitä voi puhua. Kulttuurin asettamat määritelmät voivatkin muodostaa erilaiset mielenterveyden kokemukset hyvinkin raskaiksi. Uupumuksen kokemukset koetaan epäsovinnaisiksi ja yksilön epäonnistumisiksi. Haastateltavat kuvasivatkin sitä ihannetta, joiden mukaan kokivat toimivansa, sekä sitä, mikä tätä kuvaa tuottaa. Ihanneyksilön kuva ja toimintatavat opitaan mm. kasvatuksen, julkisen keskustelun ja erilaisten kuvien kautta. Tämä ei tapahdu pelkästään yksilön mielessä, vaan myös kollektiivisten merkityksien luomisessa ja toisintamisessa. Uupumuksen oireet ovat lomittaisia ja mystisiä. Kaikkia ei osata selittää tai liitetä alkuun uupumuksen oireiksi. Uupumus vaikuttaa näkökulmiin kehosta ja mielestä. Keho ja mieli onkin mahdollista nähdä monella eri tavalla ja tasolla kulttuurillisen kontekstin mukaan. Uupumuksen tuntemukset ovat pitkälti myös aistikokemuksia, ja erilaiset tavat hahmottaa maailma ja luokitella tuntemuksia vaikuttavat siihen, kuinka yksilö kokee ympäristönsä, kehonsa ja mielensä.
Now showing items 1-4 of 4