Browsing by Subject "system justification"

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.