[The Relationship between Personality Structure, Burnout and Procrastination in Psychology and Medical Students, Taking into Account Social Support and Scope for Decision-Making in Studies]. / Der Zusammenhang von Persönlichkeitsstruktur, Burnout und Prokrastination bei Psychologie- und Medizinstudierenden unter Einbeziehung von sozialer Unterstützung und Entscheidungsspielraum im Studium.

BACKGROUND: Burnout and procrastination are widespread phenomena among students. The role of personality structure has been little researched so far. OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY: The relationship between personality structure and study-related work disorders in psychology and medical students is examined, taking into account resources and demands. METHODS: As part of a cross-sectional study, data was collected online from 61 German colleges and universities. Personality structure variables (levels of personality functioning, OPD-SFK; attachment, ECR-RD 12; emotion regulation, ERQ), study-related work disorders (burnout, MBI-SS-d; procrastination; APSI-d) as well as resources (social support, F-SozU K-6; scope for decision-making in studies, self-developed scale) and demands (Corona pandemic, self-developed scale) were assessed. The research question was answered by means of a hierarchical regression analysis. RESULTS: From February 2020 to December 2021, 775 students (49.2% psychology students, 50.8% medical students; age M=24.1 years, SD=5.1 years; 82.3% female, 17.4% male, 0.3% diverse) participated in the survey. In the overall model, 30.4% of the variance in burnout exhaustion, 16.2% of the variance in burnout cynicism, 20.9% of the variance in burnout inefficiency and 30.1% of the variance in procrastination was explained (p<0.001). Levels of personality functioning showed significant negative correlations with all burnout variables as well as with procrastination (p<0.001). The emotion regulation strategy reappraisal was associated with lower burnout inefficiency and procrastination (p<0.001), and the emotion suppression strategy with lower burnout cynicism (p≤0.01). Scope for decision-making in studies was negatively associated with all burnout variables and procrastination (p<0.001), and social support was negatively associated with burnout inefficiency (p≤0.01). The general stress level during the Corona pandemic showed a positive association with burnout exhaustion (p≤0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Personality structure (levels of personality functioning, emotion regulation) is significantly related to study-related burnout and procrastination. Training opportunities to promote emotion regulation skills could be very helpful for vulnerable student groups in dealing with burnout and procrastination.

Who are the skilled therapists? Associations between personal characteristics and interpersonal skills of future psychotherapists.

OBJECTIVE: Facilitative interpersonal skills (FIS) are a promising variable to explain the so-called therapist effect. We aimed to investigate associations between observer-rated interpersonal skills and self-reported personal characteristics of future therapists. METHOD: In this cross-sectional observational study, psychology students and trainee therapists completed self-report personality and sociodemographic questionnaires as well as the FIS Performance Task (German version, observer-rated). Mixed multilevel model analysis was conducted with FIS total mean score (mean value of 312 individual ratings [13 video-clips, 8 FIS-items, 3 raters]) as dependent variable, therapist ID and FIS clip ID as random effects and 15 therapist variables as fixed effects. RESULTS: In the present sample consisting of 177 participants (age: M = 29.8 years (SD = 7.3), [18,59]; 79.1% female, 20.9% male) greater therapists' experience level, male gender and lower levels of alexithymia were predictive for higher FIS score when statistically controlling for other therapist variables in the model. Age, self-reported childhood maltreatment, attachment style, emotion regulation and self-concept variables turned out to be unrelated. CONCLUSION: The results can inform psychotherapy training programs. They specifically support the importance of addressing therapists' potential difficulties in recognizing and verbalizing emotions. This is in line with theoretical literature on alliance ruptures and premises of the Alliance-focused training.