Interrelation of psychological defense mechanisms and emotional burnout syndrome of police officers

Introduction. Mechanisms of psychological defense are considered in terms of professional burnout of police officer's personality and are divided into two groups: constructive and non-constructive. The criterion for the division is the degree of consciousness. There are different representations and understanding of professional deformation of personality. Emotional burnout syndrome is one of its kinds which is the most researchable one. It can manifest itself irrespective of professional distinctiveness. Materials and Methodical Toolkit. Empirical study is conducted as a result of which the character of interrelation of psychological defense mechanisms and emotional burnout of police officers is estimated experimentally. 75 respondents who constituted one experimental group and two control ones took part in the research. Techniques of “life style index” (LSI) and diagnostics of emotional burnout level of V. V. Boiko were used. Results of the Survey and Discussions. The results of the survey have revealed that law-enforcement officers using constructive defense mechanisms such as compensation, replacement, job simplification, negation don't have any emotional burnout while unconscious defense characterized by suppression, regression, projection and reaction formations lead to emotional burnout. One of the criteria of possible availability of professional deformation is the length of service of more than five years. In addition only 20 per cent of police officers matching this criterion revealed the emotional burnout syndrome. At the same time 72 per cent of five-year students having taken part in the research exposed emotional burnout syndrome and non-constructive defense mechanisms. Conclusions. It is supposed to continue the research of the level of personal consciousness of law-enforcement officers in order to provide correction work and prevention of emotional burnout.