A Study Of The Relationship Between Life Counseling, Career Motivation, And Job Burnout Of Counselors

Based on summarizing relevant literature about meaning in life, career motivation and occupational burnout for counseling psychologists, taking 491 counseling psychologists as researching objects, applying Meaning in Life Questionnaire(MLQ), Influences on Becoming a Therapist Questionnaire (IBT), and Maslach Burnout Inventory-General Survey(MBI-GS),this research conducted a questionnaire investigation towards those objects and through data analysis finds some common features as well as the differences in demographics on meaning in life, career motivation and occupational burnout for native counseling psychologists, furthermore discovers the influencing mechanism of meaning in life and career motivation towards occupational burnout. Specific conclusions are as the following:(1) The presence of meaning and the search for meaning of counseling psychologists are all above the medium level. The level of the presence of meaning is higher than that of the search for meaning.(2) From the strongest to the weakest, career motivations for counseling psychologists are respectively professional altruism, self and interpersonal harmony, pursuing excellence,occupational reward, and interpersonal involvement.(3) The burnout of counseling psychologists is below the average level. To be specific,the level of emotional exhaustion is the highest, which is higher than that of reduced personal accomplishment. The level of cynicism is the lowest.(4) The meaning in life, career motivation, burnout for counseling psychologists are affected by age, working years and average weekly counseling hours, but unaffected by gender and academic background.(5) The presence of meaning could conspicuously influence burnout in a negative way,and the search for meaning could remarkably influence burnout in a positive way.(6) Career motivation for counseling psychologists plays a mediating role between meaning in life and burnout. To be specific,professional altruism,self and interpersonal harmony, interpersonal involvement function as mediating roles for the influence of meaning in life towards burnout.According to the research results, targeting at how counseling psychologists and psychological counseling agencies improve meaning in life, be aware of career motivation and prevent occupational burnout, some constructive advices are given to promote the healthy career development of counseling psychologists.