2 Four main perspectives of burnout
Over the years different perspectives have emerged to explain the concept of burnout. Figure 3 in Activity 2 below outlines some of these different ways.
Activity 2 Summarising four burnout perspectives
Figure 3 is a very brief overview of four main perspectives of burnout, some of which are covered in more detail in later sessions. The case of Barker is used to illustrate each.
Examine the explanations, revealed by clicking each of the four tabs, and identify the key words or phrases which will help you summarise each perspective. The first perspective, ‘A perceived stress perspective’, has been completed for you as an example, with the words/phrases you might appropriately identify for this task highlighted in bold. Note down the words/phrases in Table 1 below.
| Stress perspective | Overtraining perspective
| Motivation perspective | Social perspective |
Discussion
This table shows some of the words/phrases you may have identified for each perspective.
| Stress perspective | Overtraining perspective
| Motivation perspective | Social perspective |
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Now you know the four main perspectives that researchers use to frame their work on burnout, the next question is, how can they quantify it? There are, in fact, a range of methods that can be used to investigate the extent to which an individual is suffering burnout, such as observation, interviews, physiological markers (e.g. heart rate) and questionnaires. You will explore some of these next.