Relationship between perceived stress and personality traits in emergency medical personnel

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 MA. in clinical psychology, Islamic Azad University, Shahrood Branch, Shahrood, Iran

2 Assistant professor of clinical psychology, Payam-e-Nour University, Branch of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran

Abstract

Introduction: Emergency Medical Personnel (EMP) perform their duties to take care of critically-ill patients in stressful situations. It is not clear what kind of personality traits have negative relationships with perceived stress. The aim of this study is to identify paramedics who are able to maintain their work performances at high levels despite facing stressful situations.
Materials and Methods: This study was conducted on emergency medical personnel from March to September 2015. This was a correlational study in which the convenience sampling method was used to select 120 men as the sample. Research instrument included demographic form, NEO Five-Factor Inventory and Cohen’s Perceived Stress Scale were employed to collect data which were then analyzed via descriptive and inferential statistics (correlation and regression) in SPSS software version 16.0.
Results:The results revealed that Neuroticism (N) was significantly and positively correlated with perceived stress. However, extraversion (E), agreeableness (A), conscientiousness (C) were negatively correlated with the perceived stress scale (P<0.001). Moreover, neuroticism (N), openness to experience (O), agreeableness (A) and conscientiousness (C) included 59.5% of variances in perceived stress.
Conclusion: It seems that among emergency medical personnel, those who were more emotionally stable, more responsible and more willing to help people have lower perceived stress and they perform their duties more efficiently.

Keywords

Journal of Fundamentals of Mental Health
Volume 18, Issue 5
September and October 2016
Pages 265-271

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