Happiness and Defense Styles in Psychiatrists

• Published in: The journal of nervous and mental disease Vol. 204; no. 3; pp. 181 - 187
• Main Authors: Machado, Leonardo, Tavares, Hermano, Petribú, Kátia, Pinto, Tiago, Cantilino, Amaury
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Copyright Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved 01-03-2016; Lippincott Williams & Wilkins Ovid Technologies
• Subjects: Adult; Brazil; Cross-Sectional Studies; Defense Mechanisms; Female; Happiness; Humans; Humor; Male; Middle Aged; Physicians - psychology; Psychiatrists; Psychiatry; Brazil
• ISSN: 0022-3018; 1539-736X
• DOI: 10.1097/NMD.0000000000000450

ABSTRACTThe aim of this study was to measure happiness in a sample of Brazilian psychiatrists and correlate it with the defense styles used by them and sociodemographic data. This study was observational, cross-sectional, and analytical. Data were collected through self-administered questionnaires by Brazilian psychiatrists who participated in the XXXII Brazilian Congress of Psychiatry, 2014. In this sample of psychiatrists, happiness levels were high (scoring 5.69 of a total of 7), and mature defense styles prevailed, especially humor and anticipation. In a multivariate analysis, having children, good sleep quality, increased sexual interest, and use of defense styles such as humor, anticipation, and idealization all showed a positive relationship with happiness; on the other hand, using defense style such as acting out or annulment demonstrated a negative relationship with happiness. Despite the well-known professional burden that they bear, Brazilian psychiatrists surveyed presented, in general, high levels of subjective well-being and happiness.