Cause Analysis and Coping Approaches towards Job Burnout of College Counselors Based on Psychological Contract Theory

Abstract

College counselor is one of the hit groups for job burnout, which directly harms psychological health and the college education quality. Based on localized psychological contract theory, the author analyzes four aspects: normative obligation: ambiguity in duty boundaries and non-identity in financial return; interpersonal obligation: lack of necessary interpersonal support and humanistic care; developmental obligation: obscurity in career development and limit of promotion; lack of effective interaction and humanistic care. It comes to a conclusion that psychological contract violation is the main cause to job burnout of college counselors. Therefore, colleges must take certain intervening measures to relieve job burnout of college counselors, such as making duty boundaries explicit and improving the performance evaluation; providing effective and on-going coaching and development, standardizing the career planning and affording honor motivation; creating the atmosphere of respect, opening communication channels and affording emotional stimulus.