Emotional Dissonance And Personality Traits As Predictors Of Psychological Wellbeing Among Nurses In Makurdi Metropolis

Within the behavioral sciences in general and occupational health psychology in particular, there has been a specific focus on the importance of wellbeing – both physical and mental health – in affecting success in many life domains including the workplace. There is considerable research on the relationship between psychological wellbeing and performance at work (Wright, Bonett, & Sweeney, 1993; Cropanzano & Wright, 1999; Wright & Staw, 1999; Wright & Cropanzano, 2000) and successful relationships (Diener & Seligman, 2002). Also, superior mental health (KoivumaaHonkanen et al., 2004), physical health (Roysamb, Tawls, Reichborn-Kjenneruc, Neale, & Harris, 2003) and longevity (Danner, Snowdon, & Friesen, 2001) have been variously found to co-vary with happiness and positivity levels. The inference from the research on wellbeing is that psychological wellbeing leads to positive individual and organisational outcomes. Despite that psychological well-being is recognized as an important variable both at individual and organisational level, many nurses unfortunately report diminished psychological and physical well-being and several would like to leave the profession (Aiken, Clarke, Sloane & Sochalski, 2001). Nurses occupy a central role in the delivery of health care in all countries, therefore, poor mental health among nurses affects Abstract: This study examined emotional dissonance and personality traits as predictors of psychological wellbeing among nurses in Makurdi metropolis. In a cross-sectional survey design, 203 nurses were drawn from different hospitals in Makurdi metropolis through a stratified random sampling technique. They were within the age range of 22–51 years with the mean age of 32.01 (SD=7.167). Three different instruments including the Hospitality Emotional Labour Scale, the Big Five Inventory (BFI-10) and the Ryff’s Psychological Wellbeing Scale were used for data collection. The result of simple linear analysis showed that emotional dissonance significantly predicted psychological wellbeing among nurses in Makurdi metropolis negatively. Multiple linear regression also revealed that personality traits jointly predicted psychological wellbeing significantly among nurses in Makurdi metropolis. On independent basis, the result showed that neuroticism made the highest negative contribution to the variance in psychological wellbeing of nurses, followed by agreeableness with positive contribution, extraversion and conscientiousness while openness to experience did not make any significant contribution to the prediction of psychological wellbeing among nurses. It was concluded that emotional dissonance and personality traits contribute to a large extent, to the experience of psychological wellbeing among nurses. Based on the findings, it was recommended among others that the government and other employers of nurses should design an intervention scheme in the health institutions that is targeted at cushioning the effect of emotional dissonance on psychological wellbeing of nurses, since emotional labour is considered part and parcel of their professional practice.