Personality and vocational interest typologies associated with better coping and resilience in paramedicine: A review of two models

Abstract

Paramedics’ continued exposure to work-related stressors can negatively impact emotional wellbeing. Having or developing resilience contributes to better coping. Understanding differences in individual predispositions as they relate to resilience and coping can provide a needed understanding of why some people flourish while others are more at risk, with important implications for identifying and facilitating bespoke support for paramedics more at risk. The purpose of this article then is firstly to review two of the main well-validated models of innate dispositions in differential psychology, widely used in organisational and industrial psychology: personality and vocational interests. These are The Big-Five/Five-Factor Model and Holland's RIASEC. Then, we report which dispositions are an advantage for paramedic coping and resilience. Concerning personality, our findings from the literature suggest that for paramedics, lower levels of Neuroticism and Openness, and higher levels of Extraversion, Agreeableness and Conscientiousness are associated with higher resilience and better coping. RIASEC associations suggest person-environment congruence is also related to resilience and coping, this being for those with the profession's predominant Holland code of RSI (Realist, Social and Investigative inclinations). Paramedics approximating these preferences are, it appears, innately relatively less at risk of the negative effects associated with occupational stressors in paramedicine. Stressors typically include post-traumatic stress disorder, major depression and other psychological reactions that all can result in suicide. Importantly, such resilience does not mean an individual is instinctively protected from some form of emotional suffering. The implications of verifying the significance of predispositions implies the need to harness organisational psychology as part of training courses, and the need for involvement of psychologists in the field, both preventatively and in clinical care.