This study classified career counselors into three ‘clusters’ according to personality and behavioral factors. Based on previous research, personality factors were focused on depression(D), psychathenia(Pt), and social introversion(Si). In addition, behavioral factors were focused on both active and passive coping strategies. This study used MMPI-2; Depression(D), Psychathenia(Pt), Social Introversion(Si) T score and the stress coping scale. A cluster analysis was conducted on the sample of 87 Korean career counselors, 8 males(9.2%), and 79 females(90.8%) and was guided by the following research questions: Can Korean career counselors be clustered according to personality factors(depression, psychathenia, and social introversion) and behavioral factors(active or passive coping strategies)? How do the patterns of personality and behavioral factors vary according to the clusters? How is the level of the job stress according to the clusters?
The results demonstrated that the career counselors were divided into three clusters; namely, adaptive perfectionism, maladaptive perfectionism and nonperfectionism clusters. Furthermore, this study found that the adaptive perfectionism cluster was less susceptible to burnout and maintained their mental health better than the other clusters. It also showed the lowest levels of depression, psychathenia, and social introversion amongst counselors. On the other hand, the maladaptive perfectionism cluster had the lowest levels of coping strategies and high levels of depression and social introversion. And the level of job stress on the adaptive perfectionism cluster was lowest among the clusters. The study confirms that the use of active coping strategies as well as passive strategies is effective to prevent career counselor’s burn-out.
This study implies that career counselors need to use both active and passive coping strategies in their field. Also ‘extroversion’ has been regarded as better than ‘introversion’ in social life. But if career counselors of high ‘social introversion’ use two coping strategies effectively, they can prevent their burn-out.
