ABSTRACT
The importance of reliable and valid instruments to measure burnout is evident not only for the purpose of empirical research but ultimately for individual assessment. Because of the vagueness and overinclusiveness of the burnout concept, researchers were faced with a difficult problem. How is it possible to construct a burnout instrument if the boundaries of that phenomenon are unclear? Soon after the “discovery” of the syndrome in the mid-1970s, dozens of symptoms were associated with it, ranging from anxiety to lack of zeal.
