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The Managed Heart: Commercialisation of Human Feeling
Abstract
"In private life, we try to induce or suppress love, envy, and anger through deep acting or "emotion work," just as we manage our outer expressions of feeling through surface acting. In trying to bridge a gap between what we feel and what we "ought" to feel, we take guidance from "feeling rules" about what is owing to others in a given situation. Based on our private mutual understandings of feeling rules, we make a "gift exchange" of acts of emotion management. We bow to each other not simply from the waist, but from the heart. But what occurs when emotion work, feeling rules, and the gift of exchange are introduced into the public world of work? In search of the answer, Arlie Russell Hochschild closely examines two groups of public-contact workers: flight attendants and bill collectors. The flight attendant's job is to deliver a service and create further demand for it, to enhance the status of the customer and be "nicer than natural." The bill collector's job is to collect on the service, and if necessary, to deflate the status of the customer by being "nastier than natural." Between these extremes, roughly one-third of American men and one-half of American women hold jobs that call for substantial emotional labor. In many of these jobs, they are trained to accept feeling rules and techniques of emotion management that serve the company's commercial purpose. Just as we have seldom recognized or understood emotional labor, we have not appreciated its cost to those who do it for a living. Like a physical laborer who becomes estranged from what he or she makes, an emotional laborer, such as a flight attendant, can become estranged not only from her own expressions of feeling (her smile is not "her" smile), but also from what she actually feels (her managed friendliness). This estrangement, though a valuable defense against stress, is also an important occupational hazard, because it is through our feelings that we are connected with those around us. On the basis of this book, Hochschild was featured in Key Sociological Thinkers, edited by Rob Stones. This book was also the winner of the Charles Cooley Award in 1983, awarded by the American Sociological Association and received an honorable mention for the C. Wright Mills Award. © 1983, 2003, 2012 by The Regents of the University of California.
... My memories of my first visit to the courthouse to interview the judge recall my feelings of anxiety, which I experience at the level of my body through my elevated heart rate and clammy palms. To counteract these feelings, I performed class-based dispositions (Bourdieu, 1984) and emotion labour strategies to manage my outward body and facial expression (Hochschild, 1983). In order to flesh out this encounter as a pedagogy to enhance feminist methodological insights on how bodies, emotions and affects inform power dynamics in qualitative socio-legal research in criminal law settings specifically and wider discussions in ethnographic field research more generally, I analyse how the judge and I develop rapport through mutual intersubjectivity. ...
... As we walked, I observed a metamorphosis in her bearing. She seemed to be engaged in the emotional work necessary to re-inhabit the dispositions expected for judges by the social order in this field (Hochschild, 1983). ...
... Outwardly, however, I continued to manage my outward bodily display through non-emotions (e.g. pretending I did not care about the lawyers comments), though I felt it deeply to my core (Hochschild, 1983). One of the unexpected benefits that complete observation afforded me, however, was that I began to notice how the male lawyers' behaviour created an atmosphere in the suite. ...
In this article, I analyse the methodological issues that arise when I accept a judge's invitation to observe her hear women testify in criminal proceedings against their traffickers at the district courthouse in X, Germany. I develop a theoretical framework using Pierre Bourdieu's theory of embodied power and his methods of epistemic reflexivity and participant objectivation, and feminist engagements with affect theory. I use my fieldwork experience with a judicial gatekeeper and in conducting ethnographic observational research 'behind the scenes of formal law' to interrogate how bodies, emotions and affects inform power in the spaces of criminal law. Specifically, I approach bodies, emotions and affects as conceptual tools with which to interrogate how power transmits when I 'enter' and 'read' the field, and make claims to 'know' the subject under study. Core to my analysis is a critical process of self-reflection, through which I challenge the assumptions that underpin my assessment of my research participants' ability to consent to participate in my study.
... This generative and self-control process necessarily involves the constant action of EL. Widely discussed, the term EL, closely related to sense-making, was first considered by Hochschild (1983). In reference to this, Grandey (2000), in an a posteriori analysis, states that Hochschild (1983) intended to use the term EL in relation to the description of the way in which workers become capable of managing and modifying emotional expressions and also feelings on a daily basis in the working context, in order to show what is expressly required by the job and the role that one is called to perform, as well as by what is expressly prescribed by employers in relation to the company objectives to be pursued. ...
... Widely discussed, the term EL, closely related to sense-making, was first considered by Hochschild (1983). In reference to this, Grandey (2000), in an a posteriori analysis, states that Hochschild (1983) intended to use the term EL in relation to the description of the way in which workers become capable of managing and modifying emotional expressions and also feelings on a daily basis in the working context, in order to show what is expressly required by the job and the role that one is called to perform, as well as by what is expressly prescribed by employers in relation to the company objectives to be pursued. An individual's ability to control emotions and to modify emotional expressions are work activities in their own right and consume energy (Hochschild 1983). ...
... In reference to this, Grandey (2000), in an a posteriori analysis, states that Hochschild (1983) intended to use the term EL in relation to the description of the way in which workers become capable of managing and modifying emotional expressions and also feelings on a daily basis in the working context, in order to show what is expressly required by the job and the role that one is called to perform, as well as by what is expressly prescribed by employers in relation to the company objectives to be pursued. An individual's ability to control emotions and to modify emotional expressions are work activities in their own right and consume energy (Hochschild 1983). This activity is required above all for jobs involving contact with the public or professions aimed at care activities, as well as those with expressly promotional purposes. ...
The authors’ intention is to conduct an analysis utilizing a purely conceptual, literary content-based investigation of two hermeneutical dimensions associated with work motivation in the public service sector. Specifically, the study focuses on public school teachers in the Italian context due to the neglected way in which they matured in literary production and the hostile work environment brought about by the numerous reforms in a kind of heterogenesis of ends. Through the use of aphorisms and metaphors, after a literature review, gap identification and a content-based analysis, the authors aim to identify an approach that can anthropologically serve as a synthesis formula for workers who are emotionally and intensely invested in their professional practice. Specifically, this includes professions, including educational ones, that are subjected to high exposure to emotional labor (EL). The authors have identified two dimensions: one oriented towards the concept of gift and the other towards possession for integrating the demand–resource model (DRM). To support this analysis, the seminal research work of Belk will be utilized as a reference in the wide range of literary production on the give-and-take approach, according to Schaufeli and Grant. Furthermore, empirical data from previous research will be used to functionally explain how sense-making, when combined with the dynamics of gift–possession, can act as a factor of resilience for professions that hold significant emotional value. In this way, the authors shape a perspective on the theoretical paradigm toward the performance measurement and management system under the lens of New Public Management reform, considering the grand challenges inherent in the educational area by identifying organizational behavioral levers for justifying high motivation-driven actions in an underestimated job segment. In this way, the greatest contribution lies in the possibility of defining a reference framework to expand the DRM in application to the clarification of the foundations inherent in resilience behaviors implemented by educational professions in the specific reference context. The main result would precisely be the ability of the latter to cope with hostile contexts through the dynamics of gift and possession that promote work resilience through the attribution of meaning and identity to the job. These perspectives are useful for deepening the understanding of performance measurement and management approaches.
... For this reason, we first explore emotional labour as the source of authenticity for atypical leaders. We ask whether an atypical leader can be authentic and how emotional labour helps researchers to understand the psychological processes that are necessary if emotions are to be managed in line with traditional workplace behaviours (Hochschild, 1983). 'Emotional labour' refers to the internal struggles and efforts made by an individual to maintain a sense of self and/or satisfy the expectations of others in the workplace (Diefendorff et al., 2005;O'Brien & Linehan, 2019;Grandey, 2000;Taylor, 1998). ...
... More specifically, this narrative review began by identifying key literature as the starting point on the topics of authenticity (e.g., Lawler & Ashman, 2012), atypicality (e.g., Alter, 2018), emotional labour (e.g., Hochschild, 1983), and autonomy/heteronomy (Castoriadis, 1987). ...
... Such an atypical leader might find herself expending more time, effort, and emotion managing her multifaceted identity in the workplace. Essentially, atypical leaders might engage in more 'emotional labour' than their more conventionally privileged counterparts (Algera & Lips-Wiersma, 2012;Iszatt-White et al., 2021;Hochschild, 1983). ...
Leaders from typically privileged backgrounds, such as white, male, elite-educated, and upper-class individuals, often find it easier to craft an authentic identity in professional settings than their atypical counterparts. These atypical leaders, which include women, LGBT+, ethnic minorities, or those from less affluent socioeconomic backgrounds, can indeed construct an authentic workplace identity. However, this often demands significant emotional investment and the navigation of challenges, such as reconciling conflicting identities, especially in institutions tailored predominantly for the typical leaders. While authenticity and diversity are highly desired qualities in leadership, we argue that authenticity remains a privilege primarily enjoyed by leaders from typical backgrounds. By drawing on Hochschild's notion of emotional labour and Castoriadis's concepts of autonomy and heteronomy, we shed light on the dynamic interplay between authenticity and atypicality. Further, we present a conceptual framework that outlines how atypical leaders can manifest authenticity in their roles, and the ensuing implications for driving organisational change rooted in diversity.
... In particular, Hochschild's work on emotional labour (EL) has drawn attention to the otherwise invisible work that workers do when they manage their emotions in a work context both when providing service and care 'frontstage', and more recent studies have drawn attention to EL 'backstage' such as collegial EL, where workers manage their own feelings and assist colleagues in managing theirs as a core aspect of the job (Rivers, 2019;Theodosius, 2008). According to Hochschild (1983), we manage our emotions according to social conventions both privately (emotion work) and professionally (emotional labour), and it is the latter which is foregrounded here. ...
... In order to begin answering our research question, we rely on the theoretical framework of Hochschild (1979Hochschild ( , 1983, who pioneered organisational psychology by looking into the importance of the informal aspects of the organisation and especially the work on emotions (Hochschild, 1983). The framework targets the unwritten and largely invisible dynamics that in subtle ways play a role in the organisation, and especially the emotional life here, including relational work between people. ...
... In order to begin answering our research question, we rely on the theoretical framework of Hochschild (1979Hochschild ( , 1983, who pioneered organisational psychology by looking into the importance of the informal aspects of the organisation and especially the work on emotions (Hochschild, 1983). The framework targets the unwritten and largely invisible dynamics that in subtle ways play a role in the organisation, and especially the emotional life here, including relational work between people. ...
Digital technologies and new ways of organising transform the way we experience work. This paper seeks to contribute to our understanding of the role of digital emotional labour (EL) among knowledge workers. We investigate the EL involved in digital communication practices among co-located knowledge workers employed in an agile IT-consultancy firm with a relatively flat hierarchy. Based on rich qualitative data, we analyse how the specific socio-material infrastructures of a democratic communication technology called ‘Flowdock’ give rise to EL (Hochschild in American Journal of Sociology, 85(3), 551–575, 1979, University of California Press, 1983). The study contributes theoretically by developing work on EL in a digital context by engaging with Oudshoorn’s (Sociology of Health & Illness, 31(3), 390–405, 2009) term ‘digital proximity’. This implies opening up EL to a more dynamic and situated approach and contributing to the organisational research scrutinising the EL of backstage professionals. The paper concludes that online communication creates new demands of managing emotions in relation to 4 themes key to agile organising: (1) working as whole persons, (2) creating partnerships, (3) unclear decision-making and lastly (4) informal power dynamics. We discuss implications of the overall finding that knowledge workers face increased demands mixing social and technical skills.
... He also maintains that thinking of teachers as 'all-knowing' deprives them of experiencing genuine emotions and constructing unorthodox identities. This is reminiscent of Hochschild's (1983) study in which Delta Airlines flight attendants were expected to display kindness to passengers through both surface and deep acting. Hochschild (1983) found that the conflict between these 'feeling rules' and flight attendants' authentic selves caused them enormous emotional labour. ...
... This is reminiscent of Hochschild's (1983) study in which Delta Airlines flight attendants were expected to display kindness to passengers through both surface and deep acting. Hochschild (1983) found that the conflict between these 'feeling rules' and flight attendants' authentic selves caused them enormous emotional labour. ...
Language teacher identity (LTI), and its essential component, teacher agency, are inextricably intertwined with emotion labour. This qualitative case study explored how the agency and LTI of an early-career Iranian female teacher of EFL (English as a foreign language) were affected by her engagement in emotion labour in two public schools. Data in the form of class observations and semi-structured interviews were collected, focusing on the emotional episodes of the participant's practice at her previous and current workplaces, and then analysed through grounded theory procedures. The findings revealed that while the favourable emotional atmosphere of the first school helped the novice teacher to be at ease with her LTI, growing emotion labour caused by the deep-seated contradictions in the second school eroded her sense of agency and made her give her current job affiliation a second thought. Implications and suggestions for further research are discussed.
... An important trigger for RID related to the fact that qualitative/interpretative methods fail to comply with the dictates of dominant positivist perspectives on social science research that emphasize objectivity and emotional detachment. As such, a number of researchers engaged in a process of what Hochschild [82] refers to as 'surface acting', in terms of which researchers' regulated the public expression of their emotions in order to avoid disapproval from the academe and/or significant others [69,71,73,74]. ...
... At another level, chronosystemic influences were evident at different times across the trajectory of research engagement, with some of these influences being most salient prior to research engagement (e.g., adequate/inadequate pre-research preparation and training), and others influences emerging during relatively early stages of research engagement, with still other issues arising from the process of emotional labour that researchers engaged in in order to address unanticipated RID [82]. As such an adequate culture of care for researchers -involving ongoing competent clinical supervision, frequent formal debriefing or counselling, and ongoing training, and debriefing -would appear to be indicated during all phases of the research process. ...
We aimed to review and synthesize the literature on risk and resilience factors for research-induced distress (RID) among qualitative child abuse researchers, with the review being guided by the Lippencott-Joanna Briggs Institute methodology for qualitative reviews. . We searched Scopus, PsychINFO, MEDLINE, and ProQuest, with two researchers independently reviewing title/abstracts and full-text articles for inclusion, and with additional articles being sought using citation searches of identified articles and through a perusal of articles in key child abuse and qualitative research journals. We synthesized 30 unique studies, with this synthesis revealing that risk and salutary factors for RID outcomes emanate from all levels of the research ecology and, consequently, that optimal strategies for the primary and secondary prevention of RID could profitably adopt a multi-systemic perspective. Findings from this review provide child abuse researchers and members of academia with a detailed and systematic overview of potential threats and salutary influences for RID that could be used to (1) inform the development of comprehensive pre-research (and ongoing) training programmes for researchers, and (2) guide the development of secondary prevention programmes designed to mitigate RID outcomes. With respect to future research, this review suggests that the focus of research could usefully be extended in order to: (1) provide a more comprehensive perspective on the experiences of researchers living in low- to middle-income countries, and (2) ensure that children’s rights to be heard, and to participate in research on matters that affect them, are more comprehensively addressed.
... Emotional labor is the process of modifying emotions to gain rewards, express the required emotions or feelings of work through bodily expressions (Hochschild, 1983). Ashforth and Humphrey (1993) consider emotional labor as an outward behavioral manifestation, which, influenced by external factors such as the environment and individuals, can have different effects on employee emotions. ...
... However, scholars generally agree that emotional labor is a multidimensional and multi-component concept. Hochschild (1983) identifies three dimensions of emotional labor: surface performance, proactive deep acting, and passive deep acting. Ashforth and Humphrey (1993) categorize emotional labor into surface performance, deep acting, and authentic emotions. ...
This study is based on the theory of emotional events and explores the relationship between emotional labor and the job performance of university teachers. Relevant data was obtained through a questionnaire, and a structural equation model was constructed for path analysis. The study found that the surface performance of university teachers has a significant negative impact on relationship performance and task performance; deep performance and proactive authenticity of university teachers have a significant positive impact on relationship performance, task performance, and adaptability performance, respectively; the passive reality of university teachers has a significant negative impact on relationship performance, task performance, and adaptability performance. Based on research findings, this study proposes suggestions for the performance evaluation mechanism of university teachers, including improving the recruitment methods, increasing the emotional labor assessment and incentive mechanism, focusing on alleviating negative emotions of teachers, strengthening the awareness guidance and education of school management and teachers on emotional labor, establishing training courses on emotional labor for teachers, arranging various activities reasonably, and creating a good working atmosphere. Ultimately, these suggestions aim to help university teachers recognize the significance of emotional labor, promote their educational and teaching work, and provide new methods and paths for improving the work performance of university teachers.
... A mundane example is dress code: even if an organisation abandons a formal code and leaves it to employees to express their sartorial selves, employees will still observe norms and dress appropriately. Failure to do so may be interpreted as an instance of informal resistance, as seen in Hochschild's (1983) study of flight attendants choosing to wear less sexy (and likely more comfortable) shoes. In NULMA, we see similar instances of employees starting to wear shoes from competitor sports brands. ...
... Previous studies have shown empirically how management attempts to obtain neo/ normative control through culture may meet various kinds of resistance (Kondo, 1990;Barker, 1993;du Gay, 1996;Casey, 1995;Deetz, 1995;van Maanen, 1992;Hochschild, 1983). Control and resistance are two sides of the same coin, and both are instances of agency and power. ...
Purpose
The paper discusses how the management of a sports and fashion company, which we refer to as NULMA, successfully applied the neo/normative control technology “karma organisation” and gained employee engagement. Whereas other studies have documented employee resistance to organisational cultures when used for managerial control, our case demonstrates resistance to management practices that employees find inconsistent with the dominant karma culture.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is based on a six-year longitudinal organisational at-home ethnography conducted by one of the authors using methods of both participant and non-participant observation, semi-structured interviews and collaborative production of secondary data in the case organisation.
Findings
While our research shows that management can successfully apply neo/normative control which employees accept and support, we further show that employees mobilise the same values to resist management when it fails to deliver on the commitments and promises of the organisational culture.
Originality/value
The study contributes to the literature on organisational culture and, in particular, neo/normative control by theorising employee resistance as being by “accident”, by which we mean an inherent negative potentiality co-invented and released by managers establishing a “karma organisation”. Our theorising culminates in a discussion of the study’s implications for research and practice.
... Situated and contextual, emotions are shaped by socio-cultural institutions, from norms and rituals of social interactions to social divisions which structure social experiences, for example race, gender, class, power and status. Hochschild's (2012) concept of emotional labour comprises management of feelings and emotional dissonance to create desired responses or emotional states, emphasising the managed performance of emotions to meet socially prescribed feeling or display rules. This includes organisational expectations in social work, such as regulation of emotions to comply with expectations of professionalism (Gibson, 2019). ...
... The cloak of professionalism. (I:SM1:9) This involved significant emotion work to manage emotional dissonance between workers' actual feelings of anxiety, empathy, anger or distress and implicit feeling and display rules used in the performance of professional practice (Hochschild, 2012). For example, engaging with assessments of a 13-year-old who had been raped, or parents and children traumatised by physical violence and homelessness required sensitive relational practice and hidden emotion work. ...
... The COVID-19 pandemic was the catalyst of an emotionally taxing experience for nephrology social workers. Hochschild (2012) defined 'emotional labour' as the effort workers exert in managing their own emotions and that of others through the course of enacting a helping or caregiver role in accordance with requirements of the workplace or profession. The concept of 'emotional labour' recognizes a distinction between emotional management in the 'work' sphere versus the 'domestic or private' sphere (Hochschild, 2012). ...
... Hochschild (2012) defined 'emotional labour' as the effort workers exert in managing their own emotions and that of others through the course of enacting a helping or caregiver role in accordance with requirements of the workplace or profession. The concept of 'emotional labour' recognizes a distinction between emotional management in the 'work' sphere versus the 'domestic or private' sphere (Hochschild, 2012). However, study findings and the literature reflect that pandemic circumstances affecting health care delivery unintentionally blurred the boundaries between the private and the professional for health care providers (Nicholas et al., 2023), arguably adding a layer of complexity due to daily emotional demands and processing needs. ...
A mixed method study utilized surveys and focus groups to explore the perceptions of nephrology social workers in Canada regarding the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on their practice with patients and their families. As part of this larger study, participants were invited to focus groups which elicited pandemic experiences, personally and professionally, and to offer post-pandemic recommendations for nephrology social work. The sample comprised 15 nephrology social workers from several Canadian provinces, who provided in-depth reflections regarding the impact of the pandemic on professional practice. Study results reflect COVID-19 pandemic-related experiences of Canadian nephrology social workers, including psychosocial impacts as well as practice and infrastructure shifts. In providing service to patients and families, nephrology social workers were forced to confront personal, professional and organizational landscapes altered by hospital and broader societal public health guidelines aimed at decreasing the spread of COVID-19. Although an inherently challenging experience, participating social workers concurrently noted areas of growth that resulted from pandemic circumstances..
... Emotional labour refers to the process by which employees display their emotions in a way that satisfies any implicit or overt requirements set forth by their employer in relation to the expression of emotions (Brotheridge & Grandey, 2002;Grandey, 2000;Hochschild, 1983). Organisations have rules that define what is considered the proper and improper display of emotions (Diefendorff et al., 2011). ...
... When an employee performs surface acting, the goal is to suppress negative emotions and adhere to the organisation's rules regarding expressing emotions. In deep acting, the employee alters the genuinely felt emotions so that they feel and express the emotions required from their place of work (Grandey, 2000;Hochschild, 1983). ...
Orientation: In the workplace, emotional labour is said to be disproportionately performed by women. Research also seems to suggest that women in leadership roles practise emotional labour.Research purpose: This study aimed to determine what work-related situations gave rise to experiences of emotional labour of women in leadership roles. Furthermore, to gain insight into the experiences of the emotional labour of women in leadership roles across industries within the South African context.Motivation for the study: Within the South African workplace context, little is known about the workplace situations that give rise to specific emotional labour experiences among women in leadership roles.Research approach/design and method: A qualitative approach was adopted, focusing on a phenomenological strategy, utilising the purposive and snowball sampling technique to acquire participants. Data saturation was reached at 12 participants and thematic analysis was utilised to analyse the raw data from the interviews.Main findings: Themes identified from the data were leading through emotions, suppressing emotions to get work done, demonstrating emotional intelligence, avoiding emotional stereotyping and navigating the work-home emotional spillover.Practical/managerial implications: Industrial psychologists are encouraged to create a culture where open conversations are encouraged and are a norm as a way for employees to engage constructively.Contribution/value-add: This study adds to the literature on situations that give rise to experiences of emotional labour for women in leadership positions in South Africa and has important implications for organisations and women in leadership.
... Consequently, emotions should be interpreted within the context of cultural, social, and economic states that can affect teachers' emotions and cause fatigue, exhaustion, or undesirable feelings. Hochschild (1983) was the first to discuss to the role of emotional regulation as a part of a job. Hochschild defined emotional labor as "the management of feeling to create a publicly observable facial and bodily display" (p. ...
... This is supported by Zembylas's (2003) definition of teacher emotions, who asserted that teachers' emotion is shaped by social and political experiences. Following Hochschild (1983), several emotional labor studies have explored the concept, scope, and consequences of emotional Benesch's (2017Benesch's ( , 2018 research highlighted some issues related to the effect of unequal power relations on the emotional labor of teachers, especially in cases where teachers struggle with the feeling rules that contradict their own beliefs, values, and professional training. He discussed the notion of "dissonance between feeling rules and professional training and/or ethics" (p. ...
This article explored preparatory year program (PYP) teachers’ emotional labor and dissonance in an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) setting and this relates to institutional power. It also addressed issues related to the conflict between their professional training, knowledge, and beliefs and the institutional requirements. The final evaluation test of the PYP was used as an example of top-down institutional policies that may conflict with English language teachers’ training and/or pedagogical preferences, thereby producing emotional labor. To illustrate these concepts, the data were analyzed from interviews with 22 EFL teachers at a Saudi university regarding their emotions toward preparing the students for the final evaluation test and the requirements of the institutional power. The results were discussed in light of the following themes: (a) orienting to feeling rules, and (b) adapting to institutional policies, teachers’ preferences, and other beliefs. The findings suggested that teachers exhibited high levels of deep acting and naturally-felt emotions, which could be explained by the idea that teachers internalized their roles. In addition, they showed that teachers may resist the feeling rules of their institution’s policies. This article ends with pedagogical implications and recommendations for further research on emotional labor as a tool of teacher engagement. The researcher's personal reflections and emotion(al) labor were incorporated with engagement with the participants’ accounts.
... But what difference do I make beyond day-to-day endless routine care -running around after others? It's thankless -invisible -"care work" involving unpaid emotional labour (Hochschild, 1983). But it is important work -it needs to be done. ...
This article, based on a joint presentation to the 2024 BSA Auto/biography Study Group summer conference, is a response to the invitation to address the themes of ‘disappointment’ and
dissonance’. In exploring our experiences of these in discussion with each other and in the initial writings we exchanged, the concepts of gender, class and ageing began to emerge – the last of these perhaps due to the fact that although we range in ages from our fifties to our seventies, we have each reached a stage in life when it is not uncommon to engage in evaluation of what has gone before and reflection on what might still be to come. In this interwoven text, our three voices are braided together as we explore, examine and confront the disappointments inherent in that powerful and pervasive notion of a grand narrative. A narrative often positioned as an ever-onward and upward trajectory, devoid of diversions, en route to the pinnacle we stand on, as the hero of our own story. A ‘masculinist’ narrative that doesn’t fit any of us. In this braiding, we juxtapose our voices
and our narratives, rippling across each others’ identities, experiences, disappointments and dissonances, reaching back into the past, examining the present and speculating about the future in order to explore formations and representations of class, gender and age. Our voices are presented both individually and collectively.
... The 'ideal worker' reflects a mythical male worker whose bodily functions are not problematic in the least. Acker refers to human reproduction (Rothman 1989) and expression of emotions (Hochschild 1983) as examples of stigmatised bodily functions, but there is now a plethora of critique exploring how women's bodies are so often constructed as deviant when juxtaposed to the 'ideal worker' norm. Significantly, it seems that these gendered bodily experiences -or the true extent and implications of them -are often hidden and managed individually by workers because they so clearly represent the direct opposite of what is expected and most valued in organisations. ...
At the core of this paper is a critique of labour law’s engagement with menopausal workers in the UK. The critique is framed by an overarching discussion of the coping strategies adopted when lived realities of menopausal workers disrupt traditional organisational cultures, especially its manifestation in the ‘ideal worker’ norm. At the core of the paper is an argument that the legal treatment of menopausal workers is failing to encourage effective management of menopause / workplace tensions and, as a result, validates the promotion of this problematic ‘ideal worker’ norm within organisational cultures. Effective labour laws could however better support menopausal workers: labour laws could encourage long term individual and organisational resilience by adopting more effective anti-discrimination and dismissal protections and more strongly centring negotiation as a realistic strategy for menopausal workers and employers when navigating any tensions that arise.
... As Duffy points out, this type of labor is often not seen as work at all (and even the influencers themselves rarely characterize it as such), yet it is crucial for maintaining influencers' own economic viability. She draws on Hochshild's concepts of emotional labor (Hochshild, 1983) to point out that the work that goes into building a community, or "being here for them," in Tessa's words, is also highly feminized and done voluntarily by women. For Tessa, Vivi, Nicol, Evie, and others, showing up for their community means simultaneously experiencing joy, motivation, obligation, responsibility, and financial necessity, without one excluding the other. ...
The article explores how digital images of hands are used as a symbolic representation of intimacy and intimate emotions in influencer communication on Instagram. Based on digital ethnography with female influencers in the Czech Republic, the analysis focuses on three categories of communicative practices, where hands function as a visual representation of intimacy—creating community, a sense of vulnerability, and the notion of rawness and openness. The analysis points to the gendered nature of influencer communication. It explores how intimacy is established specifically by women influencers who need to navigate vulnerability with the need to protect themselves against gender‐based online violence in the form of hate comments and sexualized hate speech.
... However, debates about the social relations of affective labour are mirrored in those about the notion of skill in the sociology of work, and about the politics of skills in the service economy. As feminist approaches to service labour have long observed, the low status and poor remuneration characteristic of interactive service work (and other traditionally feminised forms of work) is connected to the essentialisation of workers' capacities as innate attributes rather than effortful and reflexive labour (Hochschild, 1983;Fortunati, 2007;Jarrett, 2015). Service employment has been regarded as unskilled for this reason (Bolton, 2004). ...
Hospitality is popularly regarded as unskilled work and the industry relies on a young labour force. This paper examines the role of youth in the way that the ‘unskilled’ status of hospitality labour is defined and contested by workers. Drawing on qualitative data collected with hospitality workers, the paper creates new connections between theories of affective labour, the politics of skills, and conceptions of youth in relation to work. The paper shows that the capacity to be ‘fun’ and produce affects of enjoyment in hospitality venues is essentialised as an attribute of youth, who are regarded as essentially unskilled. Youth is enacted in the social relations of affective labour, including the requirement to produce affects of enjoyment. The paper shows how theories of affective labour can be developed to consider the materialities of low-wage service employment and demonstrates the significance of youthful subjectivities to social relations of hospitality work.
... Twitter humor in response to Ebola, particular among English speakers who are likely commenting at a distance from the outbreak, may reflect an online "normalcy bias" as users engage in similar digital practices that are used in response to other events. Through humor and critique, Twitter responses to the outbreak appear to push against the dominant feeling rules (Hochschild 1983) that suggest they should experience fear, worry, or perhaps compassion for those suffering (Hochschild 2016). As Hochschild notes, "One can defy an ideological stance not simply by maintaining an alternative frame on a situation but by maintaining an alternative set of feeling rights and obligations" (1979:567). ...
The COVID‐19 pandemic has catalyzed debates about how the public and leaders respond to health threats and the role that the media and emotions play in these responses. Predating COVID‐19, the 2014 Ebola outbreak can serve as a case to examine the constructions and pervasiveness of fear discourse and other emotions in news and social media. In this mixed‐method study, we examine fear discourse in web‐based and traditional newspaper headlines and emergent emotions in social media data (Twitter) during the peak of Ebola coverage. Users discuss fear on Twitter in a variety of ways and there was an increase in Tweets following the first Ebola case in the United States. However, it is humor, not fear, that is the most dominant theme in Twitter responses. Claims by health leaders and media scholars, that information technology and social media spread fear, receive limited support. Prevalence of different emotions vary across format (headlines and social media) and have important implications for understanding the myths and realities of public responses to health threats.
... How our bodily affects are interpreted is informed by an acquired way of making sense of the world, which in turn opens or closes certain political horizons for us. In this respect, one can state that emotions are governed by "feeling rules" (Hochschild 1983). One can think here of women's anger in the past being labelled as depression, or of the LGBTQI+ movement claiming pride rather than shame as emotion and cultivating an environment in which pride is actually experienced (Gould et al. 2009;Deborah et al. 2012). ...
Anger plays an important yet under researched role in climate activism. Anger can stimulate the fight for a more climate just and sustainable world, but it can also provide the motivation for eco-fascist attacks. In this paper, I differentiate between different kinds of anger motivating climate activism. Focusing attention to 'Lordean Rage', a specific form of anti-racist anger conceptualized by Myisha Cherry as a crucial tool in the fight against racial injustice, I argue that it would be both apt and productive for climate activist groups in the Global North to cultivate a form of 'Lordean anger' in response to climate breakdown. More fundamentally, my contribution to scholarship on emotions about the ecological crisis is to show the potential of anger, while emphasizing the importance of evaluating racism and applying anti-racism in the context of climate justice activism.
... Pekerjaan yang menuntut emosi berupa pelayanan rutin tergolong paling rendah tingkatannya. Ketrampilan manajemen emosi seperti ini biasanya diperlukan oleh seorang dokter, bidan, konselor dan pekerja sosial (Hochschild, 1985;Watson, 2003). Emosi tidak terkendali akan menimbulkan gangguan dalam bekerja seperti kurang serius, kurang pengertian, kurang terkendali, dan kurang berempati kepada pasien atau klien mereka. ...
ABSTRAK Karakter BerAKHLAK disusun dan disampaikan di pembekalan Aparat Sipil Negara (ASN) sejak tahun 2022 sebagai upaya memenuhi tuntutan tata kelola ASN berkualitas. Karakter ini disusun untuk memenuhi tuntutan peningkatan tata kelola ASN. Penelitian ini berupaya mengkaji sosiologi komunikasi dari setiap karakter berdasarkan panduan perilaku dan perwujudan perilaku tercantum dalam Buku Saku Karakter BerAKHLAK disusun oleh Badan Kepegawaian Negara. Penelitian dilakukan dengan metode kajian pustaka untuk menghasilkan deskripsi detail pada setiap karakter, dan kemudian mengkaji keseluruhan karakter secara komprehensif dari teori utama maupun teori pendukung lain. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa: setiap karakter BerAKHLAK memiliki potensi meningkatkan kualitas tata kelola ASN. Penjabaran ini dapat dijelaskan dengan kajian Sosiologi dan Komunikasi, terutama dalam teori Sosiologi Kerja dan Komunikasi Manajemen Sumber Daya Manusia. Upaya kritik dilakukan terhadap dinamika pengukuran kualitas kinerja ASN pada dua karakter, yaitu Akuntabilitas danKompeten. Upaya kritik juga dilakukan karena ketidakadaan faktor keseimbangan antara pegawaian dan kehidupan personal serta ketidakadaan faktor penjaminan kesehatan fisik dan mental pada karakter BerAKHLAK.
... For foster care, this generates two competing benchmarks for comparison, namely those of 'ordinary (or adoptive) parenting' and residential child care. As in the case of love and money, however, these dichotomies can be problematised, especially in the light of feminist scholarship emphasising (domestic and care) work within the family and the importance of emotions within paid labour (Hochschild, 1983;Parry et al, 2005). The shift towards goal-oriented placements (e.g. ...
This article examines the long term if uneven trend towards professionalisation in foster care, within the contexts of theoretical debates on professionalisation and contemporary policy in relation to looked after children. While the professionalising trend has been driven by a number of powerful factors within foster care and by broader societal and policy developments, it remains contentious due to the hybrid nature of foster care straddling the domains of ‘family’ and ‘work’. Various aspects of hybridity are explored including its implications for motivation, training and differentiation among foster carers. While broadly supporting the professionalisation of foster carers, not least as a measure to tackle their exploitation and its gendered nature, it is argued that hybridity requires a delicate balance to be struck and maintained in order that further professionalising measures do not undermine the personal and familial aspects of foster care that are crucial to its success.
... This can escalate to exploitation, whereby '(a) Y [here volunteer, but also 60 hours a week manager] is forced to make a sacrifice which results in benefit for X [Community owners] and (b) X [here Community owner] obtains this benefit by means of advantage in power that X [it] has over Y [volunteers/unpaid managers]' (Shelby, 2002: 393). This is especially problematic in settings driven by passion or belief in larger mission (Hochschild, 1983;Cech, 2021), where 'passion exploitation' (Kim et al., 2020) can quickly arise in the form of unfair and/or demeaning employment practices, such as asking workers to do menial tasks or not paying them appropriately for extra work. This is sustained by a belief that work in and of itself is sufficient recognition for a passionate individual, i.e., meaningful work, fair pay, a financial stake, and a say in the organisation are optional. ...
The decline of established alternative organisations, such as co-working spaces, remains understudied. In this paper, we introduce the results of a longitudinal ethnography of a Finnish coworking space, ‘The Community’, established in late 2000s. The chapter explores how its volunteers, managers, and users related to The Community’s gradual decline, and finally its bankruptcy in 2014, and what broader lessons we might take from this account. The Community as a case relates to a larger on-going discussion regarding how we might do things differently in the times of contemporary capitalism. Part of the empirical answer lies in the very nature of The Community. Despite its organising principles, its aims to maintain a space of value-based alterity were based on similar working practices to those that they originally aimed to challenge. Three key themes echoed the critical steps in the Community’s decline: (i) ‘The Community way’ of doing things (‘defining the utopic alternative’); (ii) socio-material processes when working in the space (‘work of mundane maintenance’); and (iii) working conditions (‘emergence of functional imperatives’).
... Let's add that in our research sample, they talk about the use of social networks and about the internal motivation that leads an individual to use the social networks of the respondent -womento the same extent as the examined men. This finding does not correspond with some findings that have focused on research on the use of social networks in relation to the gender of the users (Hochschild 2012;Powell 1999). ...
Aim. Research on older adults (≥ 60) repeatedly confirms that the use of social networks has a rather positive effect on these users. The indicated trend leads us to the research of older adults with a focus on their motivations and challenges when using social networking sites. Methods. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with twenty-four older adults in Slovakia. The aim was to uncover the deeper processes and details that the members of the selected sample experience when using social networks. Results. The thematic analysis revealed a disproportion between low knowledge of social networks and willingness to use them in theresearch sample (Q1). While older adults rated their knowledge of social networks with a school grade of 4, they do not see this as an obstacle to their increasingly frequent use of social networks. Within the second research area (Q2), a set of seven motivations derived from the use of social networks among respondents were identified. Finally, four main challenges (Q3) were identified in the research. Conclusion. Research findings confirms not only older adults’ growing interest in using social networks, but also the need for adequate media education with a focus on ‘digital citizenship’, which emphasises both, skills and also knowledge. Cognitive value. When using social networks among older adults, their family members are the driving force behind respondents’ understanding (knowledge) and technological progress (practical skills). There is the necessity of advancement of digital competencies of older adults.
>>>>> CITED AS: Tkácová, H., Gadušová, Z., Sotirofski, K., Yusupova, M. 2023. We Must Protect Children but Also Their Grandparents: A Qualitative Understanding of Older Adults’ General Perceptions and Understanding of Social Networks. Journal of Education Culture and Society, roč. 14, č. 2 (2023), p. 297–316. https://doi.org/10.15503/jecs2023.2.297.316
The notion of impurity is identified in numerous belief systems, ranging from certain religions to nationalisms. Understanding its nature and functioning beyond its concrete objects is therefore a fundamental anthropological question. This work is grounded in anthropology, though it may be of interest to scholars from other disciplines. Impurity has been highlighted by numerous authors in ethnographic and theoretical texts, but a comparison of these various works indicates a lack of theoretical development. We will therefore begin by presenting the various explanations attributed to it, before proposing that the notion of impurity is primarily a knowledge of natural laws causing illness, death, and misfortune, based on the observation of contagion and implying an ontology of moral substantiality. I propose this concept to designate an ontology in which everything is a substance (bodily fluids and food, but also glances, words, and thoughts) and at the same time a moral value, without distinguishing between materiality and symbolism, a proposal inspired by McKim Marriott’s substance-codes (1976). This knowledge has then become a tool of social control, aiming to protect reproduction (social, cosmic, and ontological), through its effective language combining a somatopsychological aspect (disgust reaction) and social rejection.
This article investigates gendered differences in emotion work in contemporary Australian society by examining family-oriented emotion work. We examine the ways parents in heterosexual relationships perform emotion work for their children and their partners through qualitative, semi-structured interviews, focusing on changing experiences and shifting structuration processes around gendered norms and emotional inequality. We found some evidence of continuing gender essentialism and hegemonic-masculine behaviours. Female respondents were more likely to perform regular emotion work and adopt empathic attitudes towards their children, as well as manage their own emotions concerning their partners. Many respondents believed that these gender differences were ‘innate and natural’. However, more progressive inclusive-masculine behaviours were evident in men managing their own emotions, seeking more emotional engagement, and performing more caring than authoritative emotion work for their children. It was also evident in men and women both performing numerous forms of care and interpersonal emotion work for each other (that is, their partners). This study points to the emergence of more fluid structuration and ‘softer’ forms of gender social constructionism, in place of the ‘harder’ constructionism and gender essentialism predominant in prior studies.
Following the global financial crisis of 2007–8, many governments introduced austerity policies. In English and Welsh prisons, funding was reduced by nearly a quarter between 2011 and 2015. The operational impact was significant with declining safety and conditions. This chapter is based on research at a medium security prison conducted in 2014–15. In this ‘age of austerity’, managerialism altered, shifting from performance management to change management. Prison managers acted as local agents of nationally directed change. Prison managers experienced many of the features of ‘new capitalism’, including insecurity and anxiety. Many were haunted by the ‘specter of uselessness’ as they felt their skills and experiences were no longer valued. Managers undertook greater emotional labour, often masking their concerns and presenting a positive façade to those they led. They were particularly concerned that the social relations with staff and prisoners were being eroded. Prison managers were experiencing ‘disaffected consent’ in which they complied but were concerned about the reforms.
Domestic violence against women is a complex social phenomenon and a widely recognised issue of public health, which requires that all sectors of society, including the health sector, take the necessary action to prevent and address it. This paper aims to contribute to the discussion on the role of the primary health care in addressing domestic violence against women, by analysing health professionals’ perceptions of their practice as well as the difficulties they experience in providing healthcare to victims. To fulfil this aim, a qualitative approach was chosen, using focus groups with health professionals working in the area of primary health care in an inland region of Portugal. The main findings point to the lack of a specific protocol and insufficient information and skills to respond to domestic violence situations, which hinders health professionals’ confidence to intervene and tends to orientate them towards a more medical response. Resulting from these findings, implications for practice are discussed: the need for clear and specific orientations to guide health professionals’ intervention; the need to offer training that enables them to provide appropriate healthcare to women experiencing domestic violence; and the need to position themselves in the context of an integrated, multi-sectoral intervention.
KEYWORDS: Domestic violence; primary health care; health professionals; intervention in health
Schools and other forms of education and have significant impacts on people’s views about emotions and emotional experiences. This book helps students and educators to better understand emotions and their significance in social life and in education. It shows how we often take it for granted that certain emotions, such as happiness, are ‘positive’, while others are ‘negative’ and how personal characteristics such as gender, ethnicity, and race, can make an unfair difference when it comes to what emotions are expected or accepted. It also focuses on how emotions are understood as functional and as moral by different theoretical traditions, from psychology to philosophy. Written in an accessible format, the book encourages broad reflection on what emotions are and why they matter, in relation to the aims of education, what it means to be a good person, and equality and social justice.
Introduction
The emotion of nostalgia plays a vital role in the appeal, expression, and consequences of different forms of populism. As a response to the preceding chapters in this book, this chapter considers the issues of affect or emotion1 revealed as history mobilized by populists and populist movements and analyses the work that emotions perform in this process. The aim is to offer some thoughts on how we might constructively think about and analyse emotions in these contexts through considering critical notions of ‘heritage’ and ‘registers of engagement’. As the chapters in this book reveal, one of the defining features of populism is how it draws on the past to create, following Paul Taggart (2002), concepts of ‘heartland’ (Chapter 3), as well as the construction of historically situated undervalued and excluded ‘folk’ or ‘the people’ pitted against ‘elites’ (Mudde 2004; Chapters 1, 5, 7, 8, and 11), the utilization of historical mythologizing to solidify the peoples’ ‘hero’ (Chapters 1, 4, 5, and 9), the legitimation of certain memory holders of ‘the people’ (Chapters 2 and 6), or, indeed, the disassociation of the present with the past to create historical alternatives (Chapter 10). The appeal to right-wing populism of revisionist, mythologized, or overly selective histories that avoid ambiguity and emphasize the positive, heroic, and patriotic or nationalistic pride is based on the emotional valence of these histories and the work they do in managing present-day emotions or affective states.
I focus on right-wing populism because, as Stuart Hall (1979) has observed, the right continues to be far more effective than the left in organizing populist politics. There are lessons to be learnt by the left in analysing how particular emotions, specifically nostalgia, are used, which can facilitate the development of ways to challenge right-wing populism. Indeed, the affective repertoires of populism and how and why emotions are managed and mobilized are significantly different between those who hold conservative or progressive ideological positions (Jost 2019). I do not equate populism with ideology and follow Ernesto Laclau's definition (2004, 2005) that populism is most usefully understood as a particular logic of politics. Nonetheless, understanding the ideological contexts and implications of how certain emotions are expressed and managed is essential for understanding their utility within right-wing populist movements.
In this article I examine the contemporary discourses and debates that surround the sociology of spirituality, with especial attention to the term “spirituality”. To counter the widespread belief that this term lacks clarity and utility, I suggest reconsidering Max Weber’s use of the term “spirit,” as it refers to a recognisable ethic that results in specific behaviour, while still retaining its religious and spiritual connotations. Through focusing on two influential English figures in the post 9/11 God debate in the West, Richard Dawkins and Karen Armstrong, I provide a brief case study of how Weber’s understanding of “spirit” serves great utility in illuminating what drives the ideas, identity-making and behaviour of contemporary atheists and those defending religion. By utilising Weber’s “spirit,” rather than the term spirituality, I demonstrate that this enables us to dig deep into the social context and backgrounds of these two individuals, and to avoid taking their statements at face value – a common criticism of sociology of spirituality studies. I argue that the use of “spirit,” in terms of a recognisable ethic that results in specific behaviour, would benefit the sociology of spirituality. This is because it grounds the God debaters’ ideas and beliefs in a recognisable human experience that eludes reductive distinctions and disembodied abstractions.
Por que, mesmo presente em conceitos marxistas clássicos, as emoções são muitas vezes negligenciadas como categoria de análises válida para a compreensão de questões sociais? Esse estudo discute motivos para um distanciamento dos estudos das emoções e aponta uma direção das ciências humanas que emerge desde os anos 1980 e discute uma “virada afetiva” nas pesquisas. O objetivo é contribuir com a reflexão do campo da Comunicação, em especial da Economia Política da Comunicação (EPC), numa época em que a análise do agir social e dos objetos é levada a não prescindir da crítica dos afetos.
This chapter analyses influencer Alice Liveing’s Instagram account in the context of a heightened exercise and fitness culture, a shift from self-help to self-health, and the emotional labours of positivity. This shift creates a number of contradictions, including (1) a need to engage in constant forms of work on the body and on the self while extorting the benefits of loving yourself just the way you are (Gill, Rosalind and Ana Sofia Elias. “‘Awaken Your Incredible’: Love Your Body Discourses and Postfeminist Contradictions.” International Journal of Media and Cultural Politics 10, no.2 (2014): 179–188.), (2) the careful governance of negative emotions and affects, expressed in constant calls to ultimate happiness—either in the present (“I am happy now”) or the future (“I am working on my happiness”) and (3) the way these contradictions necessitate a blurring of public and private, through which all elements of intimate, private life become part of an entrepreneurial practice of self-branding (Banet-Weiser,.Authentic: The Politics of Ambivalence in a Brand Culture, University of New York Press, New York, 2012). These contradictions are discussed through (Illouz,.Saving the Modern Soul: Therapy, Emotions, and the Culture of Self-Help, University of California Press, Berkeley, 2008) concept of ‘triumphant suffering’. In Liveing’s social media presence, the triumph in having overcome, among other things, eating disorders, body insecurity and an abusive relationship, provides the hook through which she is able to present her life work as the outcome of a positive mental attitude and herself as the ambassador of her own self-transformation.
If you the reader thought that earlier chapters in this book were iconoclastic, wait till you read this one! Here we look at the changing relationships between top managers, middle-mangers, and staff and their overall changing relations with service users and outside partners. This chapter challenges much of the way management as a function has been thought about in public services.
Freeman’s (1982) early, deep study of innovation concluded innovate or die. He was referring to firms competing in markets. Public agencies too need innovation faced with competition from private providers and for budgetary resources from big spending areas such as welfare and defence. Quite rightly, people such as Jansson (2013) call for politicians to justify public services and the taxes needed to properly fund them, calling attention also to the employment opportunities for young people, if offered training, in areas such as health, education, and care services. Citizens, auditors, and national Governments expect efficiency and effectiveness. Efficiency here includes continuous improvement designed to maximise outcome from inputs. Effectiveness means adopting the best service models, enabling technologies and the best ways-of-working. In short, efficiency and effectiveness go together and are bundled here under the rubric of innovation.
Capturing knowledge from external sources can have a major effect on public services; we have seen this in the examples of technologically enabled independent living and the robotic, diagnostic and information processing impact of artificial intelligence. Knowledge transfer is also important when public agencies are capital-starved encouraging working smarter, (often simply meaning working faster), as a way of enhancing total factor productivity. Knowledge, from Dewey’s (1927) perspective, is part of pragmatic technology either embedded inside the technology or in the human techniques deployed in ways-of-working. As the early 20th Taylorism showed some knowledge can be captured and codified in rules or today’s computer code and data centres. Control of codified knowledge can be ambiguous. Is the technology used to cut costs and reduce staffing, which we term knowledge management (KM) or is the technology used for the benefit of society to enable more person-to-person service contact, which we term socialised knowledge? As ICT-rich countries move from the era of digitalisation and networked information technology (IT) into the era of artificial intelligence (AI) in what direction is the control of bytes exercised? For other countries, digitalising data is the first challenge, and should not be underestimated: digital records and payment systems can be low-hanging fruit, quickly enhancing service quality and lowering costs.
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Reviews research on the operant conditioning or self-control of 4 cardiac functions: heart rate level, heart rate variability, blood pressure, and cardiac arrhythmias. Although the fact of the self-control of these functions seems well established, with few exceptions the magnitude of change is statistically significant rather than clinically significant. A few studies, all involving numerous training sessions, have reported large magnitude changes. Several methodological issues are raised and discussed. Alternative modes of achieving self-control of cardiac function, e.g., progressive relaxation and Yoga exercises, are discussed. (45 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved).
This paper explores how workers try to manage their emotions under conditions that doom them to fail. The workers in question—floor instructors at a sheltered workshop for people with developmental disabilities—were expected to infuse clients with positive feelings about work and to help transform them into committed workers. But structural conditions—boring, poorly paid assembly work and long gaps between contract jobs—forced them to obtain clients' compliance through coercive and confrontational emotion management techniques that contradicted their ideological beliefs. The floor instructors sought to peacefully increase their control over clients through “preventive emotion management” but most often they experienced a loss of control, leading some of them to experience “burnout.” This paper defines burnout as “occupational emotional deviance” that workers experience when they cannot manage their own and other's emotions according to organizational expectations.
The purpose of this investigation is to examine the differences in psychological functioning and classroom effectiveness between two groups of adolescents--those who are satisfied with their recent school experiences and those who are dissatisfied. The Ss of this investigation were two groups of adolescents identified from among 531 students enrolled in a Midwestern private school. Contrary to popular expectations the "satisfied" and "dissatisfied" students did not differ from each other in either general intellectual ability or in scholastic achievement. Those differences which did appear were linked to psychological rather than scholastic variables. More specifically, each of the test instruments designed to assess psychological health or "adjustment" was effective in distinguishing "satisfied" from "dissatisfied" students within one or both sex groups. The major findings point to: (a) the relevance of psychological health data rather than scholastic achievement data in understanding dissatisfaction with school; (6) the importance of differentiating the attitudes of dissatisfied girls from those of dissatisfied boys, the former being characterized by feelings of personal inadequacy, the latter by feelings critical of school authorities. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
24 MALE AND 36 FEMALE STUDENTS WORKED AT A 15-ITEM ANAGRAMS TASK AND PROVIDED CONFIDENCE RATINGS BEFORE EACH ITEM. 1/2 FAILED THE 1ST 5 ITEMS AND - SUCCEEDED. 1/2 OF THE SS WERE HIGH IN EXTERNAL CONTROL (ED), 1/2 WERE LOW IN EXTERNAL CONTROL (IC). RESULTS INDICATE: (1) SS SOLVED MORE ANAGRAMS AFTER INITIAL SUCCESS THAN FAILURE, (2) EC SS HAD A LOWER FREQUENCY OF TYPICAL CHANGES IN CONFIDENCE RATINGS THAN IC SS, (3) SS WHOSE CONFIDENCE RATINGS INCREASED A LOT AFTER UNIFORM SUCCESS OR DECREASED A LOT AFTER UNIFORM FAILURE SUBSEQUENTLY PERFORMED BETTER THAN SS WHOSE CONFIDENCE RATINGS CHANGED A LITTLE, AND (4) SUBSEQUENT PERFORMANCE WAS POSITIVELY RELATED TO INITIAL CONFIDENCE AMONG SS WHO INITIALLY FAILED, AND NEGATIVELY RELATED FOR THOSE WHO INITIALLY SUCCEEDED. RESULTS ARE DISCUSSED IN TERMS OF LOCUS OF CONTROL RESEARCH, ACHIEVEMENT MOTIVATION THEORY, AND EFFECTS OF INCONSISTENCY BETWEEN INITIAL CONFIDENCE AND ACTUAL PERFORMANCE.
IN ORDER TO STUDY THE EFFECTS OF FAMILY ENVIRONMENT ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF EGO MECHANISMS, 39 MALES WHO HAD BEEN FOLLOWED LONGITUDINALLY WERE USED AS SS. RATINGS OF THE PARENTS' PERSONALITIES AND OF SS' CHILDHOOD FAMILY ENVIRONMENTS WERE CORRELATED WITH RATINGS OF SS' USE OF 10 DEFENSE AND 10 COPING MECHANISMS AT 30 YR. OF AGE. RESULTS INDICATE THAT PRIMITIVE DEFENSES (DENIAL AND REPRESSION) ARE RELATED TO THE FATHER'S PASSIVITY IN THE EARLY FAMILY ENVIRONMENT. MORE DIFFERENTIATED DEFENSES ARE RELATED TO REJECTION OF S IN EARLY ADOLESCENCE. EXPRESSIVE COPING (TOLERANCE OF AMBIGUITY, AND REGRESSION IN THE SERVICE OF THE EGO) IS CORRELATED WITH FAMILY CONFLICT IN ADOLESCENCE. IN GENERAL, SS' IMITATION OF PARENTAL BEHAVIOR PLAYS AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF PARTICULAR DEFENSE AND COPING MECHANISMS. (18 REF.)
DEVELOPMENT OF DIFFERENTIATION, AS REFLECTED IN COGNITIVE STYLE, WAS FOLLOWED LONGITUDINALLY IN 2 GROUPS, 1 FROM 8-13 YR., THE OTHER FROM 10-24 YR. A BATTERY OF TESTS OF FIELD DEPENDENCE WAS USED TO EVALUATE EXTENT OF DIFFERENTIATION IN PERCEPTUAL FUNCTIONING. COMPARABLE CROSS-SECTION DATA WERE OBTAINED FROM GROUPS IN THE SAME AGE RANGE. A PROGRESSIVE INCREASE IN EXTENT OF FIELD INDEPENDENCE IS EVIDENT UP TO AGE 17, WITH NO FURTHER CHANGE FROM 17-24. WITHIN THIS GENERAL DEVELOPMENT TREND, CHILDREN SHOW MARKED RELATIVE STABILITY IN EXTENT OF FIELD DEPENDENCE, EVEN OVER 14 YR. AT EACH AGE, INDIVIDUAL CONSISTENCY IN PERFORMANCE ACROSS TESTS OF FIELD DEPENDENCE IS FOUND. DATA FROM OTHER PSYCHOLOGICAL AREAS CONFIRM THE PICTURE OF DEVELOPMENT OF DIFFERENTIATION DERIVED FROM THE PERCEPTUAL DATA. (20 REF.)
This article presents a case for the usefulness of the concept of basic human needs. The author suggests that it is fruitful to assume that there is a universal set of basic human needs which have attributes of their own, not determined by the social structure, cultural patterns, or socialization processes. Ways are shown in which propositions which use the concept could be tested empirically. Restoration of the concept of basic human needs into sociological theory corrects the "over-socialized" conception of man, identifies a central distinction between the industrial and the emergent post-industrial society, and bridges two divergent traditions in sociology: structural-functional analysis and alienation.
This article examines the effect of client contact on the emotional labor performed by paralegals employed in both consumer- and commercial-oriented law firms. Consumer-oriented law refers to specialties that deal with the interests of individual consumers, whereas commercial-oriented law refers to specialties that deal primarily with the interests of corporations. The consumer-oriented paralegals in this study identified three themes in their interactions with clients that increased their likelihood of engaging in emotional labor: the clients' emotional states, clients' lack of knowledge regarding legal proceedings, and their own roles as organizational buffers. Whereas consumer-oriented paralegals are held to a higher standard of emotional labor performed for the benefit of clients, their increased level of substantive involvement may, in fact, release them from the emotional labor that commercial-oriented paralegals are required to perform for the benefit of attorneys.
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Few client-oriented organizations compensate those who perform emotional labor. Traditional job evaluation systems, used by employers to construct a wage hierarchy, fail to recognize the value of emotional labor. Through the pay equity movement, this bias was identified. This article offers a technical attempt to design a new job content questionnaire and evaluation framework that measure the actual tasks, activities, and situations in which incumbents of differentially female jobs perform emotional labor. Four general dimensions of emotional labor are discussed: human relations skills, communication skills, emotional effort, and responsibility for client well-being. These instruments offer the most detailed measurement of the components of emotional labor available and represent a starting point for refinement of this increasingly important type of work.
There is an ambivalence toward ritual in social science. On the one hand, it is seen as immensely valuable to the individual and to society. On the other hand, there is an underlying feeling that ritual is impotent. This paper presents a theory of the distancing of emotion which integrates the positive and negative orientations toward ritual. The theory links ritual to the process of catharsis of repressed emotion, which subsumes the positive orientation. The theory also suggests that when ritual is either over- or underdistanced, it will be seen either as meaningless, in the case of overdistancing, or tension-producing, in the case of underdistancing, which subsumes the negative orientation toward ritual. The relationship between this theory and Freud and Breuer's theory of repression and catharsis is described. Finally, some evidence from ethnology is reviewed which relates sense of well-being, distancing, and catharsis in funeral rites and in curing rituals.
The consequences of alienation in work (i.e., engagement in work which is not intrinsically rewarding) are examined, using a random sample of the male work force in a Swedish community. The consequences are those commonly attributed to work alienation by critics of modern industrial society: intergroup hostility, anomia, political withdrawal, status seeking, and a sense of powerlessness. The notion that alienated labor eventuates in such outcomes receives little support here; the evidence suggests that this failure to confirm the "generalization hypothesis" is not attributable to methodological difficulties. The influence of social factors crucial to mass society theory (e.g., membership in an occupational community or in a work organization) is examined and found to be minimal. Finally, an alienated (extrinsic) orientation toward work is also unrelated to such variables as ethnic hostility, political engagement and powerlessness. The significance of these negative findings for images of work in contemporary society is discussed.
Work has been seen as the central social process that links individuals to industrial society and to each other. Although work issues are considered universal, the actual study of work has proceeded along sex-differentiated lines, so that (1) women are rarely studied as workers; (2) studies that do include women offer biased interpretations; and (3) the entire analysis of work is distorted. We argue that these problems arise from the use of sex-segregated models of analysis: the job model for men and the gender model for women. Further, we argue that these models lead researchers to ask different kinds of questions according to the sex of the workers, to treat men as uniform in relation to family and women as uniform in relation to employment and, implicitly, to use the patterns of men's relation to employment as the standard in analysis. Two case studies are examined in detail to illustrate the varying ways in which job and gender models have distorted investigation and interpretation. The paper ends with suggestions for reconceptualizing work to include forms of unpaid as well as paid work and for incorporating gender stratification into the analysis of work.
Emotional labor is what workers do with their feelings to comply with organizational role requirements. This article explores the concept in professional organizations, examining the psychotherapeutic discourse of objectivity, neutrality, and care as feeling rules. Based on a study in a residential psychiatric facility in Israel, the authors found that counselors labored to display aspired professional feelings despite the absence of memos, protocols, or training sessions. Who told them to do so? How did they know what to feel? The authors claim that therapeutic discourse constitutes professional feelings through the use of specific concepts and techniques. However, the term professional feelings disguises a complicated process of negotiation between different ideologies. The difference between two groups of counselors indicates that both scientific and intersubjective knowledge represent modes of emotional control. The authors claim, thus, that emotional labor in professional service organizations is the product of contested professional discourse.
Much of the debate over the deskilling of work has assumed that skill is simply technically derived. Here it is argued that this is a partial view and that the categories for evaluating skill definitions are gender-biased. An adequate understanding of gender inequality at work must take account of both the ideological aspects and the material components of skill. The centrality of men's control of technology to their power in the workplace is discussed. The article concludes that social relations are expressed in and shape technologies themselves and that patriarchal relations are integral to this process.
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To the Editor.
— I write concerning the report by Kennell et al1 regarding the value of emotional support for women in labor that can be provided by a sympathetic and informed female doula. This draws attention to a philosophy of the management of labor to which I had recently been exposed during a 2-year period in the National Maternity Hospital in Dublin, Ireland.Although the probable importance of emotional support in labor provided by a personal attendant seems to have been confirmed in some populations in recent studies,2 it is not a new concept and, in fact, has been a central feature of the management of labor in the Dublin institution.3 Reports from the National Maternity Hospital have emphasized the low intervention rate and low cesarean section rate.4 This management, applicable to nulliparous patients in spontaneous labor with a single gestation and cephalic presentation,3
The existing conceptual categories of psychology, based on traditional and a priori analysis, are unsatisfactory because of their vagueness, multiplicity, and failure to describe functionally unitary processes. Of the two distinguishable types of category, longitudinal and cross-sectional, the former type, including learning and maturation, has already undergone needed revision at the hands of such theorists as Tolman, Hull, and Levine. But the cross-sectional concepts like attention, perception, and emotion, should also be replaced by categories which recognize the adjustive, goal-directed character of behavior, and which indicate the variations affecting the adequacy of the response unit. 3 such categories are suggested which account for all variations in response having adjustmental significance, namely, maintenance of direction in behavior, response to relationships, and energy level. These concepts do not attempt to describe the causal factors which produce a given kind of behavior, and must therefore be supplemented by longitudinal ones. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Sociologists of emotion have examined the ways that workers are required to manage their emotions on the job, while studies of family emotion work reveal the effort involved in providing emotional support at home. Analyzing data collected from married or cohabiting women hospital workers, we examine the relations between women's job and family emotion work and the effects of both on women's job-related well-being. Consistent with “scarcity” views of women's emotional energy, we find that performance of family emotion work has negative consequences for women's job-related well-being. Consistent with “expansion” perspectives, however, women who perform some emotional labor on the job are more likely than other women to perform family emotion work. Our findings support a view that incorporates elements of both scarcity and expansion perspectives. We conclude that the job-related well-being of women hospital workers is less influenced by performance of emotional labor at work than it is by women's and their partners' involvement in family emotion work.
The contemporary United States fitness industry, in conjuction with the medical endorsement of exercise and the marketing of lifestyle consumption, has made possible the emerggence and rapid growth of health and fitness services. This paper brings together the sociological fields of works, consumption, and physical culture, suggesting how the structure and organization of personal training impacts upon how fitness is sold. Drawing from interviews with personal trainers, the occupation is discussed as a combination of frontline service work, emotional labor, and flexible work strategies, resulting in a variety of job roles: the representation of the fitness club, the brokering of clients' consumer relationships with the fitness industry, the motivation of clients through service relationships, and the entrepreneurial cultivation of a client base and semi-professional authority.
Full text available
Fit and flexible: The fitness industry, personal trainers and emotional service labor. https://hdl.handle.net/2381/1437
Workups by physicians in response to five common complaints in a sample of 104 men and women--52 married couples--were evaluated by chart audit. For the total group of complaints, back pain, headache, dizziness, chest pain, and fatigue, the physicians' workups were significantly more extensive for men than they were for women. These data tend to support the argument that male physicians take medical illness more seriously in men than in women.
The family mediates between the larger community and its demands and the developing child. It is responsive to the conditions of life in the society, to economic conditions, wars, and to natural catastrophes that from time to time afflict all societies. A major thrust in interdisciplinary studies now in process is to seek to trace the effects of such family adaptations upon the child.
This paper appraises two related hypotheses suggested by Marx's analysis of the occupational sources of alienation-one emphasizing control over the product of one's labor, the other emphasizing control over the work process. Using data from a sample survey of U.S. males employed in civilian occupations, it concludes that, in this large-scale, capitalist system, control over the product of one's labor (ownership and hierarchical position) has only indirect effect on alienation, whereas control over work process (closeness of supervision, routinization, and substantive complexity) has an appreciable direct effect on powerlessness, self-strangement, and normlessness.
Sz/mmary.-This review of recent research concerning Rotter's concept of internal-external control of reinforcement is divided into 12 areas: the InternalExternal (I-E) Control Scale, personality, attempts to control the environment, achievement, reactions to threat, ethnic group and social class differences, parentchild relationships, risk-taking, reactions to social stimuli, and the relation of the internal-external control measure to anxiety, adjustment, and learning. Evidence generally supports the validity of Rotter's concepc. Implications and limitations of the research are presented, and suggestions for further work in specific problem areas are made. Since Rotter's ( 1966) and Lefcourt's ( 1966) comprehensive reviews of the study of the internal-external control variable were published, a substantial amount of research in support of the construct has accumulated. The evidence now available warrants some further synthesis and evaluation. This paper is divided into 12 areas describing the research concerned with the internal-external control construct. The research presented here is limited to investigations of the internal-external control variable as a personality characteristic. I-E CONTROL SCALE AND OTHER MEASURES OF INTERNAL-EXTERNAL CONTROL
The relationship of cognition to affect in normal subjects is similar to that observed in psychopathological states. Among normals the sequence perception-cognition-emotion is dictated largely by the demand character of the stimulus situation. In psychopathological conditions, the reaction to the stimulus situation is determined to a much greater extent by internal processes. The affective response is likely to be excessive or inappropriate because of the idiosyncratic conceptualization of the event. The input from the external situation is molded to conform to the typical schemas activated in these conditions. As a result, interpretations of experience embody arbitrary judgments, overgeneralizations, and distortions. Perserverative conceptualizations relevant to danger, loss, unjustified attack, and self-enhancement are typical of anxiety neuroses, depression, paranoid states, and hypomanic states, respectively.
To explore the meaning of repression-sensitization (R-S) scales, Ss' interpretations of Byrne's R-S Scale were solicited. Repressors were found to interpret the scale as an indicator of mental illness while sensitizers construed the measure as concerning honesty with one's self. In a 2nd study, repressors and sensitizers differed in their use of affect-ideation terms in describing TAT figures. When the TAT measure was described as a mental illness measure, however, the use of emotional words decreased most significantly for sensitizers. An interpretation of R-S Scale performance in terms of Ss' evaluations of emotionally is offered. (20 ref.)
Three hundred and thirty-six tape recorded interactions between a stratified random sample of physicians and a sample of their patients are analyzed in order to compare male and female information-seeking behavior in the medical interview and to contrast the response of doctors to male and female requests for information. Some of the underlying attitudes on the part of the physicians that may affect the information-exchange process are discussed.
Health care practitioners and researchers alike are beginning to acknowledge the importance of emotion in health. Nevertheless, health care social workers continue to assume most of the responsibility for actually dealing with the emotions of patients and families. Literature exploring social work interventions with emotion are restricted to a single patient population and practice setting. This study conducted a content analysis of pertinent literature, systematically codifying strategies across patient populations and practice settings according to a pragmatic conceptual foundation of the professional emotion treatment process. Analysis yielded a comprehensive conceptually clustered matrix of 45 strategies, establishing an objective and systematic basis for identifying and understanding this professional emotion treatment process for social work educators, practitioners, and researchers alike.
Physicians serve a pivotal role in today's health systems, as they are often the first professional patients must contact for emotion problems. This study surveyed 225 practicing physicians to understand how they perceive patient emotion and the actions they would then take in response to these perceived emotions. In reply to nondescript "emotion complaints" from a patient vignette, these physicians perceived the patient as experiencing anxiety, followed by fear, anger and sadness. Physicians had distinct preferences for psychosocial oriented responses (e.g., explore, reassure, and rationalize) and were least likely to avoid, distract, and ignore. Overall, anxiety and fear generated the greatest number of possible responses from physicians, anger and sadness the fewest.
To review the literature relating to emotional labour in the workplace and identify potential sources of emotion within midwifery work.
There is substantial evidence to indicate that the quality of the relationship between midwife and woman is significant in determining the quality of the childbirth experience for women. Despite this, there is a notable lack of research regarding midwives' experiences of participating in this relationship, and even less regarding the emotional issues involved.
Literature review of relevant midwifery, nursing and sociological literature. Discussion of the theoretical perspectives provided by sociological and nursing research relating to the management of emotion at work and critical consideration of their application to an analysis of midwifery work.
Although these theoretical perspectives may offer significant insights of relevance to midwifery, there is much more that needs to be uncovered. Midwifery work has the potential for creating high levels of emotion work and current changes in the organization of United Kingdom (UK) maternity care may further increase this.
It is essential that midwives develop their understanding of emotion at work in order to improve their own working lives, and to meet the needs of childbearing women and their families. More research is needed in this field to develop a body of knowledge to inform midwifery education and practice.