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Emotion Work[edit]
Emotion Work refers to "the act of trying to change in degree or quality an emotion or feeling." [1] In her work sociologist Arlie Hochschild explores the process in which an individual may attempt to adjust or alter their emotions in order to better fit the situation. Some examples would be trying to feel joyous at a wedding even though your unhappy, or trying to appear somber at a funeral when in reality your not. Hochschild has spent much of her career further elaborating on the reasons we feel we must do this emotion work, the methods in which we do it, and how it affects our lives
Airlines and Emotions[edit]
Drawing on Erving Goffman’s theory of Dramaturgy, Hochschild's work came to the public’s attention in her book The Maneged Heart in which she 'estimated that about one third of all jobs in America involved some emotional work. However, there was a major gender difference. Only a quarter of men’s jobs, compared with over a half of women’s involved emotional work.[2]
Her study focused on flight attendants for Delta Airlines before the cost of air travel was deregulated. She reported the attendants were instructed to act as if the airplane cabin were the living room of their own home, suggesting that each passenger was a personal guest. This was done to help ease the attendance stress level during long flights or while dealing with irate passengers. The image of polite, perky and constantly smiling young ladies was paramount in the training process. Tricks of how to maintain that smile and happy attitude mostly evolved evoking real emotional memories from the flight attendants. They were told to use physical resemblances of passengers to family members “you see your sister eyes in someone sitting in that seat,” to further complete the illusion of happiness. All this was done in the name of winning the airline the reputation of the having the friendliest skies.
Hochschild goes on to describe that over weeks and months the smile and happy attitudes of the attendants became associated solely with work and lost value in daily emotional life. Eventually willingness to endure the deep acting faded away, often resulting in reprimands from passengers or loss of a job. [3]
Emotions and Feeling Rules[edit]
Conflict between what we are feeling and what we should be feeling can move a person to want to alter there emotional state or there perceived emotional state. Hochschild explains that society puts pressure on us to experience certain emotions at specific events in life. These societal norms are called Feeling rules. “Feeling rules are what guide emotion work by establishing the sense of entitlement or obligation that governs emotional exchanges.” [4]
Methods[edit]
Hochschild explores three methods in which we may attempt to do emotion work. Although they are each separate they are most often used in combination. They are as she defines them;
- Cognitive: “the attempt to change images, ideas, or thoughts in the service of changing the feelings associated with them.” An example might be trying to imagine going to the dentist as a good thing that will improve your health, rather than a painful experience.
- Bodily: “the attempt to change somatic or other physical symptoms of emotion,” for example breathing slowly in order to calm your self.
- Expressive: “trying to change expressive gestures in the service of changing inner feeling.” This is perhaps best exemplified by the expression ‘smile and you’ll feel better.’
Applications[edit]
In the style of Hochschild and the airlines, many other fields of employment have been studied in order to better understand the effects such jobs have on their workers. For example in the case of medical workers, who are not asked to display false emotion but rather maintain a stoic and objective view of their patients, Doctors and Nurses must find ways of dealing with unplaced sadness or even anger once their shifts end.[5]
Emotion work has even been applied to social phenomenon such as rape and domestic abuse. How not only victims deal with violence but also the offenders.[6]
References[edit]
- ^ Hochschild A. R. (1979). Emotion work, feeling rules, and social structure.American Journal of Sociology 85: 551-575
- ^ Caffrey, Brendan (2007, April 19) Why Work? Sociological Answers; Chapter 6: Emotion Work
- ^ Hochschild A. R. (1983). The Managed Heart: Commercialization of human feeling. Berkeley, CA, University of California Press
- ^ Hochschild A. R. (1983). The Managed Heart: Commercialization of human feeling. Berkeley, CA, University of California Press
- ^ Lewis, P. (2005). Suppression or expression: An exploration of emotion management in a special care baby unit. Work, Employment and Society, 19, 565-581
- ^ Schrock, Douglas. 2002. “Emotional Stories: Narrative Conflict in a Men's Anti-Battering Program.” Pp. 219-233 in Postmodern Existential Sociology, edited by Joseph A. Kotarba and John M. Johnson. AltaMira Press
Weblinks[edit]
Why Work? [1]
Arlie Hochschild's web page at Berkeley[2]
Buy "The Managed Heart" here [3]