Definitions
Emotional labor
  Emotional labor


All definitions
The term "emotional labor" comes from the work of Arlie Hochschild, who studied flight attendants and wrote about her interviews and observations in the classic, The Managed Heart (Hochschild,1983).

For Hochschild, "emotional labor"... "requires one to induce or suppress feeling in order to sustain the outward countenance that produces the proper state of mind in others," which in the case of the flight attendants she studied, was "the sense of being cared for in a convivial and safe place)(Hochschild, 1983, p. 7).

It's important to understand that Hochschild's idea of "emotional labor" was not intended by her to be a fully operationalized, validated construct. Rather it was a starting point from which further research could be pursued. (The development of her "emotional labor" construct was based on qualitative rather than quantitative research. That is, her research was intended to reveal meaning rather than to measure something).

Surface acting, deep acting
  • "Surface” versus “deep” acting as the distinction between “disguising what we feel, of pretending to feel what we do not" versus "pretending to feel" so deeply that one's feelings are actually altered." Thus, deep acting is "about deceiving oneself as much as deceiving others" Hochschild, 1983, p. 33).

Feeling rules
  • “Feeling rules,” which are "standards used in emotional conversation to determine what is rightly owed and owing in the currency of feeling" (Hochschild, 1983, p. 18). (An example would be one's belief that s/he should feel sad when told about the passing of a friend's loved one.)

Estrangement from emotional resources
  • The belief that emotion work has psychological costs to the employee, and that when work separates people from their authentic emotions, "the worker can become estranged or alienated from an aspect of self – the body or the margin of the soul – that is used to do the work" (Hochschild, 1983, p. 7).

Related terms

References
Hochschild, A. R. (1983). The managed heart: Commercialization of human feeling. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press.
Read a practice exam essay in response to the question:

"Define the concept of 'emotional labour' and outline any implications for well-being."

Exam essay practice answer