# Emotion management

* Multimedia presentation (5 min)

## Introduction

People who are considered professionals, whether they are doctors, psychologists, airline hostesses or police officers, are required to put on a “face”. That is, they need to keep a professional persona in order to do their jobs effectively. This requires a good amount of emotional control. Imagine that you are a doctor. Everyday you see patients and you are faced with their medical problems. Some problems are simple and others are complicated. You may have to inform patients that they are dying, or that they will live a bit longer, or that they simply have the flu. No matter what, as a doctor, you need to rein in your own emotions and force a professional air so that you may perform your job well. Without such control, emotions may affect you personally which will prevent you from doing your job and will thus affect your patient negatively. It would help no one, for instance, if a doctor were to go into hysterics when their expertise is needed in the emergency room.
In this case the doctor used his or her emotional intelligence in order to perform the task at hand. Emotional Intelligence is the perception, identification, understanding and management of emotions (Ashkanasy, Zerbe & Hartel, 2002; Matthews, Zeidner & Roberts, 2002). Within this chapter the focus will be on the management of emotions. Emotion management, also known as emotion regulation, affect regulation, mood management, stress management or coping strategies, can be defined as the controlling of private and spontaneous feelings in order to express them in publicly scripted and socially desirable ways (Joseph & Newman, 2010; Payne & Cooper, 2001). In the doctor’s case this would happen in a situation, such as in the emergency room, where he or she would be required to control their emotions in order to fit the role of ‘doctor’. A desire, particularly in the workplace, to manage emotions successfully in an effort to perform in a socially or corporately desired way has driven a massive amount of research in the area (Payne & Cooper). As a result theories or how people regulate or should manage their emotions have arisen. Such theories and strategies encompass professionals who need to appear calm and detached in their line of work and customer sales which requires forms of acting out corporately desired emotional states (Ashkanasy et al.; Lively, 2008; Payne & Cooper; Smith & Kleinman, 1989). Thus, most of this research is focused on the workplace and involves emotional suppression or evasion (Lively; Payne & Cooper). Such tactics have been seen to have a greater negative effect on physical, psychological and emotional well-being, than positive effect (Payne & Cooper). It is argued, that increase in research into new emotional management strategies, especially those without emotional suppression, would be greatly beneficial.

## Theories & Strategies
### The Process of Professionalization

The process of professionalisation refers to the type of emotional management undertaken by individuals in professional ‘roles’ and circumstances (Payne & Cooper, 2001; Posluszny & Arnold, 2009). This kind of emotional management is considered indirect emotion control because it is not directly put onto the individual by a corporation or organization per say (Payne & Cooper). Rather, it is a part of a professional culture which assists people in job performance. The process of professionalization essentially instills the idea of looking, sounding and acting the part of a professional when interacting with others (Payne & Cooper). This can be done through repeated instruction, education or imitative learning in different organizational settings (Payne & Cooper; Smith & Kleinman, 1989). This process occurs to individuals entering certain organizational areas where a professional image is integral to good job performance, such as medical practitioners, lawyers, doctors, police officers, teachers, psychologists etc. This kind of emotional management is important in such professions because they assure affective neutrality is maintained (Payne & Cooper; Smith & Kleinman). Without such social distance individuals in these positions would be open to the emotional harm that comes with doing their jobs. For instance, if a police officer allowed personal feelings to influence them when dealing with a potential murder suspect they may be blinded by feelings, such as anger, disgust or hatred, which fuel bias and hinder rational and objective thinking.
The Five Strategies focuses on how medical practitioners learn how to manage their emotions and thus keep a cool professional manner whilst performing their jobs (Smith & Kleinman, 1989). In addition, studying how medical practitioners control their emotions may shed light on how to manage emotions in other settings. The five strategies were identified by Smith and Kleinman from their study of medical students in clinical situation during training. The researchers studied students in clinical settings during the first three years of medical training. Smith and Kleinman focused particularly on major body contact situations, such as dissection or physical examinations, where they argued student would require emotional control more so than any other situation. The uncomfortable feelings attached to the personal nature of such physical contact drove students to use strategies learnt during their education. The researchers discovered that medical students learned to control their emotional states by use of five strategies; transforming the contact, accentuating the positive, using the patient, laughing about it and avoiding the contact (Smith & Kleinman).

#### Transforming the contact

Students learnt to transform the emotional meaning of body contact from being personal in nature. They tended to transform the contact into a more clinical and analytical form by mentally concentrating on step-by-step procedure.

#### Accentuating the positive

By identifying and revelling in the learning or actual practice of medicine students’ gain a sense of privilege and power. These emotional states assisted the students in becoming excited and enthusiastic about their profession rather than focusing on the uncomfortable feelings previously experienced.

#### Using the patient

To avoid the uncomfortable feelings students also shifted their awareness of such feelings onto the patients through projection or blame.

#### Laughing about it

Students used humour found or created in situations that caused emotional discomfort. This allowed them to release tension and to connect with other students. Furthermore, students were able to redefine the situation into something humorous and therefore less serious. Thus assuring themselves that they could handle the situation.

#### Avoiding the contact

Lastly, avoiding contact by controlling the visual field, covering body parts and by eliminating or avoiding parts of the examinations, students avoided uncomfortable emotions.

### Quiz

* What are the five strategies?
* What kind of professions are typically involved in the process of professionalization?
* Do you think you would mind being addressed by a professional who didn't subscribe to the process of professionalization? Why? Why not?

### Affective Events Theory

The Affective Events Theory (AET) is the closest thing to an all-encompassing theory of emotions in the workplace (Ashkanasy et al., 2002). In AET it was posited that parts of the workplace environment actually introduce emotions into them (Ashkanasy et al.). These parts would include environmental conditions, job roles and job design, and they would constitute the “affective events” which could hinder or help the situation within the workplace (Ashkanasy et al.). Thus affective events would influence attitudes or behaviour in the workplace (Ashkanasy et al.). When considering emotional management AET is considered of high importance because of the theory’s implications. Affective events theory reveals that organizational characteristics and managerial policies can influence the emotional states of its members and consequently also their attitudes and behaviour (Ashkanasy et al.). So although the theory does not have an emotional management strategy it is needed to understand organizational emotional interplay. The theory, originally posited untested by Weiss and Cropanzano, has supportive empirical evidence on its core ideas but is still considered to be in the early stages of development (Ashkanasy et al.).

### Deep and Surface Acting

A more direct form of emotional control, this strategy is well known in literature on organizational emotional management (Lively, 2008; Payne & Cooper, 2001). This is because deep and surface acting are strategies used by individuals who work in areas that are in the public eye and usually rely on sale profits, such as sales assistants, airline attendants and real estate agents. Such individuals use these strategies to manage their emotions in the workplace and also in response to the constant barrage of the ever spreading “smile industry” (Payne & Cooper). The “smile industry” refers to the pressure from organisations on their employees to meet a desired emotional state when at work, this emotional state is normally includes being constantly bubbly, happy, enthusiastic and talkative (Ashkanasy et al., 2002; Payne & Cooper). Such a requirement of workers can be described as emotional labour, a term coined by Hochschild in 1983 (Payne & Cooper). It is the outward display of feelings or emotions that is sold for a wage. For instance, this happens when employees are required to display particular kinds of emotional states as a part of their jobs (e.g. flight attendants).
In order to manage their emotions successfully individuals in such workplace environments tend to pretend that they are feeling the desired emotion even if they are experiencing completely contrary emotions at the time. This strategy results in either two subtypes depending on the resilience of the person; deep acting or surface acting. Deep acting, is the negative result of acting out the corporately desired emotional state by allowing it to affect the individual’s personality to the extent that it becomes their actual personality (Lively, 2008; Payne & Cooper, 2001). Deep acting can therefore lead to emotional problems where the person experiences confused identity and difficulty identifying and handling their real emotions (Lively; Payne & Cooper). Comparatively, surface acting is the act of insulating against the negative effects of performing the corporately desired emotional state by doing so only on the “surface” without allowing it to infiltrate the individual’s real persona (Payne & Cooper). This is the more desirable affect of emotional labour because the individual’s identity stays intact allowing the person to drop the “mask” after work and continue managing their emotions.

### Emotional Segueing and Affect Control Theory

Based on data from a 1996 General Social Survey’s emotion module Lively and Heise in 2004 used a structural equation model to propose the theory of emotional segueing (Lively, 2008). In forming the idea, Lively and Heise analysed the correlational structure of nine latent emotion components; tranquillity, hope, joy, pride, self-reproach, anger, rage, fear and distress (Lively). They posited that emotions, such as those examined by the researchers, which co-occur in the same seven day period can transition between one another with ease (Lively). That is, these regularly occurring emotions can segue from one to the other easier than those emotions that do not occur as frequently. This proposed phenomenon was described as shorter emotional pathways whereas those emotions that were not regularly co-occurring were harder to transition between if not impossible and are thus longer emotional pathways (Lively).
In order to identify the shorter emotional pathways from the longer a remoteness index of emotional states was devised by using the correlations between the states (Lively, 2008). The researchers argued that the correlational remoteness between the emotions would be a good representation of how much emotional management is required in order to segue from one to the other (Lively). The theory of emotional segueing is based in part on the Affect Control Theory (ACT).
The Affect Control Theory separates emotions into three fundamental components; evaluation, potency and activation (Lively). Evaluation refers to how good or bad something is, potency is how powerful or weak something is, and activation is how lively or quiet something is (Lively). These elements make up what is termed EPA profiles. The study which introduced ACT done by Osgood, May and Miron in 1975 found that emotions with EPA profiles that are alike are more akin than those that have EPA profiles which are not alike (Lively). In addition, they discovered that the short pathways, or easier segues, between positive and negative emotions are identified by emotions that are alike in potency and in activation (Lively). Conclusively, emotional management is easier when one can transition from one similar emotion to the next especially when those emotions are alike in potency, weakness or power and in activation, liveliness or sedateness (Lively).

### Attentional Deployment

Johnson (2009) argued that Attentional Deployment is one of the principal emotional management strategies. The theory posits that people tend to manage emotions by intentionally moving their focus away from negative stimuli and towards positive stimuli in a goal-directed behaviour (Johnson, 2009). For example, when you go to the doctor to receive a flu vaccination, instead of focusing your attention on the pain of having an injection you attempt to switch your attention to something else, like a happy memory or the photos on the wall of the doctor’s office. Several theories of clinical and nonclinical anxiety argue that stressful, worrisome and intrusive thoughts are one of the main sources of anxiety (Johnson). Furthermore, amongst such literature it has also been found that individuals who experience high anxiety have difficulty moving their attention from one emotional stimulus to the next. So if we go back to the flu injection example, a person with trait anxiety will have great difficulty or will be unable to focus their attention on anything else other than the injection.
Based on this research Johnson decided to test the attentional control capacity for emotional representations (ACCE) in relation to both trait anxiety and present levels of worrisome thoughts. In addition and most importantly Johnson also tested the theory of Attentional Deployment by analysing whether emotional attention set-shifting predicts a person’s capability to manage their emotions. Conclusively, Johnson (2009) found that indeed individuals who suffer from trait anxiety and worrisome thoughts experiences more difficulty moving focus, or switching, their attention from one stimulus to another. Most importantly however, Johnson’s experiment supported the theory of Attentional Deployment in regards to successful management or regulation of emotions.

### Quiz

* What is deep and surface acting? Is one a better strategy than the other?
* What factors make it easier to emotionally segue from one emotion to the other?
* How important is Affect Control Theory to the idea of emotional segueing?
* How do "short" and "long" pathways work?

## Maladaptive Emotional Management

There are times when emotions become more painful than uncomfortable and managing them becomes extremely difficult. In such times people may turn to abnormal emotional management. The most commonly known form of abnormal emotional management is self harm. Intentional self-harm is defined as “the deliberate, direct destruction or alteration of body tissue, without apparent or conscious suicidal intent but resulting in injury severe enough for tissue damage to occur” (Mikolajczak, Petrides & Hurry, 2009). It is argued that this strategy is taken up by individuals, most commonly adolescents, who experience intense negative emotions on a regular or near constant basis (Mikolajczak et al.). A study was done by Mikolajczak et al. on adolescents and the choice of self-harm as an emotional regulation strategy. They found that indeed the connection between emotional intelligence and self-harm was in part conciliated by the choice of emotion management strategy. The results also showed that the choice emotional coping, as a strong factor in relation to self-harm, supported the argument that self-harm is a tactic used to diffuse negative emotions that are worsened by maladaptive emotional coping strategies (Mikolajczak et al.). Although this study contributes greatly to research on abnormal emotional coping strategies and shows promise, it cannot be generalised to the whole population due to the focus on youths.

### Quiz

* What important is Affect Events Theory to emotional management?
* What is Attentional deployment?
* Can you think of an example where you have needed to use Attentional Deployment?

## Emotional Suppression and Its Impact

Emotional suppression is when emotions are intentionally ignored and mentally “pushed away” so as to manage them (Johnson, 2009; Payne & Cooper, 2001). It is one of the primary tactics used and can be seen in most strategies and theories regarding emotion management. For instance, surface acting involves ignoring one’s own feelings and displaying an emotional state due to emotional labour (Lively, 2008; Payne & Cooper). However, this form of emotional control has both positive affects and negative affects on the individual (Ashkanasy et al, 2002; Lively; Payne & Cooper).

#### Positive Impact

The positive effect from emotional suppression somewhat depends on the individual themselves. For instance, surface acting is considered a positive impact of emotional suppression because it allows the individual to do their job well without affecting their personality and ability to regulate their emotions (Payne & Cooper, 2001). But as previously discussed surface acting is usually successful with people who have good resilience to deep acting, that is, the negative affects of pretend emotional states (Lively, 2008; Payne & Cooper). The positive impact of emotional suppression is defined as a functional emotional response from an organizational perspective (Payne & Cooper). Functional Emotional Responses (FERs) are emotional responses in the workplace that are considered “functional” because they enhance job performance (Payne & Cooper). Emotional suppression in this case is positive due to the amount of control achieved over emotions without any serious repercussions. However, the positive affect only seems to be related to the workplace and one’s ability to perform well in their ‘role’ (Ashkanasy et al, 2002; Payne & Cooper).

#### Negative Impact

There are considerably more negative consequences related to the use of emotional suppression (Payne & Cooper, 2001). These consequences include physical and psychological negative impacts in addition to any occupational problems (Johnson, 2009; Payne & Cooper). Physical affects from ongoing emotional suppression, which are mostly seen in emotional management strategies used in organizational settings, include hypertension and coronary artery disease (Payne & Cooper). These medical problems are a direct result from an elevation in the sympathetic autonomic tone which only occurs when emotions are suppressed rather than expressed (Payne & Cooper). The psychological impact is in part connected with daily workplace hassles. These take place due to dysfunctional emotional responses which occur due to poor capability in emotional suppression (Payne & Cooper). Dysfunctional Emotional Responses (DERs) are emotional responses in the workplace that are considered “dysfunctional” because they interfere with job performance. Such work hassles or workplace interference may include for instance; equipment failure, information problems or inappropriate behaviour towards co-workers (Payne & Cooper). Furthermore, such workplace problems brought on by difficulties suppressing emotion have been seen to identify end-of-day mood, fatigue, negative thinking, stress, bad decision making, subjective workload and burnout (Ciarrochi & Mayer, 2007; Payne & Cooper). Conclusively, the negative impacts of emotional suppression seem to far outweigh any positive impact that may be achieved. But strangely enough emotional suppression remains the most used strategy despite the negative affects.

### Quiz

* What are the positive outcomes of emotional suppression?
* What are the negative outcomes to emotional suppression?
* What would a person lack if they were more susceptible to the negative affects of emotional suppression?
* What is a maladaptive emotion management strategy?

## Critique and Recommendations

Within the subject of emotional management there is a lot of research contributed by organisations and corporations (Ashkanasy et al., 2002; Callahan, 2008; Payne & Cooper, 2001). There is also some research on maladaptive emotional management and social emotional strategies but these areas have gaps and therefore lack full empirical evidence to support the theory in such areas (Mikolajczak et al., 2009; Ryan, 2008). For instance, studies in maladaptive coping strategies there is sole focus on either youths or on the mentally ill or suicidal. There is thus very little to generalise to the rest of the population (Mikolajczak et al.). And in the case of emotional management tactics used in social situations, there is little to no statistical research done (Ryan, 2008). This is ultimately the problem with emotional management literature today. There is very little statistical research done outside of the workplace environment and therefore the literature that is available is concentrated in one particular form of emotional management – emotional suppression (Ashkanasy et al.; Callahan; Freudenthaler, Neubauer & Haller, 2008; Payne & Cooper). This is because emotional suppression is a desired form of emotional control encouraged by corporations (Payne & Cooper). Subsequently, any other forms of study into emotional management have been overshadowed by the vast amount of work done by organizational studies.
On account of this overshadowing by studies in emotional management in the workplace there has been a significant lack of research done in areas that may greatly benefit society. Firstly, there needs to be more examination done on interpersonal and intrapersonal emotional management. Learning how people manage their emotions daily, on their own and socially, would greatly benefit all society. Furthermore, research in such an area and more in maladaptive coping strategies could assist people in improving their own emotional management skills. Perhaps even avoiding getting to the point where self-harm is an appealing strategy (Mikolajczak et al., 2009). Moreover, there really needs to be more study dedicated to forming emotional management strategies that actually focus on managing emotions. Most strategies, if not all, use varying forms of emotional suppression or types of evasion, such as the attentional deployment theory, and as previously discussed emotional suppression is not a healthy way to regulate emotions (Payne & Cooper, 2001). Overall, health emotional management strategies with an interpersonal-intrapersonal focal point would greatly benefit and contribute to emotional management literature. Finally, it should be suggested that more research go into studying emotional expression as a possible strategy in managing emotions (Payne & Cooper). Emotional expression has appeared to be a somewhat successful coping strategy, but the small amount of study is not enough to support it yet as an outright theory (Payne & Cooper). Therefore, there should be a renewed focus into alternatives such as emotional expression for possible management strategies.

### Quiz

* What are the chapter's main criticisms?
* What are the chapter's main recommendations?

## In Summary

* Theories and strategies in emotional management are to be largely found in literature on the workplace and in organisational settings. The Process of Professionalization occurs particularly with individuals who work frequently in the public eye and require an emotional state of calm and professionalism (Payne & Cooper, 2001; Posluszny & Arnold, 2009). For instance, doctors, police officers and teachers would require such a strategy to keep a professional distance from their charges (Payne & Cooper; Posluszny & Arnold). The best known strategy for professionals would be the five strategies discovered by Smith and Kleinman (1989) in their long-term study of medical students and coping strategies. The five strategies include; transforming the contact, accentuating the positive, using the patient, laughing about it and avoiding the contact (Smith & Kleinman).
* The closest theory to an all-encompassing hypothesis of emotions in the workplace is the Affective Events Theory (Ashkanasy et al., 2002). The theory asserts that parts of the workplace itself introduce emotions into those people who work in that environment (Ashkanasy et al). This theory gives no strategy but it remains important to understanding emotional management in the workplace.
* Deep and surface acting are tactics used mostly by individuals who work in areas where customer service is central (Lively, 2008; Payne & Cooper 2001). Both use acting as a strategy and essentially pretend to be feeling the emotional state that is desired of them by their employers. However, deep acting is a negative outcome of the strategy it is what happens acting has become a part of the individual’s real personality (Lively; Payne & Cooper). Surface acting is a positive outcome because it means the person is genuinely pretending and will return to themselves when the job is complete (Payne & Cooper).
* The theory of emotional segueing, when a person is able to transition easily from one emotion to the other, is based in part on the Affect Control Theory (Lively, 2008). The Affect Control Theory separates emotions into three components; evaluation, potency and activation (Lively). These components in turn make up the EPA profiles and help identify which emotions are more compatible (Lively).
* Attentional Deployment is a common emotional management tactic that most people are instinctually familiar with (Johnson, 2009). If involves switching attention from negative stimuli to positive stimuli in an effort to manage difficult emotions.
* Maladaptive emotional management is when people are experiencing intense and regular negative emotions and are no longer able to manage them in a healthier way Mikolajczak et al., 2009). Commonly, people tend to turn to self-harm in order to manage difficult emotions; however research in this area is mostly focused on youths and the mentally ill and suicidal (Mikolajczak et al.).
* Most of the theories discussed above use emotional suppression or some kind of evasion in order to manage emotions (Johnson, 2009; Payne & Cooper, 2001). Unfortunately, emotional suppression has been seen to have greater negative effects on physical, psychological and emotional health, with some small positive factors in regards to occupational success (Ashkanasy et al, 2002; Lively, 2008; Payne & Cooper).
* Overall, there is not enough literature on real emotional management per say, but there is a lot on emotional management strategies in the workplace (Ashkanasy et al., 2002; Callahan, 2008; Payne & Cooper, 2001).. There needs to be a shift in attention towards emotional coping strategies that address interpersonal and intrapersonal issues as well as strategies that are alternative to the negative emotional suppression tactic.

## Glossary

Deep Acting = The negative result of acting out the corporately desired emotional state by allowing it to affect the individual’s personality to the extent that it becomes their personality.
Dysfunctional Emotional Responses (DERs) = Emotional responses in the workplace that are considered “dysfunctional” because they interfere with job performance.
Emotional Intelligence = Is the perception, identification, understanding and management of emotions.
Emotional Labour = A term coined by Hochschild in 1983, It is the outward display of feelings or emotions that is sold for a wage.
Emotional Management = Also known as emotion regulation, affect regulation, mood management, stress management or coping strategies. Emotional management can be defined as the controlling of private and spontaneous feelings in order to express them in publicly scripted and socially desirable ways.
Emotional Supression = A tactic used to manage difficult or uncomfortable emotions by supressing them through evasion, denile or an intentional switching of attention. Essentially a way to avoid confronting such emotions.
Functional Emotional Responses (FERs) = Emotional responses in the workplace that are considered “functional” because they enhance job performance.
Self-harm = The deliberate, direct destruction or alteration of body tissue, without apparent or conscious suicidal intent but resulting in injury severe enough for tissue damage to occur.
Surface Acting = The act of insulating against the negative effects of performing the corporately desired emotional state by doing so only on the “surface” without allowing it to infiltrate the individual’s real persona.