The psychology of sustainability and psychological capital: new lenses to examine well-being in the translation profession.

The psychology of sustainability and sustainable development is a new research area which involves optimizing and regenerating personal resources in order to establish meaningful lives and work experiences (Di Fabio, 2017). The concept of psychological capital (PsyCap) has been linked to the psychology of sustainability due to its potential role in promoting well-being in organizations and improving people’s health and performance. However, this area of sustainability science is currently absent from the translation studies literature despite its relevance for professional translators’ work in today’s challenging and competitive environment. In line with the argument that sustainability principles apply to a variety of disciplines, the purpose of this article is to introduce the value of the psychology of sustainability for organizational and individual well-being via key concepts of relevance to the translation profession. Within this trans-disciplinary reflection space (Di Fabio and Rosen, 2018), I will also consider the research evidence for adopting a primary prevention perspective for the benefit of professional translators. Examining translator behaviour through the lens of the psychology of sustainability is a new and exciting venture that has the potential to reframe professional perspectives and translators’ career paths

Do Translation Professionals Need to Tolerate Ambiguity to be Successful? A Study of the Links between Tolerance of Ambiguity, Emotional Intelligence and Job Satisfaction

Being a successful translator can often mean perceiving ambiguous situations as desirable. In this chapter, I report on a study of 85 professional translators which was carried out to examine the relationships between Tolerance of Ambiguity (TA), trait Emotional Intelligence (EI) and job satisfaction. Participants were surveyed with trait EI and TA measures adapted to cross-cultural contexts. The analysis revealed that translators’ TA scores are positively and significantly linked to their trait EI scores and, more specifically, to the factor of self-control. TA, however, was not significantly correlated to job satisfaction. This is the first study to examine empirically TA in the translation profession on such a large scale. The chapter concludes with training recommendations

Translation and the Double Bind of Imaginative Resistance

Imaginative resistance is a reluctance to buy into morally deviant fictional worlds. While most people have little trouble imagining acts of violence happening in fiction, they will struggle to entertain the idea that such acts could be the moral thing to do, even within a fictional universe. Although this phenomenon has received a lot of attention from philosophers, it is absent from the Translation Studies literature despite its relevance. In this paper, the significance of imaginative resistance for the literary translation process will be explored. A number of areas will be identified where translation research can make an important contribution to philosophical debates on this issue. In particular, imaginative resistance will be theorized as a new translation double bind. By bringing together research from two disciplines, this paper aims to encourage novel ways of thinking about both the translation process and the puzzle of imaginative resistance

Position statement on translators’ mental health and wellbeing

Consistent with its mission to “promote the highest standards in the profession” and given the increasing pressures and rapid changes taking place in the translation industry, the Board of the Institute of Translation and Interpreting have decided to put forward its position on translators’ mental health and wellbeing