Emotion At Work

Emotions are ubiquitous in the workplace. In recent years the ideal of the non-emotional workplace has slowly given way to the realization that emotions not only are an indelible part of work life but have an important role to play. Emotions at the work place are implicitly divided into good emotions - those that are conducive to the goals of the enterprise and bad emotions - those that are perceived as destructive. Thus, positive emotions can increase creativity, encourage helping behavior and cooperation and reduce aggression both against the organization and against people. In contrast, anger leads to counterproductive behaviors such as theft, vandalism, and aggression towards co-workers, sadness makes employees want to quit their job, and envy and jealousy are a source of stress and also lead to a propensity to quit. However, this distinction is not fully realistic. It requires effort to produce ?good? emotions reliably and, when employees have to ?fake? emotions, for example in service encounters, there is a risk of emotional dissonance, a state that leads to employee dissatisfaction, lack of well-being, and eventually burnout. In turn, not all bad emotions are always bad. Anger for example, leads not only to counterproductive work behaviors but may motivate and empower employees to confront obstacles. And leaders who show anger when confronted with bad news are perceived as more competent and motivate their employees more than those who show sadness. One danger of employing emotions as part of the work process is that when emotions are faked they lead to emotional dissonance and burnout. This is the case for the sales person who need to suppress irritation and show pleasantness in the presence of an irate customer as much as for the transformational leader who needs to suppress uncertainty to show enthusiasm to motivate employees. Thus the use of emotions as tools in the business environment may come at a price. One aspect that has just recently attracted attention is that emotions are not the same for everyone. The same emotion shown by a man and a women does not have the same effect. Where anger shown by a man can be perceived as a sign of strength, the same anger in a woman may be perceived as ?hysterics.? Also members of different ethnic groups endorse the expression of emotions to different degrees. Thus in the increasingly multicultural business environment of today, what may seem adequate and motivating to some may be seen as an inappropriate sign of weakness by others. In sum, the workplace is an emotional place and a leader does well to not neglect this important aspect of the work process.

The Interaction Between Global Task Motivation and the Motivational Function of Events on Self-Regulation: Is Sauce for The Goose, Sauce for The Gander?

An experiment was conducted to assess (1) the interaction between global task motivation and motivational aspects of the environment (level of controls and autonomy-support present in the environment) and (2) gender differences with regard to this interaction. Forty male and forty female participants with high and low levels of self-determination towards relaxation attempted to learn relaxation using biofeedback in an either controlling or autonomy-supportive environment. The results confirm the notion that global task motivation and intervention style interact. Further, this interaction is qualified by a gender effect. The resulting triple interaction suggests that a different pattern of relations between the motivational aspects of the environment and level of self-determination emerges for men and women. Une expérimentation a été réalisée afin d'évaluer (1) l'interaction entre la motivation globale vis-à-vis une tâche et différents styles de mobilisation (degré d'un style d'intervention contrôlant et de soutien à l'autonomie) et (2) le rôle du genre dans cette interaction. Quarante hommes et quarante femmes ayant un niveau soit élevé ou faible d'autodétermination envers une tâche de relaxation ont participé à une tâche d'apprentissage à la relaxation à l'aide de biofeedback avec un intervenant qui présentait un style soit contrôlant soit de soutien à l'autonomie. Les résultats confirment la présence d'effets d'interactions entre le niveau d'autodétermination (motivation globale) et le style de l'intervention. Le genre du participant qualifie également cette interaction. L'interaction triple suggère l'existence de différentes formes de relations entre les aspects mobilisateurs de l'environnement et le niveau d'autodétermination pour les hommes et les femmes.Controlling and autonomy-supportive intervention style, global-state task motivation, self-determination theory, gender, person-environment interactions, physiological responses, self-regulation learning, Style d'intervention contrôlant-soutien à l'autonomie, motivation globale-d'état vis-à-vis une tâche, théorie de l'autodétermination, interaction environnement-personne, genre, réactions physiologiques, apprentissage auto-régulation

Les émotions au travail

Les émotions sont omniprésentes au travail. Au cours des dernières années, on s'est lentement éloigné de l'idée que le milieu de travail idéal n'admet pas l'existence des émotions pour s'apercevoir qu'elles font non seulement partie intégrante du travail, mais qu'elles y jouent aussi un rôle essentiel. Au travail, les émotions se divisent implicitement en deux catégories, à savoir les bonnes émotions, qui contribuent à l'atteinte des objectifs de l'entreprise, et les mauvaises émotions, qui sont considérées comme étant «nuisibles». Selon ce point de vue, les émotions positives peuvent accroître la créativité, favoriser l'entraide et la collaboration et réduire les comportements agressifs envers l'entreprise et son personnel. En revanche, la colère suscite des comportements improductifs, tels que le vol, le vandalisme et l'agression des pairs. La tristesse amène quant à elle les employés à vouloir quitter leur emploi, et l'envie et la jalousie engendrent du stress et incitent à abandonner son emploi.Cependant, cette distinction n'est pas tout à fait réaliste. La création de «bonnes» émotions crédibles exige des efforts : lorsqu'un employé doit feindre une émotion, notamment au cours d'une activité de service, il y a risque de dissonance émotionnelle -état qui donne lieu au mécontentement de l'employé et à l'absence de bien-être, puis éventuellement à l'épuisement professionnel. Par ailleurs, les émotions dites « nuisibles » sont parfois bénéfiques. En effet, la colère, par exemple, n'engendre pas seulement l'improductivité; elle peut aussi motiver l'employé et le pousser à faire face aux problèmes qui surgissent. De plus, les dirigeants qui se fâchent à l'annonce de mauvaises nouvelles sont souvent perçus comme étant plus efficaces et plus disposés à motiver leurs employés que ceux qui affichent de la tristesse.Comme nous l'avons vu précédemment, l'un des dangers liés à l'utilisation des émotions dans le cadre du travail est la dissonance émotionnelle menant à l'épuisement professionnel que provoquent les émotions simulées. C'est le cas du vendeur qui doit dissimuler sa frustration et être agréable avec un client furieux ainsi que du leader transformationnel qui doit cacher toute incertitude et manifester de l'enthousiasme pour motiver les employés. L'utilisation des émotions comme outil de gestion est donc un couteau à deux tranchants.Ce n'est que dernièrement qu'on s'est intéressé au fait que les gens ne perçoivent pas tous les émotions de la même manière. En effet, une même émotion transmise par un homme ou par une femme ne produit pas le même effet : la colère chez l'homme peut être perçue comme un signe de puissance, alors que chez la femme, elle peut être interprétée comme un comportement hystérique. De la même façon, les membres de groupes ethniques différents acceptent l'expression des émotions à divers degrés. Ainsi, dans l'environnement de l'entreprise d'aujourd'hui, qui se veut de plus en plus multiculturel, ce qui est adéquat et motivant pour certains peut être inopportun et représenter un signe de faiblesse pour d'autres.Somme toute, les émotions jouent un rôle au travail et le gestionnaire avisé ne doit pas négliger cet aspect important du travail

Women's lives in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands and their experiences with the 'capacitar practices' for transforming trauma: an embodied enquiry.

The purpose of this embodied phenomenological inquiry was to explore the impact of the so-called Capacitar Body-Mind-Spirit Practices Training for the transformation of individual and community trauma. A general philosophical framework of transpersonal psychology, particularly drawing on the concept of interrelatedness, has been implemented. This research took place in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands with 14 female co-researchers (Mexican, Mexican-American, Mayan, White American) who live in the twin cities of El Paso (Texas, U.S.) and Ciudad Juárez (Chihuahua, Mexico), who were thus exposed to the constant threat of lethal violence and so-called femicide, to discrimination and the socioeconomic problems that are peculiar to this region. The women’s embodied experiences of change as a result of the Capacitar Training were investigated with semi-structured multiple interviewing multilingually (English / Spanish / Mayan). Data analysis procedures combined imaginative variation and embodied interpretation that resulted in a general meaning structure with its variations. The contribution to knowledge made by the phenomenological results consists of the confirmation of past research on the impact of the Capacitar Training that showed the potential of the body-mind-spirit practices for transforming trauma with culturally and spiritually diverse individuals. The most significant research findings of the present study suggest that: (1) the majority of the co-researchers’ experiences of bodily change through body-mind-spirit practices initiated further integration of past negative (traumatic) and / or positive experiences in an embodied way, including interrelatedness to spirituality, culture and nature; (2) the initial bodily felt shift led to the co-researchers’ desire for more change; (3) the experiences of change were independent of the cultural or spiritual background of the co-researchers; (4) a desire to support others’ change emerged for the co-researchers based on their own experiences of improvement; and (5) ambiguity arose for a minority of co-researchers in the beginning of the training related to cultural and religious barriers, and self esteem issues; and at the end of the Capacitar Training linked with the question of commitment to time and to the engagement with the practices. To enhance an embodied understanding of the phenomenological results, biographical information from the co-researchers’ life experiences related to the borderlands had been compiled during the interviews, which mirrored the body of knowledge on issues in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands and has been presented as a cultural-spiritual narrative composite. Furthermore, evaluative information about the co-researchers’ experiences of the conveyance of the Capacitar Training has been synthesized, adding their critical reflections about the conduction and the further development of the Capacitar approach

Infusing Context Into Emotion Perception Impacts Emotion Decoding Accuracy

The accurate decoding of facial emotion expressions lies at the center of many research traditions in psychology. Much of this research, while paying lip service to the importance of context in emotion perception, has used stimuli that were carefully created to be deprived of contextual information. The participants' task is to associate the expression shown in the face with a correct label, essentially changing a social perception task into a cognitive task. In fact, in many cases, the task can be carried out correctly without engaging emotion recognition at all. The present article argues that infusing context in emotion perception does not only add an additional source of information but changes the way that participants approach the task by rendering it a social perception task rather than a cognitive task. Importantly, distinguishing between accuracy (perceiving the intended emotions) and bias (perceiving additional emotions to those intended) leads to a more nuanced understanding of social emotion perception. Results from several studies that use the Assessment of Contextual Emotions demonstrate the significance and social functionality of simultaneously considering emotion decoding accuracy and bias for social interaction in different cultures, their key personality and societal correlates, and their function for close relationships processes.Peer Reviewe

A motivational approach to perfectionism and striving for excellence

Perfectionism has been the object of many disputes. One such debate pertains to the nature of perfectionistic strivings. Whereas perfectionistic concerns (PC) have been shown to correlate with negative outcomes, perfectionistic strivings (PS) have been associated with mixed outcomes. This view of perfectionism assumes a motivational perspective; however, commonly used questionnaires assess motivation only implicitly. To create a more explicit measure of motivation as regard perfectionism, we aimed to assess perfectionism in post-secondary education based on Deci and Ryan’s self-determination continuum. We posit that introjected motivation represents the variance common to both dimensions of perfectionism. External motivation is considered to be specific to PC and identified motivation to PS. Amotivation represents a lack of meaningful striving. Intrinsic motivation, lacking perfectionism’s pressure, is conceptualized to be a self-determined form of striving for excellence. We further posited that this continuum is implicitly underlain by a continuum of self-definition as defined by Blatt. The resulting questionnaire showed an adequate structure with ESEM, followed a simplex structure, and had adequate reliabilities (Study 1a/Study 2). It also showed adequate convergent validity (Study 1b/Study 2). Finally, the questionnaire proved to be invariant over a 6-week period (Study 2). Results suggest that the degree of active goal pursuit, in addition to standards setting, could be a distinguishing characteristic between dimensions of perfectionism as well as striving for excellence.Peer Reviewe

Language and face in interactions: emotion perception, social meanings, and communicative intentions

Introduction Human emotions can be complex to interpret as they have multiple sources and are often times ambiguous, for example, when the signals sent by different channels of communication are inconsistent. Our study investigates the interaction of linguistic and facial expressions of emotions. Methods In two experiments, participants read short scenarios in German containing a direct utterance with positive or negative emotive markers, in combination with different facial expressions as still images of the speaker (i.e., the protagonist in the story). They answered questions about their perception regarding the intensity of the emotions (e.g., happiness, sadness), the properties of the expresser (e.g., honesty, warmth, likeability) and their relation to the addressee (e.g., closeness), as well as the expresser intention (e.g., irony, joke). Results The findings suggest that facial expressions have a more dominant role in the emotion perception in comparison to emotive markers. Furthermore, consistent and inconsistent combinations of emotive markers and facial expressions convey distinct social meanings and communicative intentions. Conclusion This research points to the importance to consider emotive markers in the emotional context that they occur in.Peer Reviewe

I looked at you, you looked at me, I smiled at you, you smiled at me—The impact of eye contact on emotional mimicry

Eye contact is an essential element of human interaction and direct eye gaze has been shown to have effects on a range of attentional and cognitive processes. Specifically, direct eye contact evokes a positive affective reaction. As such, it has been proposed that obstructed eye contact reduces emotional mimicry (i.e., the imitation of our counterpart’s emotions). So far, emotional mimicry research has used averted-gaze faces or unnaturally covered eyes (with black censor bars) to analyze the effect of eye contact on emotional mimicry. However, averted gaze can also signal disinterest/ disengagement and censor bars obscure eye-adjacent areas as well and hence impede emotion recognition. In the present study (N = 44), we used a more ecological valid approach by showing photos of actors who expressed either happiness, sadness, anger, or disgust while either wearing mirroring sunglasses that obstruct eye contact or clear glasses. The glasses covered only the direct eye region but not the brows, nose ridge, and cheeks. Our results confirm that participants were equally accurate in recognizing the emotions of their counterparts in both conditions (sunglasses vs. glasses). Further, in line with our hypotheses, participants felt closer to the targets and mimicked affiliative emotions more intensely when their counterparts wore glasses instead of sunglasses. For antagonistic emotions, we found the opposite pattern: Disgust mimicry, which was interpreted as an affective reaction rather than genuine mimicry, could be only found in the sunglasses condition. It may be that obstructed eye contact increased the negative impression of disgusted facial expressions and hence the negative feelings disgust faces evoked. The present study provides further evidence for the notion that eye contact is an important prerequisite for emotional mimicry and hence for smooth and satisfying social interactions.Peer Reviewe

What Emotion Facial Expressions Tell Us About the Health of Others

To avoid contagion, we need information about the health status of those whom we engage with. This is especially important when we have cause for concern that the other is indeed sick, such as is the case during the world-wide outbreak of the coronavirus in 2020. In three studies, one conducted several years before the pandemic, and two during the pandemic, we showed that facial expressions of emotions are used as signals of health status. Specifically, happy expressers are perceived as healthier than expressers showing negative emotions or neutrality (Studies 1–3), whereas anger was interpreted as a signal of ill health (Study 3). Importantly, however, facial expressions affected health perception only when there was a prior reason to suspect ill health. This was the case for older expressers before and after the pandemic for whom age-related stereotypes set expectations of ill health and for all ages during a wide-spread pandemic, which extends this suspicion to everyone. In Study 3, we showed that the effect of emotion expressions was also generalized to the physical distance that the observer wishes to keep from the expresser. Overall, this research is the first to show a role of emotion expressions in informing health perception.Peer Reviewe