Emotional regulation through surface and deep acting
The regulation of emotional expressions and feelings as part of the paid work role has been coined emotional labour (EL) (Hochschild, 1983). EL is necessitated when expected workplace emotions cannot be naturally felt or displayed, and is routinely performed using surface acting (SA) and deep acting (DA) (Hochschild, 1983). SA involves the MANAGEMENT of observable expressions. SA can include faking emotions not actually felt, along with suppressing and hiding felt emotion that would be inappropriate to display. For example, a customer service representative may hide feelings of anger from a rude or demanding customer and instead paste on a smile to ensure a smooth workplace interaction. Hochschild commented that "in surface acting, we deceive others about what we really feel but we do not deceive ourselves" (p.33).
DA, on the other hand, is the intrapsychic process of attempting to experience or alter feelings so that expected emotional displays may naturally follow. DA may be performed by actively exhorting feeling, wherein an individual cognitively attempts to evoke or suppress an emotion. For example, flight attendants were trained to cognitively reappraise disorderly adult passengers as children so as not to become infuriated with their seemingly infantile behaviour (Hochschild, 1983). Another DA strategy, trained imagination, focuses on invoking thoughts, images and memories to induce the desired emotion (e.g., thinking of a funny experience in order to feel happy). This technique is comparable to the way that actors trained in method acting (Stanislovsky method) ‘psyche themselves up' for a performance. DA then, if successful, is able to produce an authentic emotional display.