Emotional Labor in Health Survey Research: Interviewing Hospitalized Patients for a Wage

• In Event: 366 - Open Refereed Roundtable Session II
  In Refereed Roundtable: B. Table 01. Mental Health

Abstract

This paper bridges the literature on emotional labor in service work and in qualitative research to examine the emotional labor performed by contract survey interviewers at a prestigious teaching hospital. Two main questions guided my research: (1) Under what conditions does emotional labor operate in hospital survey research? and (2) How is emotional labor performed in these situations? I employed three ethnographic methods—shadowing, participant observation, and in-depth interviews—to understand the emotional labor performed by contract research assistants (RAs) in a study of hospitalized cardiovascular patients. I identified four situations in which RAs perform emotional labor: to establish rapport and convince patients to participate in the study; when patients react emotionally during the interview; to interact with uncivil patients; and to deal with elderly patients who are difficult to interview. Several emotional labor strategies are employed in these situations. To establish rapport with patients, RAs fake happiness and empathy, modify their attitudes to match the patients’ moods, engage in emotional contagion, use humor, and try to establish an emotional connection with patients. Over time, they learn affective neutrality so as to not be emotionally affected by patients’ reactions. When dealing with uncivil or difficult patients, RAs manage their emotions to hide their anger or frustration and to maintain rapport with the patients, even if it means being nice to someone who has offended them.

Author

• Gabriela Leon-Perez, Vanderbilt University