ABSTRACT
The nature and extent of emotion regulation and its psychophysical consequences were studied in a sample of 150 Italian hospital workers. Their self-reports showed that they performed emotional labor by (a) surface acting, expressing job-required emotions, and (b) deep acting, trying to actually feel required emotions; (c) they also frequently felt emotional consonance. The significant relationships that surface acting and emotional consonance had with burnout dimensions, and the mediating role on the frequency, nature, and effects of emotional labor played by personal and job variables, such as empathic concern and “relational” time spent with hospital patients, were among the main results.
