ABSTRACT
An attempt has been made to develop Hochschild’s (1983) sociological concept of emotional labour through a theoretical and empirical exploration of its relationship with emotion and its application to nursing. The identification of therapeutic, instrumental and collegial aspects of emotional labour shows that Hochschild’s concept can be developed and remains relevant to understanding the nature of emotional labour in nursing today. These three types of emotional labour have been developed by examining the relationship between emotion and emotional labour. This has involved a theoretical examination of the nature of emotion and how that might impact on the way emotion is elicited within interactive relationships. Recognising that emotion arises out of interaction and reflects and impacts on the nature of emotional labour has been a further means of developing the concept. These two approaches are interconnected as emotion is understood through biopsychosocial discourses, enabling holistic perspectives to be incorporated in the approach. Because the nature of emotion is relational and communicative, the interactional character of emotional labour has been developed. Developing a biopsychosocial and relational approach is essential to understanding emotional labour in nursing, because its practice and implementation within interactive relationships in nursing care is integral to it. Because emotion fundamentally informs personal identity, an exploration of the nature of emotion has enabled an evaluation of how emotional labour is integrally linked to personal identity and performed within socially prescribed nursing roles. This chapter puts these different components of emotion and emotional labour together and assesses how the concept has been developed by highlighting the main points drawn from the different theoretical approaches and underpinned and analysed through the empirical data represented in the vignettes.
