The Managed Heart

In what ways does emotional labor contribute to or detract from workers’ personal identities, and how does this process vary across different professions? Provide evidence from the text and other sources.

Discuss the mental health implications of emotional labor as the book presents them. How does constant emotional regulation affect workers’ psychological well-being? Provide evidence from the text and other sources.

Analyze the gendered division of emotional labor. How do societal expectations and cultural norms shape the different emotional demands placed on men and women, and how does this manifest in the professional world? Conduct research to provide evidence from sources other than the text.

Examine how Hochschild’s notion of the “status shield” applies to contemporary workplaces, using textual evidence from more recent sources than this text. How does social status affect the distribution and recognition of emotional labor?

How does the book’s analysis of flight attendants serve as a microcosm for understanding emotional labor in the service industry in general? Explore this topic in light of current examples.

Discuss the role of deep acting and surface acting in emotional labor. How do these strategies impact the authenticity of emotional displays and the personal integrity of workers? Include examples and observations from current sources.

How does Hochschild’s work inform our understanding of the intersectionality of labor, particularly in terms of race, gender, and class? Examine how different social identities might experience and perform emotional labor differently.

Discuss the psychological concept of “emotive dissonance” as Hochschild uses this term in the text. How does this dissonance manifest in workers, and what are its consequences? Compare and contrast the concept of cognitive dissonance.