Professional emotion management as a rehearsal process
Bergman Blix, Stina LU
(2015)
In Professions & Professionalism
5(2).
p.1-15
- Abstract
- The work of stage actors has long been used as a simile for every day role playing, generating theoretical concepts to describe how people work to pre-sent themselves in general and how they manage their emotions in particular. Building on this tradition, this article analyses professional stage actors’ deliberate emotion management as an embodied professionalisation process, focusing the relation between emotional experience and expression through the concepts of decoupling, double agency and habituation. Observations and interviews with thea-tre actors rehearsing for a role revealed how they gradually develop a capacity for double agency, decoupling the experience from the expression of emotions, which are eventually habituated in a form... (More)
- The work of stage actors has long been used as a simile for every day role playing, generating theoretical concepts to describe how people work to pre-sent themselves in general and how they manage their emotions in particular. Building on this tradition, this article analyses professional stage actors’ deliberate emotion management as an embodied professionalisation process, focusing the relation between emotional experience and expression through the concepts of decoupling, double agency and habituation. Observations and interviews with thea-tre actors rehearsing for a role revealed how they gradually develop a capacity for double agency, decoupling the experience from the expression of emotions, which are eventually habituated in a form adapted to the role character. This process of professionalising emotion management is beneficial to the presentation of role-appropriate emotions and furthers the ability to cope with the endeavour of manag-ing emotions at work. Implications for professions outside the artistic domain are discussed. (Less)
- Abstract (Swedish)
- The work of stage actors has long been used as a simile for every day role playing, generating theoretical concepts to describe how people work to pre-sent themselves in general and how they manage their emotions in particular. Building on this tradition, this article analyses professional stage actors’ deliberate emotion management as an embodied professionalisation process, focusing the relation between emotional experience and expression through the concepts of decoupling, double agency and habituation. Observations and interviews with thea-tre actors rehearsing for a role revealed how they gradually develop a capacity for double agency, decoupling the experience from the expression of emotions, which are eventually habituated in a form... (More)
- The work of stage actors has long been used as a simile for every day role playing, generating theoretical concepts to describe how people work to pre-sent themselves in general and how they manage their emotions in particular. Building on this tradition, this article analyses professional stage actors’ deliberate emotion management as an embodied professionalisation process, focusing the relation between emotional experience and expression through the concepts of decoupling, double agency and habituation. Observations and interviews with thea-tre actors rehearsing for a role revealed how they gradually develop a capacity for double agency, decoupling the experience from the expression of emotions, which are eventually habituated in a form adapted to the role character. This process of professionalising emotion management is beneficial to the presentation of role-appropriate emotions and furthers the ability to cope with the endeavour of manag-ing emotions at work. Implications for professions outside the artistic domain are discussed. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/bde9616b-31f0-4798-a89d-d883d59e4b50
- author
- Bergman Blix, Stina
LU
- publishing date
- 2015
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- decoupling, deep acting, embodiment, emotion management, habitua-tion, stage actors, surface acting, Sociology, Sociologi, decoupling, deep acting, embodiment, emotion management, habitua-tion, stage actors, surface acting
- in
- Professions & Professionalism
- volume
- 5
- issue
- 2
- pages
- 15 pages
- publisher
- Høgskolen i Oslo og Akershus
- ISSN
- 1893-1049
- DOI
- 10.7577/pp.1322
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- no
- additional info
- 2024-07-04T11:59:35.813+02:00
- id
- bde9616b-31f0-4798-a89d-d883d59e4b50
- alternative location
- http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-333457
- http://uu.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1156654/FULLTEXT01.pdf
- date added to LUP
- 2026-01-27 14:01:18
- date last changed
- 2026-01-29 09:27:36
@article{bde9616b-31f0-4798-a89d-d883d59e4b50,
abstract = {{The work of stage actors has long been used as a simile for every day role playing, generating theoretical concepts to describe how people work to pre-sent themselves in general and how they manage their emotions in particular. Building on this tradition, this article analyses professional stage actors’ deliberate emotion management as an embodied professionalisation process, focusing the relation between emotional experience and expression through the concepts of decoupling, double agency and habituation. Observations and interviews with thea-tre actors rehearsing for a role revealed how they gradually develop a capacity for double agency, decoupling the experience from the expression of emotions, which are eventually habituated in a form adapted to the role character. This process of professionalising emotion management is beneficial to the presentation of role-appropriate emotions and furthers the ability to cope with the endeavour of manag-ing emotions at work. Implications for professions outside the artistic domain are discussed.}},
author = {{Bergman Blix, Stina}},
issn = {{1893-1049}},
keywords = {{decoupling; deep acting; embodiment; emotion management; habitua-tion; stage actors; surface acting; Sociology; Sociologi; decoupling, deep acting, embodiment, emotion management, habitua-tion, stage actors, surface acting}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{2}},
pages = {{1--15}},
publisher = {{Høgskolen i Oslo og Akershus}},
series = {{Professions & Professionalism}},
title = {{Professional emotion management as a rehearsal process}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.7577/pp.1322}},
doi = {{10.7577/pp.1322}},
volume = {{5}},
year = {{2015}},
}