The association between emotional labour, affective symptoms, and burnout in Australian psychologists

ObjectivePsychology is a high burnout profession; however, little empirical research has examined the emotional labour (i.e., surface acting, deep acting, expression of naturally felt emotions) of psychologists who provide psychological therapy. The present study examined whether a relationship exists between emotional labour and wellbeing (operationalised as burnout and affective symptoms) in this sample, and whether individual or work-related factors moderate this relationship.Method113 Australian psychologists who provide regular psychological therapy responded to an anonymous, online, cross-sectional survey. This survey collected information on demographic and workplace variables; it also contained measures of emotional labour and wellbeing.ResultsThe results indicated that, at a bivariate level, surface acting was a significant predictor of adverse wellbeing; deep acting had no predictive qualities; and the expression of naturally felt emotions was a significant predictor of improved wellbeing. Surface acting appeared to be the most salient predictor, and its relationship to burnout was moderated by compensation type.ConclusionsReported rates of burnout were high within our sample, and our findings suggest that the masking of emotions by psychologists (i.e., surface acting) may be a contributing factor to adverse wellbeing. These findings carry implications for psychological training and practice. What is already known about this topic: Psychologists work in emotion-eliciting environments, which can necessitate the regulation of their emotions.Across industries, burnout arises when demands exceed resources; for psychologists, this may include instances in which the emotional demands of their work exceed their capacity to regulate effectively.Emotional labour, or the regulation of emotions in the workplace, is a reliable predictor of adverse wellbeing in the general working population; however, there has been little empirical examination of emotional labour in psychologists.What this topic adds: Psychologists who provide therapy report high rates of burnout.Psychologists adopt each emotional labour strategy (surface acting, deep acting, expression of naturally felt emotions) at comparable rates to previously published rates for workers in other work domains.Surface acting is a salient predictor of burnout in psychologists, even when controlling for the engagement in deep acting or the expression of naturally felt emotions.