Learning to manage emotions in research: dealing with problems and setbacks

This article explores how laboratory scientists manage their emotions when faced with problems and setbacks in their research process. Specifically, we asked what emotions arise in these situations and wondered how they are dealt with, building on Arlie Hochschild’s work on emotion management and feeling rules. We conducted participant observation in two research groups, one in optical physics and one in biochemistry, followed by interviews with members of these research groups and external scientists in the same fields in Germany. Using Norbert Elias’s concept of emotional involvement and detachment, we observed different stages of affect control that varied according to the academic level of the scientists. The study suggests that a form of emotion management is necessary when faced with problems and setbacks in the research process, and that researchers learn emotional detachment throughout their academic training. Thus, controlling their emotions can be seen as an increasingly integral part of their self-concept as researchers.