Emotion Work Assignment

Part 1From the onset, Chin’s (2000) study suggests that contrary to the belief or idea among many people that social class or status is simply inherited, the reality is that upper-middle-class and upper-class parents have to do some real work, which the author calls emotion work, in order to transmit their statuses to their children (p. 125). Firstly, class capital refers to the financial, cultural, social, and human (education) privileges or benefits that come with a certain status (Chin, 2000 p.128). In the case of Chin’s article, upper-middle-class and upper-class parents try to use their huge financial resources, social connections, understanding of elite processes (cultural capital), and knowledge of how the education system works (human capital) to safeguard their children’s future. These four types of capital collectively form class capital.Class capital is connected to emotion work as upper-middle-class and upper-class parents have to invest heavily in managing emotions while trying to transmit class capital to their children. One of the prominent ways that upper-middle-class and upper-class parents transmit their class capital to their children is through helping their children apply to elite private schools (Chin, 2000 p. 129); the rationale is that attending elite private schools helps maintain the parents class capital in the sense that children will have a higher chance of going to better colleges, find better jobs, have the best social connections, and automatically, associate with other members of a social class that has unique tastes and behaviors. However, this transmission process involves a lot of emotion work as Chin (2000) states, “…transmission requires work, much of which is anguished and highly emotional” (p.129). Parents channel their efforts and resources into “getting eleven-year-olds motivated enough to actually be ideal applicants” (p.130). Parents also have to manage their own emotions; they may find the private school application process unnecessary but still have to believe that it is the best way of affording their children a successful future. Part 2Chin uses an ethnography approach to collect data in the study; she collects data through observations and interviews. In this study, she provides excerpts of her interviews and observations; as she conducted the interviews and made observations, she would record and take field notes. Chin also becomes part of the private school application process and experience by acquiring the relevant training and materials and “went to students’ homes and worked with them for one to two hours on test techniques and math, reading, and verbal skills” (Chin, 2000 p. 133). Chin’s data collection strategy aligns well with her research questions. Firstly, the biggest research questions in the study are two; How do middle-upper-class and upper-class parents transmit class capital to their children? And, what are the parents’ feelings as they attempt to transmit class capital to their children through the private school application process? Chin’s data collection method allows her to come in contact with parents and students, and apart from getting responses from them, she can also see and feel other expressions that cannot be told verbally. For instance, in one of Chin’s (2000) field notes, she records “Julia is just sitting there making faces. She hates to read” (p. 145). The researcher can see the effort parents use in order to transmit class capital, get their reactions, and even read emotions. If Chin had used a different data collection method such as a questionnaire, she would not have been able to read emotions or observe non-verbal cues. Telling the participants to write their experiences on a questionnaire or state their emotions would not have produced accurate findings; some participants would have attempted to provide a positive self-assessment consequently hiding their true emotions. Part 3Two strategies that parents used to motivate their children in Chin’s (2000) study include, cooling out and intrinsic/extrinsic motivation. A good example of cooling out from the study is when the parents of a student named Eric praise and tell him that if he was rejected by the private school he was applying to, it did not matter to them because they knew the process was hard, and lastly, failing the standardized tests did not mean that one is dumb (Chin, 2000 p. 153). Chin (2000) notes that Eric’s parents, “explicitly pointed out that the admissions measures used by private high schools do not provide a good estimate of applicants’ intelligence or worth” (p.153). The cooling out strategy essentially is meant to reduce pressures on the students and to help them cope with the failure or rejection that they may experience after receiving the results of the standardized tests. Parents also may use extrinsic motivation to motivate their children as they go through the process of applying to private high schools. An example, of an extrinsic motivation technique in the study involves a student named Jill whose parents signed a contract with her that if “she does all her homework and doesn’t get any homework notes, she gets to have a Halloween party” (Chin, 2000 p. 141). In this case, Jill receives some kind of reward for taking her homework seriously and complying with what her tutor demands of her. Some parents also go to the extent of giving monetary rewards to their children for getting As or Bs on their report cards (Chin, 2000 p. 141). In one way, one can look at it as some kind of bribe from the parents for their children to work hard and meet the demands of the private school application process. In some cases, the strategies work but in others, they fail. Part 4Emotion work involves mental processes or feelings. Chin (2000), for instance, states, “as parents help their children apply to elite private schools, this transmission is not nearly as simple as calling on existing resources” (p. 129). She also notes, “transmission…is anguished and highly emotional” (Chin, 2000 p.129). Certainly, emotion work involves managing one own’s feelings as well as others of others, and it can be quite a taxing affair. For example, in the study, parents have to deal with their own feelings of seeing the private school application process as being stressful and unnecessary but at the same time, they have to motivate their children to pass the tests and secure their future success. One instance of emotion work in my personal relationships was when I lost an uncle I loved; though I was feeling low, I also had to give my cousin (one my uncle’s son) a shoulder to lean on. I had to manage my own feelings fast before giving my cousin reassurance and comfort. I also had another experience with my parents; I was failing math and was somehow worried about it. My parents complained about this failure, but I had to give them reassurance every time they questioned me. Things did not seem to improve so much, and I found it quite taxing emotionally to manage my own feelings as well as maintain a promising attitude towards my parents. In both instances, I was somehow emotional and dealing with the emotions of other parties was an added burden. Emotion work is hard in reality and requires a vast amount of strength. One can easily crack or crash if they do not find sufficient strength to deal with their own feelings while at the same time, attempting to reassure others. ReferenceChin, Tiffani (2000). “‘Sixth Grade Madness’: Parental Emotion Work in the Private High School Application Process” Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 29(2): 124-163.