Translation and Emotion

Translation and Emotion
An excellent and timely overview of translation and emotion, a topic that

corresponds to recent developments in translation process research yet has
previously not been addressed in any great depth. It is innovative, original
and a highly recommended read for scholars, teachers and students of trans-
lation, translators, and also for linguists and psychologists.
—Hanna Risku, University of Graz, Austria
This book proves that translators are not mere neutral word crunchers and
looks under the hood of their minds to unveil a complex interplay between
reason and emotion that both affects and is affected by their work.
—Ricardo Muñoz Martín, Universidad de Las Palmas
de Gran Canaria, Spain
This volume tackles one of the most promising and interdisciplinary devel-
opments in modern Translation Studies: the psychology of translation. It
applies the scientific study of emotion to the study of translation and transla-
tors in order to shed light on how emotions can impact decision-making and
problem-solving when translating. The book offers a new critical approach
to the study of emotion in translation by analysing translators’ accounts
of their experiences, as well as drawing on a case study of emotional intel-
ligence involving 155 professional translators. The author identifies three
distinctive areas where emotions influence translators: emotional material
contained in source texts, their own emotions, and the emotions of source
and target readers. In order to explore the relevance and influence of emo-
tions in translation, each chapter focuses on a different emotion trait: emo-
tion perception, emotion regulation, and emotion expression.
Séverine Hubscher-Davidson is Head of Translation at The Open Univer-

sity (UK). She is the author of several peer-reviewed articles on translators’
psychological processes, tackling topics such as translators’ ambiguity toler-
ance and intuition. She has also co-edited books on cognitive processes in
translation and translator education.
Routledge Advances in Translation and Interpreting Studies
For a full list of titles in this series, visit www.routledge.com/Routledge-
Advances-in-Translation-and-Interpreting-Studies/book-series/RTS
23 Translation and Public Policy

Interdisciplinary Perspectives and Case Studies
Edited by Gabriel González Núñez and Reine Meylaerts
24 Translationality
Essays in the Translational-Medical Humanities
Douglas Robinson
25 The Changing Role of the Interpreter

Contextualising Norms, Ethics and Quality Standards
Edited by Marta Biagini, Michael S. Boyd and Claudia Monacelli
26 Translation in Russian Contexts

Culture, Politics, Identity
Edited by Brian James Baer and Susanna Witt
27 Untranslatability Goes Global

Edited by Suzanne Jill Levine and Katie Lateef-Jan
28 Queering Translation, Translating the Queer

Theory, Practice, Activism
Edited by Brian James Baer and Klaus Kaindl
29 Translating Foreign Otherness

Cross-cultural anxiety in modern China
Yifeng Sun
30 Translating Picturebooks
Revoicing the Verbal, the Visual and the Aural for a Child Audience
Riitta Oittinen, Anne Ketola and Melissa Garavini
31 Translation and Emotion

A Psychological Perspective
Séverine Hubscher-Davidson
Translation and Emotion
A Psychological Perspective
By Séverine Hubscher-Davidson
First published 2018
by Routledge
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Contents
List of Figures vii

List of Tables ix
List of Abbreviations xi
Acknowledgements xiii
Introduction 1
1 Emotion and the Translation Process 9
2 Emotion Perception 65
3 Emotion Regulation 107
4 Emotion Expression 147
5 Discussion 195
Conclusion and Future Directions 217
Appendices 225
Index 229
Figures
1.1 Simplified mapping of study concepts onto three existing

traditions of emotion theories 12
1.2 The factors and facets of the TEIQue 21
1.3 Visual representation of the TEIQue factors and facets 22
3.1 Process model of emotion regulation 109
4.1 Process model of emotion expression 149
Tables
1.1 Operationalising the study variables 43

1.2 TEIQue means, standard deviations, and effect sizes
broken down across gender 48
2.1 Different emotion theories and their conceptualisations
of emotional stimuli categorisation 66
2.2 Emotion perception, emotionality, and professional
translators’ sociobiographical variables (Pearson’s r)89
3.1 Emotion regulation processes and strategies 109
3.2 Emotion regulation, self-control, and professional
4.1 Emotion expression, emotionality, and professional
Abbreviations
CPD continuing professional development

L1, L2 first, second acquired language
EI emotional intelligence
PTSD post-traumatic stress disorder
ST source text
TEIQue Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire
TAP Think Aloud Protocol
TPR translation process research
TT target text
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank members of the TREC research network for their con-
tinued enthusiasm and support for my research. Their rigorous feedback,
challenging questions, and helpful suggestions at workshops and confer-
ences contributed toward the development of my thinking on this topic and
were at the forefront of my mind when writing this monograph. Special
thanks also go to the three anonymous readers for Routledge whose judi-
cious critical comments helped to shape the present work. I am also thank-
ful for the continuous advice and encouragement provided by Professor
Christina Schäffner over the years.
I very gratefully acknowledge the invaluable contributions of friends, col-
leagues, students, and, especially, the professional translators who volun-
teered their time to take part in the case study. I also thank Professor Dino
Petrides for his helpful comments in the early stages of this research. I am
extremely grateful to Matthias Apfelthaler for his interest in this work and
insightful suggestions in moments of doubt; to Tom Gale, who provided a
unique professional perspective on the issues raised; and to Claudine Borg
for her confidence in me.
As always, I am thankful for my family’s love and their moral and intel-
lectual support over the years. In particular, I am deeply grateful to my hus-
band Steve who keeps me on an even emotional keel. Without his unstinting
love and support, this book would not have seen the light of day.
Introduction
Everyone knows the difficulty of things that are exquisite and well done—so
to have facility in such things gives rise to the greatest wonder.
—Baldesar Castiglione
Preamble
Laure’s inert body, the enchantment she saw on her daughter’s impassive
face, caused extremely intense emotions over which she had no control to
well up in her. She was submerged by a primitive force that burst forth,
whipping her, harassing her, slashing her . . . Hatred! Hatred was a Flo-
rentine cypress, tall, dark, pointed, slim. It towered over the welter of feel-
ings . . . If not for Laure at the other end of the flat, soft as an overripe fruit,
rotten with drugs, she would have killed Alex.
—Cardinal (1991, 80–81)
On reading this extract from Marie Cardinal’s Devotion and Disorder,

one of the first questions that comes to mind is, how did the author feel
when writing this text? Did she identify with the character/narrator, Laure’s
mother? Did she write from personal experience? We might also won-
der how readers are likely to feel when reading the text. How will they
react? Will they perceive the character’s emotions in the way intended by
the author, or will their reading experience affect them differently? Narra-
tive research has shown that reader responses vary from person to person
as a result of particular histories and differences in life experiences that
determine how they evaluate characters’ motives, decisions, and behaviours
(Jacovina and Gerrig 2010). We might therefore wonder about the range
of reactions to a text with such a strong emotional component. Moreover,
since this text is a translation, another question we could ask ourselves is
how well does the emotional component translate for another cultural con-
text? Reader responses to emotions vary across the world, and readers of
the French or Chinese version will respond to and understand the narrative
differently. And what about the translators? How do they relate to the text
and to the translation task? As readers of the originals and writers of the
translations, their emotional responses are likely to be essential ingredients
2 Introduction
in the shaping of different language versions. The main aim of this book is
thus to demonstrate the implications of emotionality for translation work
and to explore the relevance and influence of emotions in translation by
focusing on specific emotion traits.
This book therefore bridges two fields of research: Translation Studies and
Affective Science. Drawing on a case study involving 155 translators, it will
explore affective aspects of translation by applying the scientific study of
emotion to the study of translators. As Jean Anderson highlights, relatively
little work exists which documents or analyses translators’ affective inter-
face with their work (2005, 179). In an attempt to fill this gap, an analysis
of the emotional intelligence of translators will be undertaken, focusing on
three specific emotion traits: emotion perception, emotion regulation, and
emotion expression. The methods used include an emotional intelligence
measure which has been employed in various research contexts, including
second-language acquisition and creative writing.
The idea for this book originated from the fact that, although interdisci-
plinary research has fast become the norm in Translation Studies,1 the role of
the translator’s emotions from an affective perspective has remained almost
entirely unexplored. Recent studies investigating the translation process have
borrowed models and frameworks extensively from the cognitive sciences2
to the detriment of research falling under the broad umbrella of Affective
Science. The majority of studies that have investigated the topic of emotions
in translation are overwhelmingly concerned with how emotional material
or emotive language is being translated.3 Research shows, however, that
emotions are involved in all kinds of decision-making and problem-solving
behaviours, and one can argue that there are three distinctive areas where
emotions influence translators: emotional material contained in source texts,
their own emotions, and the emotions of source and target readers. The first
area involves emotion perception, the second area involves emotion regula-
tion, and the third area involves emotion expression. This book therefore
seeks to explore further the translator’s handling of these emotions by inves-
tigating specific aspects of translators’ trait emotional intelligence profiles.
Traditionally muted, self-effacing and non-interfering, translators’ voices
have recently become louder, persistent, and sometimes unsettling. If one
defines emotionality as a set of responses that are observable or perceiv-
able to us or to others around us and take place when a person reacts
emotionally to stimuli (Rajah, Song, and Arvey 2011, 1107) one cannot
but acknowledge the role of emotionality in translators’ work. Anderson
(2005, 177) speaks of a sense of physical invasion by the original text and a
need to ‘choke down’ rebellious feelings when translating. Another transla-
tor speaking at the American Translator’s Association Conference in 2009
shared her reaction to translating an autopsy report:
This was not the first of this kind of report that I had dealt with, but
it was the most horrific. The crime was so terrible that the perpetrator
Introduction 3
was sentenced to 102 years and permanent separation from society.
There may be a literature of how coroners deal with the actual autopsy,
but I found nowhere to turn except to a fellow translator who could
understand how a text could reach so far into me.
(Jones 2009)
Translators’ emotional reactions to source texts such as these are rarely

discussed and, more often than not, translators deal with them on their own
and to the best of their ability. When discussing her own experience as a
literary translator, Hills notes,
I had to draw on all my skills as a writer to render hers as effectively

as I could, and yet, at the same time, I needed to strike a balance [. . .]
especially as I had recently written a novel that also dealt with grieving
and had a strong sense of how I had handled similar themes and states.
(2012, 84)
Peter Bush (2012, 122) highlights instances of fraught relationships between

translators and editors, reflecting the level of emotional and intellectual
commitment of translators to their work. This study demonstrates that the
way in which translators perceive, regulate, and transfer emotional mate-
rial impacts them and target texts in specific ways, not all of these negative.
Indeed, translators like Anne Jones suggest that some texts are a delight to
translate and can serve to nurture and activate the full self of the translator.
The benefits of adding a psychological perspective in Translation Studies
have been acknowledged for some time. Process-based studies have employed
various methods (eye tracking, keyboard logging, thinking aloud, etc.)
to investigate translator behaviour and the translation process. However,
translation process research (TPR)—an offshoot of Holmes’s (2000/1972)
descriptive sub-branch of ‘pure’ Translation Studies—has generally focused
on exploring translators’ mental processes and human information process-
ing skills (Bell 2001). This book argues that, alongside the study of purely
cognitive processes, the psychology of translation must also encompass the
study of attitudes, personalities, and dispositions.
Emotionality: Author, Translator, Reader

Recent studies have subscribed to the view that, more than a product, trans-
lation is an activity that serves to bring into being the potentialities of a
source text through a target text (Wilson and Gerber 2012, ix). Arguably,
the potentialities of source texts are also brought into being through the
translator’s effortful activity. Translators undertake very close readings of
source texts and become involved with source authors and their texts to
a greater extent than do ‘regular’ target readers. It can be said that the
translation process binds them to source authors, providing them with inti-
mate knowledge of how they work, how they construct meanings, impart
4 Introduction
knowledge and express themselves. If the work they are engaged so closely
with happens to contain explosive emotion-eliciting material, the transla-
tor may become destabilised, shaken, unsure, fearful even. Hills (2012, 77)
suggests that entering into translation is like entering into a relationship,
and that, through contact with the language of others, translators can get
a greater sense of themselves. I would argue that this also holds true for
emotions. Contact with the emotions of others can bring about an increase
in the understanding and regulating of one’s own emotions. And yet, there
is also a risk of completely losing oneself in another’s emotions. The well-
known metaphor of the translator walking a tightrope springs to mind.
Despite the constraints within which they work, translators are not vic-
tims. Like Anderson (2005, 178), one might wonder whether the translator
is not actually the primary driver of his or her own creation, the transla-
tion. When perceiving, regulating and transferring emotions in writing, the
translator shapes a text that takes into account vast amounts of emotional
information including the potential reactions of target readers, as the recep-
tion and understanding of translated emotions will necessarily differ from
one culture to another. They are responsible for carrying over specific, per-
sonal, affective, identity-related otherness. They drive the creation of a text
that will expose and give scope to new significances and intertextualities
(Henitiuk 2012, 4).
This critical activity involves a double interpretation process. Let us assume
that a translator has been given a source text containing complex emotion-
eliciting content written in his or her second language (L2). First, he or she
must adequately understand and interpret it; second, he or she must engage
with a different language in an attempt to re-express this complex emotion-
eliciting content. According to Henitiuk, our senses cannot always be trusted
to pass along information reliably when what we perceive, receive, and
rewrite comes from a different culture and world view (ibid., 9). Inevitably,
translators will need to tap into their own resources of emotional experiences
and emotional language in order to understand and transfer the information
to the best of their abilities. As Hills highlights, translating emotional mate-
rial forces one to explore emotions and language on a deeper level, intensely,
to find ways to communicate what is core in a piece, to “learn how to breathe
again” (2012, 80). This two-stage process transforms the translator into both
a therapist and a patient. As such, the translator will perform the necessary
actions of both: perceiving and understanding, on one hand, and expressing
emotions arising from the translation event, on the other.
In order to do this competently, the translator needs to have what Ander-
son terms “the ability to open oneself to the foreignness of another language
at the level of one’s personality” (2005, 175). As I argue in this book, trans-
lators who can also open themselves to their own and others’ emotions will
be much more likely to succeed in the translation profession. This book
is therefore concerned with the perception, regulation, and expression of
Introduction 5
emotions by translators. It aims to offer a new critical approach to the study
of emotion in translation by drawing on translators’ narratives and on a
case study of emotional intelligence involving 155 translators, in order to
highlight moments when there is an interference of individual differences
during the translation process.
Outline
In the first chapter, I provide context for the study by presenting the theoret-
ical background to the scientific study of emotion in the field of Psychology.
Affective and cognitive approaches are discussed, including the notion of
emotional intelligence and its measurement. I present key issues in the field
(e.g. validity and consistency) and demonstrate the importance of employ-
ing reliable methods to analyse emotions. I also present an overview of the
development of psychological approaches to the study of translation within
Translation Studies. I focus on methods developed to analyse the translation
process with a particular emphasis on soft skills and their implications for
the field. This theoretical background draws on the most influential works
within Translation Studies and Psychology and serves to contextualise the
case study, which is also explained in detail.
In the following chapters, three specific emotion traits are discussed at
length: emotion perception (Chapter 2), emotion regulation (Chapter 3) and
emotion expression (Chapter 4). These traits were presumed to be the most
relevant for translation. Each chapter contains a definition and an explana-
tion within Affective Science of the key trait, a section addressing the rele-
vance of this particular trait for translation (drawing on both the translation
and psychology literature), and an analysis and discussion of the expression
of that trait in the profiles of translators from the case study.4
In the final chapter, I undertake a summary analysis and discussion of key
findings from the previous chapters and the case study to draw out how,
why, and when emotions influence the translator. The different areas where
emotions have a role are discussed, and important questions are addressed,
such as whether traits can be developed over time and what are the conse-
quences for translators of (un)successful emotional functioning.
The conclusion reviews the book’s achievements and suggests avenues for
further research.
Notes
1 See, for example, the flurry of recent conferences that attest to this interdisciplinar-
ity (e.g. ‘First International Interdisciplinary Conference on Bridging Languages
and Cultures’, 14-15 September 2017, Ventspils University; ‘Interdisciplinary
Approaches to Translation’, 27–28 March 2014, Kazimierz Wielki University;
‘International Conference on Interdisciplinary Translation Studies’, 30 April-2
May 2013, Imam Reza International University).
6 Introduction
2 Examples of two recent publications that bridge these disciplines are Shreve and
Angelone (2010) and Ehrensberger-Dow et al. (2013).
3 See, for example, Lee (2003) or Wittwer (2007).
4 Chapter 2 pays particular attention to translators’ perception of emotional mate-
rial contained in source texts, Chapter 3 tackles translators’ emotion regulation
processes, and Chapter 4 focuses on translators’ expression of emotions for target
readers.
References
Anderson, Jean. 2005. “The Double Agent: Aspects of Literary Translator Affect as
Revealed in Fictional Work by Translators”. Linguistica Antverpiensa 4: 171–182.
Bell, Roger. 2001. “Psycholinguistic/Cognitive Approaches”. In Routledge Encyclo-
pedia of Translation Studies, 1st edition, edited by Mona Baker, 242–248. London
and New York: Routledge.
Bush, Peter. 2012. “Toil, Trouble and Jouissance: A Case-Study—Editing Juan the
Landless”. In Creative Constraints: Translation and Authorship, edited by Rita
Wilson and Leah Gerber, 119–131. Clayton, VIC: Monash University Publishing.
Cardinal, Marie. 1991. Devotion and Disorder: A Story of Addiction, Obsession
and Maternal Love [Les Grands Désordres]. Translated by K. Montin. London:
The Women’s Press Ltd.
Castiglione, Baldesar. 1959. The Book of the Courtier. Translated by Charles S.
Singleton. Garden City: Anchor Books.
Ehrensberger-Dow, Maureen, Birgitta Englund Dimitrova, Séverine Hubscher-
Davidson and Ulf Norberg. (eds.) 2013. Describing Cognitive Processes in Trans-
lation: Acts and Events. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing
Company.
Henitiuk, Valerie. 2012. “Optical Illusions? Literary Translation as a Refractive Pro-
cess”. In Creative Constraints: Translation and Authorship, edited by Rita Wilson
and Leah Gerber, 3–20. Clayton, VIC: Monash University Publishing.
Hills, Lia. 2012. “Effective Self-Translation: How Not to Completely Lose Yourself
in Another’s Language”. In Creative Constraints: Translation and Authorship,
edited by Rita Wilson and Leah Gerber, 77–84. Clayton, VIC: Monash University
Publishing.
Holmes, James S. 2000/1972. “The Name and Nature of Translation Studies”. In
The Translation Studies Reader, edited by Lawrence Venuti, 172–185. London
and New York: Routledge.
Jacovina, Matthew E., and Richard Gerrig J. 2010. “How Readers Experience Char-
acters’ Decisions”. Memory and Cognition 38(6): 753–761.
Jones, Anne. 2009. “The Translator’s Self”. Paper presented at the American Trans-
lators Association 50th Annual Conference, October 28–31, New York City.
Lee, Hyeseung. 2003. “Analysis of Russian-Korean Translation of Emotion Meta-
phor”. Conference Interpretation and Translation 5(1): 183–200.
Rajah, Rashimah, Zhaoli Song, and Richard D. Arvey. 2011. “Emotionality and
Leadership: Taking Stock of the Past Decade of Research”. The Leadership Quar-
terly 22: 1107–1119.
Shreve, Gregory and Erik Angelone. (eds.) 2010. Translation and Cognition: Ameri-
can Translators Association Scholarly Monograph Series 15. Amsterdam and
Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Introduction 7
———. 2012. “Introduction”. In Creative Constraints: Translation and Authorship,
edited by Rita Wilson and Leah Gerber, ix–xv. Clayton, VIC: Monash University
Publishing.
Wittwer, Michael. 2007. “Emotion and Translation: Using the Example of Popular-
ising Medical Texts in Paediatrics”. In Evidence-Based LSP: Translation, Text and
Terminology, edited by Ahmad Khurshid and Margaret Rogers, 345–356. Bern:
Peter Lang.
1 Emotion and the
Translation Process
While there are many theories of translation, very little has been written
about the everyday psychology of translating.
—Alice Kaplan
Language and emotions are inextricably linked, as emotional factors are

embedded in the dynamics of multilingual discourses and, in turn, lan-
guages shape individuals’ emotional landscape. The picture that emerges
from research on emotions and languages is a complex and dynamic one.
It suggests that the perception, processing, and communication of emotions
in various languages is partly linked to past and present experiences, and
partly linked to a range of psychological and sociobiographical factors. As
a form of communication involving language, translation will necessarily
involve emotion. Translation and emotion therefore seem to be an obvious
combination for research study.
The purpose of this monograph is to review recent literature in three spe-
cific areas of emotion in the fields of Psychology and Translation Studies
and use it to inform an empirical case study involving professional transla-
tors. ‘Translation’ is a broad concept and area of study, if we take transla-
tion to mean any kind of transfer and transformation (Brownlie 2016, 1).
‘Emotion’ can also be interpreted broadly as many different phenomena
fall under this heading. Emotions can be broadly defined as multifaceted,
embodied phenomena that involve loosely coupled changes in subjective
experience, behaviour, and peripheral physiology (Mauss et al. 2006). The
three subsequent chapters of this monograph each focus on a key aspect of
emotion processing: emotion perception, emotion regulation, and emotion
expression.
In the present chapter, I first define the psychological construct of emo-
tion and explain how it will be operationalised in this monograph. I then
consider how translation process research has developed to take account
of emotional phenomena, and review pioneering recent studies that have
explored aspects of translators’ emotions. Following this, I introduce the
case study and explain how translation has been tackled throughout this
10 Emotion and the Translation Process
work. By exploring the role of emotions in translation, my interest is directed
mainly towards understanding in what ways affect influences translators in
their professional lives, regardless of their specialisation or field, particularly
in light of recent advances in emotion research.
Emotions in Psychology
Definitions and Theoretical Frameworks

‘Emotion’ has been described as a keyword in crisis in modern Psychology
(Dixon 2012). This could be due to the fact that there seems to be little sci-
entific consensus regarding what an emotion actually consists of or which
states and processes are parts of it. Sometimes called ‘emotion science’ or
‘affective science’ because it has drawn for centuries from areas as diverse as
neuroscience and genetics, the study of emotions has produced a wide range
of definitions for this object of study, stemming from many different disci-
plines (Frijda and Scherer 2009, 142). Nevertheless, there is some agreement
among the scientific community as regards the following features: Emotions
arise when an individual considers the situation meaningful to his or her
goals, emotion-evoking events require the organism to react, thus affecting
behaviour, and, finally, emotions can interrupt and claim priority over what
we are doing, although these interruptions are not always granted prece-
dence (Suri, Sheppes, and Gross 2013).
In recent years, the sharp distinction that had traditionally been made
between rational thought and so-called subjective feelings has been heav-
ily challenged, as it has become apparent that cognition and emotion are
not isolated entities (Robinson, Watkins, and Harmon-Jones 2013, 4).
Although the exact nature of the relationship between affect and cognition
is not universally agreed on, there is an increasing tendency to consider
affect as integrated with cognition, and cognitive functions are viewed as
necessary components for understanding emotion processing. The following
quotation from Phelps (2006, 44/46) summarises this view:
Although certain stimuli may be prone to evoke an emotional reaction,

how those stimuli are processed and interpreted can have a profound
impact on both internal states and expressed behaviours and actions.
Through conscious strategies and practice, individuals can change their
interpretation of specific stimuli, and this can alter emotional reac-
tions. Changing emotional responses through reasoning and strategies
emphasizes the impact of cognition on emotion [. . .] [t]he mechanisms
of emotion and cognition appear to be intertwined at all stages of stim-
ulus processing and their distinction can be difficult.
Emotion and cognition therefore interact in order to guide behaviour.

Despite concurring that (1) emotion is a multicomponent process comprising
Emotion and the Translation Process 11
different mechanisms not linearly organised, and (2) there is value in consid-
ering emotion and cognition together, emotion researchers still lack consen-
sus on a unified theoretical framework to study emotions. Pavlenko (2012,
408/409), who researched affective processing in bilinguals and multilin-
guals, distinguished three major currents emerging from different schools
of thought:
Basic emotion theories see primary affective processing as discrete

innate responses that precede cognitive judgments and are indepen-
dent of language [. . .] [a]ppraisal theories see affective processing as
subjective evaluation of stimuli with respect to their relevance for the
individual’s goals, values, and needs that triggers changes in endocrine,
autonomic, and somatic nervous systems [. . .] [c]onstructionist theo-
ries deny the existence of “non-affective” thought (Duncan and Barrett
2007) and see affect as cognition, a transformation of the organism’s
neurophysiological and somatovisceral state (core affect) into experi-
ences understood in terms of language-specific emotion words.
[my emphasis]
Not all psychological emotion theories fit neatly into the three theoretical
traditions outlined above, however, and there is much variation in emo-
tion research both in terms of terminology, underlying mechanisms, and
methods employed. Nevertheless, some consensus does exist regarding
the following components of emotion: elicitation processes, physiological
symptoms, motor expression, motivational changes, and subjective feeling
(Scherer 2009, 148). Despite the use of somewhat static models, scholars
also tend to converge on the idea that emotion processes are dynamic and
recursive.
Given the focus on translation in this work, my goal is not to provide
a complete account of different emotion theories here. Specific literature
reviews are provided at the start of each of the subsequent chapters which
are tailored to the stage of emotion processing addressed in that particular
chapter (e.g. emotion perception, regulation, and expression). Neverthe-
less, these stages of emotion processing were chosen because they feature in
one way or another in the various models emerging from different emotion
theories, albeit using different nomenclature. As Gross (2008, 703) sums
up, there is consensus that (1) emotions arise in a situation that compels
attention, (2) emotions are then assessed, and (3) this gives rise to a complex
response. To illustrate very simply how the constructs1 employed in this
study broadly map onto existing models, please refer to Figure 1.1.
In this book, my aim is to incorporate insights from different emotion
theories when discussing the three stages of emotion mentioned above and
assessing their relevance for translation. As both emotion and translation
are interdisciplinary in nature, it seemed appropriate to integrate relevant
insights from emotion research in a broad sense to serve the needs of the
Emotion perception Emotion regulation Emotion expression
feeling state (basic)

stimulus/event (basic) automatic appraisal (basic) feeling state (constructivist)
arousal (constructivist) evaluation (constructivist) physiological/motor response
multi-level appraisal motivational change/action and categorised feeling
(appraisal) tendencies (appraisal) (appraisal)
Figure 1.1 Simplified mapping of study concepts onto three existing traditions of

emotion theories
present study. Scherer (2009, 150) highlights that “most [emotion] theories
do not fundamentally contradict each other; rather, they differ in the degree
of emphasis they place on elicitation, response organization, action prepara-
tion, or conceptualization”. As such, I will point to relevant concepts and
theories from these adjacent areas in order to shed light on the phenomena
under consideration. The terms affect, emotions, and feelings will be used
according to the emotion theory or framework being discussed, and like
Pavlenko (2012), I will not assign undue significance to the fact that English
provides us with different terms in this area.
Another aspect of emotion that has been hotly debated is the breadth of
its domain and whether to distinguish between occurrent states (emotions
that have a limited duration) and dispositions (emotional attitudes or traits
that may persist over a lifetime). This aspect is relevant here, as the case
study explores translators’ traits, but the literature reviewed also refers to
research where the focus is on occurrent states, because of its relevance for
translator behaviour. This approach is justified as occurrent emotions and
persistent dispositions share the same structure and “can both be character-
ized by an object, its appraisal, and a particular propensity to act in relation
to the object—a latent, dispositional propensity in the case of sentiments,
and an acute, occurrent propensity in the case of emotions proper” (Fri-
jda 2008, 73). In a recent article, Oatley and Johnson-Laird (2014, 137)
showed that different emotional phenomena have different durations, with
some lasting only a few seconds and others, such as emotion-based traits of
personality, lasting a lifetime. While a so-called full-blown emotion is said
to represent an integration of feeling, action, and appraisal at a particular
time and location, personality represents integration over time and space
of these components (Ortony, Norman, and Revelle 2005). According to
Revelle and Scherer (2009, 304),
[t]rait differences in emotionality2 increase the odds of experiencing

trait-congruent emotions. In other words, individuals high on trait anx-
iety run an increased risk of experiencing anxiety bouts, individuals
high on trait anger get irritated more often, and so forth.
Therefore, in order to shed light on the different ways that emotions can
guide translator behaviour, the distinction between occurrent states and
persisting traits can be viewed in terms of a continuum rather than discrete
categories. The following chapters combine research from the study of long-
term affect with short-term fluctuations in emotion in order to obtain a
more integrated view of translators’ emotional processes. As Frijda (2008,
84) indicates, comparing findings and explanations at different levels is a
profitable enterprise.
Personality and Emotion

The literature suggests that early and repetitive emotional experiences can
result in structural changes that become consolidated in personality.3 These
changes turn into stable affective traits that give rise to enduring expecta-
tions colouring the individual’s affective world and behaviour in predict-
able ways (Magai 2008). Interestingly, Revelle and Scherer (2009, 304–305)
highlight that these habitual affective traits (i.e. dispositions to experiencing
some types of emotions more frequently than other people) are reflected in
basic neural processes; functional brain mapping has shown that various
affective traits are associated with activation in different brain regions when
individuals are shown positively and/or negatively valenced slides (Revelle
and Scherer 2009).
As previously mentioned, there are competing theories and frameworks
when it comes to the study of emotions, and the present volume attempts to
review and integrate research from these various areas to shed light on par-
ticular aspects, or stages, of translators’ emotion processing. The case study
itself, however, focuses on trait emotional intelligence and is thus rooted in
personality psychology and trait theory more specifically. In the case study,
my intention is to explore professional translators’ individual differences in
emotion processing at the level of personality, and exploring their trait-level
characteristics seemed to be a more reliable way of doing this than did ana-
lysing individual instances of behaviour. Alternative approaches for study-
ing personality were nevertheless considered. For instance,
[the] processing approach construes personality as an organized system

of mediating units [. . .] and cognitive-affective dynamics, conscious and
unconscious, that interact with the situation the individual experiences
[. . .] the basic concern has been to discover general principles about
how the mind operates and influences social behaviour as the person
interacts with social situations, conceptualized within a broadly social-
cognitive theoretical framework.
(Mischel and Shoda 2008, 209)
Social-cognitive approaches offer a valuable alternative account of person-

ality to trait approaches. Barenbaum and Winter (2008, 15) claim that
while trait psychologists had long recognised the importance of the self,
the cognitive revolution brought a proliferation of “self-”related variables,
including the theory of self-concept which is rooted in social-cognitive
approaches. The self-concept explains how people perceive and regulate
themselves, as well as providing a lens for interpreting other people’s behav-
iours, something which is said to involve cognitive appraisals (Fiske and
Taylor 2013). Whatever their theoretical origins, however, it is claimed that
individual difference variables such as self-efficacy appear closely related to
traits on an empirical level. Indeed, McCrae and Costa (2008, 160) state
that most psychological questionnaires measure some form of personality
trait. In addition, social-cognitive approaches have often been criticised for
neglecting to take account of the stable dispositional differences between
individuals (Mischel and Shoda 2008, 209). The use of trait theory as a
framework for the present case study is rooted in the belief that there are
certain stable personality traits and behavioural dispositions that are help-
ful for successful translation and others that are less so. Trait theory, in
my view, also enables the characterisation and understanding of transla-
tors and the differences between them. According to McCrae and Costa
(2012, 15), trait models of personality are compatible with a wide variety
of theoretical approaches and have formed the basis for most research on
personality.
It is important to acknowledge that trait approaches have also been
criticised, notably for not fully addressing the psychological processes that
underlie behaviours and, thus, for not making behavioural change easy to
achieve; indeed, Mischel and Shoda (2008, 209) note that it is one thing to
generalise about a population’s traits and their similarities and differences
but quite another to explain what leads to these and how to alter them.
McCrae and Costa (2008) acknowledged that personality trait profiles are
more useful in understanding an individual’s trajectory in life than in making
specific predictions about what a person will do. Because it is important to
explain the psychological processes and structures that underlie the individ-
ual differences that have emerged from the case study in relation to each of
the constructs explored, each of the following chapters includes a discussion
of research, aiming to explain the psychological processes underlying the
stable differences found by drawing on research from both trait approaches
and alternative competing paradigms. This is so that the interindividual trait
differences found via translators’ self-reports can be explained in relation to
research on the processes that determine behaviour. After all, Mischel and
Shoda (2008, 234) argue that, when it comes to personality research, dif-
ferences between major approaches tend to reflect different preferences in
terms of analysis more than fundamental incompatibilities.
The time when personality traits were equated with pop psychology and
not regarded as a legitimate object for scientific study has long since passed.
This kind of criticism in the 1970s sparked much theorising and research
that subsequently restored faith in the value of studying personality traits.
Nowadays, hundreds of empirical studies confirm that personality traits
exist (McCrae and Costa 2008, 160). According to McCrae (2002), person-
ality psychology is now “accumulating a store of replicable findings about
the origins, development, and functioning of personality traits” (in McCrae
and Costa 2008, 159). Personality traits have a biological basis and are
habitual patterns of behaviour, thought, and emotion which summarise a
person’s typical behaviour (Kassin 2004; Ożańska-Ponikwia 2013; Dewaele
2016a). It is accepted among psychologists that there are five ‘higher-order
personality traits’, the so-called Big Five: Openness, Conscientiousness,
Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism (McCrae and Costa 1996).
Personality traits are hierarchically organised, with the Big Five at the sum-
mit of the hierarchy; more specific, narrower, or ‘lower-order traits’ com-
bine to form the generalised ‘higher-order traits’ (Ożańska-Ponikwia 2013).
McCrae and Costa claim that the five-factor model adopts the tenets of trait
theory in the sense that “individuals can be characterized in terms of rela-
tively enduring patterns of thoughts, feelings, and actions” and that “traits
can be quantitatively assessed and show some degree of cross-situational
consistency” (2008, 160). Personality psychology and trait theory, specifi-
cally, are adopted in the present case study so as to offer an empirical insight
into what translators are like and, in doing so, to bring into focus a number
of issues and phenomena linked to the enmeshing of emotion and transla-
tion. The literature reviews in each chapter contain a section addressing the
research findings from personality psychology, more specifically, in relation
to the emotion construct tackled in that chapter. In these reviews, the broad
dimension of Neuroticism is given particular attention because of its clear
association with individual differences at the affective level (Revelle and
Scherer 2009, 304).
Personality traits are said to be relatively stable over the life span4 and
influence multiple aspects of human nature, including the problems that
people have evolved to solve (McCrae and Costa 2008, 171). As such, inves-
tigating personality traits could be the key to understanding how individuals
accomplish the task of translation. Just as Stern (1983, 379) once said that
certain personality traits are either helpful or detrimental for successful lan-
guage learning, it could be argued that certain personality traits are either
helpful or detrimental for successful translating. Matthews, Deary, and
Whiteman (2003, 396) claim that the evidence for the predictive validity of
traits is overwhelming and that traits correlate with individual differences
in several areas, such as behaviour, subjective experience, and physiology.
That said, it has been debated as to whether personality traits are also
shaped by cultural and environmental factors. While McCrae and Costa
(2008, 169) cite evidence for the universality and biological basis of the
five-factor model across instruments and diverse cultures and argue that
experiences do not shape personality traits, Dewaele (2016a) asserts that
multilinguals express and perceive emotions in a unique way because of
the influence of their different languages and cultures, thus impacting their
personalities in significant ways. It is important to consider that, even if
major traits are resilient in the face of normal life events (Matthews, Deary,
and Whiteman 2003, 75), it could be that moving to a different country
or learning new languages qualify as major life events inducing some level
of trait change over time. Further research is required in this area which
has been somewhat neglected by personality psychologists over the years.
Another relevant and related finding is the study conducted by Niiya, Ells-
worth, and Yamaguchi (2006), which questioned the cultural uniqueness of
emotions. The researchers found that emotions that are supposedly “cultur-
ally unique” are actually not totally incomprehensible in other cultures, as
people have the ability to experience all kinds of emotions, even if some of
them are less emphasised in their own culture. In the case study presented
here, it is important to highlight that the emotion trait variable that is oper-
ationalised has demonstrated cross-cultural stability (see Petrides 2009b).
Nevertheless, even if a personality test provides evidence for cross-cultural
stability of broad traits, one must bear in mind that this does not necessarily
mean that a particular trait is of equal importance across cultures (Mat-
thews, Deary, and Whiteman 2003, 56).
Individual Differences and Emotional Intelligence

The study of individual differences, or differential psychology, aims to
understand how and why individuals vary in their affect, behaviour, cog-
nition, and motivation. Individual difference researchers employ a wide
range of research tools and theoretical approaches, from psychometrics to
brain imaging, in order to demonstrate that individuals differ along conti-
nua of affect, behaviour, cognition, and motivation (Chamorro-Premuzic,
von Stumm, and Furnham 2011, 3). Scholars operationalise individual dif-
ferences in terms of quantifiable trait dimensions, such as intelligence and
personality.
Research on emotional intelligence (EI) has gathered significant momen-
tum over the last few years. Broadly speaking, EI refers to the different ways
that individuals “attend to, process, and utilize affect-laden information
of an intrapersonal (e.g., managing one’s own emotions) or interpersonal
(e.g. managing others’ emotions) nature” (Petrides 2009a, 10). Its roots
can be traced back to the concept of ‘social intelligence’, coined by E. L.
Thorndike (1920), and to Gardner’s work on multiple intelligences. Gard-
ner suggested that there are seven types of intelligence, including interper-
sonal intelligence, the ability to understand other people, and intrapersonal
intelligence, the ability to understand yourself and develop a sense of your
own identity (Gardner 1983). Gardner’s work inspired many psychologi-
cal studies on how people appraise and communicate emotions, and how
they use these to solve problems. There is also much popular interest in EI,
especially since the publication of Goleman’s 1995 bestseller. Recent work
highlighted the key role of EI in various areas such as job performance, as
well as physical and mental well-being.
Interestingly, Mikolajczak (2010, 25) highlights that EI was originally con-
ceived as a set of abilities forming a new form of intelligence (e.g. by Mayer
and Salovey 1993) known as ‘ability EI’, but other scholars believed that EI
was conceptually related to the personality dimensions of Neuroticism and
Alexithymia and, as such, should be conceived as a set of affect-related traits.
The view of EI as personality based led to the development of the ‘trait EI’
construct. Mikolajczak argues that the trait EI construct is useful because
“it organizes under a single framework the main individual differences in
affectivity, which have been up to now scattered across the basic Big Five
dimensions” (2010, 26). Pérez-González and Sanchez-Ruiz (2014, 53–54)
also report that trait EI provides a comprehensive operationalisation of the
affect-related aspects of personality in greater detail than Big Five models,
and that “correlations between trait EI and the Big Five are strong, replicable
and genetically influenced”. In line with this perspective, Dewaele (2016a)
indicates that trait EI has incremental validity over the Big Five dimensions in
predicting criteria such as life satisfaction, coping styles, and the recognition
of emotional expressions. Trait EI can thus be defined as “a constellation of
emotion-related dispositions located at the lower levels of personality hierar-
chies” and is strongly associated with the overarching traits of Neuroticism
and Extraversion (Petrides, Pita, and Kokkinaki 2007). It is a distinct and
unique factor in the Big Five factor space, and its heritable proportion is
believed to be at about 40% (Petrides et al. 2016). As a lower-order person-
ality trait, trait EI captures some unique variance of personality, and in par-
ticular, it captures how people experience, identify, understand, and use their
emotions and those of others. In sum, trait EI integrates the affective aspects
of personality and concerns our perceptions of our emotional abilities. This
means that it captures how good we think we are at perceiving, regulating,
and expressing emotions in order to adapt to our environment and maintain
well-being. In the trait EI perspective, constructs such as empathy, emotional
expression, adaptability, and self-control are personality traits which are psy-
chometrically unrelated to mental ability. In a recent review of the construct,
Petrides et al. (2016) confirmed that individual differences in trait EI are a
consistent predictor of human behaviour across the life span.
Emotions are part and parcel of our everyday lives, and as such, we have
seen that they have been studied and analysed from various perspectives and
theoretical frameworks. As the present study is concerned with individual
differences in the affectivity of translators, a trait EI approach was felt to
be more appropriate than the abovementioned ability approach. Indeed, the
view of EI as a form of intelligence or an ability entails measurement using
IQ-like performance tests (e.g. Kong, Zhao, and Yu 2012; Mayer, Salovey,
and Caruso 2008; Siegling et al. 2012), whereas the view of EI as a per-
sonality trait entails measurement using self-reports, for example, personal-
ity questionnaires (Petrides 2010). Although both perspectives clearly have
their own advantages, the choice of a trait EI instrument for the present case
study was deliberate. First, it aligns with the view adopted that there are
certain affective personality traits that are more or less helpful for success-
ful translation. Second, the operationalisation of trait EI is said to enable a
straightforward measurement of subjective emotions (Petrides, Niven, and
Mouskouni 2006) whereas measuring ability EI is associated with validity
and psychometric problems (Mikolajczak et al. 2009, 699). Trait EI is said
to “enjoy widespread empirical support and consistently replicated find-
ings from numerous studies that are theoretically driven, methodologically
sophisticated, and independently conducted” (Petrides 2010, 138). The fact
that trait EI measures show robust empirical evidence of criterion valid-
ity and offer strong predictive power (Joseph and Newman 2010) strongly
motivated their use in the present study. Third, the literature highlights that
ability EI has attracted an avalanche of negative findings and scientific criti-
cism and has not yet been convincingly established as an intelligence com-
ponent (Austin and Saklofske 2014).5
To add to this evidence of the legitimacy of employing the trait EI con-
struct in the present study, a great number of studies reported in Petrides
et al. (2016) have found that perceptions of one’s emotional competencies
can influence tangible behaviours and that trait EI has structural and func-
tional neurobiological correlates. Patients with lesions in areas associated
with emotional processing have lower trait EI scores; trait EI correlates posi-
tively with grey matter volume and density in key emotion areas, and it is
related to parts of the brain that are considered central for social and emo-
tional cognition. In addition, trait EI is associated with neurological activity
in both resting and active conditions. For instance, electroencephalogram
(EEG) studies have shown that higher trait EI individuals show greater rest-
ing left-frontal activation and lower reactivity in stressful situations (Miko-
lajczak et al. 2007a). Petrides et al. (2016, 3) conclude that “the biological
correlates [. . .] add to the large body of evidence showing that trait EI is
neither a methodological artifact nor theoretically elusive, since it corre-
lates with and predicts a gamut of very precisely operationalized criteria”.
According to Petrides (2009a), the key benefits of trait EI theory are to be
found in conceptual content and explanatory power and, as discussed else-
where (Hubscher-Davidson 2013a), evidence suggests that trait EI is fertile
from both explicative and predictive standpoints. For instance, trait EI has
been shown to be strongly predictive of emotional and social criteria and to
correlate strongly with affect-laden variables (Mavroveli et al. 2009, 268).
Trait models consider EI as a multifaceted construct with 13 to 15 emotion-
related behavioural dispositions which are thought to affect the ways indi-
viduals cope with demands and pressures (Nelis et al. 2009). According to
Petrides et al. (2011, 37), there are several good measures of trait EI that
are said to provide comprehensive coverage of the sampling domain, pres-
ent a stable factor structure across studies, and show excellent psychometric
properties. In their study of the psychometric properties of a particular trait
EI measure, Mikolajczak et al. (2007) highlight the relevance of trait EI
for professions with an affective component and its particular relevance for
differentiating between successful and unsuccessful students in education.
Trait EI theory thus provides an appropriate and systematic framework for
the interpretation of results obtained with self-report measures of EI (Andrei
et al. 2016).
Trait EI theory maintains that certain emotion profiles are advantageous
in some contexts but not in others. For example, being sociable and emo-
tionally expressive can be adaptive traits in the context of working for a
translation agency, but can be maladaptive if working from home as a free-
lance translator—in this context, a trait such as self-motivation might be
more advantageous. Different jobs, situations, and environments call for
different personality traits: “[W]hen it comes to predicting behavior, the
desirability of particular trait EI profiles will always depend on the context
and type of behavior that one seeks to predict” (Petrides 2011, 661). Being
very high in trait EI does not necessarily entail success and can sometimes
lead to undesirable consequences, as we will explore in the following chap-
ters. As such, it is relevant to note that there is no perfect profile of an
emotionally intelligent individual which might excel in all aspects of life, or
of translation.
Trait Emotional Intelligence Measurement and Applications

The trait EI instrument that was chosen for the purposes of the present
study is the TEIQue developed by Kostantinos Vasily Petrides (2001, 2004,
2009a). The TEIQue was chosen to operationalise trait EI because it pro-
vides comprehensive coverage of the trait EI sampling domain, and is the
designated vehicle for operationalising the construct (Petrides 2011). It is
highly reliable and is said to have a real advantage relative to restricted
instruments (Petrides 2009a). There are other self-report measures that pur-
port to measure trait EI, but these arguably do not measure the construct
comprehensively because of their weak construct validity (e.g. Siegling,
Petrides, and Martskvishvili 2015). In contrast to many self-report measures
of EI, the TEIQue has good internal consistency and is characterised by a
strong theoretical and psychometric basis (Andrei et al. 2016, 262).
A large body of literature attests to the criterion validity of the TEIQue
instrument for a wide range of outcomes (e.g. the use of adaptive coping
strategies, reactions to stress etc.): Andrei et al. (2016, 263) note that “both
primary and meta-analytic studies have consistently shown that, compared
to other self-report measures of EI, the TEIQue has superior psychometric
properties and greater validity”. In their meta-analysis of the relationship
between emotional intelligence and health, Martins et al. (2010) found that,
compared with several other trait EI measures, the TEIQue was the stron-
gest predictor of physical, psychosomatic, and mental health.
TEIQue items represent the 15 facets of trait EI, yielding roughly ten
items per facet for the full form of 153 items. As can be seen in Figure 1.2,
the four factors and their constituent facets are ‘well-being’ (traits per-
taining to dispositional mood: self-esteem, trait happiness, and trait opti-
mism), ‘self-control’ (traits pertaining to the regulation of emotions and
impulses: emotion regulation, stress management, and low impulsiveness),
‘emotionality’ (traits pertaining to the perception and expression of emo-
tions: emotion perception, trait empathy, emotion expression, and relation-
ships), and ‘sociability’ (traits pertaining to the interpersonal utilisation and
management of emotions: assertiveness, emotion management, and social
awareness). Two other facets (adaptability and self-motivation) contribute
directly to the global trait EI score. According to Andrei et al. (2016, 262),
“the solid psychometric basis of the TEIQue instruments is reflected in the
cross-cultural stability of its four-factor structure, which has been replicated
in several languages”. The full TEIQue provides scores on global trait EI,
the four factors, and the 15 facets—the facet is the lowest level at which the
TEIQue should be analysed.
Detailed descriptions of the facets and factors can be found in the techni-
cal manual for the TEIQue developed by Petrides (2009a), and the factors/
facets that are of particular interest to the present study are covered in-depth
in relevant subsequent chapters of this monograph. The TEIQue items
are responded to on a 7-point Likert-type scale, ranging from 1 (disagree
completely) to 7 (agree completely). The TEIQue and its translations are
available free of charge for academic research purposes from the London
Psychometric Laboratory based at University College London (UCL). Fig-
ure 1.3 is a visual representation of the 15 facets of the TEIQue positioned
in relation to their corresponding factor.
It is important to highlight that there are no correct or incorrect answers
to the TEIQue items. As a self-report questionnaire, the TEIQue captures
respondents’ subjective perceptions and dispositions. According to Petrides
(2009a, 9), responses can deviate from the norms, but they cannot be ‘incor-
rect’ as such or interpreted as indicative of low mental abilities or lack of
competencies or skills. Much has already been said in the extant literature
on the accuracy of self-reports and self-perceptions, but it is important to
recall that
1. self-perceptions have a strong influence on cognition, behaviour, and

mental health, irrespective of whether they are accurate or not;
2. veridical scoring criteria do not exist for self-perceptions, so accuracy
cannot, in any case, be determined objectively (Petrides 2009a, 15); and
The sampling domain of trait emotional intelligence in adults (Petrides 2009)
Factors Facets High scorers perceive themselves as
Well-being Trait optimism Confident and likely to “look on the bright side” of life
Trait happiness Cheerful and satisfied with their lives
Self-esteem Successful and self-confident
Sociability Emotion management (others) Capable of influencing other people’s feelings
Assertiveness Forthright, frank, and willing to stand up for their rights
Social awareness Accomplished networkers with excellent social skills
Emotionality Trait empathy Capable of taking someone else’s perspective
Emotion perception (self and others) Clear about their own and other people’s feelings
Emotion expression Capable of communicating their feelings to others
Relationships Capable of having fulfilling personal relationships
Self-control Emotion regulation Capable of controlling their emotions
Impulsiveness (low) Reflective and less likely to give in to their urges
Stress management Capable of withstanding pressure and regulating stress
Auxiliary facets Self-motivation Driven and unlikely to give up in the face of adversity
Adaptability Flexible and willing to adapt to new conditions
Source: Andrei et al. (2016, 262).
[http://dx.doi.org.libezproxy.open.ac.uk/10.1080/00223891.2015.1084630]
Caption required by copyright:
Full source:
Andrei et al. 2016. “The Incremental Validity of the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (TEIQue): A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis”.
Journal of Personality Assessment 98(3): 261–276.
Reprinted by permission of the publisher (Taylor & Francis Ltd, www.informaworld.com).
Figure 1.2 The factors and facets of the TEIQue

Figure 1.3 Visual representation of the TEIQue factors and facets

© K.V. Petrides 1998—. London Psychometric Laboratory. All rights reserved.
3. it has been acknowledged that participants are generally honest in their

responses to anonymous questionnaires employed in research studies.
All in all, self-report instruments can, and do, play a valuable role in
scientific research. According to Mavroveli and Sanchez-Ruiz (2011, 113),
using self-reports like the TEIQue is based on the understanding that indi-
viduals’ reports on their intra- and interpersonal qualities are meaningful
and impact on their behaviours in a meaningful way. Andrei et al. (2016,
273) acknowledge that the existing literature on trait EI tends to over-rely
on self-report questionnaires, but they argue that this is to be expected as
many psychological criteria are subjective and can therefore only be mea-
sured in this way.
Trait EI theory has been operationalised with the TEIQue in a wide range
of contexts. Petrides (2009a, 7) observes that “the influence of emotions
on most aspects of everyday life means that trait EI will be a predictor of
many different variables in many different situations and contexts”. As
an instrument that is generalisable across contexts6 (Petrides 2009a), the
TEIQue can be (and has been) used in a range of different settings as diverse
as alcohol dependency and craving (Uva et al. 2010), leadership effective-
ness (Siegling, Nielsen, and Petrides 2014), emotional labour (Mikolajczak,
Menil, and Luminet 2007; Austin, Dore, and O’Donovan 2008) and mental
health (Mikolajczak et al. 2007b). In fact, a vast amount of research has
documented a significant and robust association between trait EI (opera-
tionalised by the TEIQue) and various well-being-related variables, indicat-
ing that individuals with high trait EI demonstrate a recurring resilience to
life stressors (Mikolajczak et al. 2009; Uva et al. 2010; O’Connor, Nguyen,
and Anglim 2017).
Indeed, trait EI has been found to significantly moderate responses to
stress (e.g. Mikolajczak et al. 2007a; Mikolajczak et al. 2009; Mikolajczak,
Menil, and Luminet 2007) and to be associated with a lower risk for mental
disorders, such as depression and anxiety (Mikolajczak et al. 2010). Individ-
uals with high trait EI are more prone to use problem-focused rather than
avoidance coping strategies (Petrides, Pita, and Kokkinaki 2007), to make
use of prosocial behaviours (Petrides et al. 2016), to appraise situations
as challenging rather than threatening (Mikolajczak and Luminet 2008),
and to think and act in ways that encourage positive—and discourage
negative—emotional experiences (Mikolajczak, Menil, and Luminet 2007).
In addition to these health and social benefits, trait EI has been shown to
be beneficial in working contexts. People with high trait EI are more likely
to advance to managerial positions, suggesting that employees with high
trait EI are more adept at using their emotions to facilitate job performance
(Siegling, Sfeir, and Smyth 2014). Academic commitment and success have
also been related to trait EI (e.g. Di Fabio and Palazzeschi 2015), and high
trait EI is said to contribute to increased motivation, planning, mood regu-
lation, and decision-making (Davis and Humphrey 2012; Ferrando et al.
2011). There is also evidence that trait EI is directly relevant to job satisfac-
tion, job adaptability, entrepreneurial behaviour, and engagement at work
(Ahmetoglu, Leutner, and Chamorro-Premuzic 2011; Akhtar et al. 2015).
In a recent review of developments in trait EI research, Petrides et al.
(2016) presented selected findings from applications in the areas of clini-
cal, health, social, educational, organisational, and developmental psychol-
ogy. They concluded that trait EI should be given serious consideration in
both career guidance and coaching and that scholars should minimise their
reliance on “a motley assortment of trait EI measures”, in favour of the
TEIQue which is psychometrically sound and suitable for scientific inquiry
and use in applied settings (ibid., 5). As such, the TEIQue was an obvious
choice for the present study.
Emotional Intelligence in Language and Writing Research

Areas of application of the trait EI framework that will be of particular
interest to translation scholars and practitioners are multilingualism and
second-language acquisition, as well as writing research. Indeed, in previ-
ous articles (Hubscher-Davidson 2013a; 2016), I highlighted the relevance
of trait EI research carried out in domains related to translation and, in
particular, the work carried out by Dewaele (2010) and Ożańska-Ponikwia
(2013) in the field of multilingualism. Using the TEIQue, Dewaele (2010)
demonstrated that trait EI plays an important role in how multilinguals
use their languages to communicate, how they express emotions, and how
they feel about their language competence. In a related piece of research,
Dewaele, Petrides, and Furnham (2008) explored the effects of trait emo-
tional intelligence and sociobiographical variables on communicative anxi-
ety and foreign language anxiety among multilinguals. Results showed that
out of 464 multilingual individuals in the study, those with higher than
average levels of trait EI suffered significantly less from communicative and
foreign language anxiety and were better able to gauge the emotional state
of their interlocutor. In her work with 137 bilinguals, Ożańska-Ponikwia
(2013) discovered that self-assessed L2 proficiency was positively correlated
with trait EI scores. These studies suggest that trait EI might be a person-
ality variable partially determining how individuals communicate in other
languages, how proficient they may be in doing so, and how they feel about
it. In addition, research in this area suggests that trait EI influences how
multilinguals perceive, regulate, and express emotions.
Although not employing a trait EI framework, Aneta Pavlenko’s work
on emotions and multilingualism was also key in highlighting the role of
affect in language use by multilinguals. She explored how emotion words
and concepts are processed differently from other words and across lan-
guages; she also showed that words in different languages display different
levels of emotionality, something which has been shown to affect code-
switching and language choice in multilinguals (Dewaele 2013). Bilin-
gualism and multilingualism research clearly demonstrate that learning
new languages and cultures has profound repercussions on what Dewaele
(2016b) calls the individual’s ‘emotional geography’. Nevertheless, Pav-
lenko highlights that the existence of different emotion concepts in dif-
ferent languages does not necessarily imply that users of these languages
have distinct physiological experiences: “Rather, it means that they may
have somewhat different vantage points from which to evaluate and inter-
pret their own and other’s emotional experiences” (2008, 150). Altogether,
this research highlights the mutual impact that emotions and language can
have on one another and the importance of both positive and negative
emotions in second-language acquisition and foreign-language learning
contexts. This work indicates that emotional intelligence should be incor-
porated into further research on various aspects of bilingualism, multilin-
gualism, and related areas.
When it comes to writing research, correlations have been found between
‘genius’ writers and various affect-related disorders, including schizophre-
nia, mood disorders, anxiety, alcoholism, drug abuse, and suicide (Kyaga
et al. 2013; Piirto 2009; Pourjalali, Skrzynecky, and Kaufman 2009). These
correlations seem to imply that writers can also develop a unique emotional
geography and that responses to emotive triggers associated with particu-
lar texts can be very powerful and potentially dangerous (Janks 2002).
Being able to respond well to texts that elicit strong emotional responses
requires an ability to regulate one’s emotions so as to avoid undesirable
consequences. In addition, a growing body of literature indicates the pre-
dictive validity of emotional intelligence when it comes to reading and
writing comprehension (e.g. Abdolrezapour 2013). EI strategies have been
shown to have a considerable effect on writing performance and under-
standing other people’s perspectives, and literature-based activities have
been shown to raise levels of EI (Abdolrezapour and Tavakoli 2012; Shao,
Yu, and Ji 2013; Oatley and Johnson-Laird 2014). This is additional evi-
dence that emotions play an important part in how individuals interpret
and work with texts. Creative writing research has also produced some
evidence that emotionally intelligent individuals are more likely to produce
creative written work (e.g. Russ 2009). One can therefore hypothesise that
translators who are able to perceive, regulate, and express emotions in
adaptive ways ought to be more effective and competent at interpreting
and translating texts.
In sum, research in fields closely related to translation has found that trait
EI influences how bilinguals/multilinguals handle emotions and how writers
perform. As translators can be considered bilingual writers, it seems par-
ticularly relevant to explore the potential impact of trait EI on translators.
Emotional Intelligence and Translation

The following anecdote is inspired by a story that was reported to me by
a translator whose name I have changed for reasons of anonymity. It illus-
trates a challenging situation whereby the translator had to make use of his
emotional intelligence in order to produce a workable target text. Some of
the details from the original story have been altered slightly:
Michael is a seasoned professional freelance translator with several

years of experience of working in various fields. One day he received
a text from a client which he was asked to translate. It was a hospital
report for a patient not much older than himself who had had a seem-
ingly endless list of serious health problems, including cancer. The week
he had to undertake the translation also happened to be the week of the
anniversary of his mother’s death from breast cancer. While working
on the translation, Michael could easily imagine the emotions felt by
the patient, and this rendered the translation process intense and dif-
ficult to manage. In addition, the text was challenging to translate, and
Michael spent longer on it than he normally would. Although tempted
to give up on the translation, Michael carried on with it, but he decided
to take many physical breaks from the text, for instance, going to walk
his dog, so that he did not have to think about the translation for long
stretches of time. In the end, he succeeded in delivering a quality and
timely translation back to the client.
It is evident that translators, like other individuals, need several skills for
managing and regulating emotional life and that they differ in terms of how
well they do so. In the preceding example, Michael’s decision not to give up
entirely on the translation was rooted in skills that allowed him to under-
stand his reactions and to know their potential impact on his work. First,
Michael had to perceive his reaction as an emotional state, then he had
to anticipate how this reaction might affect his work, and finally he had
to choose a course of action to adjust his expressive behaviour. Because
Michael appeared to manage the situation in line with his goal (submitting
the translation), we could say that he regulated this emotional episode in
an “emotionally intelligent” manner (Salovey and Mayer 1990; Wranik,
Barrett, and Salovey 2007). Nevertheless, other translators in the same situ-
ation may not have been able to manage their emotions as successfully, or
they may have experienced other emotionally challenging situations in the
course of their translating careers that they did not manage as well as they
could. Employing trait EI as the key variable in a study of translators’ emo-
tions therefore seems appropriate. The current study is underpinned by the
notion that the more emotionally intelligent translators are, the more easily
they will perceive, regulate, and express emotions in the context of their
translation work. It seeks to investigate whether emotionally intelligent
translators are more likely to demonstrate adaptive translating behaviours
than are translators with a lower level of trait EI.
In the case study, I use the trait emotional intelligence framework origi-
nally proposed by Petrides (2001) in order to stimulate a discussion of the
processes that allow translators like Michael to regulate their emotional
response effectively. In doing so, I hope to demonstrate how trait EI pro-
vides a useful framework for understanding how translators can shape their
emotional reactions in specific situations for desired purposes. Because EI
involves (1) perceiving emotions in oneself and others, (2) regulating these
emotions for decision-making, and (3) expressing/communicating emotions
to others, these three broad stages are tackled in the following chapters in
order to promote the idea that sophisticated knowledge about emotions will
help translators to manage emotional episodes encountered in the course of
their working lives. In the earlier example, Michael had clarity about his
feelings (stage 1), he found a way to control his emotions (stage 2), and he
was capable of responding to the affect-laden task appropriately (stage 3).
All three stages are evident from the example, indicating that translators
have to use their skills in all three areas in order to adapt to the various
challenges of working professionally as a translator.
Emotion Traits and the Translation Process
Before reviewing the research that has been carried out specifically in the
area of translators’ emotion traits, it is relevant to situate this research
within the research area of translation process research (TPR). It is also
necessary to provide a brief overview of the research studies that have been
conducted on translators’ personality traits, on the one hand, and on their
emotions, on the other, as these are precursors to the present research study.
Translation Process Research: An Overview

TPR7 is a branch of Translation Studies which is concerned with the pro-
cesses by which translators arrive at their translations (Jakobsen 2017,
21). This area of research seeks to understand translator (and interpreter)
behaviour, and views translation as a complex activity requiring a set of
specific skills that translators apply during the translation process in order
to make decisions and solve problems. Process-oriented research is one of
three research areas within the branch of Descriptive Translation Studies
(Holmes 1988). Focusing on translator behaviour, studies in this area have
employed a wide range of research methods to collect various types of data
from which mental processes can be inferred.
Research into translation processes and what goes on in the translator’s
mind arguably gained ground in the 1980s when translation scholars started
to make use of Think Aloud Protocols (TAPs), also known as verbal reports,
to collect data on translators’ thoughts and gain access to their ‘black
box’. The use of TAPs was “the first highly visible contribution of psy-
chology to research into written translation” (Ferreira, Schwieter, and Gile
2015, 5). It was used in the first systematic empirical studies on the transla-
tion process, which tended to focus on strategies employed for problem-
solving (e.g. Krings 1986 or Lörscher 1991). Nevertheless, verbal reports
were heavily criticised, and at that time, “experimental designs lacked
systematization and clear objectives, used small samples (case studies)
and differed significantly both conceptually and methodologically among
researchers [. . .] conclusions emerging from those studies were quite varied
and their results could not be generalized” (Alves and Hurtado Albir 2010,
29). With the development of more sophisticated data collection tools since
the 1990s (e.g. key-logging software, video capture, and eye trackers) it
became possible to widen the scope of process-oriented research and to tri-
angulate research methods, thus capturing data in a more rigorous fashion.
Over the years, there has been a very diverse range of topics investi-
gated in TPR, for example, creativity (Kuβmaul 2000; Bayer-Hohenwarter
2010), translation competence (PACTE 2011; Göpferich 2013), confi-
dence levels (Fraser 2000), risk-taking behaviours (Künzli 2004), expertise
(Englund Dimitrova 2005), time pressure (Hansen 2006), the translation
of metaphors (Sjørup 2011), and ergonomics (Ehrensberger-Dow and
O’Brien 2015), to name but a few. In the last decade or so, TPR broadened
its horizons to incorporate the study of the influence on mental processes
of external factors alongside internal ones, and researchers have ventured
out of the laboratory and into translators’ workplaces, a move which,
according to Muñoz Martín, reinstated the human, social, and cultural
dimensions of cognition and opened new research avenues (2014, 67). This
view of translation as a situated activity has sparked new research trends,
in particular how translators interact with their environment, with their
tools, with each other, and with their colleagues (see for example O’Brien
2012; Ehrensberger-Dow and Massey 2014; Risku 2014). In many ways,
the present study is a result of this growing interest in, on one hand, the
role of human dimensions (feelings, emotions) during the translation pro-
cess and, on the other hand, employing new methodologies to investigate
the psychological mechanisms of translators in their workplace. It answers
recent calls for a reorientation in TPR towards the individual translator
(e.g. Halverson 2014).
This relatively recent emphasis on individual translators, how they engage
with their environment, and what the repercussions are in terms of transla-
tion performance has also sparked new interest in describing the profiles of
participants in TPR. Indeed, it is increasingly acknowledged that, although
translators are unique, they will share psychological, social, cultural, and
biographical traits that can be linked to individual differences in the way
that they handle translations. Therefore, some process researchers are now
turning to personality and differential psychology in order to understand
how and why translators vary in terms of behaviour, affect, or motivation.
As Saldanha and O’Brien (2013, 147) argue,
[i]n much of the translation process research published to date there are
consistent observations of individual differences within groups. Clearly,
no matter how controlled the experiment, the translator’s individual
personality, experience, attitude and so forth will have an impact. Per-
sonality profiling might be a useful method for exploring this in more
detail.
Traditions from cognitive, experimental, and individual difference psychol-

ogy have thus begun to permeate the field of TPR and had an impact on its
development, enabling researchers to study the translator’s ‘black box’ from
a variety of new perspectives.
A comprehensive account of the development of TPR would have neces-
sitated more space than available here. Nevertheless, I have provided a brief
overview of developments in process research and highlighted the diversity
of topics and approaches in this area of TS, the interdisciplinarity of the
field, and the growing realisation that exploring translators’ individual dif-
ferences can offer valuable insights into aspects that have been traditionally
overlooked in TPR. In the following sections I focus more specifically on
translation research in the areas of personality and emotions.
Personality Research in Translation

Although the present volume focuses on written translation, important
research work carried out in the field of interpreting deserves a mention
here. Indeed, research into personality traits has been around for some time
in that field. Already in 1974, Schein wrote an article about the personal-
ity characteristics of interpreters for the deaf, and he used a battery of tests
(e.g. the Edwards Personal Preference Schedule) to come to the conclusion
that interpreters were desirous of attention, independent, not afraid to make
errors, and not perseverative. Sign language interpreting can be said to have
led the way when it comes to personality research, as pioneering studies in the
1980s explored sign language students’ personality types using various mea-
sures, including the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) which is based on
the Big Five (e.g. Wilcox 1981). Studies comparing the personalities of inter-
preters and translators have also been popular. In 1984, Henderson admin-
istered Cattell’s Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (“the 16PF”) to
65 professional translators, 35 conference interpreters, and 46 students and
found, among other things, that the stereotype of introvert translators and
extravert interpreters was not supported by his data. Interestingly, he also
found that translators are “more affected by feelings” whereas interpreters
“are more emotionally stable” (1984, 240). In 2005, Schweda-Nicholson
published two studies on interpreter trainees’ personality traits and found
that female interpreters who were Thinking types on the MBTI greatly out-
numbered Feeling types, a finding which goes against trends in the general
population but which also highlights that a preference for impersonal and
logical analysis might be optimal for the interpreting profession (Schweda-
Nicholson 2005a; 2005b). In more recent years, research into interpreters’
personalities has mainly focused on the role of personality traits in deter-
mining aptitude for interpreting performance (Shaw, Timarová, and Salaets
2008; Timarová and Salaets 2011; Rosiers, Eyckmans, and Bauwens 2011;
Bontempo and Napier 2011). Zannirato (2013) warns against the use of
personality profiling on its own in determining what an ‘ideal’ interpreter
might be like but concedes that there has been renewed interest for research
in this area of late. Bontempo et al. (2014, 36) argued that, when personal-
ity variables are interpreted together with general mental/cognitive ability,
they can help to predict an individual’s likelihood of success in interpreting.
Empirical evidence from recent interpreting studies has shown that per-
sonality plays a part in interpreting success, and that there are certain lower-
order personality traits and emotional skills that highly skilled interpreters
seem to share. For instance, Self-esteem and Neuroticism, as well as Open-
ness to experience and Conscientiousness, are said to be important predic-
tors of interpreter competence (Bontempo and Napier 2011; Bontempo
et al. 2014). McCartney (2016) found that experienced interpreters tend
to be high in determination and to have a willingness to persevere (“grit”),
and Hild (2014) reported that the verbal behaviour of speakers can trigger
emotional responses in simultaneous interpreters, thus requiring emotion
regulation on their part. This last finding is an interesting and much-needed
development in the field, as conference interpreting has traditionally viewed
notions such as personal or emotional involvement in professional contexts
with much suspicion. Recently, however, there have been calls from vari-
ous areas of interpreting for additional research into emotional aspects of
personality, such as empathy (Merlini 2015), stress management (Bontempo
and Malcolm 2012), and emotional stability (Bontempo et al. 2014). In her
book, which tackles the influence of interpreters’ past emotional experi-
ences on their linguistic behaviour (code-switching, borrowing, translating),
Furmanek (2005, 59) also argues that interpreters have linguistic-emotional
baggage which influences their use of terminology, expressions, and other
dimensions of their work. Emotion traits have been shown to matter in
interpreting contexts, and research on interpreters’ individual differences
bears some relevance to the present study. As such, it is referred to where
appropriate in the following chapters.
Scholarly interest in the personality traits of translators has been more
limited over the years, and initial research in this area did not claim an affili-
ation to process-oriented research as it is understood today. As I highlighted
in previous articles, some early attempts were made to investigate aspects
of personality in translation, but these were relatively few and far between
(Hubscher-Davidson 2009, forthcoming). Two early studies are notewor-
thy, however. Reiss’s reference to Spranger’s 1920 typology in the broader
context of translation criticism led her to describe translators as a variety of
complex personalities with dominant traits, such as theoretical, economic,
aesthetic, social, aggressive, and religious (2000, 110). Another theoretical
and pioneering study of translators’ traits is Barboni’s (1999) work, inspired
by psychoanalysis, in which she claims that certain personalities are more
suited to certain types of work. For instance, she argues that a translator
with a personality structure of a paranoid type will be more comfortable
translating clear and codified texts, such as patents (1999, 24). Though both
of these pioneering studies did not make use of empirical/experimental evi-
dence to support their analyses, they paved the way for further research in
the area of translators’ personality traits.
Inspired by their work, as well as that of several TPR scholars (e.g. Lauk-
kanen 1996; Fraser 2000; Jääskeläinen 1999) who had discussed translators’
attitudinal behaviours, I decided to investigate translators’ personalities in
a more comprehensive fashion. Between 2002 and 2007, I carried out doc-
toral work on this topic, using psychometric testing (a version of the MBTI)
and a number of other methodologies to study empirically the links between
20 translators’ personalities and their performance in literary translation.
Among other findings, it was interesting to note that the personality trait
of intuition seemed to positively impact on the literary translation process
and product of trainee translators. I published two articles on this work
(2009, 2013b). At the same time there was growing acknowledgement in
TPR, which I have already alluded to, of the need to describe the profiles
of translators and to draw inferences between individual traits and transla-
tion competences (cf. Muñoz Martín 2010a; Jääskeläinen 2012; Saldanha
and O’Brien 2013). An increasing number of professional translation com-
petence lists (e.g. National Occupational Standards for Translation 2007)8
also started to include personality traits as part of their descriptions, attest-
ing to the relevance of this area for professional translation (Hubscher-
Davidson 2013a).
In 2016, process-oriented researchers Lehka-Paul and Whyatt built on
existing research and conducted a pilot study aiming to link personality
features and translation performance. Also basing their research on the Big
Five traits, they found that both trainee and professional translators tended
to score well on traits such as Conscientiousness and Openness. This finding
is particularly interesting because these traits could be important predic-
tors of translation competence in the same way that they were found to be
important predictors of interpreter competence (e.g. Bontempo and Napier
2011). Nevertheless, more research is necessary in this area before any con-
clusions can be drawn.
This recent work in the area of translators’ personality traits, and the
increasing use of psychometric instruments, has recently led some scholars
to investigate other individual differences that might impact on translation
performance, including in the area of affect. The next section provides a
brief review of the literature in this area.
Emotion Research in Process-Oriented Translation

The role that emotions might play during the translation process has been
hinted at for some time (see for example Kussmaul’s reference to transla-
tors’ emotional qualities in his 1995 book), but it is only in recent years that
affective factors have really started to become the object of in-depth studies
in process-oriented research.9 As I have argued elsewhere, emotional aspects
of translator behaviour have lacked visibility in the Translation Studies lit-
erature, and emotions were mostly tackled in terms of how best to translate
emotional material or emotive language (Hubscher-Davidson 2013a). The
translator’s own emotions, and his or her possible influence on the transla-
tion process and product, were hardly addressed.
Early attempts to explore affective processes in translation from a process-
oriented perspective include Jääskeläinen’s 1999 study in which she aimed
to identify the role of translators’ personal involvement in the transla-
tion task. Findings indicated that more successful translators “seemed to
be in the process of creating an almost interpersonal relationship with the
ST author as well as the assumed TT readers” (1999, 224). Jääskeläinen
argued that differences in translators’ work could be partly linked to affec-
tive and personality factors, and that positive feelings—such as a committed
and enthusiastic attitude—could contribute to translation quality.
Other early studies include Fraser’s 1996 study of translators’ confidence
levels, in which she highlighted that translators’ levels of personal and emo-
tional engagement with their work seemed to impact on its quality, and
Laukkanen’s 1996 study of evaluative expressions in translators’ protocols
which revealed affective differences between translators’ processes and
explained qualitative differences between the resulting translations. Lauk-
kanen observed that
[s]elf-confidence and trust in one’s own abilities might have observable

connections with successful performance whereas uncertainty would
perhaps help to explain poorer results. [. . .] It has been shown that fear
of failure, passiveness and other negative attitudes towards a task may
inhibit subjects from trying their best and weaken their performance
considerably. [There are] indisputable correlations.
(Laukkanen 1996, 263)
These early TPR studies highlighted the presence of attitudinal and affective
factors during the translation process and their potential correlation with
qualitative differences in the translator’s performance. In an article in 2005,
Hansen also addressed the impact of emotions in translation, indicating that
translators’ decision processes may be influenced by feelings and emotional
experiences: “During the act of translation and verbalizing, images, emo-
tions and earlier experiences are unconsciously and uncontrollably acti-
vated, and these, in turn, have an impact on the actual decisions” (2005,
516). In the same vein, in an article on the interaction of cognition with
emotion in the processing of textual material, Davou (2007, 45) observed
that differences in the emotional significance that a text might hold for dif-
ferent translators could influence their performance. She also observed that
source texts may have significant personal impact on translators and that
negative emotions may increase processing effort while positive emotions
may expand attention and creativity. These pioneering studies raised aware-
ness of the idea that emotions are an integral part of translating, but they
often made use of small samples and/or methods such as TAPs which have
been quite heavily criticised for their questionable reliability (e.g. Bernardini
1999, 2001). Until recently, studies had not sought to operationalise or test
specific emotion variables that could be relevant to translation with large
samples of translators.
A spate of recent empirical studies, however, has shed further light on
which emotions might be of particular relevance for the translation process.
For instance, Lehr (2013) explored professional translators in their usual
work environment and found that positive and negative emotions triggered
different processing styles. Her results confirmed Davou’s hypothesis, as
findings showed that positive emotions (such as emotional commitment)
improved creativity and style, while negative emotions (such as anxiety)
enhanced accuracy and coherence in terms of terminology in translation.
Building on her research, Rojo and Ramos Caro (2016) explored the impact
of emotional reactions to negative and positive stimuli on translation per-
formance in an experiment involving 40 Spanish undergraduate translation
students. Like Lehr, these scholars found that emotions of different valence
may have a differential influence on the translation process and transla-
tion performance (e.g. that positive affect seemed to influence creativity and
negative affect seemed to improve accuracy), though their results lack sta-
tistical significance.
The operationalisation of specific emotion constructs has attracted increas-
ing attention in process-oriented Translation Studies over the last few years.
Individual differences in terms of, for instance, empathy (Apfelthaler 2014),
self-efficacy (Bolaños Medina 2014), and ambiguity tolerance (Hubscher-
Davidson forthcoming) have been mooted to differentially impact various
aspects of a translator’s work, such as target reader orientation, source lan-
guage reading comprehension, documentation abilities, and job satisfaction.
Empirical studies such as these have started to reinforce scholars’ intuitive
belief that the affective profiles of translators can sometimes be more impor-
tant than their language skills in terms of the shaping of translations and
that emotion processes are a valid area of investigation in Translation Stud-
ies. I would agree with Rojo when she claims that the study of affective
traits “not only helps to disclose their impact on the translation process, but
can also be of use to understand their role on other problem-solving and
communication tasks” (2015, 739), yet research into the exact role of these
variables is still in its infancy, and further research is needed to test their
impact on translation performance. Indeed, we are not at the stage where
studies are being replicated, and it is very difficult to compare results from
studies with different language pairs, small samples, and different text types.
Nevertheless, we are moving in the right direction. Recent empirical work
has highlighted that translators’ emotion traits could influence not only the
way that translations are shaped but also how source texts are perceived
and how target texts are received. Indeed, experimental testing of source
texts’ perceived emotionality has suggested a possible link with creativity
in translation (e.g. Lehr 2013). Relevant empirical studies carried out by
Marina Ramos and Ana Rojo (Ramos Caro and Rojo 2014; Ramos 2016)
reported on the impact of Audio Description on target viewers’ emotional
responses and drew attention to target reader/viewer experiences resulting
from audiovisual (AV) translators’ emotional expressions. Their findings
indicate that AV translation can be extremely effective in creating emotions
in both sighted and visually impaired audiences. In another study, in which
the heart rate of 10 Spanish participants was measured, Rojo, Ramos, and
Valenzuela (2014) found that different translation strategies could have dif-
ferent emotional impacts on receiving audiences. Exploratory studies such
as these clearly indicate that the ways in which translators regulate emotions
are a rich area for investigation. Nevertheless, as previously indicated, so
far the research on individual differences in affectivity in process-oriented
Translation Studies has been somewhat haphazard, with limited samples
and results that are not always statistically significant. More important for
the present study, emotion traits have not been conceptualised under the
single framework of emotional intelligence.
It is becoming increasingly obvious that being able to appraise and com-
municate one’s own and other people’s emotions is a key aspect of inter-
cultural communication, and therefore a key skill for translators. As we
have seen, the idea that decision-making in translation is, at least partly,
governed by emotions has recently become much more prevalent in TPR,
especially with the aforementioned move away from a view of translators’
minds as computers and the refocusing on the human dimension of transla-
tion cognition (Muñoz Martín 2016a; 2016b). This study aims to add to
the growing body of work that deals with emotional aspects of translating
and with other human factors influencing the behaviour of translators: “[N]
ow the enormous variation found in subjects’ behaviour can be addressed
from the perspective of their emotions, intuitions and individual behaviour
styles” (Muñoz Martín 2014, 67). This monograph builds on previous TPR
work by investigating certain constructs already tentatively explored, and
new constructs that have henceforth remained unexplored, and by adopting
new perspectives and concepts from the field of Psychology in order to apply
them to the study of translators.
Emotions in Professional Translators’ Work

In the translation profession, there are two key sources from which one can
gather evidence on issues of interest or concern for professional translation:
employers of translators and translators themselves.
First, it can be argued that employers of translators are increasingly high-
lighting emotion traits as important elements of translator profiles. In 2013,
the job description for senior translators working for the United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP) in Iraq included the requirement to have
emotional intelligence competencies and a positive attitude.10 The Brit-
ish Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) recruits language specialists for their
translation work who can demonstrate ‘strong emotional intelligence’.11
Employers in other areas are also increasingly acknowledging that emotions
play a part in translators’ everyday working lives. For instance, a recent job
advert for a translator with the Isle of Anglesey County Council in Wales
stressed the emotional demands of the job, such as “dealing with distressing
and emotional subject matter, for example, translating in case conferences
dealing with child protection issues and disciplinary matters”, “dealing
on occasion with aggressive people”, and “dealing with contentious and
highly charged emotive topics of significant public interest” (Isle of Anglesey
County Council 2017).12 For all of these employers of translators, emotions
are an acknowledged and key part of professional translators’ work.
Second, translators themselves are discussing the role of emotions in their
work more and more. In their edited volume on the topic of translating
emotion, Shields and Clarke (2011, 2–3) drew attention to the fact that
practising translators have much to say on this theme. Some of the questions
tackled by translators in their volume—and which feed into the following
chapters—include how to translate emotion-laden words, how translators’
emotions can be reflected in texts, and how translators can create new emo-
tional texts for their readers. Shields and Clarke highlight the processes of
emotional labour that translators can undergo, arguing that translators are
compelled to “transmit emotional elements even when these are question-
able” (ibid., 5). This acknowledgement of translators’ subjective experi-
ences, encapsulated in the volume’s contributions by practising translators,
is an important step in raising awareness of the emotions involved in trans-
lating and provides translators with an outlet to discuss their experiences.
These and other mainly introspective and descriptive accounts are embed-
ded in the present study so that translators’ professional perspectives on
issues raised are taken into account. After all, as Hansen (2013, 89) notes,
people who experience phenomena first-hand should be capable of giving
the most precise description of these.
One area where the interference of emotions has perhaps been more obvi-
ous is within the field of literary translation, which has generated a number
of interesting writings on the role and impact of affect on the translation
process. As I noted elsewhere (Hubscher-Davidson 2016), associations such
as the American Literary Translators Association have highlighted the affec-
tive dimension of the literary translation profession in particular, by observ-
ing that literary translation bridges the delicate emotional connections
between cultures and languages. Anderson (2005, 172) also argued that
personal readings and personal decisions happen with greater frequency in
literary translation than in technical translation due to the subjective nature
of literary work. Recent accounts by professional literary translators have
provided very useful insights on translation as an emotional phenomenon.
Some have described translating as knowing how to “calibrate dissatisfac-
tion” (Bernofsky 2013, 230), or as “engaging the senses in a physical man-
ner” (Cole 2013, 11), or even as “involving intense pleasure” (Rose 2013,
15). These types of emotion-laden statements shed precious light on the
processes under study and indicate that research on this topic is timely.
Professional literary translators who reflect on—and write about—their
practice thus provide vital insights into how translators manage emotions.
For example, professional literary translator and academic Marella Feltrin-
Morris (2012, 73) describes the translator as “a skilful agent who pulls
the strings of the text and the emotional chords of the readers in order
to create a connection between the audience and the (invisible) author”.
The renowned literary translation scholar Marilyn Gaddis Rose also drew
attention to how emotions can be altered during the literary translation pro-
cess when she suggested that a translation may “flatten, intensify, focus or
disperse the original” (2012, 26). She argued that a loss of intensity does not
necessarily mislead readers who interpret literary texts in individual ways
determined by their own psycho-histories. As well as shedding light on the
(de)regulation of emotions, literary translators such as Gaddis Rose also
contribute unique insights into the intended effects and reception of emo-
tional material on target readers.
Although there is a greater number of testimonies from literary transla-
tors available to study,13 and their voices are thus featured prominently in
the present work, the contention here is that emotions are relevant for the
translation of a wide range of texts, as non-literary texts can also have affec-
tive components and elicit strong emotional responses (e.g. rape deposi-
tions). Thus, wherever possible, examples from non-literary translation are
included in the following chapters.
In addition to the written accounts of practising translators, the emotional
entanglements of professional translators can also be perceived simply by
listening to them speak about their practices at conferences and workshops.
At the American Translators Association Conference in 2013 in San Anto-
nio, one practising translator advised their audience to only translate texts
they were happy and comfortable with and that they could identify with.
Another translator stated that translating literature lifted them and nour-
ished their souls. During a seminar held in May 2014 in London, a number
of women translators discussed how translations had made them feel hurt,
bored, elated, or distressed. In spite of all these testimonies, however, there
is still very little research work currently undertaken on professional trans-
lators’ emotional worlds, and this monograph aims to redress this situation.
Any study aiming to examine the interplay between translators’ emotions
and their work will be more effective if professional translators’ viewpoints
are taken into account. In a previous article, I argued that process research-
ers could make use of both quantitative and qualitative methods in order to
better understand translators’ perspectives and how these shape their behav-
iours, in particular when it comes to less tangible aspects of the translation
process, such as emotional and intuitive behaviours (Hubscher-Davidson
2011). An important consideration when designing the present study, there-
fore, was to include translators’ voices and to take their experiences into
account. Alongside the quantitative data from the TEIQue, it thus seemed
necessary to complement the study with qualitative data which would give
due attention to translators’ own views of their (emotional) relationships
with texts and with the entire translation activity. It is my contention that
we can discover as much about the links between translation and emotions
from personal reflections by professional translators as from standard meth-
ods of research, such as psychometric tests. As a result, each the following
three chapters includes accounts by translators of the processes of emo-
tion perception, regulation, and expression drawn from various sources
(e.g. conference presentations, edited volumes, and workshops). Transla-
tors’ perspectives on perceiving emotions in texts, regulating affect when
translating, and expressing emotions for their readers, are thus incorporated
into the very fabric of this study.
The Case Study

In this section, I introduce the case study and explain how the data were col-
lected and analysed. By combining an analysis of translators’ perspectives
with an analysis of statistical data, a mixed-method approach can be said
to have been adopted in this study. There are advantages and drawbacks to
adopting a quantitative or a qualitative approach on its own. As Dewaele
(2013, 33–34) reports, on one hand, quantitative methods involve precise
measurement, but they also fail to do justice to “the subjective variety of an
individual life” (Dörnyei 2007, 35). On the other hand, qualitative meth-
ods enable the collection of rich data, but they can also lack in method-
ological rigour (ibid., 41–42). All in all, Hansen (2013, 89) notes that the
choice of qualitative or quantitative methods is taken in relation to the par-
ticular research issue being studied, and a combination of both approaches
has been mooted as the best way to study affective changes (MacIntyre in
Dewaele 2013, 34).
Research Aims and Hypotheses

At the start of the chapter, I indicated that my aim in this monograph is
to shed light on the role of emotions in translation and, especially, how
emotions influence professional translators. The literature review served
to highlight that emotion traits have a key role to play in areas such as
job competency, job satisfaction,14 and general well-being. It also showed
that the emotional intelligence personality trait has been successfully opera-
tionalised to measure subjective emotions in various domains, convincingly
demonstrating that emotionally intelligent individuals are better at adapting
to emotion-eliciting situations. We have also seen that trait EI can influence
the perception, regulation, and expression of emotions in language-related
areas such as multilingualism and bilingualism research, thus pointing to the
relevance of the construct for translation. Finally, TPR studies and accounts
by professional translators investigating the affective processes involved in
translation were reviewed, and it was further demonstrated that focusing
on the emotion profiles of professional translators might allow us to better
understand their working behaviours.
Following on from the literature review, the present study will investigate
the following general research question: To what extent are differences in
emotion traits linked to various aspects of professional translators’ profiles
and working lives? My objectives in this monograph are therefore twofold:
(1) to highlight specific psychological concepts and theories that can shed
light on the perception, regulation, and expression of emotion in translation
and (2) to present a substantial piece of empirical research testing correla-
tions between facets of trait EI and a range of variables relevant to profes-
sional translation.
The general hypothesis is that professional translators with different levels
of trait EI (and, more specifically, trait emotion perception, regulation, and
expression) will have different profiles (in terms of, for instance, age, experi-
ence, and job satisfaction). Based on previous literature, it is also anticipated
that professional translators with higher levels of trait EI will be more suc-
cessful at perceiving, regulating, and expressing emotions in their work. In
sum, the perspective adopted is that a relationship exists between emotion
traits and various aspects of professional translation behaviour. The present
study does not seek to test actual translation performance directly. Indeed,
testing the impact of emotion on the actual quality of resulting translations
has been inconclusive in other studies (Rojo 2017, 375) and it would have
been extremely difficult to test translation competence in any case because
of the diversity of languages represented in the study and the number of par-
ticipants. Rather, the case study seeks to explore correlations between vari-
ous aspects of professional translators’ profiles and experiences. Ultimately,
it would be useful to find out whether trait EI could be another meaningful
variable with which to profile translators in TPR (e.g. see Muñoz Martín
2010a, 2012). If there are correlations between EI scores and other variables
(such as translation education and experience) this could shed precious light
on various aspects of translator behaviour, including professional success.
Participants
The sample used in this empirical study comprised 155 professional transla-
tors, with 122 women and 33 men (mean age = 47 years, standard devia-
tion = 14.302 years, age range = 21–87 years). Participants were contacted
through professional translation associations world-wide, including Institute
of Translation and Interpreting (ITI); British Centre for Literary Translation
(BCLT); Society of Authors’ Translators Association (TA); Conseil Euro-
péen des Associations de Traducteurs Littéraires (CEATL); German Federal
Association of Interpreters and Translators (BDÜ); Association for Profes-
sional Translators and Interpreters in Catalunya (APTIC); Spanish Associa-
tion of Translators, Copy-editors and Interpreters (ASETRAD); American
Literary Translators Association (ALTA); and American Translators Asso-
ciation (ATA). Because this list does not include possible re-postings by
participants on other websites or blogs, it is unclear how many translators
were reached through these associations, but given that 49% of respondents
belonged to at least one professional association it seems reasonable to
assume that this method of reaching out was effective. Approximately 70%
of participants indicated that their occupational status was self-employed.
In terms of mother tongue, 93 reported this to be British or American
English, 17 German, 12 French, 8 Spanish, 4 Italian, 2 Russian, 1 Dutch,
1 Farsi, 1 Latvian, 1 Portuguese, 1 Serbian, 1 Slovenian, and 1 Swedish.
Some participants reported that they had two mother tongues: 7 Catalan/
Spanish, 1 Brazilian Portuguese/English, 1 English/French, 1 English/Italian,
1 English/Tagalog, 1 Scottish/English, and 1 Spanish/English.
Perhaps as a result of the convenience sampling method employed, there
is a higher proportion of self-employed, English mother tongue, and female
translators in the study.15 As highlighted elsewhere (Hubscher-Davidson
2016) this over-representation impacts somewhat on the representative
nature of the sample and on the generalisability of the results of the research.
Ideally, this study should be replicated in other settings and with other
translators. In particular, it would be good to obtain responses from more
translators with non-English mother tongues. Nevertheless, the relatively
large sample size contributes to the study’s ecological validity.16 As Balling
and Hvelplund argue, “the bigger the sample the better: other things being
equal, a bigger sample is likely to be more representative and gives superior
statistical power” (2015, 173). For a TPR study, 155 participants can be
considered a good-sized sample. Another positive aspect of the sample is
that it is more diverse than most samples used in trait EI research. Indeed,
the majority of trait EI studies involve university students from Western
cultural backgrounds. Andrei et al. (2016) suggest that studies using the
TEIQue should look to new study populations and settings, for instance
nonstudent samples outside the laboratory. In a sense, by using multicul-
tural professionals in ‘real-world’ contexts, the present study is addressing
a methodological gap in terms of sample composition in trait EI research.
On average, participants in the study have 13 years of professional trans-
lation experience, and are highly educated. Indeed, an impressive 148 par-
ticipants hold an undergraduate degree, and 116 have a master’s degree,
which means that approximately 75% of translators in the study are edu-
cated to postgraduate level. One hundred nine participants had acquired a
translation-specific qualification, and 102 participants had acquired a non-
translation qualification; approximately 36% of participants cited both a
translation-specific qualification and a non-translation-specific qualification,
though only 12% of the latter group held a qualification in a non-language-
related field. In the sample, 18 translators gave details of prizes and awards
won for their published translation work. It is also interesting to note that
45 participants in the study indicated that they considered themselves to be
professional literary translators, publishing at least one literary translation
every two to three years.17 Eighty participants said they worked as a transla-
tor full-time (e.g. at least 85% of total working hours), while another 21
participants said they worked as a translator for three quarters or two thirds
of their total work hours. The remaining participants spent either half their
working time on translation work or less than that. Although we have seen
that approximately 70% of participants considered themselves to be self-
employed, for participants spending the majority of their working hours on
translation, 86% indicated that they were working as freelance translators.
The fact that the study was conducted with a sample consisting of people
in diverse jobs, working with different genres and specialisations, in differ-
ent countries, means that the findings are not confined to a specific setting
or type of translation. Momm et al. (2015) suggest that a heterogeneous
sample of this type tends to increase the external validity of results.
Methods
It has been acknowledged in TPR that there is a complex set of variables
that influences translator behaviour. A translator’s emotional intelligence
profile can play a role, but other factors linked to individual histories and
contexts may also shape translator behaviours. One of the key aims of this
study is to learn more about the interaction between external factors and a
subset of translators’ psychological characteristics.
To do so, the study made use of two questionnaires to collect data. First,
participants completed a questionnaire online (on the SurveyMonkey plat-
form) in English which contained questions relating to the participants’
mother tongue, working languages, translation qualifications, education
level, employment status, years and amount of professional translation
experience, identification as a professional literary translator, literary trans-
lation experience, translation prizes or awards, and membership of profes-
sional translation associations. A copy of these questions can be found in
Appendix 1.
Once they had completed this background questionnaire, participants
were then directed to another website that hosted the TEIQue. Once the
TEIQue was downloaded and completed, participants emailed the file to a
specified email address. Participants completed the full form of the TEIQue
comprising 153 items. As previously mentioned, the TEIQue is a psycho-
metrically robust instrument covering 15 emotion-related facets and four
factors. The 15 facets map onto the trait EI sampling domain, and each
test item belongs to a single facet (e.g. empathy). Facets are narrower than
factors (e.g. emotionality) which, in turn, are narrower than global trait EI.
Participants were instructed to complete the TEIQue in quiet conditions and
were told to respond to each item in a way that best reflected their degree
of agreement or disagreement with each statement. They were also told
that there are no right or wrong answers. Participants were asked to rate
their agreement on a 7-point Likert-type scale, ranging from ‘completely
disagree’ to ‘completely agree’. Sample items include “I’m usually able to
find ways to control my emotions when I want to”, “It is easy for me to find
the right words to describe my feelings”, and “Imagining myself in someone
else’s position is not a problem for me”. A global score was computed, with
higher scores representing higher levels of trait EI. There are 26 language
versions of the TEIQue and non-English versions were made available upon
request.
In addition to the 153 items, the TEIQue included extra questions
(‘about you’) relating to participants’ demographic information, such as
age, education, and gender, as well as questions on self-perceived job sat-
isfaction and job success. Data on job satisfaction and job success were
drawn from participants’ answers to the following questions: “How good
are you at your line of work?” and “How happy in your job are you?” Here
again, participants rated their agreement on a 7-point Likert-type scale,
ranging from ‘completely disagree’ to ‘completely agree’.18 This additional
data enabled the collection of relatively comprehensive background data
on participants.
The questionnaires took approximately 30 minutes to complete and
return. They remained online for a year in 2011/2012. A total of 155
participants returned both questionnaires, and their personal data were
coded and anonymised, thus ensuring confidentiality. As with other stud-
ies (e.g. Kong, Zhao, and You 2012), it was the case here that electronic
methods of data collection turned out to be reliable, valid, cost-effective,
and efficient.
Participants were approached by an administrator from a professional
association they belonged to, thus enabling them to make an informed deci-
sion before consenting to take part, without pressure. This gave them the
opportunity to refuse to participate via a third party which is more appro-
priate than if the participants were contacted directly and then felt undue
pressure to take part. It is hoped that this approach avoided unnecessary
discomfort and encouraged those participants who were willing to take
part. When initially contacted, participants were provided with a detailed
four-page form explaining the research project and what it entailed. Partici-
pants were also given my contact details in case they required further infor-
mation. Several took this opportunity and engaged with me in insightful
email discussions which informed my thinking on issues raised.
Volunteers were told that by filling in the questionnaires, they were pro-
viding informed consent for their data to be used in the study. Question-
naires were anonymised, and the data were coded using a system known
only to the researcher to preserve the identity of participants. Participants
could request details of any published work resulting from the research.
As per UK data protection laws and ethical approval requirements, the per-
sonal data collected were destroyed upon completion of the research project.
As previously suggested, the background data collected aimed to shed
light on a number of key aspects of professional translators’ profiles. For
instance, questions relating to years of translation experience, job satisfac-
tion, and job success can be considered indicators of success in the transla-
tion profession (e.g. Hubscher-Davidson 2016), whereas questions relating
to age and education level can be considered determinants of emotional
intelligence (e.g. Magai 2008). Each of the following chapters focuses on
specific variables of interest for the specific emotion trait tackled in that
chapter. The focus on a particular variable will be determined by the
literature review undertaken in that chapter. For instance, the review of the
emotion regulation literature in Chapter 3 highlights an association between
emotion regulation and academic achievement. As such, it made sense to
analyse in that chapter the relationship between translators’ emotion regu-
lation trait and their education level. The review of the emotion expression
literature in Chapter 4 reveals a link between successful written emotional
disclosure and extensive practice, and so a focus on the relationship between
translators’ emotion expression trait and the length of their professional
translation experience seemed logical.
The question asking translators to identify themselves as either literary
translators or non-literary translators was not used in the study for this
book, as it served a different purpose and a different research question (for
more on this topic, see Hubscher-Davidson 2016). The question on prize-
winning was also discarded for the purposes of the present analysis. How-
ever, the question asking translators to indicate their level of experience in
undertaking published literary translation over the course of their work-
ing lives served a particular purpose here. This question enabled the iden-
tification of different levels of literary translation experience which could
then be linked to different levels of trait emotion perception, regulation,
and expression; this is because, in writing research, strong associations have
been found between emotion traits and literature-based activities. It thus
seemed relevant to explore in some depth the relationships between spe-
cific emotion traits and literary translation experience. If translators taking
part in the study had no experience in published literary translation, they
could indicate this by selecting the appropriate option. Table 1.1 contains
a list of the sociobiographical variables investigated in the present study as
well as how each was operationalised. Some questions were drawn from the
SurveyMonkey questionnaire and others from the demographic questions
accompanying the TEIQue. All statistical analyses were performed using the
statistical software SPSS.
Once an analysis of the relationships between relevant variables is car-
ried out in each chapter, results are discussed in light of the literature
review, which includes both emotion and TPR research, as well as profes-
sional translators’ accounts and perspectives (i.e. the qualitative data). As
previously noted, the collection of oral and documentary accounts is an
attempt to take into account translators’ unique life experiences. These are
particularly useful sources of information because they were unsolicited,
thereby providing naturally occurring evidence of translators’ perspectives
and concerns. Rather than using ubiquitous interviews to elicit ‘the inside
story’ (Hammersley and Atkinson 2007, 103), personal accounts generated
independently of the research are analysed in each chapter and feed into the
discussion of the case study results, providing unique insights on the topic
under study. Translators producing these subjective accounts clearly have
specific viewpoints, but any potential bias in the data is equally interesting
in terms of what it reveals about the ways that translators organise their
emotional experiences and perspectives.
Table 1.1 Operationalising the study variables
VARIABLES OPERATIONALISATION
Age Question
“What is your year of birth?”
Answer
Years of birth, ranging between and 1926 and 1992
What was analysed?
Dates were converted into numerical values: 1979 = 35, 1960 =
54 etc.¹
Professional Question
translation “How many years of professional translation experience do you
experience have?”
Answer
A number was entered
What was analysed?
Numerical values between 0 and 53
Job satisfaction Question
“How happy in your job are you?”
Answer
On a scale from 1–7, where 1 = Poor, 4 = Average, 7 = Very
Good
What was analysed?
Job success Question
“How good are you at your line of work?”
Answer
On a scale from 1–7, where 1 = Poor, 4 = Average, 7 = Very
Good
What was analysed?
Time spent Question
translating “As a translator, how much time do you spend translating?”
Answer
One of seven possible options: rarely, occasionally (less than a
quarter of total work hours), a third of total work hours, half
time, two thirds of total work hours, three quarters of total
work hours, full-time (at least 85% of total work hours)
What was analysed?
A single number was allocated to each option: occasionally = 2,
full time = 7, etc.
Literary Question
translation “Over the space of your working life, what level of experience
experience of published literary translation do you feel you have had?”
Answer
One of five possible options: no experience 0%, little experience
0–20%, some experience 20–50%, quite a lot of experience
50–75%, extensive experience 75–100%
What was analysed?
A single number was allocated to each percentage level:
0% = 1, 0–20% = 2 etc.
(Continued)
Table 1.1 (Continued)
VARIABLES OPERATIONALISATION
Foreign Question
languages/ “What is your mother-tongue and what are your working
cultures² languages?”
Answer
L1 and working languages were entered in separate text boxes
What was analysed?
Language combinations were coded into 3 categories for
the purposes of Chapter 2, with a single number allocated
to each: 1 = languages from EU countries pre 2004, 2 =
languages from EU countries pre and post 2004, 3 =
languages from both EU countries and non-EU countries.
Translation Question
qualification “What is the highest translation qualification you have
received?”
Answer
One of 5 possible options: none, BA/BSc or similar, MA/MSc or
similar, PhD, other
What was analysed?
A single number was allocated to each qualification level:
none = 1, BA = 2, etc.³
Education Question
“What is your highest educational qualification?”
Answer
One of 6 possible options: GCSE/O Level or similar, A Level or
similar, BA/BSc or similar, MA/MSc or similar, MBA, PhD
What was analysed?
A single number was allocated to each qualification level:
GCSE = 1, A Level = 2 etc.
Note 1. The data were analysed in 2014.
Note 2. This variable is only explored in Chapter 2 because of its potential relevance for the
emotion perception construct.
Note 3. When participants selected ‘other’ they could add a comment to explain. Depending
on the translation qualification inputted in the comment, I allocated an equivalent number.
For instance, one participant who had ticked ‘other’ indicated that they held a ‘German
Translator’s Degree (Diplom-Übersetzer)’. Judging that this is equivalent to an MA
translation qualification in the UK, I inputted the relevant number.
While the statistical analysis enables the measurement of the interac-

tions between trait EI and the various variables, the oral and documentary
accounts serve to shed light on the possible reasons underlying the patterns
found in the data. Rather than make sweeping generalisations, the moti-
vation underlying the collection of qualitative information was to gain a
more precise understanding of how translators make sense of their experi-
ences. Collecting translators’ accounts in this way enabled a clearer picture
of the context/setting to be formed and contributed to a more complete
interpretation of results. In line with Bryman’s suggested rationales, the
rationale for using mixed methods here can be said to be twofold: complete-
ness and explanation—that is, allowing for better coverage of the complex
phenomena being studied—and employing one method to help explain the
findings generated by the other (Bryman 2008 in Halverson 2017, 197).
A Note on Variables, Correlations, and Effect Sizes

The present study rests on the assumption that emotional intelligence inter-
acts with a wide range of cultural, contextual, and individual variables.
Given that trait EI is a relatively stable, and partially genetically-determined
disposition (Vernon et al. 2008), it is likely to precede and impact other
variables. Nevertheless, some of the variables introduced earlier, operation-
alised with the background questions (see Table 1.1), may also contribute to
how professional translators perceive, regulate, and express emotions. For
example, it could be that literary translation experience influences transla-
tors’ level of trait EI. If this were the case, translation experience would be
the independent variable assumed to cause change to the dependent vari-
able that is trait EI. The situation is not clear-cut here, and it is difficult to
determine which of the many variables comes first: For instance, does trait
EI develop simultaneously to literary translation experience, or was it ‘there’
before? As we will see in the following chapters, there is no straightforward
answer to this question. As a result of this ambiguous temporal precedence,
the present study investigates the relationship between relevant variables
and makes educated guesses on the direction of the effects, in light of the
wider literature. Although at times it is possible to speculate with regard to
which variable might precede or impact the other, the temporal order of the
relationships remains unclear.19
In addition, it is important to highlight that any evidence of correlations
found in the following chapters does not imply causation, as there can be
other confounding variables. For instance, a statistically significant positive
correlation between literary translation experience and trait EI would imply
that a relationship or link exists between these two variables, but it does not
imply that one causes the other because it is possible that some other factor
(e.g. age) may influence these variables.
Linked to this point, it seems relevant to frame the next chapters with a
cautionary note. It is important not to exaggerate the relationship between
variables. Indeed, correlation coefficients in the present study do not account
for a very large percent of the variability, and I would agree with Dörnyei
(2005, 24) that personality does not explain the whole picture and sometimes
only explains a small percentage of the variance. Effect sizes in similar per-
sonality trait studies carried out in the areas of multilingualism and second-
language acquisition are also typically small or moderate (e.g. Dewaele 2017),
and small to moderate effect sizes, or correlations coefficients, are reasonable
to expect in translation research. Nevertheless, this does not mean that we
cannot draw valuable information from the data obtained. As previously
suggested, personality variables are powerful modifying variables that, when
interpreted together with general mental/cognitive ability, can help to predict
an individual’s likelihood of success (Bontempo et al. 2014, 36).
Validity, Reliability, and Related Issues

We have already noted in this chapter that the TEIQue is highly reliable
and shows robust evidence of validity, as it has produced consistent and
replicable results reflecting the construct being measured. As for the back-
ground questionnaire, its validity and reliability need to be carefully con-
sidered. As the questionnaire contained concrete and objective questions
(regarding education levels, years of experience, and other facts) it is highly
likely that these responses would be very similar if the questionnaire was to
be repeated (test–retest reliability). In addition, similar questions gave rise
to similar answers (internal consistency)—for instance, there was a strong
linear relation between age and translation experience (r = .72, p < .01). As
such, I would consider the data gathered to be reliable and certainly more
than adequate for the research questions being asked in the present study.
In terms of the validity of the background survey, the questions on self-
perceived job satisfaction and job success, which are measuring something
relatively abstract, could be challenged. Indeed, translators’ perceptions of
their own job satisfaction and job success may not look like, or be, a true
reflection of these two aspects, and may not measure these constructs ade-
quately or accurately when compared with real behaviours (face, content,
construct and criterion validity). Nevertheless, there is abundant evidence
of the validity of this type of self-report, confirmed, for instance, by strong
correlations between self-reports and actual behaviours (McCrae and Costa
2008, 161–262).
An issue in the present study which may have affected reliability
and validity is the concern that some non-English translators will have
responded to the TEIQue in English because they understand the language,
despite the fact that it was made available to them in their mother tongue.
Because studies have indicated that the language of a questionnaire can
influence participants’ response style and that individuals tend to respond
to questions in a manner that accommodates the culture associated with
that language (the cultural accommodation effect; e.g. Harzing 2006),
Gökçen et al. advise “that social science questionnaires should, as far as
possible, be embedded in the native language of respondents to minimise
the effect of cultural influence on the validity of empirical findings” (2014,
34). The fact that some translators may have chosen to respond to the
questionnaires in English, and not in their native language, is a potential
threat to the study. Nevertheless, the high proficiency of professional trans-
lators in the languages that they work with may go some way towards
minimising this effect.20
The issue of the translators’ cultural background is also worthy of men-
tion here. Indeed, translators taking part in the study come from a wide
range of different countries and cultural backgrounds. On the one hand, we
previously noted that emotions are not necessarily culturally unique, and it
is noteworthy that the vast majority of translators in this study belong to
so-called individualist societies where personal success and independence
are prioritised over group goals (Gökçen et al. 2014, 30). As such, although
the different cultural backgrounds of participants could arguably impact on
the study’s result, in the sense that responses to the questionnaires may have
been influenced by cultural factors resulting from potential differences in the
expression of personality traits across cultures, there is evidence of consid-
erable similarity between members of individualist cultures (as opposed to
collectivist cultures) when it comes to social psychology and shared values.21
This suggests that the translators’ different cultural backgrounds will not
have affected the cross-cultural stability of answer patterns on the TEIQue.
On the other hand, despite this similarity across countries, it is likely that
some mean score differences between participants of different countries or
cultures remain. Although the relatively large sample size of the study and
the high reliability of the TEIQue are important methodological strengths,
findings from this study require replication and further investigation across
different cultures.
TEIQue Descriptive Statistics

The focus in the next chapters on trait EI facets (and, to some extent, their
overarching factors), rather than just global trait EI, was deliberate. First,
the relationships found between the translators’ global trait EI, their literary
translation experience, and their levels of job satisfaction and job success
are already reported and discussed in Hubscher-Davidson (2016). Focusing
on global trait EI here would have therefore been repetitive. Second, as high-
lighted by Petrides et al. (2016, 2), “trait EI is a hierarchical, multidimen-
sional construct and its global level cannot possibly encapsulate the entire
variation in emotional perceptions positioned underneath”. Had the study
focused on the global trait EI scores of professional translators, this would
have masked important differential relationships between variables of inter-
est and trait EI facets. As such, the relationship between global trait EI and
other variables is not expanded on in this study, beyond noting that, con-
sistently with a number of other trait EI studies (e.g. Petrides, Frederickson,
and Furnham 2004; Tsaousis and Kazi 2013; McKinley et al. 2015), there
are statistically significant correlations in this study between global trait EI
and the variables of age (r = .20, p < .5) and education (r = .18, p < .5).
In terms of descriptive statistics for the TEIQue, the translators’ global
trait EI scores varied between 3.29 and 6.36. Table 1.2 presents the means
and standard deviations for the 15 facets, 4 factors, and global trait EI score,
broken down across gender. The mean values for global trait EI for both
Table 1.2 TEIQue means, standard deviations, and effect sizes broken down across
gender
Female Male
(n = 122) (n = 33)
Mean SD Mean SD t d
Global trait EI 4.94 0.55 4.88 0.55 −0.50 .11

Emotionality 5.29 0.69 4.95 0.83 −2.19* .45a
Self-control 4.46 0.76 4.76 0.62 2.32* .43a
Sociability 4.63 0.74 4.49 0.68 −1.02 .20a
Well-being 5.31 0.84 5.31 0.93 0.01 .00
Adaptability 4.57 0.94 4.51 0.86 −0.36 .07
Assertiveness 4.60 0.94 4.47 0.72 −0.81 .16
Emotion expression 5.04 1.17 4.52 1.34 −2.01 .41a
Emotion management 4.63 0.86 4.35 0.92 −1.57 .31a
Emotion perception 5.09 0.85 4.68 0.92 −2.29* .46a
Emotion regulation 4.28 0.99 4.64 0.71 2.34* .42a
Impulsiveness 4.71 0.94 4.88 0.82 1.00 .19
Relationships 5.58 0.79 5.47 0.72 −0.76 .15
Self-esteem 4.93 0.88 5.20 0.90 1.50 .30a
Self-motivation 5.08 0.78 5.24 0.72 1.08 .21a
Social awareness 4.66 0.84 4.65 0.91 −0.07 .01
Stress management 4.39 0.94 4.76 0.81 2.24* .42a
Empathy 5.46 0.78 5.11 1.01 −1.86 .39a
Happiness 5.67 1.08 5.66 1.22 −0.02 .01
Optimism 5.34 1.01 5.08 1.08 −1.22 .25a
* indicates that a correlation is significant at the .05 level (2-tailed).
a indicates a small to moderate effect size (Cohen’s d ≥ .2).
genders indicate that translators are, on average, scoring well above the
theoretical mean of 3.5 which is in line with the statistics for the TEIQue’s
normative sample (Petrides 2009a, 17).
It is interesting to note that, in this sample, there are no significant dif-
ferences in global trait EI regarding gender (t(155) = −.50, p = .62), a finding
which accords well with the wider literature indicating that discrepancies
at the factor and facet levels are more noticeable (Petrides 2009a). For
instance, Table 1.2 shows that the female translators scored higher than the
male translators on the factor of emotionality (t = −2.19, p < .05) and the
facet of emotion perception (t = −2.29, p < .05) and that the male translators
scored higher than the female translators on the factor of self-control (t =
2.32, p < .05) and the facet of emotion regulation (t = 2.34, p < .05). The
table also shows that standard deviations are comparable, indicating similar
dispersions in the male and female responses (Petrides 2009a).
As previously suggested, global trait EI correlates positively and signifi-
cantly with age, with older translators tending to have higher global trait
EI scores. This finding is also in line with the wider literature, and the age
variable will be revisited in following chapters. The internal consistency
(alpha) for trait EI in this study was found to be high at .87, which is fitting
for a long instrument measuring a narrow construct. Hitherto, the TEIQue
has been translated into 26 languages and, according to The British Psy-
chological Society (2014, 14), the TEIQue “could have a particularly valu-
able role in coaching and personal development for people at all levels in
organizations”.
Although the following chapters will focus on three trait EI facets in par-
ticular, in the interest of transparency, bivariate correlations between all
trait EI facets and the study variables are presented in Appendix 2.
Other Considerations
As previously explained, the emotion constructs tackled in the next three
chapters of this monograph represent three aspects of the emotion process
(perception, regulation, and expression) that figure prominently in several
major programmes of research and several theories of psychological and
emotional functioning. My strategy in the following chapters is thus to first
introduce the emotion construct as it is understood in psychology generally,
and in personality psychology more specifically, and then to explore transla-
tors’ experiences of this emotion construct as found in both oral and written
accounts,22 before moving on to a discussion of the case study as it relates
to the specific construct under investigation. Although the constructs are
tackled separately in different chapters, it is important to remember that this
neat separation is an artificial one. The view adopted here is that emotion
processes are dynamic and recursive, and the shape and structure of a piece
of academic writing cannot do this justice.
There is another point worth making here. As this piece of research is
interdisciplinary, it was necessary to draw heavily on both translation and
emotion research. But interdisciplinary books cannot be all things to all
people. While I aim to present psychological constructs and their relevance
for translation, I do not claim to have written a book about Affective Sci-
ence. I have pointed to and reviewed concepts from that field throughout the
monograph to inform the discussion of how emotions can impact transla-
tors’ work, but space and time constraints meant that I almost certainly did
not do full justice to this rapidly expanding area. As Gross (2008, 701) high-
lights, “given the interdisciplinary nature of emotion research, relatively few
psychologists have had formal training in the topic. Fewer still have the
luxury of keeping abreast of the burgeoning literature on emotion”. Simi-
larly, given the large number of studies in translation, published in different
languages and in sources that are not always easy to locate, or cheap to
acquire, it is likely that I will have overlooked some pertinent research. It is
also likely that, to stimulate debate and identify issues of relevance to trans-
lation, some of the discussion may be presented in a speculative fashion.
Despite these limitations, my hope is simply that the monograph will pro-
vide readers with a good overview of a range of concepts and theories that
could inspire further research at the intersection of these two fields. The case
study results in particular should be viewed as a springboard to stimulate
additional questions and to generate further hypotheses and research. The
spirit in which the book is written is exploratory, as is appropriate for this
largely unchartered territory.
Concepts and methods borrowed from Psychology are not always wel-
comed with open arms in Translation Studies. Some view psychometric
research rather suspiciously and may not be familiar with theories and tools
imported from this scientific field. Nevertheless, it must be acknowledged
that the translation process is extremely complex, and that we must be open
to a wide range of approaches if we are to shed light on it. Using diverse
methods and analysing the translation process from different angles can
only greatly enrich process-oriented translation research.
The following chapter introduces the construct of emotion perception.
Notes
1 To avoid confusion, from now on I use the term construct to refer to each of
the three parts of the emotion process explored in this monograph (i.e. emotion
perception, regulation, and expression). When referring to these constructs in
the context of trait EI theory, however, the term facet will be employed.
2 In the temperament literature, ‘emotionality’ refers to the reactive component of
emotion (i.e. how easily and how intensely emotions are aroused; Rydell, Berlin,
and Bohlin 2003, 30).
3 The origin of affect dispositions can also be partly genetic or linked to other
individual factors (Revelle and Scherer 2009, 305).
4 It is useful to highlight, however, that very recent research has indicated that per-
sonalities in old age could be quite different to personalities in mid-adolescence,
despite the evidence of personality stability from childhood to middle-late adult-
hood and from early middle adulthood to older age (Harris et al. 2016).
5 Interestingly, recent theorizing has shown that both perspectives could feature
in an integrative model encompassing three loosely connected levels: knowledge,
abilities, and traits (Brasseur et al. 2013).
6 The latest scientific evidence has rejected the notion that personalities change
from context to context (i.e. situation-specific validity) and now accepts the
notion that scientifically developed personality tests are generalizable across
contexts (Petrides 2009a, 7).
7 Scholars have employed various labels for this area of Translation Studies,
including cognitive translatology (Muñoz Martín 2010b) and translation psy-
chology (Holmes 1988; Jääskeläinen 2012). I have chosen to use the term TPR
here which is more widely used and understood. In this study, TPR is understood
to encompass all manner of process-oriented translation studies.
8 www.skillscfa.org/images/pdfs/National%20Occupational%20Standards/Lan
guages%20and%20Intercultural%20Working/2007/Translation.pdf, accessed
April 2017.
9 Due to space constraints, the focus in this section is on research carried out in the
(broadly defined) subfield of TPR.
10 https://jobs.undp.org/cj_view_job.cfm?cur_job_id=36267, accessed April 2017.
11 www.sis.gov.uk/language-specialist.html, accessed April 2017.
12 www.anglesey.gov.uk/Journals/j/f/a/Translator-31.03.15.pdf, accessed April 2017.
13 Koster (2014, 140) highlights that literary translation is the most discussed form
of translation, mainly due to the fact that it is considered a prestigious activity
and one with high cultural significance.
14 Job satisfaction can be defined as “the sources of satisfaction and dissatisfaction
related to the job setting and general work environment” (Rodríguez-Castro
2016, 205).
15 Nevertheless, independent samples t-tests carried out found no significant dif-
ferences in this sample in terms of global trait EI when scores are broken down
across gender, employment status, and mother tongue (see Hubscher-Davidson
2016). This indicates that although these subgroups are overweighted in the
sample, the data do not highlight a difference in global trait EI between par-
ticipants. In addition, it is worth noting that a major advantage of the design
of the study is the large number of participants from all over the world with a
wide variety of language combinations, which is good for ecological validity and
serves to minimize confounding variables (Wilson and Dewaele 2010).
16 Interestingly, Dewaele (2013, 43–44) suggests that the over-representation of
highly educated female polyglot participants when it comes to online question-
naires can be attributed to motivation and to interest in the topic itself. Indeed,
women may be more comfortable answering personal questions and discussing
emotions.
17 In Hubscher-Davidson 2016, I reported that literary translators obtained mar-
ginally higher global trait EI scores than non-literary translators, though the
difference was not statistically significant.
18 As highlighted by others (e.g. Dewaele and McCloskey 2015) most personality
researchers rely on these types of self-perceptions to establish personality pro-
files. Although there is a risk that this leaves the study vulnerable to the social-
desirability bias, it is worth pointing out that participants have very little to
gain from lying on an anonymous questionnaire. The issue of the questionnaire’s
validity is discussed later on in this chapter.
19 It is worth noting, however, that many studies on emotional abilities tend to sug-
gest that these are antecedents of performance (e.g. Momm et al. 2015)
20 In a study in which multilinguals were asked to answer a questionnaire in English,
Dewaele (2013, 47) argued that it was unlikely that the fact that English had to
be used affected the end results.
21 Recent research has even suggested that there are more similarities than differ-
ences in terms of emotion experience in dissimilar language cultures than was
previously assumed (Ożańska-Ponikwia 2013, 3–4)
22 As previously mentioned, although the focus of the next few chapters is on
written translation, relevant studies in interpreting that I am aware of are also
referred to if and when appropriate.
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2 Emotion Perception
Translation implies a porosity that cannot be considered solely cerebral, or if

it can, ‘cerebral’ must be redefined.
—Carol Maier
In this chapter, the construct of emotion perception is discussed. This is a

process whereby individuals are able to decode their own and other people’s
emotions, thus preparing for appropriate behavioural responses. The chap-
ter defines and reviews the construct and explains how and when people
identify emotions and the ways in which emotion perception processes
can impact their lives, including links with general health and well-being.
The use and understanding of the construct within trait EI theory is then
outlined, and examples of its application in practice are provided. Subse-
quently, the chapter addresses how emotion perception can differ between
translators and what are the implications for their performance. The chap-
ter attempts to provide an answer to the following question: Could the way
in which translators identify and decode emotions in texts affect the subse-
quent development of the translation process? The final section of the chap-
ter reviews evidence from the case study to inform the discussion.
Part 1: Emotion Perception and Psychology
Emotion Perception: A Definition

In order to make sense of the world and respond to its challenges, humans
are always trying to pick up on social and emotional cues from each other.
Emotion perception is thought to be an evolutionary adaptation. According
to Brosch, Pourtois, and Sander (2010, 66), we create internal mental repre-
sentations of stimuli present in the environment, and perception is the trans-
formation of stimuli into “accessible, subjective, reportable experience that
takes the form of an activation of a certain category in the mind”. The per-
ception process is therefore a categorisation of stimuli enabling us to filter
and reduce information complexity and to make sense of our environment.
There are different types of stimuli, some of which will affect our well-
being more directly. It is thought that emotional stimuli, in particular, is
prioritised for processing as it requires quick situation appraisal and sub-
sequent adaptive behavioural response (Phelps 2006; Phelps, Ling, and
Carrasco 2006; Zeelenberg, Wagenmakers, and Rotteveel 2006). The per-
ception of emotional stimuli is therefore said to be heightened relative to
non-emotional stimuli and to be categorised quickly and accurately into
special emotion categories (Brosch, Pourtois, and Sander 2010, 67). How-
ever, there are different schools of thought regarding how the categorisa-
tion process unfolds and how categories are determined. Due to the vast
amounts of research on the topic of perception, in this chapter, it is neces-
sary to restrict the discussion to research on emotional categories and per-
ceptions more specifically.
Despite general agreement that emotions serve to organise adaptive responses
to stimuli, scholars differ with regard to what mechanisms underlie the pro-
cess. Brosch, Pourtois, and Sander (2010, 71–73) provide a good summary of
the different views in the emotion literature on the categorisation of emotional
stimuli. In Table 2.1, I have represented the four key theories of emotion, along
with a brief description of their conceptualisations of emotional stimuli, based
on the information provided by Brosch, Pourtois, and Sander (2010).
In sum, basic emotion theories claim that certain classes of stimuli trig-
ger predefined affect programmes which elicit specific response patterns (a
‘bottom-up process’), appraisal theories highlight the importance of the sub-
jective evaluation of stimulus and greater flexibility in terms of adjustment,
dimensional theories link stimulus processing to an evaluation based on
positive/negative stimuli, and constructivist theories claim that the language
context constrains emotion categorisation and mapping (i.e. a ‘top-down
process’; Brosch, Pourtois, and Sander 2010, 73). Interestingly, the basic
emotion and appraisal models have been heavily criticised, either for their
view of emotions as innate, or for organising emotional responding into
fixed categories, as evidence suggests that emotion categories are actually
Table 2.1 Different emotion theories and their conceptualisations of emotional

stimuli categorisation
Theories of Emotion
Basic Appraisal Dimensional Constructivist
Emotions Distinct Appraisal against Negative/positive Man-made

basic standard criteria
Categories Innate Subjective and Valence/arousal Language-
context-specific based
Process Pattern- Flexible response Activation/change Constrained
matching patterning of core affect mapping
Emotion Perception 67
learned, flexible, and adaptive (Barrett 2006; Barrett, Lindquist, and Gen-
dron 2007; Lindquist et al. 2012). It is thought that different stimuli are
generally grouped into flexible emotion categories based on a number of
different factors, such as the environment or feelings elicited by the stimulus
in question (Brosch, Pourtois, and Sander 2010, 75). Emotion categories
therefore combine aspects of elicitation and response and can have cultur-
ally determined as well as hardwired features (ibid.). According to Barrett
(2006, 27), the experience of feeling emotion occurs when an individual
categorises his or her internal state, and Brosch, Pourtois, and Sander (2010,
76/80) suggest that emotion categories guide the perception of emotional
stimuli, and emotions help optimise adaptive behaviour towards relevant
stimuli for the well-being of the organism.
In the emotion perception literature, one of the key lines of research is the
impact of a stimulus’s emotionality on a person’s behaviour (i.e. the inter-
action between emotion and perception). It would appear that emotional
stimuli have the effect of capturing our attention more quickly and disen-
gaging it more slowly than other types of stimuli, indicating that we are
very sensitive to emotional stimuli in our environment (Phelps 2006). This
increased perception enables us to process the emotional stimulus as a prior-
ity, regardless of its positive or negative valence, and to quickly coordinate a
response, something which is clearly useful in terms of our well-being. The
amygdala is thought to be involved in the enhanced perception of emotional
events, and to be responsible for responding to emotional content1 rapidly
and prior to conscious awareness (Phelps, Ling, and Carrasco 2006, 292).
This interplay between emotion and attention means that attention
enables or permits emotion, and in turn, emotion shapes and modulates
attentional focus (ibid.). According to Gross (2008, 705–706) if something
important to an individual is at stake, attention is directed towards poten-
tially significant aspects of the environment; if something is then seen as
relevant or important in that environment (enabling emotions to unfold),
additional processing resources are dedicated to it while the individual fig-
ures out what is happening and how best to deal with it. This is likely to
interrupt ongoing behaviour, although there are individual differences in the
handling of this process—this aspect is developed in a subsequent section.
Interestingly, Phelps, Ling, and Carrasco (2006, 298) argue that emo-
tion may influence even the most basic perceptual abilities, such as early
vision, and Zeelenberg, Wagenmakers, and Rotteveel (2006, 287) suggest
that emotionally significant words, like death and love, are processed more
efficiently than neutral words due to their emotional significance. In fact, it
is argued that people are able to perceive and recognise all kinds of emotions
with minimal cognitive resources and without conscious control or delib-
eration and that this influences their behaviours (Tracy and Robins 2008).
Although the research in this area tends to deal with perceiving emotion
expressions in faces, one might speculate that a cognitively taxed translator
could also perceive and recognise emotionally significant content accurately
within a text very quickly and, initially, without conscious awareness. The
role and impact of emotions on perception and downstream behaviours are
clearly supported in the literature (e.g. Barrett 2006), and the fact that emo-
tion perception and recognition2 can happen automatically and influence
individuals’ behaviours without their awareness has clear implications for
understanding our emotional states.
It is also interesting to note that the effects of emotion on attention may
vary depending on the type of emotion being dealt with. Although emo-
tional stimuli in general are prioritised in perception and gain access to con-
scious awareness more easily than non-emotional stimuli (Brosch, Pourtois,
and Sander 2010, 90), the quality of emotional stimuli also affects percep-
tion processes. According to Tracy and Robins (2008, 88) when individuals
are asked to simply perceive stimuli without making cognitive judgements,
they will respond to negatively valenced stimuli (such as words expressing
fear) more quickly than to positively valenced stimuli, but responses to
negative stimuli tend to be slower than responses to positive stimuli when
observers are asked to categorise stimuli, that is, to make a cognitive judge-
ment on it. Although a negative stimulus may be perceived very quickly and
automatically (presumably due to its potential implications for survival), it
could be distracting and interfere with the categorisation process because
cognitive resources are allocated elsewhere, for example, finding the source
of the threat (ibid., 92). According to Tracy and Robins, this finding does
not hold for less intensively negative stimuli such as shame or embarrass-
ment, however, which are categorised just as quickly as positively valenced
stimuli.
Although not all scholars agree as regards how humans categorise emo-
tional stimuli (i.e. according to basic emotion categories, dimensions such
as valence or arousal, appraisal criteria, or man-made concepts),3 recent
evidence suggests that perception involves interaction of so-called top-down
knowledge systems present in the person and bottom-up sensory signals,
and that a stimulus’s emotional meaning emerges from this interaction
(Brosch, Pourtois, and Sander 2010, 89–90). There is also general agree-
ment that (1) people are able to categorise stimuli into emotional categories
quickly and efficiently, (2) culture and context play an important part in the
development of emotion categories, and (3) there are individual differences
in the perception of emotional stimuli. These points carry implications for
the perception of emotion in practical contexts and are addressed in the fol-
lowing sections.
Emotion Perception in Practice: Empirical Findings

Having broadly explained what emotion perception is, it now seems useful
to provide a brief review of empirical work on the concept, including key
findings on the behavioural consequences for individuals of emotion percep-
tion processes.
Thus far, much of the research on emotion perception has focused on
faces, and how well individuals can perceive emotion signals present on
faces. It has been found, for example, that perceivers unconsciously mimic
senders’ facial expressions, and that this promotes emotional sharing, lik-
ing, and understanding (Neal and Chartrand 2011). That is, when individu-
als copy the emotions they see in others, they are likely to better understand
and perceive these. The finding that mimicry can aid emotion perception
and promote understanding is surely relevant for translators. Conversely,
inaccurate perception and understanding of others’ emotional states result-
ing from non-engagement with emotional cues can have important conse-
quences. Research seeking to understand how patients with schizophrenia,
autism, and other mental disorders decode and interpret visual and aural
emotional stimuli paints a revealing picture of the consequences of emotion
perception deficits (e.g. Pinkham et al. 2007; Vaskinn et al. 2007; Ruther-
ford and Towns 2008). Problems faced by clinical groups with impaired
emotion perception include ongoing alienation and isolation from social
contexts. Research on individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI) has
shown that people with TBI who are poor at reading emotion-related cues
and, thus, misinterpret emotional states and may be suspicious, distrust-
ing, embarrassed, withdrawn, and lacking in confidence (Bornhofen and
McDonald 2008). This research underscores the advantages associated with
accurately perceiving emotions, which is the first step in the coordination of
an adaptive response (Brosch, Pourtois, and Sander 2010, 86).
Emotion perception, however, does not take place in a vacuum. Despite
the fact that healthy individuals can easily and effortlessly perceive emo-
tions in others, the literature now also acknowledges that context acts to
influence emotion perception (Barrett and Kensinger 2010). Contextual and
extrinsic information can alter which emotion is perceived, and the inter-
play between facial expressions and their context is thought to be key for
emotion perception (Aviezer et al. 2008). Although the role of context may
not enter awareness, it is interesting to note that people can perceive facial
expressions as conveying strikingly different emotions depending on the sit-
uational context in which they appear, even at the early stages of perception
(Brosch, Pourtois, and Sander 2010, 79). For example, an actor’s grimace
may be perceived as threatening in the context of a scary film but as amusing
in the context of a comedy.
Although sensitivity to contextual and situational factors has been high-
lighted mostly in relation to visual processing, a parallel can certainly be
made with translation. Knowing the wider context (political, social, etc.)
within which a source text was produced helps a translator to interpret the
words on a page and therefore to transfer source text meanings appropri-
ately; in the scientific study of emotion perception, context is also believed
to help individuals infer meaning, ‘read’ emotion in faces, and make judge-
ments of valence. According to Barrett, Mesquita, and Gendron (2011, 289)
emotional stimuli “appear in a multisensory context that is processed by a
brain that is running multiple mechanisms and within a body coursing with
hormones and its own sensory signals”. This context impacts even the most
basic aspects of perception, influencing what we expect to see, where to
look, and how we should feel.
For some perception scholars, language is also an important source of con-
text, and the act of providing perceivers with response options (e.g. words)
when recognising emotion gives contextual information which constrains
meanings and shapes the perception process (Barrett and Kensinger 2010;
Barrett, Mesquita, and Gendron 2011; Lindquist and Gendron 2013). In
this constructionist view, in addition to external surroundings, context refers
to parallel brain processes that shape how information is processed (Bar-
rett, Lindquist, and Gendron 2007). Language is believed to be one of these
parallel brain processes; it is thought to be linked to conceptual knowledge
about the world derived from prior experience and re-enacted during per-
ception, and to function as a context which shapes—or biases—the sensory
processing involved in seeing emotion in others (Davidoff 2001; Lindquist
et al. 2006; Lindquist et al. 2012). Although this view on the constraining
role of language is not universally accepted, there is growing evidence that
our language capacities and available labels influence and construct how we
perceive emotions.
In particular, experimental evidence indicates that emotion words reduce
uncertainty felt by an individual facing a stimulus, and constrain meaning
so as to enable quick and easy perceptions of emotion (Barrett, Lindquist,
and Gendron 2007, 329). In this view, having emotion words available
helps individuals to access conceptual knowledge for emotion, thus allow-
ing emotional perceptions to take shape (Barrett and Kensinger 2010, 596).
Evidence from neural activity suggests that participants are more accurate
in detecting emotions on someone’s face when words are available to them,
and that emotion perception becomes impaired when language is manip-
ulated, for instance when participants are asked to repeat a word aloud
several times (Lindquist and Gendron 2013). It is interesting to think that
language can, even implicitly, impact on one’s experience of another’s emo-
tion, and to reflect on the implications of this for emotion-eliciting words
within texts. For translators, the idea that language can constrain their emo-
tion perception abilities is noteworthy. And, seeing as it has been shown that
emotion concepts differ across cultures (Gendron et al. 2014), one might
wonder how translators perceive emotion-eliciting concepts featured in for-
eign source texts. If words shape the way that people experience affective
reality (Lindquist et al. 2006, 135), and if an author and a translator are
from different affective realities, this has consequences for the perception
and translation of emotional material.
The psychological literature acknowledges that the cultural context in
which a person perceives emotional stimuli influences how the latter are
imbued with emotional meaning (Barrett, Mesquita, and Gendron 2011,
288). In their study of multisensory (face and voice) emotion perception,
Tanaka et al. (2010) highlight that so-called East Asian observers rely
more on contextual information when perceiving emotions than so-called
Westerners and that culture modulates multisensory integration of affec-
tive information. They found that there are differences in how East Asians
perceive and process emotional information compared to Westerners, for
example, by relying more on vocal than facial cues. This finding is likely to
be of interest to interpreters working with clients from these cultures.
In addition to the influence on emotion perception of a perceiver’s own
culture and context, there is also evidence of cultural influence from the
context within which the stimulus to be perceived originates. Indeed,
despite the fact that emotions are recognisable at above-chance levels across
cultures, perceivers find it more difficult to recognise emotion in the faces
of people from different cultures or backgrounds, particularly when they
are under cognitive load (Elfenbein and Ambady 2003; Tracy and Rob-
ins 2008; Scherer, Clark-Polner, and Mortillaro 2011). In their research on
facial expressions of emotion, Marsh, Elfenbein, and Ambady (2003) note
that when viewing American stimuli, non-Americans do not recognise these
emotions as accurately as Americans do. A meta-analysis of cross-cultural
emotion recognition has found that people are generally more competent
at recognising emotion expressions of members from their own cultures
(ibid., 373).
Being able to recognise emotions in others is important for good social
communication, interpersonal relationships, and acceptable social behav-
iour (Yoo, Matsumoto, and LeRoux 2006). In particular, it has been shown
that when international students in the US are able to correctly perceive and
recognise anger in others, they learn effective ways to communicate and deal
with people in the new culture, leading to better adjustment (ibid., 359). So
the idea that we are less likely to accurately perceive an expression of anger
in someone from a different culture is potentially problematic for intercul-
tural translators, particularly if the research findings are extended to cover
recognition of emotional expressions embedded in foreign texts.
However, it has been argued that physical closeness to another cultural
group and/or cross-cultural exposure helps to reduce this effect (Marsh,
Elfenbein, and Ambady 2003, 373). For translators and interpreters, who
are more likely than most to have benefited from cross-cultural exposure,
this is good news. If perceiving and recognising foreign emotions is cogni-
tively taxing and more difficult than perceiving culturally familiar emotions,
people who have more practice with judging what psychologists call ‘out-
group’ emotional expressions will be at an advantage. Although translators
are keenly aware that intensive contact with a target culture is beneficial
for their work, this is reinforced by the fact that cultural familiarity and
exposure is associated with greater accuracy in emotion recognition and
understanding of expressive style (Elfenbein and Ambady 2003).
Alongside studies of picture processing, it is thought that the processing
of more abstract and symbolic material—such as words—is well suited to
the study of the role of emotion-eliciting content on the brain (Kissler et al.
2007; Herbert, Junghofer, and Kissler 2008; Kissler et al. 2009). Despite
the fact that emotion research has mostly focused on the processing of non-
linguistic stimuli (e.g. pictures and facial expressions), the few empirical
studies on perception processes when reading have also unearthed a number
of interesting findings. For instance, words with emotional connotations are
said to capture the reader’s attention and to be associated with enhanced
brain responses compared to neutral words (Kissler et al. 2007). Findings
on the processing of emotional stimuli discussed earlier therefore extend to
what Kissler et al. call “material with learned emotional significance” (2007,
478). Written emotion words can motivate our attention in the same way
as, for example, a picture of a snake or spider, even with limited processing
resources (Herbert, Junghofer, and Kissler 2008, 494). This is an indication
that, although they may not directly impact on survival, we attend to and
prioritise emotionally intense written messages like we do other types of
emotional stimuli. Furthermore, emotion words are said to stimulate “spe-
cific sensory information previously paired with those words”, thus influ-
encing how incoming sensory information is processed (Barrett, Lindquist,
and Gendron 2007, 331). So not only is our attention captured by emo-
tional words, but our response to these is likely to (1) mirror our previous
responses to similar stimuli and (2) be faster and increasingly accurate over
time. This increased speed is due, in part, to the formation of long-term
memory traces for emotionally significant stimuli (Zeelenberg, Wagenmak-
ers, and Rotteveel 2006).
According to Kissler et al. (2007, 480), the impact of emotional content
during reading has a physiological basis that may contribute to the emotions
we experience when reading an absorbing novel. The literature highlights
that, in addition to the pronounced impact of emotional words (e.g. pleas-
ant and unpleasant nouns and adjectives) on cortical processing compared
with neutral words, people have a natural bias towards pleasant informa-
tion (Herbert, Junghofer, and Kissler 2008). This means that pleasant infor-
mation attracts our attention more quickly than neutral information, that
there is better semantic integration of pleasant words, and that this leads to
more efficient memory encoding of this pleasant information (ibid., 495).
This finding about a preferential processing of pleasant content, reflected
in better memory for pleasant words, is important for understanding how
people might choose, judge, or remember particular works of literature. It is
also interesting to note that even when an individual pays attention to gram-
matical (non-emotional) features of a word, this does not interfere with its
emotional effect; this suggests that we can (and do) still process emotional
content while undertaking other (cognitive) task-relevant actions and deci-
sions in parallel (Kissler et al. 2009).
The way in which we perceive and process emotional stimuli during read-
ing is clearly complex. An added level of complexity stems from the fact
that the accuracy of perceived emotions is also subject to debate. Although
research has shown that emotionally significant words are generally cor-
rectly identified (e.g. Zeelander, Wagenmakers, and Rotteveel 2006), this
might not be the case for longer stretches of writing. In a study of emotions
in email communications, Byron (2008) argues that emotions expressed via
email are often inaccurately perceived by recipients. In particular, she high-
lights that people will tend to perceive emails intended to convey positive
emotion as more emotionally neutral, and those conveying negative emo-
tions as more intensely negative than originally intended. Here again, emo-
tion perception could be context—or modality—dependent, and perception
processes involved in varying types of written communications could be
quite different. Nonetheless, the idea that we may perceive some written
messages as more or less intense than their author intended has conse-
quences extending beyond email communication.
Byron (2008, 320) suggests that when positive emotions are not ade-
quately shared and perceived, this serves to increase distance and inhibit
the development of a relationship between the sender and the receiver.
When readers perceive negative emotions more intensely, they may also feel
anxious or angry. As immediate emotions tend to feel more intense and
salient than previous emotions, particularly for negative stimuli (Van Boven,
White, and Huber 2009, 379), this could impact negatively on well-being
and subsequent actions or judgements. Although this is not always going
to be the case—and more intensely perceived negative perceptions can also
motivate positive actions—it is clear that emotion perceptions can influence
decisions and evaluations in a number of different ways, and that accurate
perceptions are more likely to lead to adaptive outcomes.
This evidence of the role of perception from the emotion perception lit-
erature demonstrates that how one perceives emotional stimuli (whether in
faces, voice, or reading) has clear consequences for subsequent emotional
processing. A fundamental assumption in this study is therefore that transla-
tors perceive emotions when they translate and that these perceptions con-
tinuously impact on their working processes and behaviours.
Limitations to Emotion Perception Research

The study of emotion perception raises a number of issues and is not with-
out its limitations. In addition to the usual drawbacks inherent in many
experimental studies, such as relatively small sample sizes for some stud-
ies and a tendency for convenience sampling, several other limitations are
specific to the study of emotion perception processes and, thus, deserve a
mention here.
First, a number of emotion perception scholars highlight that perception
is not just a conscious experience and that subliminally displayed emotional
stimuli can also influence observers’ behaviours without their awareness
(e.g. Winkielman, Berridge, and Wilbarger 2005a; Tracy and Robins 2008;
Tamietto and De Gelder 2010). According to Atkinson and Adolphs (2005,
150) emotion perception is sometimes automatic and fast and is sometimes
deliberate, slow, and effortful. Although both conscious and unconscious4
emotion perceptions can be (and have been) measured, physiological stud-
ies of unconscious emotion perception are suggestive but not yet conclusive
(Winkielman, Berridge, and Wilbarger 2005b, 339). The exact mechanisms
of unconscious perception, the nature of its link with decision-making,
and the relations between its conscious and unconscious components are
still unclear to scientists and need to be further investigated. So, whereas
it is certainly intriguing to know that affective reactions can be sublimi-
nally triggered and change behaviour without being consciously controlled
(Winkielman, Berridge, and Wilbarger 2005a, 132), findings on conscious
experiences of emotions tend to be more reliable at present.
Second, the vast majority of studies on emotion perception have been
conducted in laboratories using visual stimuli, such as facial expressions
(Kissler et al. 2007; Scherer, Clark-Polner, and Mortillaro 2011; Tamietto
and De Gelder 2010). In their review of the literature on emotion per-
ception, Brosch, Pourtois, and Sander (2010) discuss the use of stimulus
material such as emotional words, pictures, and emotion expressions con-
veyed by the face, body, or voice. Despite their benefits, laboratory meth-
ods employing forced-choice response formats are not ecologically valid.
Barrett and Kensinger (2010) draw attention to the limitations of experi-
ments where no situational context is presented, and Baumgartner, Esslen,
and Jäncke (2006) argue that presenting visual stimuli in isolation is not
realistic because real-life emotional experiences usually rely on combined
stimuli from different modalities (e.g. visual and aural). In addition, sev-
eral researchers have highlighted the methodological problem with using
caricatures of facial expression stimuli, something which is common in con-
ducted research but not ‘typical’ in real life (Barrett and Kensinger 2010;
Barrett, Mesquita, and Gendron 2011; Lindquist and Gendron 2013). The
use of words as emotional stimuli has also been criticised for “not eliciting a
full-blown emotion with an intense subjective feeling component” (Brosch,
Pourtois, and Sander 2010, 90). Exciting future research could usefully be
undertaken with a variety of different (combinations of) stimuli, in realis-
tic settings outside of the laboratory, and with a focus on various discrete
emotions. Indeed, studies on information perception focus primarily on the
perception of negative emotions (Gross 2008, 705), and it is difficult to see
whether findings can be replicated for other discrete emotions.
The third limitation is the lack of consistent results across studies. For
example, Tracy and Robins (2008) conducted two studies to test the automa-
ticity of emotion recognition but concluded that several results were incon-
sistent and needed to be replicated. The results of Pinkham et al.’s study
of emotion perception processes over the course of schizophrenia contra-
dict those of earlier work (2007, 208). Rutherford and Towns (2008, 1372)
note that past research on emotion perception amongst autism populations
has yielded strikingly varied results. More important for this study, Brosh,
Pourtois, and Sander (2010, 84) suggest that words might activate emotion
concepts more easily than other emotional stimuli but that studies do not
currently give any definitive answers. Differences in experimental conditions,
samples, and tasks may be to blame for the inconsistency in findings. Indeed,
several scholars suggest replicating findings using different measures (e.g. Elf-
enbein and Ambady 2003), different tasks (e.g. Barrett, Mesquita, and Gen-
dron 2011), and different participants (e.g. Yoo, Matsumoto, and LeRoux
2006). Therefore, questions still remain about the extent to which findings
on emotion perception can be generalised. In addition, Bänziger, Mortillaro,
and Scherer (2012) draw attention to the fact that experiments on the per-
ception of emotion are regularly conducted within different research tradi-
tions and theoretical approaches. As a result, it is difficult to compare studies
with different aims, purposes, and theoretical underpinnings. The relatively
recent introduction of neuroimaging techniques should help to shed new
light on the experience and perception of emotions, alongside the use of
more solid conceptual perspectives to design future studies.
Regardless of their methods and theories, a large number of the stud-
ies reviewed earlier acknowledge that the emotional nature of a stimulus
depends on a person’s particularities and that what is perceived as emotional
for one person may be perceived as lacking in emotional meaning for another
(Brosch, Pourtois, and Sander 2010, 87). Individual differences clearly have
a role to play, and the next section focuses on the relations between emotion
perception and individual differences in terms of personality.
Emotion Perception and Personality Processes

Interestingly, according to Brosch, Pourtois, and Sander (2010, 82), indi-
vidual differences in emotional sensitivity can influence perception, and trait
differences can affect how our attention is directed: “such individual differ-
ences strongly suggest that prioritised attention is determined by an appraisal
of the emotional meaning and personal relevance of a stimulus, rather than
just salient sensory features” (ibid., 84). This implies that one’s own level of
sensitivity to emotions can impact how we perceive, and dedicate resources
to, emotional stimuli. According to Brosch, Pourtois, and Sander (ibid., 87),
whether and how a stimulus is perceived as emotional depends on a person’s
particularities (e.g. mood, motivation) and the context:
Hence, a given stimulus can be emotional for one person, while being
perceived as carrying less or even lacking any emotional meaning by
another individual. Furthermore, the emotional meaning of a given stim-
ulus may fluctuate for the exact same individual according to the spe-
cific context (situation and time) in which this stimulus is encountered.
An emotional stimulus will therefore elicit different emotional effects in dif-

ferent people, and at different times, depending on the individual emotional
relevance of the stimulus for the person. For example, although translating a
text about the Holocaust might elicit similar emotional responses across dif-
ferent translators, the interaction between the translator and a particularly
traumatic passage (e.g. fear-eliciting stimulus) may be affected by interindi-
vidual differences related to factors such as race and anxiety levels.
Higgins and Scholer (2008, 184) also report that differences in ‘ways of
seeing’ can reveal personality, since perceptions of objects, events, and indi-
viduals are influenced by beliefs, expectancies, knowledge, and past experi-
ences. They also concur on the idea that the way in which an individual
perceives something will determine its importance and affect subsequent
evaluations and decisions regarding that stimulus. Indeed, they suggest that
personality and individual differences shape how we perceive the world:
“A given individual’s past experiences (e.g. socialisation) can make differ-
ent types of knowledge more chronically accessible and thus influence how
likely it is that a construct (e.g. conceitedness) will be used by that individual
to characterise the social world” (2008, 187). It has been argued that if the
conceptual knowledge we hold is about emotion, it will shape our percep-
tion of emotion in others (Barrett 2006, 29). Barrett also suggests that this
knowledge, and how people use it when categorising stimuli, will influence
what they will feel (ibid., 32). It is interesting to note that translators’ pres-
ent and future perceptions and decisions in relation to particular emotional
cues could therefore be influenced by their personalities as well as by their
perceptions and experiences of previous emotional cues.
In addition, the fact that some individuals are more strongly valence-
focused than others (i.e. will experience affect [feelings of pleasure or dis-
pleasure] more intensely) means that they will be more sensitive to, and
perceive, evaluative cues more quickly (Barrett 2006, 26). Similarly, indi-
viduals higher in arousal (the activation and deactivation of affect) are also
believed to be more sensitive and less biased when it comes to perceiving
personally relevant stimuli. Scholars agree that individual differences in
mood and personality dimensions influence how individuals process emo-
tional stimuli and that those who identify emotional valence more quickly
are more sensitive to both their own and others’ emotional states, even when
these have not entered conscious awareness (Martin et al. 1996; Murphy,
Ewbank, and Calder 2012).
Individual traits, therefore, impact levels of emotional sensitivity and
speed of response to emotional stimuli. A clear example of this impact can
be seen in the attempted treatment of emotion perception deficits in patients
with adult TBI. In their study, Bornhofen and McDonald (2008) report that
participants who improved the most in judging emotional stimuli post treat-
ment were the ones who demonstrated the most initiative, engagement, and
motivation. In their study of the processing of musical emotions, Vuoskoski
and Eerola (2011) also attest to the role of personality-related factors (and
mood states)5 in accounting for variability in emotion perception.
The personality dimension of Neuroticism (i.e. prone to negative thoughts,
sensitive to negative emotional stimuli, likely to focus on negativity) has
been linked to sensitivity in terms of emotional reactivity and intensity, and
it is thought that individuals scoring high in Neuroticism are likely to be
more susceptible to negative thoughts (Guarino, Roger, and Olason 2007).
Indeed, in personality theory, it is believed that extraverts are more sus-
ceptible to positive affect and tend to experience more pleasant emotions,
whereas neurotics are more susceptible to negative affect and tend to experi-
ence more unpleasant emotions (Vuoskoski and Eerola 2011, 1100). This
can translate into a predisposition for extraverts to interpret future incoming
data as positive and for neurotics to interpret future incoming data as nega-
tive. Individuals with emotional traits such as extraversion may thus tend to
avoid negative stimuli and to focus on positive stimuli. Their extraversion
could also alter the processing of emotional cues when experiencing nega-
tive moods (ibid., 1100). It could therefore be argued that translators might
process emotional cues differently depending on their personality traits and
mood states. Furthermore, extraverted translators might be diverting their
attention away from negative stimuli in the first place, which could be prob-
lematic if a source text contained negative emotion-eliciting content.
Research undertaken by Yoo, Matsumoto, and LeRoux (2006, 358) dem-
onstrates that an ability to accurately perceive emotions can improve social
communication, adjustment, interpersonal relationships, and acceptable
social behaviour, leading to more effective ways to actually process and reg-
ulate these emotions. Nevertheless, being very reactive to emotional signals
can also have a dark side, as perceiving some negative emotions (e.g. fear,
sadness) has been linked to stress: “it may be that those who are sensitive to
these emotions [. . .] may be negatively biased in their outlook in life, thus
leading them to rate everything more negatively” (ibid., 360). Individuals
high in Neuroticism could therefore be inadvertently enhancing emotional
negativity during processing, which could be detrimental. In the same vein,
Byron (2008) argues that individuals high in negative affectivity are more
likely to experience negativity in their perception of email communication.
The fact that different moods and traits influence how we are likely to
perceive emotions in written communication has clear consequences for
translators. It is even thought that our personal experience of reading a
written passage can be influenced by activation of particular emotions just
before reading, and that the way in which a vague or ambiguous stimulus is
perceived can already reveal an individual’s motives and personality (Hig-
gins and Scholer 2008). Because occurrent states and persistent traits can
be viewed as part of a continuum (cf. Chapter 1), it now seems relevant
to explore the role and relevance of particular emotion traits in decoding
emotional signals.
Emotion Perception and Trait EI

The literature reviewed above highlights the existence of variability in peo-
ple’s ability to perceive emotions. Being able to perceive emotions is one
aspect of emotional intelligence and, in the trait EI model adopted in the
case study, emotion perception belongs to the factor of emotionality. Emo-
tionality relates to traits pertaining to both the perception and expression of
emotions (Petrides 2009, 12). According to Martin et al. (1996, 291), sev-
eral researchers are of the opinion that emotion decoding ability is part of a
broader set of emotion-related skills that can be conceptualised as a form of
intelligence. Individuals who are able to perceive the emotional valence of
a stimulus more quickly than others are likely to be more sensitive to both
their own and other people’s emotional states, and it would make sense to
think that high trait EI individuals are faster at perceiving emotions than
low trait EI individuals. In the TEIQue (Trait Emotional Intelligence Ques-
tionnaire) manual, the emotion perception facet of emotionality is described
as follows:
This scale measures emotion perception in one’s own self as well as in

others. High scorers on this scale are clear about what they feel and able
to decode other people’s emotional expressions. In contrast, people with
low scores on the emotion perception scale are often confused about
how they feel and do not pay much attention to the emotional sig-
nals that others send out. This facet correlates negatively with depres-
sive tendencies and positively with self-monitoring and faith in one’s
judgement.
(Petrides 2009, 59)
The trait EI scale includes self-report items such as ‘‘I know what others are
feeling just by looking at them’’, thus shedding light on participants’ self-
perceived emotion-related perceptions. This description should guide the
interpretation of emotion perception scores of participants in the present
study (see Part 3 of this chapter).
Scholars have argued that emotion perception is strongly influenced by
emotional dispositions (e.g. King 1998). For example, Austin (2004, 1863)
found that trait emotion perception is related to performance on emotion-
related tasks such as recognising facial expressions. Interestingly, she sug-
gests that tasks involving the recognition of the emotional content of words
could be studied in the same way and that examining associations between
a wide range of trait EI measures and emotion task performance would be
useful.6
As previously mentioned, when people are slower and more ambivalent
in their recognition of emotional stimuli, they tend to have emotion percep-
tion deficits. In two experiments comparing the behaviour of high and low
trait EI individuals, Petrides and Furnham (2003) found that high trait EI
individuals are faster at identifying emotional expressions (especially happy
ones) and exhibit greater sensitivity to mood induction. Therefore, not only
are people with high trait EI more sensitive to emotions in faces and perceive
them faster, but they are also more likely to be influenced by their moods
when making emotion-related decisions. The authors conclude that emotion
perception “is likely to be associated with differential reactivity to affect-
laden stimuli” (2003, 51). We can therefore speculate that being in a good
mood before starting to translate a text with emotion-eliciting content could
affect choice-making and influence the frequency or type of solutions found.
This sensitivity and susceptibility to affect can give an advantage in terms
of socio-psychological functioning. Emotion perception, like most other fac-
ets that trait EI encompasses, is negatively related to stress, depression, alex-
ithymia, and psychopathic behaviour (Petrides and Furnham 2003, 2006).
Yoo, Matsumoto, and LeRoux (2006) also highlight the positive conse-
quences that emotional intelligence, and emotion perception in particular,
can have. According to them, good emotion perception can predict positive
behaviour, social competence, and better decision-making and adjustment
in intercultural settings. In particular, increased sensitivity to some emo-
tions (e.g. anger) is said to enhance communication and other interpersonal
behaviours (Poon 2004).
Emotion perception has also been touted as a dispositional trait that
influences objective career success7 (Poon 2004). In his study of the links
between emotion perception and career commitment and success, Poon
(2004) draws attention to the fact that, although they may only be indirectly
linked to performance, emotion perception skills can play a moderating role
in career outcomes. Indeed, people who are able to perceive their own feel-
ings are “better able to assess their job skills and interests, set appropriate
career objectives, develop realistic career plans, and obtain the developmen-
tal experiences needed to take advantage of career opportunities” (ibid.,
377). The author speculates that people with high trait emotion perception
are more able to seek environments that fit with their needs, values, and
dispositions, leading to higher job satisfaction and performance.
However, scholars also highlight that emotion perception and recognition
are not always linked to positive outcomes and can also have maladap-
tive outcomes. Being very sensitive to emotion-laden stimuli can interfere
with evaluative judgements and cognitive processing (Petrides and Furnham
2003, 46). As Petrides and Furnham note, “it would be interesting experi-
mentally to examine potential disadvantages for high trait EI individuals,
such as increased susceptibility to interference from emotion-evoking stim-
uli in learning or memory tasks” (2003, 51). Stress, anxiety, and emotional
disorders, in particular, are said to affect individuals who are very com-
petent at emotion perception (Yoo, Matsumoto, and LeRoux 2006, 359).
Whereas people who are less perceptive tend to be better able to ignore or
repress unpleasant feelings, people who are very perceptive may be less able
to protect themselves against stress and negativity. Trait EI therefore seems
to play an important role in the emotion perception process.
In terms of the accuracy of self-perceived emotion perceptions, it is useful
to recall that self-perceptions can influence behaviour or mental health irre-
spective of whether they are accurate, and inaccurate self-perceptions can
have both positive and negative consequences for cognition, behaviour, and
mental health (Petrides and Furnham 2003, 41). For example, a translator
(or interpreter) may believe that he or she can perceive another’s emotions
quite well, but in actual fact this might not be the case; one can see how a
discrepancy between perceived and real ability could lead this individual
to act inappropriately. Having said this, trait EI self-perceptions tend to be
accurate (Petrides and Furnham 2003, 52) and, as we have seen, there is
good evidence that trait EI measures are related to performance on tasks
requiring emotion perception skills (e.g. Austin 2004, 2005). In the next
section, the relevance of emotion perception processes for translation and
translators, more specifically, is discussed.
Part 2: Emotion Perception and Translation

So far, I have only hinted at the possible influence of emotion perception pro-
cesses on the act of translation. Nonetheless, the earlier brief (and necessarily
selective) review of the emotion perception literature highlighted a number
of interesting points for translators which can be summarised as follows:
A cognitively taxed individual can accurately perceive emotionally sig-

nificant content very quickly and, initially, without conscious aware-
ness; mimicry can aid emotion perception and promote understanding;
contextual information can help individuals infer emotional meanings
and make judgements of valence; accurate perception is more difficult
when emotion expressions are from a foreign culture, but cultural famil-
iarity is associated with greater accuracy; emotional stimuli elicit differ-
ent emotional effects in different people, and at different times; current
perceptions are influenced by previous ones; personality, emotion traits,
and mood states influence emotion perception and decision-making.
The relevance of these points for translators is addressed in the following

subsections.
Violent and Individual Perceptions

The way in which translators perceive emotions in the texts they translate
and then perceive their own emotional responses to these, is bound to be a
complex and highly personal process. It is also one which can have serious
consequences, as professional translator and scholar Carol Maier (2002,
2006) highlights in some of her writings. However, despite the (admittedly
still relatively rare) musings of professional translators on this issue, the
topic has attracted surprisingly little interest from translation researchers.
Regardless of the research method employed, it is fair to say that emotion
perceptions are difficult to pin down, but translators’ stories of their experi-
ences with texts leave no doubt that emotion perceptions play a powerful
part in the translation process.
In two key pieces of writing, Maier describes some of her more memora-
ble translating experiences. In 2002, she recounts the process of translating
Octavio Armand’s poetry of exile and her feelings of discomfort at reading
and translating his writings:
I had gradually been growing impatient with the schizoid reality of the
first person with whom I often felt imprisoned [. . .] it was often my
impression that I was not only caressed but also insulted and ridiculed
as the “you” Armand addressed in his poems and essays [. . .] I had felt
that I was being battered by the first person’s effort to challenge what
that person assumed was my relative wholeness as a second person and
to appropriate that wholeness as a way of healing its own fractured self.
(Maier 2002, 187–188)
It is clear from this extract that the source text triggers an affective reaction
in Maier, and that her keen perception of ‘the schizoid reality’ contained
in Armand’s work has a strong impact both on her well-being and on her
work. Indeed, her use of language (‘imprisoned’, ‘battered’) clearly high-
lights the distress that reading and translating his work has brought on,
eventually leading to a complete breakdown of the translation process: “my
role as the inevitable communicator of his dis-ease seemed intolerable [. . .]
I decided that, at least for a while, I could not continue to translate” (2002,
189–190).8 Rose (2013, 19–20) makes similar (although somewhat less vio-
lent) comments about her emotional perceptions of Hugo’s Les Misérables
when translating it:
I found I couldn’t go on without regular breaks from the blazing inten-

sity of Hugo’s prose [. . .] That prose, which Rimbaud once described
as “pure poetry”, was a shock [. . .] There are great waves of sparkling
prose that wash over the narrative, ripples and flecks of foam and great
sucking undertows that drag you into the depths.
In Maier’s case, the intense feelings aroused by the text interrupted the
cognitively taxing act of translation altogether. It is interesting to note that
the realisation of the impact of translating was not immediate, however, but
a gradual and delayed reaction. When, on another occasion in 2006, Maier
recounts her experience of translating journal entries of the Chilean writer
Labarca, she also highlights the gradual sense of unease and discomfort that
translating triggered in her:
I worked on the translation with little more than linguistic enthusi-

asm [. . .] gradually, however, despite the fact that neither as text nor
topic had the journal truly managed to catch my interest, I realized
that work on the project had begun to affect me physically. I had no
trouble locating words or references, but each time I returned to the
translation I felt tired and dispirited; my head and shoulders ached, my
legs felt heavy.
(Maier 2006, 139–140)
On both occasions, it could be argued that emotional stimuli contained in

the source text will have been perceived and processed insidiously (leading
to physical discomfort) but that it took some time for the impact of these
emotions to enter Maier’s consciousness. This is in line with the research
discussed in Part 1 which highlights that an emotional stimulus can be pri-
oritised and processed without conscious control and affect downstream
behaviour (e.g. Tracy and Robins 2008). Research also indicates that indi-
viduals can respond to negatively valenced stimuli more slowly than they do
to positively valenced stimuli when cognitive judgements are involved. In
fact, according to Tracy and Robins (ibid., 92) negative emotions are in gen-
eral recognised less accurately and quickly than positive emotions because
they are distracting: “when participants see anger, disgust, fear, and sadness
expressions, rather than immediately reach a conscious understanding of
the expression [. . .] their cognitive resources may be immediately allocated
to a more important task: finding the source of the threat”. Like Maier,
translators who perceive fairly intense negative stimuli in texts may take
some time to realise the impact this could have on their health and well-
being, an impact made worse by the slow disengagement of our attention
from emotional stimuli (Phelps 2006) and the fact that individuals may per-
ceive negative emotions in writing as more intensely negative than originally
intended (Byron 2008).
One of the most striking aspects of Maier’s recounted experiences of
translating is the power, violence, and impact of the emotions involved. Her
description of the physical experience she feels when translating Labarca’s
work clearly demonstrates how forcefully her body reacted to what it per-
ceived as the ‘physical turmoil’ of the author, who, according to her, was
desperately attempting to ground herself on the blank page. Similarly, she
uses very powerful language when recounting her experience of reading
Chacel’s novel: “This summer, punctuation has been penetration into my
palms, a sliding back of skin, the separation of its subcutaneous layers”
(2006, 144). Maier’s not so skin-deep reaction can be understood in light
of research that has uncovered readers’ pronounced physiological responses
to texts containing emotionally arousing stimuli (e.g. Kissler et al. 2007).
Words can have a powerful effect on those reading them and, as Bassnett
(2006, 174) highlights, translators engage with texts first as readers, and
then as rewriters.9 It is therefore not surprising that translators can have
strong bodily reactions to the perceived emotional content of texts.
Reception and Identification

A comprehensive study of translators’ perceptions of source texts, and the
emotions these elicit, would undoubtedly need to incorporate research on
reader reception. According to Jääskeläinen (2012, 196), although the num-
ber of reception studies is on the rise, these are still generally absent from
the entries of Translation Studies handbooks and encyclopaedias. This is
unfortunate, as studies on the reception of literature have hinted at the pow-
erful role that emotion perception could have for processing source texts.
For example, when investigating the impact of reading, Kidd and Castano
(2013) found that reading literary fiction improves performance in perceiv-
ing facially expressed emotions. Sleek (2014) reports that intense reception
and perceptions of texts (especially fiction) that offer deeply felt simulations
of social experience can help to expand our understanding of ourselves and
others, and mentally transport us into the body of protagonists. In addi-
tion, he reports on research by Berns et al. (2013), which suggests that this
transportation into another’s body can cause changes in brain function and
structure and invoke neural activity associated with bodily sensations for a
period that can last several days after the reading is done. This could help to
explain why a translator like Maier might experience long-lasting physical
effects after projecting herself into a text and/or identifying with a particular
character or narrator. Johnson, Huffman, and Jasper (2014, 83) theorise
that reading narrative fiction can induce self–other merging through iden-
tification with the story’s characters and blurs the boundary between the
self and the other. Although it is outside the scope of the present work to
provide an in-depth discussion of findings from reader reception studies, it
is clear that emotion perception constitutes an important part of the reading
experience, which suggests that it also plays a part in the wider translation
process. After all, translators are said to become the most intimate read-
ers of literary or scholarly texts (Porter 2013, 65), and as Bush highlights,
the critical distancing of a professional reading does not erase “the more
elemental relationship” that one develops when reading fiction (2013, 38).
When perceiving emotions in source texts, readers (and translators) react
in individual ways. In her analysis of the personal responses of readers
to poems and their translations, Kenesei (2010, 85) suggests that reading
evokes emotions in the reader and that negative constructions in poems
can trigger negative emotions. One of the poetry translators interviewed
by Jones (2011, 94) suggested that translation is made easier when transla-
tors have personally experienced—and can identify with—the extremes of
emotion that characterise source poems. Like other readers, translators will
have relatively unique responses and perceptions when receiving ST con-
tent, which may differ from those of other readers or even of the ST author.
For example, when reading Grenier’s fiction for the first time, Kaplan (2013,
78) reports feeling a sense of recognition and being drawn to translate his
work due to its American feel, with which she identified.
It is interesting to consider the role of language in this personal process of
perceiving and identifying with emotion-eliciting content. As we have seen,
several perception scholars believe that language gives contextual informa-
tion, constrains meaning, and serves to shape and bias perception processes
(e.g. Barrett, Lindquist, and Gendron 2007). As such, emotion words present
in texts may contextualise and constrain for translators the perception of
emotions inscribed in the text and, thus, impact on their experience of these
emotions (Lindquist et al. 2006). According to Maier, Labarca’s body-driven
writing was “not quite balanced” and “disjointed” (2006, 140) as it reflected
her anxious and distressed self-perceptions. When reading and translating
this “broken and bleeding language”, as Maier describes it, she cannot
escape Labarca’s affective reality and the labels she provides to describe it.
The intensity of meanings and emotions constrained by the language used
in the source text prompt Maier to feel physically ill and generate her own
“feelings of malaise” (Maier 2006, 140).10 As Bernofsky (2013, 229) high-
lights, a translator hears a text’s heartbeat in the cadences of its phrases.
As we have seen, the abovementioned process of identification and trans-
portation into protagonists’ bodies that can take place when reading and
translating is not always a pleasant one. Although Maier initially believed
that the feelings of assault, disorientation, and ambivalence she felt when
translating Armand’s work freed her, it took several years for her to realise
the impact of this work on her and to “rebel against his first person” (2002,
188).11 Rather than freeing her, identifying (improperly) with Armand’s pro-
vocative work had troubled her and made her feel uncomfortable:
When translation occurs as fully as possible, the translator not only

conveys or communicates a “message” but may also experience the
ambivalence, the absence of ease, and even the abrasion that are no
doubt inherent in any dépaysement.
(Maier 2002, 185)
In the same way that perceivers unconsciously mimic the emotion signals
present in faces to promote emotional sharing and understanding (e.g. Neal
and Chartrand 2011), it could be that translators are perceiving, identifying,
and reproducing the emotions conveyed in source texts, effectively mimick-
ing or ‘borrowing’ the emotional states contained in the works they translate.
Maier (2002, 190) uses the term ‘infecting’ to describe Armand’s spreading
of his ‘dis-ease’ to his readers, and it could be argued that translators are
also to some extent ‘infected’ with the ideas they translate. Rose (2013, 16)
suggests that good translators ‘catch’ and imitate a writer’s style and energy,
and marshal their intuitive and sensual responses in a re-embodiment of it;
Maier (2006, 144) feels certain that many of the texts she has worked with
have found their way into her blood and “became an integral element of
[her] organism”.12 The consequences in terms of health and well-being of
regulating these emotions that have surreptitiously become the translator’s
own are further addressed in Chapter 3, but it is noteworthy how far this
situation is from the uninvolved and objective one that some translator/
interpreter employers might promote.
The reception of—and identification with—another’s emotions is, as we
have seen, dependent on how valence-focused an individual is and the
personal relevance of the emotional stimulus perceived. These factors will
determine the speed and quality of the response. Bush (2013, 37–38) notes
that translators undertake exciting and emotional individual readings and
that they will “engage at different levels with different narratives at differ-
ent times of the day, night, week or month”. Costa also stated that each
translated work is filtered through one particular person’s imagination and
perception and fixed in a particular time (2007, 122). There is individual-
ity in perception when reading and translating, and Bush further high-
lights that, when reading, translators’ personal prejudices, inclinations,
subjective feelings, memories, and physical reactions come into play and
impact on the translation process: “that variety exists [. . .] the necessary
individual emotional and imaginative aspect to rewriting [. . .] the mess
and the magma” (2013, 38). In the same vein, Maier (2006, 145) sug-
gests that Chacel was motivated to translate Phaedre partly because of the
strong physical affect and ‘multiple, complex emotions’ that seeing it being
performed in French had on her. The personal relevance of the source text
and physical turmoil it engendered effectively gave rise to the translation.
This chimes well with the emotion perception literature which, as we have
seen, suggests that one’s past (emotion-related) experiences will influence
one’s subsequent emotion perceptions and feelings (Barrett 2006; Higgins
and Scholer 2008). Indeed, amygdala activation enhances memory in rela-
tion to the emotional intensity of an experience (Canli et al. 2000) and
our response to new emotionally significant stimuli is likely to mirror our
previous responses to similar stimuli and to be faster and more accurate
due to the formation of long-term memory traces (Zeelenberg, Wagen-
makers, and Rotteveel 2006). Certainly, having some affinity with a source
author’s work seems to play an important part in how it is perceived and
translated.
Resolution, Bias, and Culture

In the end, Maier seemed to reach a stage where, on one hand, she was able
to decode both Armand’s and Labarca’s emotional expressions (of anxieties,
disease, etc.), and on the other hand, she became entirely aware of, sensitive
to, and clear about how these emotions made her feel. Indeed, several years
after encountering Armand’s work, she was able to “rethink [her] involve-
ment with Armand’s writing” (2002, 190). Other experiences and a more
developed awareness of her own subjectivity, identifications, expectations,
and desires helped, in this instance, to make the translator realise that trans-
lation was possible after all, as long as “[she] recognized [. . .] the need to
acknowledge and, insofar as possible, suspend or at least monitor [her] own
motivations and dépaysement as a translator” (2002, 191). This necessary
balance in terms of emotion perception in the self and in others, alongside
the self-monitoring Maier mentions here, evoke the definition of emotion
perception found in trait EI theory (e.g. Petrides 2009).
Sometimes, when a translator’s emotion perceptions result in a lack of
balance, there are unintended consequences. Translators have to infer and
perceive what Kolb (2013, 211) and other reader-oriented literary scholars
call the indeterminacies and ambiguities that authors sometimes inscribe
into their literary writings, purposefully or not. Like other readers, they may
have to construct and create meanings based on their perceptions and, as
we have seen, some will naturally be more sensitive than others to implicit
material, emotional nuances, and tone. In her discussion of five different
translators’ renderings into German of Hemmingway’s 1986 “A Very Short
Story” Kolb highlights that some of the translators can unconsciously alter
the emotional (or non-emotional) nature of the source text in translation:
D’s translation bears witness to her profound interaction with the text
in that she constructed her very personal meaning when reading the
passage, and brought her knowledge of Hemmingway as well as her
own stylistic preferences into the process. At the same time, though, as
the producer of the target text, she withholds this same intense interac-
tion with the text from her readers.
(Kolb 2013, 217)
In this instance, the translator’s personal perceptions and interpretations of

implied meanings in the original lead her to create a (disambiguated) target
text that is likely to produce a very different impression on target readers
than the source text had produced on source readers. Another of the transla-
tors that Kolb (2013, 219) studies “makes love explicit and even introduces
a more emotional and slightly urgent note by making reference to [a] knife”.
Again, it could be argued here that the translator’s decision to augment the
emotional impact of the story in translation is linked to how she perceived
and allocated emotional meaning when reading the original.
It is important to note that all of Kolb’s study participants are success-
ful translators in their own right. As such, their strategies and solutions in
dealing with emotions in source texts cannot easily be judged as successful
or unsuccessful. Instead, we must—as Maier does—question the translator’s
unexamined certainty that their work transfers source language (SL) experi-
ences: “[There is often] a tendency to project oneself into the text of another
and to assume that the projection gave rise to accurate, authentic, and truly
shared feelings that erased or transcended mediation” (2006, 137). A trans-
lator’s projection is, I would wager, neither authentic nor inauthentic; if we
recall that individuals experience enhanced (rapid, efficient) sensory pro-
cessing of emotionally relevant stimuli, resulting in attention biases, which
partly depend on the emotional valence or affective value for that individual
(Barrett 2006; Yoo, Matsumoto, and LeRoux 2006; Murphy, Ewbank, and
Calder 2012), it could be argued that translators will not only be influenced
by the specific features of the external stimuli found in a ST but that their
perceptual processing will also necessarily be influenced by internal factors
(e.g. personality, mood, stored knowledge etc.) which, in turn, influence
their projections. The concept of authenticity is therefore rendered moot.13
This rapid and efficient selection of emotionally salient stimuli in the envi-
ronment is important for adaptive behaviours, and we have seen that schol-
ars agree that this process is not always a conscious one (e.g. Phelps, Ling,
and Carrasco 2006). The idea that there are unconscious processes at work
during translation has already attracted some attention in the translation
literature. Robinson (1991), for example, argued that more research needed
to be done on the ways in which our bodies send us signals regarding what
we know and how we should react, postulating that we are guided on an
unconscious level by our intuitive and somatic responses. I have also argued
elsewhere that cognitively taxed translators may rely on their intuitions to
find solutions and to solve problems (Hubscher-Davidson 2013). Although
unconscious processing of emotionally significant content is not something
that can easily be controlled (Tracy and Robins 2008), its impact on down-
stream behaviour could usefully be monitored in translation.
A well-known translator, Emmerich (2013, 48), quotes Philippi, who sug-
gests that “the translator’s world is one of incorporeal experiences based on
contact with non-material relationships and concepts”. Emmerich further
claims that “the habit of dealing with these incorporeal substances gives
translators a good ability to attain high degrees of abstraction and to intui-
tively perceive relationships which are not obvious on the surface” (ibid.,
48). The implication here is that habit, or experience, may help to improve
translators’ intuitive (or unconscious) perception processes. Emmerich
(ibid., 50) also makes an analogy of translators as ghosts who are saturated
with languages living inside of them in constantly shifting concentrations
and who haunt languages but do not fully belong to them. Perhaps the
same can be said for emotions whereby, rather than transferring emotions
between separate worlds, translators do not stand between them but are
inhabited by different affective realities simultaneously, haunting different
worlds but not fully belonging to any.
One interesting (related) observation is that, as a result of haunting dif-
ferent worlds and inhabiting different affective realities, translators are (as
previously suggested) probably able to counteract the effect of cultural bias
on emotion perception. Johnson, Huffman, and Jasper (2014, 88) report
that reading narrative fiction about an individual from a foreign culture can
reduce stereotyping, prejudice, and improve biased emotional perception
of mixed-race individuals. As highlighted by perception scholars (Elfenbein
and Ambady 2003; Marsh, Elfenbein, and Ambady 2003) cross-cultural
exposure and cultural familiarity help to reduce cultural bias, something
which is salutary for translators in light of recent evidence which suggests
that literature is a body of texts interpreted in ways which clearly reflect the
values and the identity of a particular nation (Kenesei 2010, xii). Indeed,
if (1) the “reader’s entire system of cultural units, as well as the concrete
circumstances in which he lives may legitimate an interpretation that the
sender would never have foreseen” (Kenesei 2010, quoting Eco, xvii), and
(2) people are more likely to form favourable attitudes towards individuals
who express culturally familiar emotions (Marsh, Elfenbein, and Ambady
2003, 375), this would not bode well for the translation of foreign source
texts. It would be interesting to better understand the role of culture in the
translation of emotional material and the role of emotions in the translation
of cultural material. By analysing the trait emotion perception of profes-
sional translators, the following section is a preliminary attempt to address
these issues.
Part 3: Emotion Perception in the Case Study
Introduction
In this section, an examination is undertaken of the emotion perception
profiles of the 155 professional translators in the study. Translators’ emo-
tion perception trait, as assessed by the TEIQue, is therefore examined in
relation to sociobiographical variables relevant to the translation profession
and derived from the emotion perception literature review. As mentioned
previously, TEIQue measures global trait EI by incorporating 4 global fac-
tors and 15 facets measured through 15 subscales. The emotion perception
facet is subsumed within the factor of emotionality.14 An analysis of the
relationship between emotion perception and the data from professional
translators’ profiles is provided in the following.
Results
As a result of the literature review, emotion perception and emotional-
ity were expected to correlate with the following variables: age, length of
professional translation experience, self-perceived job satisfaction, self-
perceived job success, proportion of time spent on translating, and literary
translation experience. In addition, cultural familiarity was also expected to
be related to the facet of emotion perception and the factor of emotionality.
Indeed, skill in perceiving one’s own and others’ emotions is hypothesised to
be linked to gaining both experience and maturity, and to spending time on
translation activities; in particular, due to the previously mentioned impact
on emotion perception of reading literary fiction, it could be related to gain-
ing experience in literary translation. Additionally, as discussed in Part 1, it
is hypothesised that translators will be happier and more successful in their
jobs when they are better able to perceive emotions. Last, as a result of the
literature review, it is hypothesised that emotion perception is related to
familiarity with the foreign languages and cultures that translators in this
study work with. Pearson’s correlation analyses were performed; the results
are presented in Table 2.2 and discussed afterward.
Table 2.2 Emotion perception, emotionality, and professional translators’ sociobio-
graphical variables (Pearson’s r)
Variables Emotion perception Emotionality
Age .12 .16*

Professional translation experience .10 .17*
Job satisfaction .10 .20*
Job success .12 .08
Time spent translating −.12 −.16*
Literary translation experience .08 .10
Foreign languages/cultures .00 .00
* p < .05.
The results of the bivariate correlations in Table 2.2 carried out between
the trait of emotion perception, the factor of emotionality, and the seven
variables, show that there are positive associations that are not statistically
significant between emotion perception and professional translation experi-
ence (r = .10, p = .22), job satisfaction (r = .10, p = .21), job success (r = .12,
p = .14), literary translation experience (r = .08, p = .32), and the age vari-
able (r = .12, p = .14). Regarding the factor of emotionality, Table 2.2 shows
similar trends, with the additional result that age, job satisfaction, and pro-
fessional translation experience show statistically significant positive cor-
relations with emotionality (r = .16, p < .05; r = .20, p < .05; r = .17, p <
.05). Conversely, both emotion perception and emotionality are negatively
associated with time spent translating (r = −.12, p = .15; r = −.16, p < .05),
and there is no relationship between emotion perception or emotionality
and the foreign language variable.
Discussion
Table 2.2 shows that emotion perception correlated positively with five of
the seven variables tested. This suggests that professional translators with
low trait emotion perception are likely to be younger, with less professional
translation experience. They are less likely to experience job satisfaction
and success and to have literary translation experience. In other words,
results indicate that the higher the levels of emotion perception (i.e. the
self-reported ability to perceive emotions in one’s own self as well as in
others) the more likely it is that professional translators will be mature,
experienced, and feel happy and successful. In addition, the more experience
a translator has of undertaking literary translation, the likelier it is that he
or she will also have increased levels of emotion perception. Interestingly,
however, emotion perception did not correlate positively with the propor-
tion of total work hours spent on undertaking translation, nor did it show
a positive or negative relationship with the degree of closeness between the
languages/cultures that translators work with. These findings indicate that
professional translators with high emotion perception are not necessarily
more likely to spend a lot of time translating on a daily basis and that they
are not more or less likely to work with culturally familiar languages.
Although these results are interesting, it must be noted that not all the test
results showed statistical significance. In addition, correlation coefficients
are relatively low which can indicate low explanatory power, as we have
seen in Chapter 1. It is also important to bear in mind that, even if emotion
perception correlates with variables like job satisfaction or success, it may
not have as significant an effect on job-related variables in the total picture
as other variables such as language proficiency or technical skills. Although
it is unlikely that the relationships demonstrated here are due to chance
alone, it is nonetheless wise to be cautious when interpreting results.
The results presented in Table 2.2 highlight four interesting findings
which deserve further discussion.
1. Emotion Perception Is Positively Associated With Age

The positive correlation found between emotion perception and age makes
good sense. Indeed, the ability to perceive, recognise, and respond to emo-
tions is said to become faster with age (Elfenbein and Ambady 2003, 278)
as individuals are said to acquire an increasingly sophisticated ability to
anticipate the emotional responses of others over time, meaning that greater
age is “accompanied by an increasingly sophisticated and nuanced ability to
recognize, appreciate, and relate to the emotions of others” (Magai 2008,
377). As such, as translators mature, it seems logical that they would dem-
onstrate greater sophistication in perceiving and responding to their own
emotions and the emotions of others encountered in the context of their
work. Although there is inconsistency in the literature as regards whether
age impacts the recognition of facial expressions of emotion, the emotion
literature is clear on the fact that emotional information becomes more
salient with age and engages older adults differentially (Magai 2008, 386).
The fact that (1) age and other individual characteristics impact bilingual
and multilingual speakers’ language production (Dewaele 2010) and that
(2) translation is one form of bilingual language production (Halverson
2014, 123) also indicate that age could be a factor impacting on translation
performance. As noted in Chapter 1, despite trait EI being relatively stable
over time, a variable such as age is likely to contribute to how individuals
perceive emotions.
We also noted in Part 2 that emotion perception is a component part of
the translation process and that, over time, translators learn to catch, bor-
row, and imitate (or ‘mimic’) the emotions contained in texts more effec-
tively. It was highlighted that translators like Maier are often better able to
recognise and monitor their own emotions for a piece of work after some
time has passed, sometimes several years. The experiences gained, aware-
ness (of self and others), and maturity that come with age, all contribute to
the development of translators’ emotional skills.
In addition, although this finding is not statistically significant, it is in line
with the research carried out by Zeelenberg, Wagenmakers, and Rotteveel
(2006) which postulates that, because of long-term memory traces, people’s
responses to emotionally significant stimuli is likely to become faster and
more accurate with age. If an emotionally charged or difficult translation
task has affected a translator in the past, and has had a deeply felt impact,
he or she is likely to remember it and to become more perceptive of its
warning signs in future. Indeed, we have seen that emotional stimuli have
enhanced priority compared to neutral stimuli—affecting selective attention
even when cognitively taxed—and that, in turn, the arousal provoked by
the prioritised stimulus will bias and enhance long-term memory consolida-
tion (e.g. Canli et al. 2000). What is also interesting is that, according to
Mather and Sutherland (2011, 128), this enhanced processing of salient, or
goal-relevant, stimuli could improve performance: “later, remembering the
high priority information from the event could improve future strategies for
dealing with similar situations”.15
As discussed previously, mood states and personality traits influence
how we perceive emotional stimuli. Even if most healthy people show an
enhanced capacity to perceive emotions as they age, individual differences
remain in terms of how these perceptions are manifested due to life experi-
ences and the formation of individual emotional biases in the personality
(Magai 2008, 378). Translators will gain increasing clarity over time about
their own and other people’s feelings, but the personal relevance of the emo-
tional stimulus encountered will always play a role, regardless of age. Hav-
ing said that, the positive correlation between emotion perception and age
found in this study accords well with the trait EI literature which, according
to Petrides and Furnham (2006), has highlighted the positive correlation
between these two variables in several data sets. The authors suggest that
emotional self-efficacy increases over time and that “there is evidence from
longitudinal studies that as people get older, they tend to become less labile
emotionally” (2006, 555). Similar to their study, the positive correlation
between age and emotionality in the present study could therefore be due to
a developmental trend.
2. Emotion Perception Is Positively Associated With the Acquisition

of Literary Translation Experience, but not With Time
Spent Translating
We have seen in Part 2 that, as readers and rewriters, translators are deeply
engaged with texts and that reading literary fiction, more specifically,
could improve emotion perception skills due to identifying with literary
characters. We have also established that translators can ‘borrow’ writers’
emotions when working on their texts (e.g. Neal and Chartrand’s (2011)
concept of emotional sharing). As a result of repeatedly being a receptor
for—and actively engaging in—literature and its variety of emotion eliciting
content, it would not be surprising if translators were better able to pick up
on emotional cues and signals sent out by others. Indeed, some translators
have mentioned an increased ability to perceive the hidden meanings and
subtleties of texts as they gained habit and experience of translating litera-
ture (e.g. Emmerich 2013). As such, the positive correlation found between
emotion perception and literary translation experience in the present study
stands to reason. Of course, the association found here is not significant, and
as explained in Chapter 1, it is important to be cautious when interpreting
results. Nonetheless, other recent studies into the translation process also
hint at a possible association between literary translation experience and an
ability to perceive emotional elements in texts. For example, Hvelplund and
Dragsted (forthcoming) found some indication that translators specialising
in literary translation work slowly when translating literary texts, possibly
due to their enhanced awareness of potential translation problems such as
capturing the tone and stylistic character of the ST.
In addition, it could be argued that translators who are particularly per-
ceptive when it comes to decoding emotions are likely to be attracted to
literary translation as an activity. Personality-related factors such as engage-
ment, initiative, or motivation have been shown to influence the devel-
opment of emotion perception skills (Bornhofen and McDonald 2008;
Vuoskoski and Eerola 2011). It is therefore conceivable that highly percep-
tive and motivated translators would be more likely to engage in literary
translation, which is considered to be a multifaceted, hybrid, and complex
activity and the most prestigious form of translation (Koster 2014, 140).
If we recall that emotionally sensitive individuals tend to have better com-
munication skills, social competence, and decision-making abilities (Yoo,
Matsumoto, and LeRoux 2006), it is not surprising that literary translation
might be seen to constitute an excellent outlet for these skills. We saw in
Part 1 that trait emotion perception is related to performance on emotion
related tasks, and that it could usefully be studied with tasks involving emo-
tion words (e.g. Austin 2004). The translation of literature, it would seem,
could be such a task. This is an avenue for further research.
The fact that a negative correlation was found between emotion percep-
tion (and emotionality) and the amount of total work hours a translator
spends translating is surprising, in light of the assumption that more prac-
tice can lead to a positive change in terms of one’s emotional responses
(e.g. Phelps 2006). One possible explanation could be that practice and
experience acquired over a long period (i.e. several years) is more beneficial
or influential for the development of the emotion perception trait than the
amount of translation carried out on a daily basis. We have seen in Part 2
that intense work lasting hours on an emotionally draining translation task
can be severely damaging for a translator’s health and well-being, and so
a translator working full time on a difficult and intense translation is per-
haps less likely to reap emotional benefits from the task than a translator
who would only work on it occasionally. Although this is only conjecture
on my part, it could be that working on a variety of different tasks, with
translation being just one of these tasks, might offer a translator the right
balance on a daily basis, what I would call the ‘emotional space’ needed to
digest the work undertaken. Regular, but not necessarily intense, transla-
tion practice could be conducive to the development of emotion perception
skills.
The observation that individuals high in emotion perception are unlikely
to spend large amounts of time on translation on a daily basis can also be
understood in light of the possible maladaptive outcomes linked to being
very sensitive to emotion-laden stimuli. Indeed, we have noted previously
that having very high emotion perception skills can interfere with evaluative
judgements and cognitive processing, and can lead to increased suscepti-
bility to interference from emotion-evoking stimuli (Petrides and Furnham
2003). We have also highlighted that very emotionally arousing stimuli in
texts can provoke deeply felt physiological and neural responses when per-
ceived by readers (Kissler et al. 2007). Therefore, translators who are most
sensitive when it comes to emotions can become hampered in their task and
less likely to be able to deal with the anxiety and stress linked to spend-
ing lots of intensive time on translation, particularly on translation with
emotion-evoking stimuli. A case in point reported by Koster (2014, 143)
is the experience of the Dutch translators of Les Bienveillantes, a highly
acclaimed novel about a former SS officer’s memoirs in relation to the Nazi
atrocities against the Jewish population:
For the Dutch translators one of the main problems was how to cope
with the horrors of the text world, mainly on the level of research, and
how to live for a prolonged period of time in an ‘oppressing, suffocating
world’ (Holierhoek 2008, 9). Translating the book proved to be both a
technical and a moral problem.
The translators of Les Bienveillantes found it very difficult to inhabit the

affective reality of the novel for long periods of time, and they found that it
was partly due to their close collaboration that they were able to complete
this cognitively and emotionally demanding work. Although this would
need to be tested, it could be that working on these challenging texts on an
occasional—rather than full-time—basis could lessen the sometimes inac-
curate perceptions of emotions expressed in writing (cf. Byron 2008) or the
distracting nature of some negative stimuli (cf. Tracy and Robins 2008).
Indeed, because a translator working on a text for two hours a day for
four days will have more time to think about and process the text over the
course of the four days than a translator working on the same text for a sin-
gle eight-hour stretch, this could mean a better monitoring of unconscious
processes (such as the translator’s immediate response to emotion-eliciting
content) and of their impact on translator behaviour.
3. No Relationship Was Found Between Emotion Perception

and Familiarity With Foreign Languages/Cultures
In the present study, translators provided information regarding their
mother tongue and their working languages. For the purposes of finding
out whether cultural familiarity and emotion perception could be linked,
translators were categorised into three distinct groups: (1) translators whose
mother tongue and working languages are from European Union (EU)
countries before the 2004 enlargement; (2) translators whose mother tongue
and working languages include one or more languages from an EU country
before the 2004 enlargement, as well as one or more languages from an
EU country post the 2004 enlargement; and (3) translators whose working
languages include one or more languages from an EU country before the
2004 enlargement, as well as one or more languages from a non-EU country
(e.g. Russian, Chinese).16
It was hypothesised that translators working only between languages
from an EU country before the 2004 enlargement (e.g. French, German,
English) would benefit from cultural familiarity and would find it easier to
judge ‘out-group’ emotional expressions (cf. Part 1), thus benefiting from
greater accuracy in emotion perception, than translators working between
languages generally considered to be culturally more distant. Indeed, as
Shields and Clarke (2011, 3) suggest, there may be a wide gulf between the
ways of conceiving emotion in different cultures at different times and, as
highlighted in Part 1, the wider the cultural gap, the more difficult it could
be to decode emotion expressions from different cultures or backgrounds,
particularly when under cognitive load.
However, results demonstrated that professional translators work-
ing with culturally familiar languages are not necessarily more likely to
have higher levels of trait emotion perception. Although the results of the
TEIQue showed no relationship between the variables, the literature review
conducted in Parts 1 and 2 indicates that further research on translators’
cultural familiarity would still be worthwhile. It therefore seems useful to
outline some directions for further research in this area.
First, although it can be quite difficult and time-consuming to decode
and infer emotions expressed in a foreign language (Dewaele 2013), if that
foreign language is culturally familiar then it might be relatively straightfor-
ward to do so (and less effortful) than if the foreign language was culturally
distant. Indeed, we have seen that people are generally more competent at
perceiving emotions of members from their own cultures (e.g. Marsh, Elfen-
bein, and Ambady 2003). In this sense, perceiving emotions in texts written
in culturally familiar languages could require less effort than if the texts
were written in a culturally unfamiliar language. Shields (2011, 98) even
suggests that translators who have internalised their other language(s) may
have a dull awareness of the ‘pre-literate’, or musical/kinaesthetic aspects of
language. Translators with low emotion perception scores, who therefore
do not pay much attention to the emotional signals that others send out
(Petrides 2009), could therefore be ‘getting away’ with translating culturally
familiar emotions if these require less cognitive or affective effort.
Second, Dewaele (2013) suggests that the L2 is often seen as relatively
emotion-free, in the sense that there can be a feeling of detachment com-
pared to the L1 which has strong emotional connotations. Assuming that
translators usually translate from their L2 into their L1,17 it could be specu-
lated that—at times—the perceptions of emotions inscribed in source texts
are likely to be felt less strongly by translators than if they had been written
in their mother tongues. Therefore, picking up on emotions emanating from
culturally dissimilar languages is likely to be quite difficult and to require a
well-developed instinct. It could be that low scorers in emotion perception
might struggle to overcome this so-called detachment effect. Although the
case study results do not enable us to make this claim, it would be interest-
ing to test this hypothesis.
Another fruitful area for further study linked to emotion and languages
is the fact that there are individual differences in terms of the affective
meanings that translators attach to the languages they work with, and that
factors such as context and experience play a role in the interpretation of
these meanings. It could be hypothesised, for example, that a low scorer
in emotion perception would be able to decode mild emotions in a foreign
source text but struggle with stronger or more nuanced emotional events,
whereas another may have acquired first-hand experience of the latter when
living in the foreign country, thus attaching more emotional significance to
it. Although the data here does not enable us to make a claim either way,
an avenue for further research would be to test whether individuals who are
generally confused about how they feel themselves (i.e. are low on the emo-
tion perception scale) would struggle to pick up on ‘out-group’ emotional
cues when there is a wide cultural gap.
There is an additional hypothesis that could be tested in future work, that
is, whether professional translators with high emotion perception would
be more likely to work with culturally unfamiliar languages than would
translators with low emotion perception. Indeed, as we have seen in Part 1,
emotion perception correlates positively with self-monitoring and faith in
one’s judgement, so good emotion perceivers are assumed to be in tune with
their emotions and confident in terms of their decision-making skills. It is
therefore possible that translators with these skills may be better at decod-
ing culturally unfamiliar emotions in foreign texts, and may be more will-
ing to test their skills and to engage with challenging translation situations.
Indeed, individuals with high emotion perception may be able to—and
may need to—stretch their skills beyond the culturally familiar. According
to Yoo, Matsumoto, and LeRoux (2006), emotion perception can predict
adjustment in intercultural settings and enhanced communication skills.
This could mean that translators high in emotion perception might be more
attracted to working with culturally distant languages, and be more adept
at judging ‘out-group’ emotional expressions. When discussing the works
of Portuguese translators of Chinese and Japanese poems, Kinsella (2011,
60) praises their sense of reverence, recognition of a certain resilience in the
classical beauty of the poetry, and their understanding of the Chinese poets’
connection between emotion and landscape. These qualities attest to the
attachment, effort, motivation, and sensitivity that crossing cultural bound-
aries requires when translating unfamiliar cultural ideas or practices.18
Last, it would be interesting to test whether emotion perception skills
develop with increasing cultural familiarity and exposure. When working
with languages that are not culturally familiar, and where it might therefore
be more difficult to infer the emotions expressed in foreign terms, transla-
tors could be developing their emotion perception capacities by dint of sheer
practice. In this way, a translator whose mother tongue is, say, English,
could become increasingly adept at decoding emotions by regularly engag-
ing with, for example, Chinese or Russian texts. This idea (i.e. that transla-
tors’ emotion perception ability may develop alongside increasing exposure
to culturally unfamiliar emotional expressions) is worth testing as both the
psychology literature (e.g. Elfenbein and Ambady 2003) and the literature
on bilingualism and multilingualism suggest that this could be the case: “a
longer stay in the L2 culture [is] linked to a gradual shift in linguistic prac-
tices and perceptions where the L2 started to match the L1 in their hearts
and minds” (Dewaele 2013, 21).
4. Emotionality Is Significantly19 Positively Associated With

(Years of) Professional Translation Experience and
With Job Satisfaction
It is interesting that, although emotion perception is positively associated
with years of professional translation experience and job satisfaction, it is
the factor of emotionality which was found to be statistically significantly
associated with those variables. Emotionality includes the facet of emotion
expression, alongside perception, and individuals with high scores are said
to be able to both perceive and express emotions competently (Petrides
2009, 61). Emotion expression is discussed in more detail in Chapter 4, but
the idea that experienced and happy translators are likely to score high on
emotionality, meaning that they have qualities enabling them to be in touch
with their own and other people’s feelings, deserves to be explored in light
of the literature reviewed in Parts 1 and 2 of the present chapter.
The link between emotionality and years of professional translation expe-
rience is not surprising in light of the fact that prior knowledge and past
experiences have been shown to shape the functioning of emotional atten-
tion (Pourtois, Schettino, and Vuilleumier 2013, 507). We have previously
hinted that practice and experience acquired over a long time could be ben-
eficial for the development of the emotion perception trait. As discussed,
translators could increase their ability to recognise and monitor their emo-
tions for a piece of work after significant amounts of time have passed, and
this could be the result of acquiring experience in handling other transla-
tions. In her study of professional translators, Kolb (2013) observes that
self-perceptions and high levels of self-confidence are linked to experience
acquired as a translator and to positive feedback received during the course
of a translation career. Emmerich (2013) argues that it is the habit of dealing
with the incorporeal substances that are part of the translator’s world that
gives translators the ability to perceive subtle relationships. Clearly, acquir-
ing practical translating experience can go hand in hand with acquiring a
deeper understanding of one’s own and other people’s feelings.
We could also go as far as saying that translation experience acquired
over the years works as a kind of context, in the sense that it may constrain
meaning and shape the perception process. We have seen that, for some per-
ception scholars (e.g. Lindquist et al. 2006), language functions as a context
which impacts how we perceive emotions, and over the years, translators
are likely to have processed a large number of emotion words (implicitly or
explicitly) which could serve as an internal context to constrain the meaning
of a phrase or expression during an instance of emotion perception.
The link with job satisfaction is perhaps more straightforward to under-
stand. According to Atkinson and Adolphs (2005), being able to perceive
and interpret other people’s emotional states is essential for effective social
interaction, something likely to be key in many working contexts. In addi-
tion, the factor of emotionality has been shown to associate positively with
job motivation (Petrides 2009, 61), and emotion perception has been dem-
onstrated to relate with important organisational outcomes, such as job per-
formance and career commitment (Poon 2004). It could therefore be argued
that translators working in an office environment, where social interaction
takes place, are more satisfied with their jobs if they are adept at emotion
perception. Freelance translators who are also perceptive and able to net-
work and socialise effectively will accumulate social and professional capi-
tal, thus placing them in an optimal position for career opportunities.20 If
we want to make sure that translators are satisfied with their jobs, it would
seem that attention must be given to developing them emotionally.
It is perhaps surprising, therefore, that the variable of job success does not
show a strong correlation with emotion perception in this study. Indeed, emo-
tion recognition abilities have been found to be positively related to work-
place success across occupational contexts (Momm et al. 2015). According
to Poon (2004, 377) however, this finding is not surprising because empiri-
cal work has not shown emotion perception to be a particularly strong pre-
dictor of work-related outcomes on its own. In fact, it tends to have only
a weak relationship with performance because, as Poon argues, emotion
perception boosts the effects of other determinants of career success. In this
sense, the facet does not have a direct effect but plays a moderating role on
career success and affects it indirectly instead.
It would also be interesting in future research to differentiate between the
influence of emotion perception on interpersonal dynamics in the translation
workplace, generally, and on translation performance, per se. The variables
in this study of self-perceived job satisfaction and success do not enable this
distinction to be made. When assessing how satisfied or successful transla-
tors are in relation to their work, they may be thinking in general terms
(including salary, colleagues, etc.), or more specifically in terms of transla-
tion performance (effort provided, feedback received, etc.). When Momm
et al. (2015) suggest that highly perceptive people are more sensitive to oth-
ers’ needs, resulting in more cooperative and considerate acts, it would be
highly useful to demonstrate with qualitative data whether—as I suspect—
this applies to translation acts during the translation process itself.
Concluding Note
The findings in this chapter point to the important role of emotion percep-
tion and emotionality in several aspects of the translator’s work. Phelps
(2006) highlighted that through conscious strategies and practice, individu-
als can change their interpretation of specific stimuli and, thus, alter their
emotional reactions. It is interesting to think that one’s emotional responses
could be changed through reasoning and the use of particular strategies over
time. Certainly, we have seen that reading literary fiction improves intuitive
abilities and can help individuals to better understand themselves and to
imagine the emotions of others (Sleek 2014). As such, it would seem that
translators wanting to improve their emotion perception abilities could use-
fully undertake literary translation on a regular basis. This point is further
discussed in Chapter 5.
Although the correlations found in this chapter between emotion per-
ception and variables pertaining to the translation profession are weaker
than those found with other EI facets, possibly due to the indirect effect
mentioned earlier, there remains strong evidence within the translation lit-
erature that the perception of emotions plays an important role during the
translation process. As Cole puts it, a good translation “coheres emotionally
and engages the senses as it embodies what the translator recognizes as the
salient properties or qualities of the original” (2013, 11).
In this chapter, it was shown that emotion perception is a relevant concept
for translation and that translators need to be aware of the influence of emo-
tional stimuli on their perceptions in order to handle these effectively when
they work. The case study demonstrated that professional translators with
self-perceived high emotion perception and emotionality are more likely to
be older, experienced, happy, and successful. In the following chapter, the
focus is on the concept of emotion regulation.
Notes
1 While strictly speaking it can be argued that events do not have ‘emotional
content’ as such but are merely prompts that induce emotional reactions, this
expression is commonly employed by scholars in the emotion perception litera-
ture. As such, the term is also sometimes used here when reporting their work.
2 In the literature, the terms perception and recognition are sometimes used inter-
changeably although there is a slight difference between them. According to
Adolphs (2010, 330), “recognition requires more than just basic perception;
it requires association of a perceptual representation of the stimulus with its
meaning”.
3 For an in-depth discussion of the varying approaches to brain-emotion corre-
spondence, the recent meta-analytic review of the neuroimaging literature on
human emotion by Lindquist et al. (2012) and its extensive associated peer com-
mentary provide excellent insights into this hotly debated issue.
4 Depending on the theoretical background, methodology, or tradition in which
studies are rooted, the terms unconscious, non-conscious, subliminal, implicit,
automatic, and pre-attentive have been used when referring to a lack of con-
scious awareness (Tamietto and De Gelder 2010, 698). Each tradition attaches
a specific meaning to these terms, but for the purposes of the present study, they
are considered to be almost synonymous.
5 Research has found that when participants are made to feel depressed or in a
negative mood, they will perceive more sadness and less pleasantness in an emo-
tional stimulus (albeit pleasant, ambiguous, or unpleasant), while induced posi-
tive moods have the opposite effect (e.g. Bouhuys, Bloem, and Groothuis 1995).
Although outside the scope of the present work, it is interesting to consider how
mood states might affect judgements in translation. This is likely to be a fruitful
avenue for future research.
6 This is an area where scholars in translation and emotion could collaborate. Col-
laboration is further discussed in the book’s conclusion.
7 So-called objective career success is linked to pay and promotion and is some-
times contrasted with ‘subjective career success’, which depends on a person’s
appraisal of his or her own success (Poon 2004, 375).
8 In the same vein, Jones (2011, 37) highlights that while positive emotions felt
for a source text can increase motivation and drive translators to translate it,
perceived negative emotions can impede and obstruct the translation process.
Similarly, negative emotions long prevented the linguist Isabel del Rio from
translating a particular piece of writing which dealt with the bloodshed of inno-
cent children; the emotional nature of the story affected her too deeply, “to the
core” (University of London, 10 May 2014). This translator was particularly
vehement about the impact of emotions perceived in texts, saying that some
texts “will kill you” and that “you have to cease to be a human” to translate
these.
9 It must also be noted that this level of engagement with texts is generally entirely
voluntary, at least to start with, as translators have a desire to “get into the skin
of a book” which leads them to feel “intangible emotions” (Kaplan 2013, 73).
10 Maier (2002, 190) also rebels against Armand’s use of words (puns, spectacular
feats of language) intended to convey a “dis-ease of simultaneous consolation
and conflict”.
11 Linked to this, Sian Reynolds, a French–English translator and scholar, high-
lights that a first-person narrative is sometimes more difficult to cope with due
to the increased identification of the reader with the characters in the text (Uni-
versity of London, 10 May 2014).
12 Maier further elaborated on this deeply felt transference of an author’s emo-
tions when discussing her reception of Chacel’s work: “How, I wondered, could
Chacel and her words have become so integral a part of my consciousness that
not only did I dream of her during the surgery but she was also part of my flesh
and blood, a figure who, like my mother, gave succour when I experienced fear”
(2006, 144). She further proposes that emotions prompt writing, and pass to
and become the translator who rewrites them.
13 This idea is by no means an original point, as scholars have argued against the
notion of authenticity in translation for some time (see for example O’Sullivan
2006). Nonetheless, the perception literature provides new evidence that there
are affective biases in perception which help guide the selection of sensory
stimuli for awareness and adaptive behaviour, based on their affective value
(e.g. Pourtois, Schettino, and Vuilleumier 2013).
14 For a complete description of the study (participants, methods, research instru-
ments, procedure etc.), please refer to Chapter 1. Notably, it is worth remember-
ing that the study does not directly measure emotion perception, but explores
how participants think they would respond in emotion perception situations.
15 Ożańska-Ponikwia (2013), in her study of the perception and expression of emo-
tions in the L1 and L2, notes that perceptions of emotions can improve when
there is immersion in both the L1 and L2 culture and language. Translators
immersed in both language worlds are therefore also likely to improve their
perceptions and expressions of emotions over time.
16 It should be noted here that, in the sample, there were no cases of translators
who solely worked with post-2004 enlargement languages, or solely with non-
European languages, or who worked exclusively between the latter; this means
that all translators in the present study asserted that they worked with at least
one language from an EU country before the 2004 enlargement. It should also be
noted here that no distinction was made between different varieties of English.
17 Admittedly, this is a risky assumption. Nevertheless, this remains the reality on
the ground for a majority of translators.
18 Interestingly, Kinsella (2011, 65) also bemoans the difficulties of translating
emotions between Portuguese and English, suggesting that Romance and Ger-
manic languages channel feelings and emotions in distinctive ways. Clearly, the
language categories employed in the present study are not perfect, and more in-
depth research into the cultural closeness of different emotional language worlds
would be welcome.
19 In the headings of the discussion sections of Chapters 2, 3, and 4, the term ‘sig-
nificantly’ is used to refer to statistical significance.
20 I am assuming here that emotion perception precedes job satisfaction, but again,
it is possible that the relationship works the other way around. However, the
logic followed here (i.e. that emotional abilities are antecedents of performance)
is also followed in a number of other studies on emotion perception (e.g. Momm
et al. 2015).
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3 Emotion Regulation
Emotion is the foundation on which every aspect of human behaviour ulti-

mately rests. All our intentions and purposes are coloured by it, especially,
our attempts to control and influence others.
—Derek Layder
Broadly speaking, this chapter deals with the construct of emotion regula-
tion, a process by which individuals modify their emotional experiences in
order to produce appropriate responses in particular contexts. The chap-
ter defines and reviews the construct, and demonstrates how people differ
in the ways they regulate their emotions and how these emotion regulation
processes affect their lives, including consequences for their social and psy-
chological functioning. The use and understanding of the construct within
trait EI theory are then outlined, and examples of its application in prac-
tice are provided. Subsequently, the chapter addresses how the choice and
use of different emotion regulation strategies differ between translators
and how these individual differences have implications for their work. The
chapter attempts to provide an answer to the following question: Could
some forms of emotion regulation be more efficient or useful than others for
translation practice? The final section of the chapter reviews evidence from
the case study to inform the discussion.
Part 1: Emotion Regulation and Psychology
Emotion Regulation: A Definition

The field of emotion regulation has known exceptional growth over the last
10 to 15 years, and the topic is one of the fastest-growing areas within Psy-
chology (Gross 2007, 2013). The development of new methods to examine
emotion regulation processes, alongside a wider range of populations under
study, have enhanced our understanding of the psychological and behav-
ioural processes by which people influence their emotions and those of other
people. However, as theoretical discussions and empirical studies related to
emotion regulation cut across disciplinary boundaries (Gross 2007, xi), it
can be somewhat difficult to obtain a comprehensive understanding of what
emotion regulation actually is.
Defining the construct must start with a clarification: affect includes both
emotions (e.g. anger, fear, joy) and moods (e.g. calm, gloomy), and affect
regulation therefore includes both emotion regulation and mood r egulation—
the former usually briefer and directed at something specific (EROS Research
Group 2013). Both types of feelings can be regulated with strategies that can
involve either thoughts (e.g. thinking about a situation differently) or behav-
iours (e.g. doing something differently). The focus in this chapter is on emo-
tion regulation only, which is said to involve more well-defined responses to
specific events (Gross and Thompson 2007, 9). Gross (1998b), a key scholar
in emotion regulation research, defines emotion regulation as a set of pro-
cesses that influence which emotions we have, when we feel them, and how
we experience or express them.
According to Gross (2013, 359), one of the central concerns of the field
of emotion regulation is to cultivate emotions that are helpful and to man-
age emotions that are harmful, that is, to decrease negative emotions and
increase positive ones. The situation is far from straightforward, however,
as there are instances when decreasing a positive emotion might be useful,
an example of which could be tempering one’s enthusiasm when winning a
lucrative translation contract in order to spare the feelings of a colleague
who lost out.
In order to function effectively, Gross (2013) suggests that we regulate
our emotions by activating a goal to either up-regulate or down-regulate the
magnitude or duration of an emotional response. He distinguishes between
intrinsic emotion regulation, where the goal is activated within oneself, and
extrinsic (or interpersonal) emotion regulation, where another person acti-
vates the goal. Despite growing interest in extrinsic emotion regulation—
particularly in the developmental literature—intrinsic emotion regulation
has been the main focus of research in the field so far (Gross and Thompson
2007; Niven et al. 2012). Though the potential relevance for translation of
interpersonal emotion regulation is briefly addressed in Part 2, this chap-
ter focuses on what characterizes an individual’s intrinsic emotion regula-
tion processes.
When an individual activates a goal to regulate emotion, he or she may
use one of many different types of explicit or implicit processes. Emotion-
regulatory activity takes place along a “continuum of emotion regulation
possibilities that range from explicit, conscious, effortful, and controlled
regulation to implicit, unconscious, effortless, and automatic regulation”
(Gross 2013, 360). Figure 3.1, reproduced from Gross and Thompson
(2007), depicts Gross’s process model of emotion regulation, which includes
five points at which individuals can regulate their emotions, that is, five dif-
ferent types of emotion regulation processes. Down-regulation strategies for
negative emotion can range from avoidance to suppression, which attests
to the fact that emotion regulation involves processes at the physiological,
cognitive, and behavioural levels (Rydell, Berlin, and Bohlin 2003, 30).
Emotion Regulation 109
Figure 3.1 Process model of emotion regulation

Source: Gross and Thompson (2007, 10).
Table 3.1 Emotion regulation processes and strategies
Families of emotion regulation processes
Situation Situation Attentional Cognitive Response

selection modification deployment change modulation
Emotion Approaching Altering an Distraction Reappraisal Expressive

regulation a situation aspect of a suppression
strategies situation
Avoiding a Leaving a Mindfulness
situation situation
In Table 3.1, I have provided a visual representation of the five families

of emotion regulation processes, along with a selection of emotion regu-
lation strategies for each one, based on the information provided in Suri,
Sheppes, and Gross (2013, 198–199). According to the literature (Gross
and Thompson 2007; Suri, Sheppes, and Gross 2013; Wranik, Barrett, and
Salovey 2007), the first four emotion regulation processes are considered
antecedent-focused, as they occur before emotional responses are generated
(highlighted in grey in the table) whereas response-focused emotion regula-
tion occurs afterwards. This distinction is relevant for several reasons that
are developed later in this chapter.
The two emotion regulation strategies that have attracted the most inter-
est in the literature are suppression and reappraisal (English et al. 2012;
Gross 1998a; Gross 1998b; Gross 2013). The popularity of these two strat-
egies could be due to the fact that both are used to down-regulate emotion,
something which is of particular concern in health settings where much of
the research on emotion regulation has taken place thus far.
Suppression is defined by Gross (2013, 361) as “a behaviourally oriented
form of emotion regulation in which a person decreases emotion-expressive
behaviour while emotionally aroused”, and reappraisal is “a cognitively
oriented form of emotion regulation in which a person tries to think about a
situation in a way that alters the emotional response”—in other words, the
former refers to efforts to hide what one is feeling whereas the latter entails
thinking about an emotional situation in a way that decreases its intensity
(Campbell-Sills and Barlow 2007, 544).
Interestingly, each strategy has its own particular affective, cognitive,
and social consequences. For example, suppression has been found to lead
to decreased positive emotion experience, impaired memory and cognitive
functioning, and being less liked by partners; on the other hand, reappraisal
is linked to healthy adjustment outcomes, decreased levels of negative emo-
tions, enhanced exam performance, better physiological stress recovery,
and presents no adverse social consequences (Gross 2013; D’Avanzato and
Joormann 2013; John and Gross 2007). The frequent use of suppression
as a form of emotion regulation is said to lead to painful feelings of inau-
thenticity and depressive symptoms as well as less positive relations with
others, whereas the frequent use of reappraisal is said to lead to more posi-
tive emotion, enhanced memory, and greater closeness with peers (Gross
2013, 361). Studies using individual-difference measures have also found
that using reappraisal to regulate emotions is associated with healthier pat-
terns of affect, social functioning, and well-being than using suppression
(D’Avanzato and Joormann 2013). Campbell-Sills and Barlow (2007, 543)
define effective regulation as “responses to affective states that allow for a
minimization of subjective and physiological distress in conjunction with
continued ability to pursue short and long-term goals that are important to
the individual”. In Part 2, examples in translation practice of how these dif-
ferent strategies function to regulate emotions will be discussed.
Despite the preceding discussion, the literature on the topic (e.g. Gross
2013) highlights that regulating one’s emotions is far from being a straight-
forward matter and that instances of emotion misregulation happen on a
regular basis. For example, this could be when a person selects a strategy
that may not be appropriate for a particular context, or when an appro-
priate strategy is selected, but circumstances change. As we will see in the
next section, misregulating emotions has been linked to a number of mental
disorders, as well as to physical health outcomes such as cardiovascular dis-
ease (Dan-Glauser and Gross 2013). Although further research is required
to better understand the consequences of emotion misregulation, evidence
from the scientific literature on the topic clearly highlights its importance for
well-being outcomes.
Emotion Regulation Strategies: Applications and Consequences

So what are the consequences of misregulating? And does it really matter
which strategies one uses to regulate emotions? Apparently, this does matter
a great deal. According to the literature (e.g. Wranik, Barrett, and Salovey
2007, 399), antecedent-focused strategies are considered more effective
than response-focused strategies when it comes to regulating affect. Reap-
praisal (or cognitive reappraisal) influences emotions at the input or during
emotional activation, and so it is an antecedent-focused strategy, whereas
suppression influences emotions at the output, that is, after the emotion has
fully formed, and is therefore a response-focused strategy (Aldao 2013, 155).
Antecedent-focused strategies are sometimes also called adaptive strategies
and can include problem-solving and acceptance1 alongside reappraisal,
whereas response-focused strategies alter the emotion response itself and are
often considered to be maladaptive. They can include avoidance, worry, and
rumination in addition to suppression. However, it is worth bearing in mind
that antecedent-focused strategies can also have maladaptive outcomes and
that response-focused strategies can be beneficial, depending on the con-
text (Aldao 2013; D’Avanzato and Joormann 2013; Gross and Thompson
2007). This point is further developed in the next section.
In terms of applications in practice, we have already noted that difficulties
in regulating emotion and the use of maladaptive strategies have been asso-
ciated with a range of disorders. These include emotional disorders, such
as anxiety and mood disorders, and major depressive disorders (Campbell-
Sills et al. 2006; Campbell-Sills and Barlow 2007; D’Avanzato and Joor-
mann 2013). D’Avanzato and Joormann (2013) examine which strategies
are used by participants diagnosed with these disorders. Interestingly, they
report that the maladaptive strategy of rumination, the tendency to think
repetitively about one’s negative mood state, its causes, and its consequences
(Nolen-Hoeksema 1991), is associated with depression and contributes to
its development and maintenance. In addition, they find that both anxiety
and depressive disorders are characterized by less use of the adaptive strat-
egy of reappraisal and increased use of the maladaptive strategies of rumina-
tion and suppression.
In their research on the uses of emotion regulation strategies in relation
to anxiety and mood disorders, Campbell-Sills and Barlow suggest that
individual differences in emotion regulation may relate to either vulnerabil-
ity or resilience to said disorders, and that associated clinical features are
often maladaptive attempts to regulate unwanted emotions (2007, 543).
The implication here is that individuals suffering from anxiety, for example,
can make detrimental choices when regulating their emotions, thus making
the situation worse and leading to enduring unwanted negative emotions.
The authors assert that “many of the most prominent and debilitating fea-
tures of anxiety and mood disorders can be construed as problematic use of
situation selection, situation modification, attentional deployment, cogni-
tive change, and response modulation to regulate emotions” (Campbell-Sills
and Barlow 2007, 545).
Although there is debate as to whether maladaptive strategies come prior
to and promote the development of disorders, or whether disorders engender
the use of maladaptive strategies, it is significant that the erroneous choice
of an emotion regulation strategy can be so detrimental to one’s well-being.
Suri, Sheppes, and Gross (2013, 204) provide an alarming description of the
problems that using rumination, for example, can engender: “habitual rumi-
nation has been shown to maintain and exacerbate depression by enhancing
negative thinking, impairing problem-solving, [and] interfering with instru-
mental behavior”. One might be tempted to think that this behaviour is
typical of individuals with emotional disorders but, as noted by Sapolsky
(2007, 613), behavioural coping responses that are the least adaptive in the
long term are often the easiest and most tempting in the short term. This
holds true for healthy individuals and thus, I would wager, for translators
attempting to regulate emotions.
In their study of the social effects of suppression and reappraisal in a nor-
mal working environment, English et al. (2012, 781) note that suppression
interferes with natural emotion display and therefore with the formation
of close social connections in the long term, whereas reappraisal leads to
enhanced expressions of positive emotions, thus facilitating social connec-
tions and enhancing sociometric standing. It is interesting that habitual use
of an adaptive strategy can increase someone’s chances of being seen favour-
ably by their peers and that emotion regulation processes can shape the
social environment in this way—this somehow links intrinsic and extrinsic
processes, something which is further developed in Part 2. Suri, Sheppes,
and Gross (2013, 205) also note that, in the individual difference literature,
the habitual use of reappraisal correlates positively with positive emotion
and negatively with negative emotion and that other adaptive strategies,
such as distraction, can help divert attention from an undesirable emotional
state. This enables individuals to turn to happier thoughts and activities
which may help them with problem-solving.
This evidence of the effects of different strategies from the emotion reg-
ulation literature illustrates that the (conscious or unconscious) choice of
specific strategies for handling emotion-eliciting material is far from being a
harmless one. A fundamental assumption in this study is therefore that not
only do translators—like other individuals—regulate their emotions when
they work but that they will do so in ways that are more or less adaptive
depending on the situation and on their individual differences.
Limitations to Emotion Regulation Research

The study of emotion regulation is not without its problems, and there are
several limitations that need to be taken into account. These can be divided
into two broad categories: the methods used to access the process and the
actual complexity of that process.
First, researchers have studied emotion regulation most often with self-
report questionnaires. As we have seen in Chapter 1, a drawback to this
method (also affecting the present study) is that it relies on individuals
being aware of, and able to report, their emotion regulation strategy use
(D’Avanzato and Joormann 2013, 977). Many emotion-regulatory efforts,
however, are executed automatically and without conscious awareness
(Gross and John 2003; John and Gross 2007), so, despite showing the effects
of emotion regulation strategies, self-reports give no direct access to a per-
son’s use of these strategies, despite their acknowledged strong influence on
behaviour (cf. Chapter 1). Therefore, whether questionnaires can accurately
collate all relevant regulatory information remains debatable. In addition,
very few emotion regulation questionnaires and studies examine more than
one strategy, and much more effort has been dedicated to downregulation,2
which makes it difficult to examine whether using other emotion regula-
tion strategies, or upregulating, is actually adaptive or maladaptive, and
in what situations (John and Gross 2007, 368). Nevertheless, self-report
instruments in this field have proven their worth in many respects, and new
methods are increasingly being used for triangulation purposes.
Second, emotion regulation is a complex construct. Developmentally
speaking, it is believed to change across the life span, indicating that it is
malleable. According to Aldao (2013, 156), contextual factors influencing
emotion regulation play a central role and need to be taken into account
in order for researchers to better understand the conditions under which
this process can lead to either adaptive or maladaptive outcomes. Context,
therefore, matters a great deal: It interacts with emotion regulation pro-
cesses, and these processes can either improve or aggravate the situation
depending on the context—as a result, a regulatory strategy might be adap-
tive in one context, or particular cultural environment, and maladaptive in
another (Gross and Thompson 2007). More research is needed to under-
stand in what circumstances a generally effective strategy is overused or
applied in an unrealistic or maladaptive way (John and Gross 2007, 369).
Also, Campbell-Sills and Barlow (2007, 543) report that an ineffective
strategy can seem successful in reducing unwanted affect in an immediate
context, but may have long-term costs outweighing its short-term benefits.
As a result, even an ineffective strategy may not immediately appear to be
ineffective, further confusing the issue. Conversely, there is evidence to sup-
port the claim that, in certain contexts, a traditionally maladaptive strategy
such as rumination can contribute positively to outcomes such as creativity
(e.g. Verhaeghen, Joormann, and Khan 2005).3 Although observing emo-
tion strategy use in specific translation situations is outside the scope of the
present study, it is an intriguing avenue for future research.
In addition to the preceding limitations, Gross and Thompson (2007,
16–17) highlight three complications to modelling emotion regulation pro-
cesses. First, emotion generation is a dynamic, cyclical process. This means
that “it occurs in the context of an ongoing stream of emotional stimu-
lation and behavioural responding” (ibid., 16). Emotional processes and
responses, as well as other people’s reactions, continue to influence regula-
tory activity while it is happening, which makes it difficult to analyse. Sec-
ond, the cyclical nature of the process can render it difficult to distinguish
what is an antecedent and what is a response-focused strategy. As discussed,
antecedent-focused strategies are considered as such when they happen
at the beginning of the emotion-generative cycle, something which is not
always easy to pinpoint. Third, a variety of emotion regulation processes are
likely to be taking place simultaneously, though there is little understanding
at the present time of how they work together.
Despite these drawbacks to emotion regulation research, Gross and John
(2003, 360) argue that findings in relation to reappraisal and suppression
are not limited to a particular sample or measure, but have been shown
to “generalize across multiple samples, multiple conceptually relevant mea-
sures, and multiple data sources, including not only well-validated self-
report instruments but also independent reports from peers”. The challenge
to reliability and comprehensive coverage of the construct are non-negligible
methodological drawbacks, but research in emotion regulation has nonethe-
less produced some robust findings and fruitful results.
There is one other aspect of emotion regulation research which I con-
sider to be an important limitation. Aldao argues that relatively little interest
has been paid to how emotion regulation processes might differ as a func-
tion of personality and dispositional psychological processes (2013, 157).
Interpersonal processes influence emotion elicitation, selection of strate-
gies, and types of outcomes, but little is known about individual differences
in terms of emotion regulation. Recent studies have shown that strategies
traditionally considered to be maladaptive can actually be associated with
positive outcomes when used by individuals with particular characteristics
(e.g. D’Avanzato and Joormann 2013; English et al. 2012; John and Gross
2004). As the present study takes an individual difference approach to the
study of emotions, it fills a gap in the emotion regulation literature. The next
section therefore focuses on the relations between emotion regulation and
personality theory.
Emotion Regulation and Personality Processes

As previously suggested, the field of emotion regulation cuts across disciplines.
According to Gross (2007, xi), emotion regulation may be seen as drawing
on insights from six subfields of Psychology: biological, cognitive, develop-
mental, personality, social, and clinical/health. Emotion regulation can arise
from, or interfere with, cognitive4 and other processes; in this section I focus
on the personality paradigm specifically, and situate the study of emotion
regulation within individual difference research. As suggested by Wranik,
Barrett, and Salovey (2007, 395) factors other than, for example, cognitive
ability play a role in explaining individual differences in emotionality.5
Scholars agree that there are individual differences in how people regulate
their own and other people’s emotions, in the degree to which one responds
to affective stimuli, and in the implementation of emotion regulation strat-
egies (e.g. Campbell-Sills and Barlow 2007; Augustine, Randy, and Lee
2013; John and Gross 2004). According to Gross and Thompson (2007,
19), individual differences in this respect develop together with personality
and are consistent with one’s capacity for self-control and other personality
processes. For example, in his study on differences in emotion regulation in
the United States and Japan, Matsumoto (2006) demonstrates that those
differences are entirely accounted for by individual differences in person-
ality. Individual differences in emotion regulation strategies therefore play
an important role in generating individual differences in personality traits
(John and Gross 2007, 354).
The use of particular strategies can be linked to individual development
(Suri, Sheppes, and Gross 2013, 205). This development is likely to be quite
different depending on whether a person is more likely to employ adaptive
or maladaptive strategies. In fact, it has been shown that habitual use of
reappraisal to manage emotions is associated with higher levels of positive
affect and lower levels of negative affect generally, and correlates positively
with well-being and interpersonal functioning, leading to better adjustment
(Campbell-Sills and Barlow 2007, 544). Regular use of this adaptive strat-
egy seems to lead to happier, healthier, and better-adjusted individuals. The
opposite was found for people who are over-reliant on suppression—these
individuals may be more vulnerable to emotional disorders and less resilient
to stress. Specific and repetitive emotion regulation behaviour is therefore
likely to have an impact on personality development.
One interesting (related) point is the fact that individuals will believe dif-
ferent things regarding whether emotions can be changed or regulated (De
Castella et al. 2013). Those who believe that emotions are fixed will prob-
ably not make much effort to regulate these, whereas someone who thinks
emotions can be changed will tend to actively regulate their emotions much
more frequently and believe in the effectiveness of doing so. As a result, the
direction that one’s personality development takes can be said to be directly
related to deeply held beliefs, such as free will, which influence behaviour
and, in turn, emotion regulation strategy use (ibid.).
In the neighbouring field dealing with social-cognitive theories of per-
sonality, research in the area of individual differences in self-control and
self-regulation has also generated some relevant findings on strategy use.
Though these cannot be dealt with in-depth here (see John and Gross [2007]
for a good overview), it seems useful to note that research on optimism has
shown that optimistic individuals use different coping methods than more
pessimistic individuals, such as positive reframing and acceptance, resulting
in less distress and better adjustment after a stressful event (John and Gross
2007, 364). It would thus appear that optimists are better at regulating
their emotions and, as such, that translators with a more optimistic outlook
might be better able to cope with emotionality in their jobs. This strongly
suggests a link between specific personality traits and the use of specific
emotion regulation strategies.
As argued by Ożańska-Ponikwia (2013, 43) trait theorists agree that
“personality traits are hierarchically organized with a larger number of
lower-order traits combining to form fewer higher-order traits of Extraver-
sion, Openness, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Neuroticism”, oth-
erwise known as the Big Five. As explained in Chapter 1, trait emotional
intelligence is conceptualized as a personality trait consistent with existing
models of individual differences; it lies wholly outside the domain of cog-
nitive ability, and has incremental validity vis-à-vis the Big Five (TEIQue
Technical Manual 2009). It is therefore relevant to briefly review emotion
regulation in relation to the Big Five personality trait domain.
Research undertaken by John and Gross (2007, 354–355) demonstrates
that highly conscientious individuals have an ability to plan, organize, and
think ahead about potential consequences before acting, which makes it eas-
ier for them to use the emotion regulation strategy of situation selection (cf.
Figure 3.1). This strategy might, for example, help an individual to avoid a
potentially traumatising translation: “compared to the more impulsive indi-
viduals low in Conscientiousness, they should be able to avoid knowingly
entering or getting trapped in situations that cause them negative emotions
[. . .] carefully choosing situations that are consistent with their goals and
plans” (ibid., 355). John and Gross also suggest that highly conscientious
individuals will be more likely to use situation modification and attentional
deployment more frequently, thus leading more balanced lives (ibid., 356).
There is therefore a correlation between specific and habitual emotion regu-
lation behaviour and the personality trait of Conscientiousness.
The Extraversion trait, another strong correlate of trait EI, has also been
correlated with specific affect regulation strategies (Augustine, Randy, and
Lee 2013, 317). Though it may seem unsurprising that social interaction will
repair an extravert’s negative mood, it is interesting to note that extraverts
are not only more reactive to positive events than introverts but that they
actively maintain their positive affect for longer—once they are experienc-
ing positive feelings, they are likely to seek out emotion regulation processes
that will continue to promote these positive feelings (Augustine, Randy, and
Lee 2013; Tamir and Robinson 2004; Tamir 2009).
The predictive nature of Conscientiousness or Extraversion for adaptive
emotion regulation (or vice versa), is not the only noteworthy aspect of the
Big Five. Indeed, a specific finding stands out in relation to the higher-order
trait of Neuroticism. There are very high negative associations between trait
EI and the Big Five dimension of Neuroticism (e.g. Petrides et al. 2010) and
the emotion regulation scale in the Trait Emotional Intelligence Question-
naire (TEIQue) is closely related to the Big Five trait of Neuroticism. As
a result, it seems particularly interesting to note that individuals high in
Neuroticism are said to make fewer and less effective attempts to regulate
their emotions, due in part to their “pessimistic assessment of their emotion-
regulatory prospects” (John and Gross 2007, 357). For instance, they
may lack the confidence to use adaptive strategies to get themselves out
of a difficult situation and, instead, they may ruminate and make matters
worse. Similarly, John and Gross (ibid., 357) suggest that highly neurotic
individuals may not even try to avoid getting themselves into these situ-
ations in the first place. This implies a link between low trait EI and less
effective emotion regulation attempts. Conversely, Petrides, Pérez-González,
and Furnham (2007) have argued that high trait EI individuals will believe
that they are aware of their feelings and that they can regulate them and are
therefore less likely to employ maladaptive strategies such as rumination.
It is also relevant to note that individuals higher in Neuroticism will tend
to have a stronger negative affective reaction to a negative stimulus, such as
affective images or films (Augustine, Randy, and Lee 2013, 318). The nega-
tive relation between Neuroticism and trait EI would therefore lead one to
speculate that highly neurotic translators will also be low in trait EI, and
that they may have greater (negative) reactivity to a negatively-perceived
affective textual stimulus. In this instance, the use of effective downregula-
tion strategies will show better affective outcomes, but it must be noted that
constant use of emotion regulation strategies is mentally draining: “these
processing patterns paint a picture of the highly neurotic individual as a
negatively focused, cognitively erratic, and mentally depleted individual”
(ibid., 319). The fact that individuals high in Neuroticism are also higher
in ruminative patterns and have problems allocating the right level of effort
to tasks, thus leading to higher negative affective consequences, is said to
perpetuate the individual difference over time and situation (ibid., 320/323).
This increased negativity, dysregulated effort, and mental fatigue6 experi-
enced by certain personality types when dealing with emotional material
is something that translators should be aware of. More research is needed,
however, to know which personalities employ which strategies in which
contexts to regulate which (multiple? conflicting?) emotions.
Emotion Regulation and Trait EI

As we have seen, individuals can vary tremendously in their ability to imple-
ment regulation strategies. Being able to regulate emotions is a component
part of emotional intelligence. As shown in Chapter 1, in the trait EI model,
emotion-related self-perceptions form four interrelated factors. The focus
in this chapter is more specifically on the factor where emotion regula-
tion is involved, that is, self-control, which relates to traits pertaining to
the regulation of emotions and impulses (Petrides 2009, 12). According to
Mikolajczak et al. (2008b; 2009), several studies have shown that trait EI
is particularly useful for capturing individual differences in emotion regula-
tion, which is one of the reasons why the trait EI construct was used in the
present study.
Emotion regulation is said to rely on the same mental resources as
other forms of self-control (EROS Research Group 2013). In their study
of the relationship between trait EI and stress, Mikolajczak, Luminet, and
Menil (2006, 86) confirm that the TEIQue factor of self-control captures
both stress management and emotion regulation aptitudes, and that this
self-reported measure has content validity. Ożańska-Ponikwia (2013, 47)
reports that high scorers on the self-control factor have “a healthy degree
of control over their urges and desires. In addition to fending off impulses,
they are good at regulating pressures and stress”. In the TEIQue technical
manual, the emotion regulation facet of self-control is described as follows:
This scale measures short-, medium-, and long-term control of one’s

own feelings and emotional states. High scorers have control over their
emotions and can change unpleasant moods or prolong pleasant moods
through personal insight and effort. They are psychologically stable and
they know how to pick themselves up after emotional setbacks. Low
scorers are subject to emotional seizures and periods of prolonged anxi-
ety or even depression. They find it difficult to deal with their feelings
and are often moody and irritable. This facet correlates negatively with
neuroticism and paranoid personality and positively with adaptive cop-
ing styles, and conventional careers.
(Petrides 2009, 59–60)
This description forms the foundation for correctly interpreting the emotion
regulation profile of participants in the present study (see Part 3).
Several studies have found that individuals with high trait EI are less likely
to display stress or distress than their low EI peers when faced with difficult
events or conditions (Mikolajczak, Luminet, and Menil 2006; Mikolajczak,
Menil, and Luminet 2007; Mikolajczak and Luminet 2008a; Mikolajczak
et al. 2008b). In a brief review of the literature, Mikolajczak et al. (2008b)
argue that people with high trait EI experience smaller increases in psycho-
logical symptoms and somatic complaints during exams than people with
low trait EI, and high trait EI nurses experience lower levels of burnout. The
authors suggest that this could be a result of several processes (e.g. apprais-
als, coping strategies) and that there is evidence that trait EI not only
(1) influences the appraisal of a situation and one’s resources to face it and
(2) influences the choice of behavioural and psychological coping strategies
that people implement: “[several studies have shown that] trait EI is posi-
tively associated with the use of adaptive coping strategies (e.g. problem-
focused coping) and negatively associated with the use of maladaptive cop-
ing strategies (e.g. avoidance)” (Mikolajczak et al. 2008b, 1358). Trait EI
therefore seems to play a key role in the processes of emotion regulation.
Although context undoubtedly plays an important part in terms of which
strategies are adaptive or maladaptive, it is interesting to note that, in sev-
eral studies, trait EI was found to be positively related to the use of several
adaptive strategies: positive reappraisal, problem-solving, positive refocus,
refocus of planning, and putting into perspective (e.g. Mikolajczak, Menil,
and Luminet 2007; Mikolajczak et al. 2008b; Mikolajczak, Petrides, and
Hurry 2009). According to the authors, trait EI promotes the choice of more
adaptive strategies when faced with all kinds of emotions, including stress,
anger, sadness, fear, jealousy, envy, and shame. Individuals with high trait
EI are therefore able to choose adaptive strategies to down-regulate vari-
ous negative emotions, but also to maintain and increase positive emotions
(Mikolajczak et al. 2008b, 1364):
When confronted with a negative situation, high trait EI individuals

seem particularly inclined to look for the silver lining, invoke pleasant
thoughts or memories in order to counter their current emotional state,
think about what steps to take in order to handle the problem, and put
it into perspective. In contrast, they seem less likely to catastrophize or
to blame themselves for the occurrence of the problem and/or for their
incapacity to solve it.
In relation to this last point, individuals with high trait EI are also said to
have a superior capacity to implement their chosen adaptive strategies—
they are less likely to experience negative emotions because they are more
adept at fine-tuning their emotion regulation processes (Mikolajczak et al.
2008b, 1365). In the long-run, this might explain “why high trait EI indi-
viduals are less prone to mental disorders [. . .] anxiety, depression and other
mood disorders”. On the other hand, individuals with low trait EI will find
it difficult to implement adaptive strategies and will be more likely to make
use of maladaptive emotion regulation strategies, such as rumination, self-
blame, or inhibition of emotional expression. In extreme cases, avoiding
unwanted emotions and using other maladaptive coping strategies can lead
to particularly negative outcomes, such as adolescents who self-harm; this
is something which less emotionally intelligent people are more likely to
carry out as high trait EI scores are linked to a lower likelihood of self-harm
(Mikolajczak, Petrides, and Hurry 2009, 190).
In line with this argument, we can therefore speculate that high trait EI
translators will tend to regulate their emotions more adaptively and flexibly,
in the sense that “they are able to recognize when emotions are informative
and when they have to be regulated [. . .] in a way that is consistent with
their goals” (ibid., 184). Interestingly, it has also been found that trait EI not
only moderates individuals’ responses when confronted with a stressor, but it
also moderates the cognitive appraisal of the stressor, that is, its anticipation
(Mikolajczak et al. 2008a, 1450). This implies that high trait EI translators
should be able to both anticipate and respond efficiently to emotionality in
their work. In the next section, the relevance of emotion regulation processes
for translation and translators is discussed from a practical perspective.
Part 2: Emotion Regulation and Translation
Interpersonal, Cultural, Contextual, and Linguistic Factors

Translation is, or can be, an emotion-eliciting event. The way that transla-
tors choose to deal with this emotion-eliciting event will have an impact,
not only on themselves but also on other parties involved in the translation
process. When discussing live interactions, Rimé (2007, 477) considers the
role that other people can have in an individual’s emotion regulation pro-
cesses, demonstrating that there is a positive correlation between the inten-
sity of an emotional story heard and the intensity of a listener’s emotional
response. He argues that sharing positive emotions with others increases
positive affect and that sharing negative emotions with others reactivates
negative emotional feelings (2007, 469). A parallel can be drawn with the
translator’s potentially intense emotional response to a source text. In a
situation where a translator—who may have been deeply moved by read-
ing a sad ST—is then ‘forced’ to share this author’s negative experiences or
emotions with a new set of target readers, it is plausible that the translator’s
negative feelings are also reactivated, in a similar (if perhaps more passive)
way to a live interaction. Allen and Bernofsky (2013, xix) assert that trans-
lators become a part of the story they tell, which underscores the blurred
line between the author and the translator both telling two authentic stories
but also highlights the real necessity for the translator not only to reactivate
an intense emotional response but to actually turn it into another intense
emotional story as well.
Since Rimé suggests that “negative emotional experiences have a subtle
and most often ignored consequence of temporary destabilization” (2007,
473) we could speculate that, in the process of sharing with target read-
ers, translators will experience this destabilization and compensate for it
by actively self-regulating, perhaps even going into regulation overdrive.
Indeed, compared to a live sharing situation where a partner/listener pro-
vides a useful interpersonal dynamic, in translation the individual will not
(usually) receive a socioaffective response from the target reader which
might have served to buffer the destabilizing effect (which can lead to
anxiety, insecurity, alienation). So, in the three-way interaction taking
place, the translator takes an (emotional) hit from ‘another’ and attempts
to regulate its impact before transferring it onto a third party, all the while
fighting its maladaptive effects (hence, the possible ‘overdrive’). This situ-
ation highlights the potentially detrimental influence of interpersonal and
contextual factors on the translator’s work and the translator’s own (also
potentially detrimental) influence on other parties involved in the transla-
tion process.
This emotional ‘hit’ and its regulation can have long-term consequences.
It has been shown that exposure to an emotional narrative can induce con-
siderable emotional changes in a listener and that the impact of that lis-
tener’s resulting actions will vary as a function of the emotional intensity felt
when first hearing (or reading?) a narrative (ibid., 478). In addition, emo-
tional episodes can have an ongoing impact on the individual well beyond
their initial impact, and so regulation can continue to take place for quite a
while afterwards (ibid., 467). Even when an individual is not experiencing
an emotional episode first-hand but is a witness to one, he or she will still
attempt to self-regulate thus becoming drained in the process (Totterdell
et al. 2012). It therefore seems vital for translators to be aware of how they
handle emotional situations, and to be effective in their regulatory attempts
in order to, on one hand, successfully communicate ST content to TT read-
ers and, on the other hand, to survive the process with minimum damage.
Lopes et al. (2011, 430) claim that emotion regulation affects the quality
of interpersonal relationships and social interaction. The authors highlight
an association between greater use of antecedent-focused regulation strate-
gies (e.g. appraisal of emotional situation and subsequent situation modifi-
cation) and better quality of social interaction. As the relationship between
translators and their readers has often been qualified as a social and cul-
tural interaction (Neubert and Shreve 1992; Tymoczko and Gentzler 2002;
Tyulenev 2012), and as the translation process can involve a wide range of
emotions, the link between emotion strategy use and effective social interac-
tion is particularly significant for translation.
As translator trainers will know, effective social interaction and compe-
tence in translation involve an intimate understanding of intercultural dif-
ferences between source and target readers. Since high emotion regulation
is also an important predictor of positive intercultural adjustment, i.e. bet-
ter interaction with the environment to achieve goals (Yoo, Matsumoto,
and LeRoux 2006), it could be argued that successful and well-adjusted
bicultural translators are likely to employ more effective regulation strate-
gies when faced with emotional episodes in their work. Translators from
different countries work in specific sociocultural contexts, and so it is rel-
evant that cultural differences may to some extent affect emotion display,
emotion regulation, and attentional deployment (e.g. Matsumoto, Hee, and
Nakagawa 2008). Successfully navigating between source and target socio-
cultural contexts via well-regulated processes can therefore be the key to a
successful translation career.
Clearly, and as already mentioned in Chapter 1, the norms for emotion—
and thus emotion regulation—can differ between cultures. A culture pro-
motes the activation of culturally appropriate emotional responses, so
emotion regulation is always embedded in a particular sociocultural context
(Butler, Lee, and Gross 2007; Matsumoto, Hee, and Nakagawa 2008). As
suggested by Mesquita and Albert (2007), emotion regulation is therefore
not merely an intrapersonal process. It is also important to remember that
there are multiple identifications that exist, and not all individuals belong-
ing to one culture will necessarily act in the same way, or not all individuals
belonging to different cultures will act differently. In a study of cultural
differences in emotion suppression between so-called European and Asian
women, suppression led to fewer socially rewarding behaviours (e.g. smil-
ing) regardless of cultural values (Butler, Lee, and Gross 2007, 43). This
finding implies some level of commonality and cross-cultural consistency in
terms of emotion regulation.
In addition, there are specific contextual factors that govern each emotion
regulation attempt which have arguably more immediate impact on strategy
use, as “even a temporary change in social context might influence emotion
regulation” (McRae et al. 2011, 346). For example, in a temporary social
context—the Burning Man Festival—it was found that festival goers used
less suppression and more reappraisal than usual (ibid.). This implies that a
temporary or unique context can alter emotion regulation habits. As argued
by Beal et al. (2013, 594), examining emotion regulation over brief periods
is vital because emotions are time bound and transient. As a result, the
perspective taken here is not so much cultural as more specifically focused
on translators’ emotion regulation processes when they interact with the
translation environment.7
There is also a language-related factor, briefly discussed in Chapter 2,
that has the potential to influence translators’ emotion regulation processes.
While researching changes in the mental lexicon of adult and late bilinguals,
Pavlenko (2008, 149) observed that emotion and emotion-laden words are
represented, processed, and recalled differently from abstract and concrete
words and that “speakers of different languages have somewhat different
vantage points from which to evaluate and interpret their own and oth-
ers’ emotional experiences” (2008, 150). This implies that when translators
translating into their L1 process emotional ST material written in their L2,
they will not do so in the same way as the source author or source read-
ers due to the fact that they do not share the same L1. In fact, Pavlenko
argues that languages learned in early childhood are experienced as more
emotional than languages learned later in life (2008, 156); this means that
conditioning imbues L1 vocabulary with a personal and affective dimen-
sion, rendering some words as stimuli for positive or negative arousal, but
that this may not happen to the same extent with a second language. It can
therefore be assumed that translators working in their L1 and translators
working in their L2 are likely to process, and therefore regulate, emotional
material differently, thus producing different results. It is also noteworthy
to recall that L2 emotion words are sometimes perceived by L1 users as
disembodied or even “fake” (ibid., 157). As we have seen in Chapter 2,
perception of emotional ST content by L1 translators is very likely to affect
their emotion regulation strategy use.
Emotional Labour and Dissonance

As mentioned earlier, when translators use specific emotion regulation strat-
egies, this impacts both themselves and their environment because emotion
regulation occurs in social contexts and shapes social interactions. Hansen
(2005) hinted at this when she claimed that in every translation situation, a
translator’s experiences and emotions emerge and influence the translation
process and decision-making. Using specific strategies in translation there-
fore comes with associated cognitive, social, and affective costs. As most of
the research on emotion regulation has been conducted on suppression and
reappraisal, in this section I focus on these two strategies more specifically,
and their costs, to highlight their relevance for the translation process.
According to Gross and John (2003) using suppression is cognitively tax-
ing, and will impact contact with others further down the line. Indeed, if
suppressors fail to absorb information needed to respond appropriately to
others, they may appear avoidant, not in tune with the flow of the interac-
tion, and experience less emotionally close relationships. Conversely,
[cognitive] reappraisers negotiate stressful situations by taking an opti-

mistic attitude, reinterpreting what they find stressful, and making
active efforts to repair bad moods. Affectively, reappraisers both expe-
rience and express behaviorally more positive emotion and less negative
emotion than those who reappraise less frequently. Socially, reapprais-
ers are more likely to share their emotions, both positive and negative,
with others, and they have closer relationships with friends.
(Gross and John 2003, 360)
The social and affective consequences of using particular regulation strate-

gies during translating could therefore be significant. Let me give two con-
crete examples of how these two opposing strategies might directly impact
the translation process. Translator A is a male translator, and Translator B
is a female translator in this example.
1. Translator A is handling a particularly traumatic source text about

genocide and uses suppression as a way to deal with the content, per-
haps trying not to visualise or think too much about it while translat-
ing (effectively blocking emotions out). In a way, this will enable him
to carry out the translation task and can therefore be said to be par-
tially successful; however, the suppression will lead him to express less
negative emotion than he actually experiences (Gross and John 2003,
360). In turn, this could lead to (a) a toning down of the target text or
(b) a nonconscious integration of the suppressed emotion which might
implicitly impair the rest of the translation task.8
2. Translator B is given the same text but reappraises the situation before
starting the translation, perhaps telling herself that spreading the word
might encourage someone to take action to make a positive change to
the situation. This will motivate the translator to carry out the task suc-
cessfully, perhaps using visualisations to really ‘feel’ the emotions. The
reappraisal strategy will lead her to share her negative/sad emotions in
order to achieve a goal and to feel better as a result. In turn, this is more
likely to lead to an emotionally faithful rendition of the source text.
Although there are instances when suppression might be more appropriate

for a particular situation, scholars agree that reappraisal (which occurs at
the start of the emotion generation process) is generally more adaptive than
suppression (which occurs at the end of the emotion generation process).
In their meta-analysis of emotion regulation strategy effectiveness, Webb,
Miles, and Sheeran (2012) confirm that reappraisal is one of the most effec-
tive strategies for emotion regulation. Having considered the above situa-
tions, we can probably agree with Gross and John (2003, 360) when they
state that people’s differing uses of suppression and reappraisal are substan-
tial and meaningful, and can have a systematic effect in translation work. In
fact, whereas Translator B modifies the entire emotional situation from the
outset to give it a more positive spin, Translator A only modifies his behav-
ioural response to the negative emotions elicited by the source text. Clearly,
this does not serve the suppressive translator well:
Suppression requires the individual to effortfully manage response ten-

dencies as they arise continually, consuming cognitive resources that
could otherwise be used for optimal performance in the social contexts
in which the emotions arise.
(John and Gross 2007, 353)
Translator A is therefore expending much more effort than Translator B

throughout the translation task, will become tired sooner, and thus less and
less able to perform the task successfully. In addition, as we have seen, the
act of suppression carried out by Translator A when first encountering a
gruesome description may be repeated automatically (and non-consciously)
throughout the text by the translator when encountering subsequent instances
of emotion-eliciting text. Emotion regulation strategies can become auto-
mated, thus prolonging their negative (in this case) impact throughout the
translation process. This process seems to be consistent with observations
in TPR regarding translators’ automatized strategies within the same text
(e.g. Muñoz Martín 2012, 176) and highlights the importance for transla-
tors of understanding the consequences of their regulatory behaviours.
Also emphasizing the benefits of reappraisal, in her study of the self-
regulatory competence of expert and novice interpreters, Hild (2014) notes
that experts are much better at using reappraisal strategies in order to shift
their attention away from errors and other problems. In turn, this leads them
to feel much more satisfied and positive about their interpreting performance.
When facing a potentially stressful event, expert interpreters will positively
reappraise their overall performance so as to modulate its impact. Hild also
suggests that experts make very proactive attempts to generate positive emo-
tional states, whereas novices find it difficult to handle the stress and tend to
struggle with negative affect, such as confusion, frustration, guilt, and even
distress. This distracts them from the interpreting task and adversely impacts
their performance. Although this example relates to interpreting, it could be
argued that reappraisal can also have benefits for translation and that expe-
rienced translators are likely to manage it better than novices.
Hild (2014, 139) also highlights the depleting effects of suppression for
interpreters:
Effective regulation of emotional experience critically depends on the

availability of attentional resources [. . .] When these resources are
severely limited, whether because of ego depletion or task-induced
stress, emotion regulation is compromised. This is manifested in ineffi-
cient voluntary suppression of distracting thoughts [. . .] and emotional
reactions, or the inability to deploy attention away from unwanted
responses towards the interpreting task.
Both translators and interpreters can experience depletion resulting from

poor self-regulation. In the case of translation, Muñoz Martín (2012, 177)
claims that translators may experience stress when attempting to lower their
mental load and manage multiple tasks. Emotions felt when translating can
be overwhelming and use up mental resources—indeed, translating is some-
times considered a prison, even a nightmare, because “one is in a dialogue
with another person [the author] whom you must concede is always right”
(Weinberger 2013, 28); the translator Peter Cole (2013, 4) believes transla-
tors to be “under the stress of a somehow chronic state of both physical and
metaphysical frustration”. Undertaking a lot of emotion work is clearly tir-
ing and can deplete a person’s resources thus making them feel more drained
and leading to reduced-quality performance (Totterdell et al. 2012).
If using suppression as a strategy is exhausting, which is problematic
in itself, it is even more troubling to think that translators may also con-
sciously feel bad about the fact that they adopt this suppressive behaviour.
Indeed, earlier on in this chapter, when discussing the negative effects on
well-being that suppression can have, it was highlighted that suppressors
also think of themselves as being inauthentic, disingenuous, and misleading.
This perceived duplicitous behaviour, which could be caused by an inability
to deal effectively with a translation problem involving emotion, may be
problematic for translators for several reasons.
Worryingly, people who deal with stressful situations by suppressing or
masking their inner feelings and outward displays of emotion are said to
experience painful feelings of inauthenticity (Beal et al. 2013; Gross and
John 2003; Mikolajczak, Menil, and Luminet 2007). In situations where
they are made to hide or fake their affective states so as to prioritize work-
related objectives, people are said to (1) suffer from psychological strain
and fatigue due to engaging in effortful self-control and (2) experience dis-
sonance resulting from being out of sync with their natural feelings. This
double source of stress is sometimes called emotional labour (e.g. Mikola-
jczak, Menil, and Luminet 2007). In translation, I would argue that there
is an additional pressure, a third source of psychological strain, which ren-
ders the use of suppression even more problematic. Indeed, it is considered
the norm for translators to ‘hide’ or ‘fake’ in the context of their work:
“translation inevitably involves guises and masks [. . .] translators, like
actors, appear to us under a persona, speaking to us with words that both
are and are not their own” (Allen and Bernofsky 2013, xix). As such, trans-
lators are already ‘naturally’ in a situation requiring self-control and some
level of ‘masking’; if they also resort to suppression when handling emotion-
eliciting content, they are increasing their levels of emotional labour beyond
those of non-translators in a similar situation, and they are adding an extra
dose of inauthenticity to their already ‘inauthentic’ working experience. In
addition, it is said that the simple acts of taking someone else’s perspective
and witnessing interactions indirectly are emotionally draining and enhance
psychological depletion (Totterdell et al. 2012, 125). Translators, for whom
perspective-taking is a key part of the job, are therefore always working
hard to stay ‘in control’, and any additional strain caused by suppression,
faking, dissonance, and so on is likely to be particularly damaging and to
affect translation quality. One might wonder why translators willingly put
themselves in such a difficult situation. Perhaps they are quite resilient crea-
tures? The Polish author Isaac Bashevis Singer questioned the translator’s
motives:
The translator must be a great editor, a psychologist, a judge of human

taste; if not, his translation will be a nightmare. But why should a man
[sic] with such rare qualities become a translator? [. . .] A good transla-
tor must be both a sage and a fool. And where do you get such strange
combinations?
(Singer, quoted in Weinberger (2013, 26))
The emotional labour and dissonance which translators can feel the impact
of in their work can result in both discomfort and pleasure, a bittersweet
experience: “when it comes to the translator’s soul, let’s call it, translation
can both nourish and drain, strangle and sustain” (Cole 2013, 5). Only
translators with the previously mentioned qualities can successfully navi-
gate the tempestuous seas of the translation process. The stakes are high: It
could be argued that a translator using reappraising strategies is more likely
to think of his work as a “radically generous enterprise” that is “rooted
in a desire to offer others access to the global conversation” (Cole 2013,
12). This framing may well lead to increased fulfilment and self-worth, but
a translator using maladaptive strategies might experience his work as an
exhausting necessary evil and suffer as a consequence.
As noted previously, very little is currently known about how translators
differ in their reactions to using effortful emotion regulation strategies when
working, and some are more reactive than others. Also, what a translator
may not find stressful to translate one day may be stressful another day
when he or she feels more depleted. Beal et al. (2013, 594) argue that ‘affect
spin’, or “variability in the dynamic process of affective experience”, plays
an important role in levels of strain reactions. Totterdell et al. (2012, 126)
further suggest that “people who are more effective at regulating their emo-
tions may be less susceptible to experiencing emotional fallout”. Some trans-
lators will react more positively to so-called surface-acting than others, and
experience less psychological strain.9 It could also be surmised that seasoned
literary translators would experience various affective states through their
work more regularly than non-literary translators, therefore developing less
effortful regulatory strategies over time which would be more in line with
desired emotional expressions, a process sometimes termed ‘habituation’
(Pennebaker and Chung 2011). Translators’ individual differences influence
their affective reactions, and more research is clearly needed to understand
different translators’ behaviours when regulating affective content. In par-
ticular, it would be interesting to better understand in what circumstances
high trait EI individuals act in ways that encourage positive emotional expe-
riences, perform less emotional effort, and employ less depleting emotional
labour strategies than their low EI counterparts (Mikolajczak, Menil, and
Luminet 2007), and whether high trait EI translators conform to these
behaviours in the context of their own work. By analysing the trait emotion
regulation of professional translators, the following section is a preliminary
attempt to address these issues.
Part 3: Emotion Regulation in the Case Study
Introduction
In this section, an examination is undertaken of the emotion regulation pro-
files of the 155 professional translators in the study.10 Translators’ emotion
regulation trait, as assessed by the TEIQue, is therefore examined in relation
to sociobiographical variables which are relevant to the translation profes-
sion and derived from the emotion regulation literature review. As men-
tioned previously, TEIQue measures global trait EI by incorporating four
global factors and 15 facets measured through 15 subscales. The emotion
regulation facet is subsumed within the factor of self-control.11 An analysis
of the relationship between emotion regulation and the data from profes-
sional translators’ profiles is provided in the following.
Results
As a result of the literature review, emotion regulation and self-control
were expected to correlate with the following variables: length of profes-
sional translation experience, translation qualification, level of education,
self-perceived job satisfaction, self-perceived job success, proportion of time
spent on translating, and literary translation experience. Indeed, skill in reg-
ulating one’s own and others’ emotions is hypothesized to be linked to gain-
ing both translation and educational experience; additionally, as with other
professions discussed in Part 1, it is hypothesized that translators’ job-related
outcomes (e.g. satisfaction, success) are linked to the way that they regulate
their emotions; lastly, it is hypothesized that emotion regulation and literary
translation experience are positively associated due to the process of habitu-
ation discussed in Part 2. Pearson’s correlation analyses were performed; the
results are presented in Table 3.2 and discussed afterwards.
the trait of emotion regulation, the factor of self-control, and the seven vari-
ables show that there are positive associations between emotion regulation
and professional translation experience (r = .24, p < .01), education (r = .20,
p < .05), job satisfaction (r = .07, p = .38), job success (r = .09, p = .28),
time spent translating (r = .09, p = .28), and literary translation experi-
ence (r = .17, p < .05). Statistically significant correlations were noted for
the variables of professional translation experience, education, and literary
translation experience. As regards the factor of self-control, Table 3.2 shows
very similar trends, with the additional result that job satisfaction nearly
reached statistical significance (p < .06). Conversely, emotion regulation and
self-control are negatively associated with the translation qualification vari-
able, though the effect did not reach statistical significance.
Discussion
Table 3.2 shows that emotion regulation correlated positively with six of the
seven variables linked to the translation profession. This suggests that pro-
fessional translators with low trait emotion regulation are less likely to have
professional translation experience and advanced qualifications, to experi-
ence job satisfaction and success, to spend time working on translation, and
to have literary translation experience. In other words, the results indicate
that the higher the levels of emotion regulation (i.e. the self-perceived ability
to control one’s own feelings and emotional states), the more likely it is that
professional translators will be experienced, qualified, and feel happy and
successful (= well-being). In addition, the more experience a translator has
Table 3.2 Emotion regulation, self-control, and professional translators’ sociobio-

Variables Emotion regulation Self-control
Professional translation experience .24** .25**

Translation qualification –.04 –.02
Education .20* .20*
Job satisfaction .07 .15ª
Job success .09 .08
Time spent translating .09 .07
Literary translation experience .17* .18*
* p < .05. ** p < .01. ª p < .06.
of undertaking literary translation, the likelier it is that he or she will also
have increased levels of emotion regulation.
Although these correlations are revealing, it must be recalled that the
direction of the effect remains unclear. For example, emotion regulation
may increase as a result of translators gaining professional experience, or
translators who are skilled at emotion regulation from the outset may be
more likely to gain (and retain) clients, thus leading to renewed translation
contracts and the continued acquisition of professional experience. Simi-
larly, professional translators high in emotion regulation could be drawn to
literary translation as an activity, but it could also be argued that transla-
tors develop their emotion regulation abilities through undertaking literary
translation work, thereby helping to improve their trait emotion regulation
scores.
The results presented in Table 3.2 highlight five areas which deserve fur-
ther discussion.
1. Emotion Regulation Is Significantly Positively Associated

With (Years of) Professional Translation Experience
The statistically significant positive correlation found between emotion reg-
ulation and the number of years of professional translation experience is
hardly surprising. Indeed, the ability to regulate emotions is said to change
over time as individuals make increasing use of healthy emotion regula-
tion strategies (Gross and Thompson 2007, 19) and people are thought to
develop emotional skills through learning and experience (Lopes et al. 2011,
434). It makes sense that translators, as they mature and gain experience
in their chosen profession, would become increasingly able to modify their
work-related emotional experiences in order to produce appropriate and
adaptive responses in particular translation contexts. Translation scholars
interested in the development of translation competence and expertise have
found that translation expertise is generally synonymous with increasingly
more competent use of both internal and external support for decision-
making (e.g. PACTE 2009). Therefore, it could be surmised that the more
experience translators acquire of handling the ‘destabilization’ that comes
with sharing and reactivating negative emotional experiences encountered
in their work (cf. Part 2), the better they will become at regulating their
own emotions. Conversely, it could also be argued that translators who are
highly skilled at regulating their emotions will handle this so-called desta-
bilization very well, and will thus not be afraid to pursue it relentlessly and
repeatedly over the course of their career.
As we have seen in Part 1, Campbell-Sills and Barlow (2007, 543) define
effective regulation as responses to affective states that enable the pursuit
of both short- and long-term goals important to the individual. So, the
higher their levels of emotion regulation, the likelier it is that translators
will be capable of achieving their work-related goals. It stands to reason
that translators who have this capacity will become successful in their career
and thus more likely to stay in the translation profession for longer. In addi-
tion, we have seen that effective emotion regulation is linked to enhanced
sociometric standing and closer social connections. Therefore, translators
who are skilled at shaping their social environment are more likely to be
seen favourably by their peers and clients and to continue to be sought
after for jobs and opportunities. In turn, this increase in opportunities could
lead them to stay in the profession for longer. We have also noted in Part 2
that emotion regulation and intercultural understanding and adjustment are
closely related. As translators will necessarily increase their knowledge of
the language cultures they work with through exposure over time, it makes
sense that they will also increasingly use adaptive and culturally appropri-
ate emotion regulation strategies in their work, hence raising their emotion
regulation scores. In addition, as previously suggested, their growing experi-
ence of handling emotion and emotion-laden texts is bound to have a posi-
tive effect on the way that they regulate emotions.
It is also noteworthy that using particular emotion regulation strategies
affects both individual and personality development (cf. Part 1). A transla-
tor likely to employ adaptive strategies at the start of his or her career will
continue to do so, as we have seen that habitual use of adaptive strate-
gies provides both positive affect and other benefits. Therefore, in a kind of
snowball effect, the choice to increase and repeat the use of specific adaptive
strategies (such as, for example, situation selection), as a result of personal
and professional experiences, will change the way in which that translator
manages emotions over time and the direction that their personality devel-
opment will take. A translator with a different (perhaps less optimistic, less
conscientious, or more neurotic) personality may be less inclined or able to
influence their behaviour in this way in future and, as such, their individual
and professional development will take a different route over time and situ-
ation. The strong mutual influence between experience and emotion regula-
tion strategy use—motivated by specific individual differences in belief and
personality—which was discussed in Part 1 therefore seems to be borne out
by the data.
In line with Hild’s findings regarding the emotion regulation of interpret-
ing experts, in the present case study, the expert translators (i.e. those with
substantial translation experience) appear to be more competent when it
comes to using adaptive regulatory strategies. As discussed, Hild suggests
that this competence enables interpreting experts to shift their attention
away from errors and problems. In this case, it could be hypothesized that
experience in the use of adaptive strategies also enables expert translators to
be less affected by problems encountered in their daily work. The seasoned
translator Eliot Weinberger (2013, 24) certainly seems undaunted by recur-
ring problems, such as what he terms ‘the old bugbear of fidelity’ in trans-
lation: “Obviously a translation that is replete with semantical [sic] errors
is probably a bad translation, but fidelity may be the most overrated of a
translation’s qualities”. This kind of unperturbed perspective, a product of
experience and effective self-regulation, is likely to make the job of translat-
ing a much more pleasant and relaxed experience.
2. Emotion Regulation Is Significantly Positively Associated With

Education Levels, but not With Translation Qualifications
The second interesting finding from the case study is the statistically signifi-
cant positive correlation found between emotion regulation and educational
qualifications. It would seem, according to the case study results, that emo-
tion regulation abilities develop alongside progress through higher education
and, therefore, that the higher one climbs up the academic ladder, the higher
one’s emotion regulation score is likely to be. We can assume that this effect
is partly explained by individuals’ age-related development and increased
experience, as noted earlier. Nonetheless, the idea that self-regulation and
self-control (both of which involve managing emotional experiences) are
improved or learned when one is exposed to an academic environment is
not altogether surprising. At university, one is likely to be exposed to a wide
range of situations requiring both emotion regulation and self-control, and
individuals’ capacity to regulate their emotions (and those of others) is con-
stantly tested through the pressure of exams, course work, and the demands
of scholarship. The more advanced the degree, the higher the expectation by
universities that students will act as autonomous and independent learners
who are able to activate various types of goals and respond appropriately to
both cognitive and affective course-related requirements. Goal activation is
an essential part of university life, and universities are an ideal framework
for helping students to achieve these goals.
In addition, degrees in foreign languages and other humanities subjects
that form the bulk of the educational background of translators in the case
study are arguably an ideal context for developing interpersonal skills, inter-
cultural understanding, sensitivity, reflexivity, and emotional and intellectual
maturity. It is therefore not surprising that emotion regulation effectiveness
may be developed and improved throughout the academic journey. In fact,
research on self-regulated learning has demonstrated that self-regulation
can be successfully taught to individuals during their academic or profes-
sional development (e.g. Cleary and Platten 2013). It could therefore be
argued that, rather than solely being a by-product of higher education, emo-
tion regulation could also actively be taught in a more focused way in order
to enable individuals to manage their emotions and interact with others
even more effectively. Research undertaken by Lopes et al. (2011) suggests
that training contexts could usefully set activities that help individuals apply
intelligence to emotionally challenging situations.
The negative correlation found between emotion regulation and translation-
specific qualifications, however, is difficult to comprehend. As Catherine Por-
ter highlights, translator training in academia provides telling insights into
how translation can contribute as “lens and mirror in the study of culture”
(2013, 62). The European Masters in Translation (EMT) Expert Group
also emphasize that, alongside intercultural competence, translator training
contexts should teach interpersonal competences and self-evaluation (EMT
Expert Group 2009). These skills involve both self- and emotion regulation.
So, in light of this, it is surprising that translation-specific qualifications
do not predict emotion regulation development. The explanation could be
that, although translation-focused degrees clearly contribute to the devel-
opment of a number of key skills and abilities (research, critical analysis,
use of tools, etc.), they do not specifically contribute to the development of
emotion regulation or the effective use of emotion regulation strategies—
at least, not over and above what another humanities or foreign language
degree might already currently contribute.
As a translator educator myself, I have seen first-hand the distress that
young translators can feel when faced with an emotionally charged source
text. On one occasion, a student ran out of a translation exam in tears
because the text was too painful for her to process; it was about a mother
who had lost her baby, a devastating situation which the student had expe-
rienced first-hand. As demonstrated in Part 2, being able to regulate one’s
emotional experiences is important for several aspects of translation work
and can impact on target text quality. Translation programmes that do not
contribute effectively to increasing the emotion regulation skills of their
translation students could really be missing something. As highlighted by
Hild (2014) there is little evidence that students become self-regulated learn-
ers on their own, and self-regulation skills should be included in the train-
ing of interpreters. Similarly, emotion regulation should, in my opinion, be
viewed as an integral part of translator training. Translation programmes
could have a more direct role in raising awareness of the impact of emo-
tion regulation on translators’ work, and train translators to use effective
context-dependent emotion regulation strategies. This idea is further devel-
oped in Chapter 5.
One final point of note on this particular result. Since the direction of the
effect is unclear, it could be argued that individuals high in emotion regula-
tion will choose to stay in higher education for longer. Indeed, I have noted in
Part 1 that the habitual use of adaptive emotion regulation strategies enables
individuals to turn to activities and happier thoughts which may help them
with problem-solving (e.g. Suri, Sheppes, and Gross 2013). Individuals who
are more positive, confident, and who find it easier to problem-solve would
arguably be better able to cope with an advanced degree, more willing to
take on extra work, to apply to postgraduate programmes, and to deepen
their understanding of—and involvement in—their chosen subject. Interest-
ingly, Petrides (2009, 60) notes that emotion regulation correlates positively
with conventional careers. Though someone with high emotion regulation
may not necessarily end up in a conventional career—and it is debatable as
to whether translation careers can be deemed ‘conventional’—it certainly
holds true that acquiring advanced university degrees stems from a conven-
tional desire and motivation to do well professionally (e.g. Prospects 2012).
3. Emotion Regulation Is Positively Associated With Time

Spent Translating
Despite the abovementioned finding that there is no positive correlation
between acquiring translation degrees and the development of emotion regu-
lation, the case study does highlight a (weak) link between emotion regula-
tion and the amount of time that translators spend on translation work.
Although the association is not statistically significant, the trend is somewhat
in line with the previous finding that emotion regulation develops along-
side experience gained in the translation profession. Indeed, a translator
who spends a lot of his or her working time translating is likely to gain
more experience of handling emotional translation material, and employing
strategies to regulate emotions when translating, than a translator who only
spends a small amount of time on translation activities.
This finding can be seen to reinforce many professional translators’ belief
that translation experience, rather than theory, is key to the development
of expertise: “Reading late twentieth- or twenty-first-century translation
theory, one often gets the sense that many of the principal theorists simply
resent the imagination, if not the English language itself” (Cole 2013, 10);
“it is a trade that any amateur can do, but professionals do better. It is a
trade that can be learned, and should be (though not necessarily institution-
ally) in order to practice” (Weinberger 2013, 27). This dichotomy between
theory/practice seems unproductive, as nowadays most translation degrees
have a substantial practical component, and often provide work placement
opportunities as well as professional contacts. In addition, as previously
highlighted, an academic degree will provide a number of benefits, if not
a direct contribution to the development of emotion regulation abilities.
However, it is the case that translators can learn how to regulate emotions
through regular translation practice, and that this knowledge acquired
through experience will feed into their subsequent work: “emotion regula-
tion knowledge can accelerate [the] learning process and the expertise that
employees develop [enabling them to utilize] proactive strategies to produce
desirable emotions in themselves and their audiences” (Grant 2013, 1706).
It is therefore likely that translators with strong emotion regulation knowl-
edge gained through substantial translation practice are likely to channel
strong emotions felt in appropriate and constructive ways, resulting in effec-
tive translations that readers will appreciate and value. Clearly, practice
makes perfect.
If one takes for granted that deliberate translation practice predicts the
development of expertise, then it stands to reason that translation expertise
predicts the development of effective problem-solving strategies. In turn,
translators with effective problem-solving skills may be more willing to take
on work and to turn their hand to increasingly more challenging and com-
plex tasks (e.g. translating poetry or classical literature) in order to stay
motivated and use the full range of their skills. This will provide them with
additional opportunities to practice emotion regulation in a wider range of
contexts, thus possibly helping to further increase their ability in that area.
When discussing his translation into Japanese of The Great Gatsby, a per-
sonal goal Murakami had set himself as a step forward on his journey as a
translator, he professes his desire that the reader understand and share his
love for Fitzgerald’s novel: “if I have been able to communicate even a por-
tion of those feelings [. . .] then I am happy. That is my one and only wish”
(2013, 182). For this particular translator who decided to wait a number of
years before translating a work he claims to be infatuated with and called
‘his Gatsby’, time spent on this long-awaited challenge could not be better
spent elsewhere.
We have also seen in Part 1 that there are high negative associations
between trait EI and the Big Five dimension of Neuroticism, meaning
that—in all likelihood—a neurotic translator will also be low in trait EI
and in emotion regulation. Because neurotic individuals tend to be pessi-
mistic about their emotion-regulatory prospects, and to lack the confidence
to use adaptive strategies in order to escape negative situations or to enter
positive ones (John and Gross 2007, 357), it could also be argued from the
case study result that translators with low emotion regulation abilities are
less likely than their high emotion regulation counterparts to spend a lot of
time in situations requiring the use of regulatory strategies. This necessarily
entails that they would spend a reduced amount of time on translation activ-
ities, or at least on translation activities requiring effective use of adaptive
strategies to regulate emotions (i.e. more emotion-eliciting or ‘risky’ texts).
This supposition seems particularly pertinent if we recall that a translator’s
intense emotional response and feelings to a source text are reactivated in
the process of sharing with target readers (cf. Part 2, Rimé’s 2007 work).
Indeed, it is improbable that an anxious translator who is insecure about
his or her strategies would wilfully enter into, and stay in, a situation that
is likely to give him or her more than one emotional hit. This may therefore
partly explain the link between levels of emotion regulation and levels of
time spent translating.
4. Emotion Regulation Is Positively Associated With Job

Satisfaction and Success
I have noted earlier on in this chapter that translators who are naturally less
effective in their emotion regulation attempts may, for example, be tempted
to use suppression or to ruminate on translation problems. This impairs
their instrumental behaviour, making them less effective and successful in
their work, and this leads them to experience more stress and exhaustion
(i.e. less well-being). In contrast, translators who are naturally effective at
regulating emotions will use adaptive strategies such as reappraisal which,
we have seen, leads to better interpersonal functioning and higher levels of
well-being; they are also more likely to use situation modification and atten-
tion deployment, strategies which lead to “more balanced lives” (John and
Gross 2007, 356). As such, this particular association—though not statisti-
cally significant—is not surprising.
Like in other professions, an individual entering the translation profession
will hope to experience both job satisfaction and job success. This is, after
all, what he or she will have worked towards while at university or while
gaining experience, joining translation associations, attending professional
development events, making contacts, and so on. The aim of all of this is to
become a competent, happy, and successful translator. Alice Kaplan (2013,
67) adequately summarises the joys and perils of a translator’s work:
When everyone gets along, when translator and author negotiate

smoothly, when the editor serves as a guarantor of rights on both sides,
translation can be an extremely satisfying undertaking for both author
and translator, in which each feels fulfilled and grateful to the other. But
when something goes wrong, a translation conflict can be exceedingly
complex and difficult to resolve.
Kaplan (ibid.) highlights that, when everything goes to plan, translators will
experience positive feelings. However, when conflict occurs, translators will
experience mixed feelings which are likely to have a negative impact on
them and their work:
[T]he kind of conflict I am alluding to is often merely a hypothetical

drama on our minds as we, the translators, go about our workaday
business. The dilemma takes place within ourselves, and we resolve it
by the time the work of translation is finished.
Kaplan’s astute observation points to translators’ internal conflict, and the

need for them to be able to resolve potentially highly emotive issues. This
is where emotion regulation becomes useful. As we have seen in Part 1,
translators who are able to use adaptive emotion regulation strategies will
have more positive relations with others and experience positive emotions,
whereas translators who misregulate emotions will experience distress, anx-
iety, and negative feelings (cf. Campbell-Sills and Barlow 2007; D’Avanzato
and Joormann 2013; Gross 2013). Translators high in emotion regulation
should therefore be more skilled in dealing with emotion-laden and difficult
issues in the workplace, such as “prominent writers who insist on challeng-
ing the translations of their work into languages they barely know” (Kaplan
2013, 68).
But being able to regulate one’s emotions when translating a text involves
more than keeping one’s cool when handling an exasperating author.
Despite the desire that translators might have to “claim a literary space”
for themselves, Kaplan asserts that this must not come at the expense of
the author’s original work and intentions (ibid., 72). The translator must
have enough self-control to know the limits and not get carried away or
overstep the mark. She provides a revealing example whereby the translator
of one of her books had started out being so enthusiastic about translating
the work and making it his own that he claimed to feel castrated when not
allowed to change the text (ibid., 70). He also imposed character names
from the TV show Friends as this was his favourite TV series and, according
to Kaplan, he attempted to solve her characters’ problems rather than repre-
sent them. Although an extreme case, this is a clear example of an egocentric
translator who lacked the ability to regulate his intense emotions about the
translation and its process. In the end, communication broke down, and the
author refused the translation. She laments the translator’s extreme emo-
tions: “What a long road he had taken, from being wildly enthusiastic about
making my book his own to maligning it utterly” (ibid., 72). This example
serves to highlight, on one hand, the very strong emotions that translators
feel and need to regulate and, on the other hand, the dire consequences
when the translator misregulates these emotions: wasted effort, bitter feel-
ings, financial setback, and ultimately no publication. This example goes
some way towards explaining how emotion regulation, self-control, and
well-being can be inextricably linked.
Attaining a state of emotional balance, however, is a delicate enterprise.
As a translator herself, Kaplan understands how difficult it is for a transla-
tor to “see every flaw, every mistaken fact, and every awkward transition”
(ibid.) in a work one has to translate, and to feel “intangible emotions—love,
envy, generosity, competition, and combat—come into play for the transla-
tor” (ibid., 73). Nonetheless, she claims that for a translation to be a success
“tact, sympathy, intimacy, and distance are all necessary ingredients” (ibid.,
78). Like interpreters, translators must not let the emotions they feel leak
too much into the translation process; so, although suppression or “over-
generalization of emotional control” (Layton and Muraven 2014) are not
warranted, some limiting of emotional extremes and controlling of desires
and impulses is clearly desirable, lest it adversely impact performance.
Interestingly, we have seen that high trait EI individuals are particularly
effective at recognizing and anticipating when emotions are informative and
when they have to be regulated (Mikolajczak, Petrides, and Hurry 2009).
Their well-being is said to be less affected by the stress and depletion of
emotion work. As suggested earlier in this chapter, one explanation for the
high levels of success and satisfaction that some translators are able to expe-
rience can be found in their relaxed attitude towards potential problems.
We have seen that high trait EI individuals are also less likely to blame
themselves for problems or for their incapacity to solve these (Mikolajc-
zak et al. 2008b). Several highly successful translators demonstrate this
down-to-earth, self-aware, and balanced attitude towards their work and
its associated problems: “Each stage of the process involves discomfort and
pleasures of a kind” (Cole 2013, 4); “Dedicated practitioners begin their
days at the desk knowing full well [. . .] that translation has traditionally
been thought of as a curse” (ibid., 12); “the translator’s anonymity [. . .] is
the joy of translation [. . .] It is the only time when one can put words on a
page entirely without embarrassment” (Weinberger 2013, 28). These trans-
lators’ mature perspectives on translation denote not only an acceptance but
also a real appreciation and enjoyment of what translation stands for. They
are likely to suffer less from dissonance and inauthenticity in translation
than those lower in emotion regulation. As a result, they are more fulfilled,
happier, healthier, and presumably more effective at their jobs.
5. Emotion Regulation Is Significantly Positively Associated

With the Acquisition of Literary Translation Experience
As can be seen in Table 3.2, the more experience translators have of under-
taking literary translation, the likelier it is that they will also have increased
levels of emotion regulation. We have already noted that this result could
be interpreted in two ways: (1) [T]ranslators high in emotion regulation are
drawn to the activity of literary translation, or (2) translators develop their
emotion regulation skills when undertaking literary translation work. There
are four points specific to this link with emotion regulation that deserve a
mention here.
First, it could be argued that literary translation provides translators with
an outlet for expressing both negative and positive feelings, a point which
will be further discussed in Chapter 4. It is well documented that the process
of sharing emotions and feelings with others is salutary in many respects
(e.g. Pennebaker and Chung 2011), and we have discussed in Part 2 how
translators are made to share with target readers the emotional hit and
destabilization that they themselves may get from a source text (cf. Rimé
2007). If one assumes that literary translation is replete with intense emo-
tions that engage the senses, then it seems logical that translators acquiring
literary translation experience and engaging in literary translation will tend
to channel their emotions via their work relatively frequently, thus benefit-
ing in health terms. Although intense emotions are reactivated through the
sharing process with target readers—which can sometimes be draining—it
could be argued that the more they translate literature, the more translators
have opportunities to deal with emotions and to improve the way that they
handle these. This may then impact positively on their emotion regulation
scores.
A related point is the fact that, as previously noted, translators develop
better coping methods and more effective emotion regulation strategies with
experience. It stands to reason, therefore, that the more experience transla-
tors acquire of translating literary texts, the more practice they will get of
implementing adaptive, less effortful, regulatory strategies that enable the
creation of high-quality target products. An example of an adaptive strat-
egy used by a well-known and successful literary translator is the follow-
ing: “I prefer not to dwell on the sinking sensation felt when it is obvious
that something is dreadfully wrong” (Weaver 1989). Clearly, repeated use
of adaptive regulatory behaviour and rejection of the maladaptive kind (in
this case, rumination) enables the continued positive development of emo-
tion regulation and reduces the possible risk of stress and burnout. So, with
repeated practice of using appropriate emotion regulation strategies, trans-
lators engaged in literary translation should find that dealing with intense
emotions becomes increasingly second nature as they become habituated to
its effects. It is even possible that translators who become very good at emo-
tion regulation have dampened emotional experiences and are less able to
experience the full range of emotions due to their high levels of self-control
(Layton and Muraven 2014).
Furthermore, translators who increase their use and practice of adaptive
emotion regulation strategies are more likely to benefit from higher levels
of well-being12 (i.e. less fatigue and less susceptibility to the perils of surface
acting). As we have seen, they will be more likely to engage in problem-
focused coping and to use personal insight and effort (Petrides 2009). They
will also be in a positive frame of mind more often than their peers. All of
these factors arguably contribute to their enhanced enjoyment of transla-
tion, but also possibly to a desire to take on more difficult translation work.
As briefly suggested earlier, highly regulated individuals who are happy
and willing to engage in problem-solving, insight, and effort, will relish a
challenge and be more inclined than others to tackle something difficult,
for example, the translation of literature which is often considered an ‘art’
(e.g. Cole 2013). Since we have seen that individuals high in emotion regula-
tion have a superior capacity to implement their chosen adaptive strategies
(e.g. Mikolajczak et al. 2008b), it is likely that these translators will be
successful in their work despite its challenges. And high emotion regula-
tion individuals who experience success in their literary translation work
are likely to undertake more of it. This could partly explain the associa-
tion found between the acquisition of literary translation experience and the
emotion regulation variable.
There is one final point that is worth considering in relation to the asso-
ciation between emotion regulation and literary translation. It could be
argued that adaptive strategies such as reappraisal, positive refocus, or
putting into perspective are somewhat easier to implement when one is
translating literature, fiction in particular. Indeed, a translator might be less
inclined to use suppression as a coping strategy when translating a novel,
as the events and people are imaginary and emotions involved will feel less
real. Although we have seen that the simple act of witnessing interactions
indirectly is emotionally draining (Totterdell et al. 2012), it should be less
so when the story is not based on fact. The transfer of emotions can take
place in a safer environment where the translator feels more removed or
distanced from the story. In an interview held in 2014 at the University
of Portsmouth, Martin Sorrell, emeritus professor of French and Liter-
ary Translation at the University of Exeter, discussed the pleasures and
challenges involved in the complex process of translating poetry. He com-
pared translating poetry to a crossword puzzle that needs to be cracked
and clearly considered the process to be a challenging and playful activity
akin to a game, rather than viewing it as a punishing task. When transla-
tion is viewed as a game, a fantasy, it is my contention that translators will
find it easier to implement adaptive strategies, and emotion regulation will
be more easily developed. Clearly this will not be the case with all works
of literature; many, including poems, tackle hard-hitting topics and are
based on real-life events and experiences. Nevertheless, I would wager that
translating a graphically detailed coroner’s report on a violent murder is a
vastly different experience to the description of a murder one might find in
a novel or poem.
Concluding Note
Given the potential for emotional involvement in translation work, trans-
lators should be properly prepared during their education or via training
opportunities to handle some of the emotions they may encounter in the
translation profession. Bontempo and Malcolm (2012) advocate the need
for education programmes for interpreters to address the issue of vicarious
trauma with students, and I would argue that it is no less important for pro-
grammes to address the regulation and implementation of emotion regula-
tion strategies with translation students. As highlighted by Bontempo and
Malcolm, what will be useful for an individual one day may not be suitable
on another day, and it is therefore important for individuals to have a range
of strategies to draw on when needed. John and Gross (2007, 351) indicate
how the five points in the emotion-generative process (cf. Figure 3.1) could
be influenced to achieve emotion regulation:
Situation selection refers to avoiding certain people, places, or activities

to limit one’s exposure to situations likely to generate negative emotion
[. . .] situation modification operates to tailor or change a situation to
decrease its negative emotional impact [. . .] attentional deployment can
be used to focus on less negatively valenced aspects of the situation [. . .]
cognitive change refers to constructing a more positive meaning out of
the many possible meanings that may be attached to that situation [. . .]
response modulation refers to various kinds of attempts to influence
emotion-response tendencies once they already have been elicited.
This issue of education and training is discussed more fully in Chapter 5.

However, findings in the case study regarding the impact of emotion regula-
tion on several variables pertaining to the translation profession suggest that
introducing adaptive strategies and creating behavioural habits that pro-
mote better emotional functioning into training curricula would be highly
useful. I would wholeheartedly agree with Bontempo and Malcolm (2012,
126) when they suggest that students and accredited practitioners should
better understand their own disposition and coping styles.
In this chapter, it was shown that emotion regulation is a relevant concept
for translation and that translators need to be able to regulate their emo-
tions successfully in order to deal effectively with emotion-eliciting material
that they might encounter in their work. The case study demonstrated that
professional translators with higher emotion regulation and self-control are
more likely to be experienced, qualified, happy, and successful in their jobs.
It also highlighted the potential role of literary translation experience in the
development of emotion regulation strategies. In the following chapter, the
focus is on the concept of emotion expression.
Notes
1 Acceptance is also sometimes considered to be a response-focused strategy as
it involves different underlying processes to those of other antecedent-focused
emotion regulation strategies (Dan-Glauser and Gross 2013, 833)
2 As previously mentioned, this is a result of the fact that emotion regulation has
mostly been studied in the context of clinical disorders characterized by exces-
sive negative emotion which needs to be down-regulated (Campbell-Sills and
Barlow 2007, 543).
3 For literary translators, it is relevant to note that introspection and rumina-
tion may, at times, be of benefit for creative writing activities, such as writing
poetry.
4 For example, basic differences in working memory capacity can affect the regu-
lation of affective information (Augustine, Randy, and Lee 2013, 321).
5 See Chapter 1 for a fuller explanation of why the present study focuses on lower
order personality traits specifically related to affect, and how emotionality can
be accounted for by individual differences in personality.
6 Fatigue and depletion are further addressed in Part 2 of this chapter.
7 There is very little research currently undertaken on the influence of culture on
emotion regulation strategy use, and this is an avenue for further research. Some
preliminary evidence suggests that cultural values can predict the use of habitual
suppression and associated negative emotion (Butler, Lee, and Gross 2007).
8 Although this is a very new research area, evidence suggests that strategies can
become automated and operate non-consciously as a result of frequency of use
(e.g. Bargh and Williams 2007).
9 Surface acting is another term used for the strategy of suppressing an affective
state (see, for example, Beal et al. 2013). It is also a psychological concept that
could be usefully incorporated in models of interpreting research.
10 For a complete description of the study (participants, research instruments, pro-
cedure, etc.), please refer to Chapter 1.
11 It is worth remembering that the study does not directly measure emotion regu-
lation, but explores how participants think they would respond in emotion regu-
lation situations. Please refer to Chapter 1 for a discussion of the benefits and
drawbacks of self-report methods.
12 Please refer to the contributions in Gross (2007) for a comprehensive discussion
of the links between adaptive/maladaptive strategy use and well-being variables.
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4 Emotion Expression
[The translation process] may very probably be the most complex type of
event yet produced in the evolution of the cosmos.
—Ivor Richards
This chapter tackles the construct of emotion expression, that is, the
communication of emotion-related information. The chapter defines and
reviews the construct and demonstrates how people differ in the ways they
express their emotions and how this can impact their well-being. The use
and understanding of the construct within trait EI theory is then outlined,
and examples of its application in practice are provided. Subsequently, the
chapter addresses how translators express emotions in their work and the
influence of individual differences in this respect. The chapter attempts to
provide an answer to the following question: could emotion expression
have an impact on translation performance? The final section of the chap-
ter reviews evidence from the case study to inform the discussion.
Part 1: Emotion Expression and Psychology
Emotion Expression: A Definition

In everyday language, expression is the way in which individuals communi-
cate experience, and it is thought to play a key role in individual adjustment,
therapeutic process, and social interaction (Kennedy-Moore and Watson
2001a, 7). Collier (2014, 2) defines emotional expression as an aspect of
verbal and non-verbal communication: “People can use words to tell others
how they feel, but they also convey emotions through their tone of voice
and through nonverbal channels such as touch, facial expressions, body
movements, and posture”. Kennedy-Moore and Watson (2001a, 4) define
emotional expression as observable verbal and nonverbal behaviours that
communicate emotional experience. Both expression and non-expression
(i.e. the lack of expression) are considered to be overt manifestations of
emotional experience. According to these authors, emotional expression is
somewhat controllable and does not always correspond to the actual emo-
tional experience (Kennedy-Moore and Watson 2001a, 4). For example,
someone might be experiencing a lot of emotion but would not necessarily
express it in an observable way.1
In the psychological literature, expressive behaviour is considered to be
a component part of the emotional reaction—and not something added on
later—in order to communicate our feelings to others (Collier 2014, viii).
Expression and non-expression can take various forms and have either posi-
tive or negative consequences, and what is or is not expressed will affect
individuals’ own emotional experience and their relationships with others
(Kennedy-Moore and Watson 2001a, 7). In order to understand how expres-
sion and non-expression unfold, Kennedy-Moore, Greenburg, and Wort-
man (1991) created a process model to represent how emotional experience
is translated into emotional expression. Figure 4.1 illustrates the model and
its different phases.
In essence, the model is similar to Gross and Thompson’s 2007 process
model of emotion regulation discussed in Chapter 3, in the sense that the
steps in the model reflect the process taking place between the occurrence
of an emotion-eliciting event and overt expressive behaviour. According
to Kennedy-Moore and Watson (2001a, 9) the perception, regulation and
expression of emotional experience can be categorised in five key steps: (1)
pre-reflective reaction to an emotion-eliciting stimulus, entailing perception
and preconscious cognitive and emotional processing; (2) conscious per-
ception or awareness of affective response; (3) labelling and interpretation
of the affective response, involving cognitive processing of the experience;
(4) evaluation of emotional response, with consideration of acceptability in
relation to beliefs and goals; and, finally, (5) expression or non-expression of
emotion, depending on social context or environment. Together, these steps
determine whether and how expression occurs, which, in turn, will depend
on an individual’s awareness, interpretation, and evaluation of experience
and context (ibid., 11).
This model was further developed over time, as it has been acknowl-
edged that expression does not necessarily unfold in such an orderly manner
and that emotional experience is iterative, reflexive, recursive, and messy.
Indeed, the process can be disrupted at various points by the context or
characteristics of the person.2 Nevertheless,
this model of expression can be applied to either general dispositions to

express or to specific instances of expression, and to either positive or
negative emotions [. . .] it illustrates the distinction amongst the compo-
nents of emotion, the continuum of expressive awareness and control,
the interplay between cognition and emotion, and the importance of the
social context.
(ibid., 12–18)
Emotion Expression 149
Figure 4.1 Process model of emotion expression

Source: Kennedy-Moore and Watson (2001a, 10).
In this chapter, the focus is on the last step of the emotional process, that
is, the way in which covert experience is translated into overt and observable
expressive behaviour. Expressive behaviour can be automatic or deliberate,
and the ways in which individuals express the emotions they feel are varied
and can range from facial muscle actions (also known as facial expressions)
to gestures, touch, verbalisations, and writings, though the latter is said
to have received less attention in the emotion expression literature (Collier
2014). As expressions of emotions can take different shapes, analysing them
is a complex process. Traditionally, Collier (ibid., 3) reports that scholars
have focused on only one expressive channel which they study in isolation.
A ‘channel’ can be defined as “any set of behaviours in a communication
which has been systematically denoted by an observer and which is consid-
ered by that observer to carry information which can be studied (in principle
at least) independently of any other co-occurring behaviours” (Wiener and
Mehrabian 1968, reported in Collier 2014, 3). Although this separation of
channels has recently been challenged, it remains how scholars study the
concept.
According to Collier (2014, viii) each channel is a different form of emo-
tional expression subject to the same underlying principles. For example,
both written and verbal emotional expression are viewed as an opportunity
to reduce inhibition and to tackle upsetting topics, and it is thought that
converting traumatic memories into language through either writing or talk-
ing encourages individuals to form coherent narratives, thus enabling nega-
tive experiences to integrate with other memories (Smyth, Pennebaker, and
Arigo 2012, 181). Of course, there are also differences between the so-called
channels, or modes of delivery of the emotional expression. For instance,
there is some evidence that writing about negative experiences is more likely
to show an increase in negative mood compared with talking about that
experience (e.g. Donnelly and Murray 1991). This can be explained by the
fact that writing and speaking about emotional events are helpful in differ-
ent ways: Writing helps to construct a coherent explanation and provides a
sense of control, while speaking is more personal and helps to generate new
perceptions and perspectives (Kennedy-Moore and Watson 2001b, 199).
Nevertheless, both channels are forms of emotional expression, and “the
problems pursued in one channel are equally relevant to other” (Collier
2014, x).The benefits and drawbacks of emotional expression are further
developed in the next section.
The expressive channel that I focus on in this chapter is writing, tradi-
tionally considered a deliberate form of expression.3A distinction is made
in the psychological literature between expressive behaviours occurring
spontaneously during emotions and deliberate forms of communication
where an individual manipulates verbal and non-verbal cues on purpose,
in order to create an effect (Collier 2014, viii). As translation is a deliberate
and, presumably, carefully thought-through act, it seems useful to consider
deliberate emotional expression via this particular channel. Additionally,
Kennedy-Moore and Watson (2001a, 20) argue that focusing on deliber-
ate forms of expression can be a good way to enhance individuals’ self-
understanding and interpersonal communication, which seems relevant in
view of this book’s objectives.
Clearly, the process of writing in order to deliberately express emotions is
different to the process of translating, where the emotions expressed are not
necessarily deliberate or the translator’s own. However, in terms of under-
standing how the trait of emotion expression might impact on translators’
work, the most relevant psychological research can be found in the litera-
ture on the topic of written emotion expression. Additionally, it has been
argued that writing about any meaningful aspect of life may encourage the
assimilation and control of emotions that might otherwise be left unscru-
tinised (Wing, Schutte, and Byrne 2006, 1292), so it is likely that writing
for translation shares some effects with traditional expressive writing. The
emotion expression literature is briefly reviewed in the next section, includ-
ing key findings on the benefits and drawbacks for individuals of emotion
expression processes.
Emotion Expression in Writing

Disclosing emotional information has long been demonstrated to lead to
health improvements. A great number of researchers (Baikie and Wilhelm
2005; Booth 2012; Niles et al. 2014; Pennebaker 1997; Pennebaker and
Chung 2011) have argued that writing or talking about emotionally laden
events is a salutary activity which results in a variety of psychological, social,
and physiological health improvements. Frattaroli (2006, 823) highlights
that disclosing information enables “people to free their mind of unwanted
thoughts, help them to make sense of upsetting events, teach them to better
regulate their emotions, habituate them to negative emotions, and improve
their connections with their social world, all of which can lead to beneficial
effects on health and well-being”. Even in the workplace, the expressive
component of discrete emotions is said to have important work-related con-
sequences in terms of coordinating social interactions (Totterdell and Niven
2014, 27).
In particular, written emotional expression or disclosure has been shown
to benefit a wide range of people in a wide range of situations, from abuse
victims and cancer patients to homeless people and prisoners (e.g. Frattaroli
2006). Booth (2012, 106) describes the concept of written emotional dis-
closure, also known as ‘Pennebaker-type interventions’ or ‘structured emo-
tional writing’, as follows: “[V]olunteers are asked to write about traumatic
or upsetting events in their lives and to explore their deepest thoughts and
feelings about those events in their writing”. Individuals typically write
about their experiences for 15 to 20 minutes during at least three writ-
ing sessions held on consecutive days. This process of re-experiencing an
emotional event in writing has been demonstrated to be a valuable and
meaningful way to deal with that event. This is interesting for translators
because, as argued in Chapter 2, translators re-experience the source text
when they translate, and it could be that in the case of a particularly strong
emotion-eliciting text, the translation (or rewriting) process also works as a
kind of cathartic experience.
Much like research findings in previous chapters regarding emotion per-
ception and regulation, there are physiological effects associated with emo-
tional expression (e.g. changes in heart rate and blood pressure). These are
often a result of an affective change prompted by the disclosure (Smyth,
Pennebaker, and Arigo 2012, 180). A number of studies on university stu-
dents who engaged in written disclosure of emotional topics found that they
made fewer visits to health centers, had fewer health symptoms, and had
fewer infections (ibid.). Other studies focusing on different adult groups
(e.g. gay men, maximum-security prisoners, and cancer patients) found
similar results when comparing these participants with emotionally neu-
tral writing control groups (Swanbon, Boyce, and Greenberg 2008; Rich-
ards et al. 2000; Rosenberg et al. 2002). Some of the more striking findings
reported in Smyth, Pennebaker, and Arigo (2012, 178) in terms of the bene-
fits of written disclosure include decreased viral load for HIV patients, fewer
medical appointments for breast cancer patients, and faster recovery from
skin biopsy wounds.
Psychological improvements were also noted in studies focusing on men-
tal well-being. For instance, disclosure has been shown to have a positive
impact on the psychological functioning of healthy individuals experiencing
stress or depressive symptoms (Gortner, Rude, and Pennebaker 2006; Pen-
nebaker 2012; Ullrich and Lutgendorf 2002). Sloan, Marx, and Greenberg
(2011, 303) posit that not all participants with post-traumatic stress disor-
der (PTSD) symptoms taking part in written emotional disclosure sessions
will experience a reduction in their symptoms, but that success is dependent
upon the number and length of the writing sessions, and whether there is a
focus on cognitive restructuring. As a result, some scholars see emotional
expression as a stress management technique, though others argue that
there is a lack of evidence as regards whether it actually reduces stress levels
in a consistent way (Smyth, Pennebaker, and Arigo 2012, 179). Mood and
life satisfaction are other psychological outcomes that written disclosure can
positively influence (e.g. Sheldon and Lyubomirsky 2006).
In addition to these various types of health improvements, written emo-
tional expression has also been shown to positively affect cognitive perfor-
mance, suggesting that disclosing emotions may enhance problem-solving
and reasoning abilities. For instance, Klein and Boals (2001) found that the
effect of emotional disclosure through expressive writing reduces intrusive
and avoidant thinking about a stressful experience, thus freeing working
memory capacity. They reported that expressive writing about a negative
event resulted in both improved performance on complex working memory
capacity tasks and long-term decreases in intrusive thoughts. In their study
of the influence of affect on cognitive control, Martin and Kerns (2011)
found that participants who self-reported positive mood states performed
better on some types of complex cognitive tasks, such as prepotent response
inhibition,4 but not necessarily on others. Although their research comple-
ments the Klein and Boals study, they argue that verbal working memory
can also be affected by the strength of emotional arousal and the positive
or negative nature of the emotion (Martin and Kearns 2011, 274). Clearly,
the link between cognition and emotion is not straightforward and deserves
further investigation. Nevertheless, since the Martin and Kerns study, evi-
dence has mounted in favour of the positive influence of written emotional
expression on various aspects of cognitive and academic performance
(e.g. Blank-Spadoni 2013; Park, Ramirez, and Beilock 2014; Ramirez and
Beilock 2011).
Sometimes, expressing negative emotions can also lead to the develop-
ment of positive feelings since, as we have seen in the previous section,
emotion expression is a complex and iterative process. When discussing the
expression of emotions in the workplace, Grant (2013) suggests that when
individuals are genuinely engaged with what they are doing, they will feel
more confident in their ability to experience, feel, and express appropriate
emotions. In turn, this confidence drives their motivation and can serve to
channel their negative emotions and replace these with more positive ones,
for example, by strengthening their conviction that expressing is a worth-
while activity (ibid., 1706–1707). Even repeated superficial engagement with
a task will strengthen individuals’ confidence that they can express strong
emotions, and that it is worthwhile to do so. AlthoughGrant’s study refers to
verbal expressions of emotions, the idea that having to express negative emo-
tions can also have positive consequences for the individual and that differ-
ent types of emotional engagement (i.e. deep/surface) can help with effective
emotional performance, is echoed in the written emotion expression litera-
ture. For instance, in an article for the New York Times, Parker-Pope (2015)
summarised some of the research reporting on the power of (re)writing per-
sonal stories. The article highlights that the process of rewriting personal
issues encourages people to move beyond a self-defeating way of thinking
into a more optimistic cycle that reinforces itself. Kashdan and Biswas-Diener
(2014) also argue that expressing negative emotions such as anger, anxiety,
guilt, and sadness might feel uncomfortable but can also be highly useful by
promoting more analytical processing, such as greater attention to detail.
Burton and King (2004, 161) highlight that an interplay exists between posi-
tive and negative emotional states and that positive emotion in writing can
speed up recovery from negative emotional states. It has been argued that
it is the integration of both positive and negative emotions into narratives
that brings about many of the health benefits associated with the expressive
writing paradigm (Pauley, Morman, and Floyd 2011, 204). Kennedy-Moore
and Watson (2001b) also highlight that the expression of negative emotions
is often accompanied by the expression of positive emotions, for example,
humour can diffuse sadness. Expressing both types of emotions is linked to
improved health outcomes, and shifting between these is generally thought
to be a sign of significant emotional processing (ibid., 204).
Furthermore, although much of the research on emotional expression
seems to have focused on the benefits of writing about negative events, there
is a growing body of literature showing that the benefits of writing may
be obtained by writing about topics that are not necessarily negative or
traumatic but that positive emotional writing is also beneficial (e.g. King
and Miner 2000; Baikie, Geerligs, and Wilhelm 2012; Kennedy-Moore and
Watson 2001b; Pauley, Morman, and Floyd 2011). As highlighted by Pen-
nebaker and Seagal (1999), beneficial writing includes high levels of posi-
tive emotion words, some negative words, and an increasing use of insight
words over time. Sheldon and Lyubomirsky (2006) found that positive writ-
ing sustains positive emotions and reduces negative affect; Burton and King
(2004, 152) similarly report that writing about positive events enhances
positive mood but that it can also allow the individual to gain important
skills as well as health benefits, including enhanced functioning, creativity,
better information integration, and efficient problem-solving.
It is interesting to note that the actual topic of the piece of writing has
attracted some attention in the literature and, since it is of particular rel-
evance to translation, it deserves some development here. Baikie, Geerligs,
and Wilhelm (2012) suggest that some types of writing may have stronger,
more direct effects than others. In their study comparing expressive trauma-
related writing and positive writing, they found that both types of writing
have positive health outcomes, however, suggesting that emotional writing
generally is beneficial. Their findings also demonstrate that the degree of
improvement is dependent on the individual’s baseline mental health. Shel-
don and Lyubomirsky (2006, 74) posit that writing needs to be in line with
self-concordant goals (i.e. goals that represent one’s values and interests)
as it will then be more likely to predict sustained effort, engagement, and
performance—they note that doing well in an activity is more rewarding if
that activity is deeply important to the self. This point has clear relevance
for translation and is developed in Part 2 of this chapter.
In their study on the role of affect during writing, D’Mello and Mills
(2014) acknowledge that emotions are tied to both the topic and the process
of writing but that affect ‘happens’ during the writing process irrespective
of the emotional nature of the text. Indeed, they found that some affective
states are triggered by the actual writing process and are more stable across
contexts, while others are more particularly linked to the text content/topic
and, thus, are more ephemeral (ibid., 143). Interestingly, their findings also
indicate that affect (positive and negative) can predict the quality of the
piece of writing produced. Krueger also argues that writing can be a strategy
of embodied expression (i.e. a way to “scaffold emotional experience and
support its emergence in a new and more intense format”; 2014, 149). This
is also highly relevant for translation, because if writing promotes the devel-
opment of emotions, in addition to providing a way to externally express
them, then the act of translating could also conceivably provoke a change in
the intensity of the translator’s felt emotions and influence the translator’s
emotional information processing. For example, a translator in the process
of translating a rape deposition may feel sadness and anger when reading
the source text, but experience increasing outrage during the process of
translating the victim’s statement, thus validating the notion that expressing
an emotion is sufficient to bring about its experience (Krueger 2014, 151).
Despite these intriguing findings, the benefits of expressive writing can
vary depending on a number of variables. Lu and Stanton (2010, 670) sug-
gest that the effects of expressive writing “vary as a function of experimen-
tal parameters, including the specific psychological processes targeted in the
experimental task, outcomes assessed and individual differences”. The find-
ings of their study show that the writing instructions, participants’ degree
of ambivalence over emotional expression, and their ethnicity are all vari-
ables that can impact the effectiveness of expressive writing. As previously
observed, Sloan, Marx, and Greenberg (2011) also noted that success is
dependent upon a number of aspects, such as the length of the writing ses-
sions. They report that research examining written expression as an inter-
vention for PTSD has shown mixed results and that factors such as the
severity of PTSD symptoms at baseline might also impact on the success of
written emotional expression.
In another study, Sloan, Marx, and Epstein (2005) found that only par-
ticipants who wrote about the same traumatic experience at each session
showed significant health improvements, as opposed to participants writing
about different traumatic experiences, thus implying that disclosing about
the same event again may be more beneficial for the individual. In addition
to this, they noted that significant reduction in PTSD was only reported one
month after the writing intervention. In fact, Kennedy-Moore and Watson
(2001b, 197) highlight that expressing emotions may not immediately lower
distress but that it can intensify and prolong it in the short term. Averill,
Kasarskis, and Segerstrom (2013) found that the positive effect of express-
ing emotion on patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis was only evident
after three months, and not after six months. They suggest that ‘booster’ ses-
sions may be required at different stages of the disease (2013, 710). Sloan,
Marx, and Greenberg (2011, 299) also noted that participants in written
emotional disclosure tasks report and display high levels of negative affect
and arousal to start with but that this subsequently diminishes with time.
There is consensus in the literature that the benefits of expression often
take time to emerge. As highlighted by Kennedy-Moore and Watson (2001b,
203), “[s]taying with one’s feelings to learn that they are tolerable, con-
structing a narrative that provides a sense of resolution, and experiencing
the benefits of new ways of relating to others are usually processes that
take time to develop”. It is generally thought that, when there is an imme-
diate negative affective change resulting from disclosure via writing, the
change is transient, suggesting that any distress felt during the disclosure
event is temporary and eventually disappears. Kennedy-Moore and Watson
(2001b, 204) report that, in Pennebaker’s expressive writing experiments,
participants felt as good, or better, than those in control groups within two
weeks of a writing intervention. However, the time it takes for the ben-
efits of emotional writing to emerge varies amongst studies, and the effect
is not necessarily enduring. Despite the results of Frattaroli’s 2006 meta-
analysis which concluded that disclosure was an effective intervention with
a small but positive effect size, the mechanisms underlying the process are
still largely a mystery.
Expressive writing clearly ‘works’, but scholars only have indications as
to why this is the case. D’Mello and Mills (2014, 140) argue that it is due
to the fact that writing about difficult events can help individuals get rid of
unwanted thoughts, mitigate stress, make sense of emotional events, man-
age their emotions more effectively, and facilitate social sharing of emo-
tions. Baikie and Wilhelm (2005, 341) summarise the literature regarding
what might explain why expressive writing works and set out four specific
mechanisms: (1) emotional catharsis, (2) confronting emotional inhibition,
(3) producing coherent narratives and cognitive processing, and (4) repeated
exposure. Because of their potential repercussions for all types of expressive
writing, it seems useful to describe these mechanisms in a bit more detail.
First, the mechanism of emotional catharsis, or ‘letting go’ of events or
memories that are threatening to the individual (Frattaroli 2006, 824), has
not received much support in the literature, as undertaking emotional writ-
ing on its own has been shown to be less beneficial than writing about both
the event and the emotion (Baikie and Wilhelm 2005, 341). Indeed, simply
venting an emotion is not as helpful when it is not accompanied by com-
promise or thoughtful examination of these feelings (Kennedy-Moore and
Watson 2001b). In fact, evidence shows that simply focusing on emotions
can lead to more physical illness than focusing on both emotion and cogni-
tion, or meaning-making (Ullrich and Lutgendorf 2002, 248).
Second, confronting a trauma through writing about it, and thus acknowl-
edging its associated emotions, is said to reduce emotional inhibition. Disin-
hibition is not, however, thought to be the sole causal mechanism underlying
the beneficial effects of writing, since participants writing about imaginary
traumas also show health improvements (Baikie and Wilhelm 2005, 342).
As Frattaroli (2006, 825) highlights, “the Freudian idea of disinhibition-
catharsis may be necessary [. . .] but it is not sufficient. One must also make
sense of, organise, and integrate this event for benefits to occur”.
This leads us to the third mechanism: Improved health may derive from
developing, organizing, and structuring a coherent narrative over time,
reflecting better cognitive processing of the experience (i.e. increasing num-
ber of positive emotion words and insight words5 and a moderate use of
negative emotion words; Baikie and Wilhelm 2005, 342). Writing a story,
for instance, is said to help organise negative emotions into new schemas
that are less threatening than the original and can be integrated by the indi-
vidual (Smyth, Pennebaker, and Arigo 2012, 181). Frattaroli (2006) notes
that individuals with chronic illnesses who engage in carefully structured
writing consistently show improvements in terms of their illness. Kennedy-
Moore and Watson (2001b, 193) also highlight that expression can lead to
moments of affective insight, self-understanding,6 and an increased capacity
for self-direction, particularly when structured narratives are created. Bur-
ton and King (2004) suggest that by articulating our experiences through
writing we integrate these experiences into the self, regardless of their posi-
tive or negative valence, and that writing can be viewed as a process of
expanding the self, resulting in enhanced self-regulation. If we apply this
idea to the translation paradigm, it could be argued that expressing emo-
tions via translation is also a means of obtaining self-understanding. As
such, similarly to Burton and King’s theory about writing, for health bene-
fits to take place the topic of the translation should not really matter as long
as it is important to the translator.7 It is thought that when writing struc-
tured pieces, participants regain some level of control over the experience
and create new meaning from it (Kennedy-Moore and Watson 2001b, 194).
Interestingly, change in the use of language is thought to be an important
component linked to the benefits of emotional expression. For example,
Campbell and Pennebaker (2003) argue that a change in thinking reflects a
change in the way people write, and that pronoun choice (e.g. increasingly
using us and them instead of I and me) communicates a change in per-
spective which, in turn, predicts health improvements. Kaufman and Sex-
ton (2006, 271) also note that suicidal poets are more likely to use words
associated with the self, rather than with others, in their poetry, revealing a
detrimental inward focus and a lack of social integration.
Linked to this point about creating coherent narratives with increasingly
outward perspectives, other researchers have also emphasised that a combi-
nation of cognitive and emotional processing is helpful when writing about
emotional topics. Indeed, it is thought that individuals need to experience
their feelings vividly but with sufficient distance so that they can be inter-
preted (Kennedy-Moore and Watson 2001b, 195). According to Ullrich and
Lutgendorf (2002, 244), emotional and cognitive involvement play comple-
mentary roles, and emotional expression works best when coping efforts
are balanced between emotional reactions and deliberate cognitive work.
The idea that written expression may be most beneficial when the experi-
ence involves emotional responses while also facilitating cognitive process-
ing is very interesting for translation, where effortful cognitive work always
takes place regardless of the emotions aroused in the translator. In addition,
research has shown that when individuals focus on facts as well as emo-
tions, this gives way to the greatest health improvements (Pennebaker and
Beall 1986), and that expressive writing about other topics not necessarily
connected to the self can also be salutary (Greenberg, Wortman, and Stone
1996; Kaufman and Sexton 2006). Both of these findings can be extrapo-
lated to professional translators, who regularly translate texts with factual
and emotion-eliciting content that they have not personally experienced. It
is noteworthy though that expressive writing must be about a personally
relevant and emotionally laden topic in order to be beneficial to the writer
(Kaufman and Sexton 2006, 277).
The fourth mechanism is called ‘exposure’. It has been suggested that
prolonged exposure to a treatment such as writing may extinguish nega-
tive responses because of the effect of repeated writing. For instance,
Sloan, Marx, and Greenberg (2011) found that written emotional disclo-
sure promotes therapeutic change amongst individuals with PTSD symp-
toms because the individual is repeatedly exposed to memories and other
trauma-related stimuli which they had previously avoided. It is thought that
repeated talking or writing about emotional events habituates individuals
to the negative emotions aroused by the experience and eliminates negative
associations. Other scholars (Kennedy-Moore and Watson 2001b; Sloan,
Marx, and Epstein 2005) have also pointed to the fact that repeated episodes
of emotion expression foster acceptance and habituation, thus lessening
the emotional impact on the individual. Interestingly, although translating
emotional experiences into language provides health gains, habituation to
emotional stimuli means that, on the one hand, the negative impact of emo-
tion activation disappears over time but, on the other hand, repeated expo-
sure may be necessary if the positive impact has limited long-term benefits
(cf. the aforementioned suggestion that ‘booster’ sessions may be required).
As highlighted in Hubscher-Davidson (2016), habituation to emotional
stimuli is also something which could affect professional translators.
In the end, the conditions under which expression affects mental versus
physical health are still unclear (Kennedy-Moore and Watson 2001b, 206),
and expressive writing in itself is probably not sufficient to bring about health
gains, as combining expressive writing with other methods is warranted in
clinical contexts (e.g. Smyth, Pennebaker, and Arigo 2012). Although the
activity is not helpful for all people in all circumstances, applied research in
the area of experimental disclosure has provided much evidence to attest to
its benefits when undertaken in the right conditions.
The last point that is worth raising in relation to research undertaken in
this area is the relatively recent finding that expressive writing affects the way
that people interact with the world around them. Frattaroli’s meta-analysis
(2006, 858) reveals that disclosure is more effective when it is directed at
someone, and Radcliffe et al. (2010) demonstrated that increased account-
ability of having an audience improves written emotional expression. Even
when emotional expression takes place in solitude, it involves implicit or
imagined audiences, and shared writing is said to be more beneficial than
completely private disclosure (ibid.). According to Kennedy-Moore and
Watson (2001a), expressing emotions to others can help to resolve distress
stemming from interpersonal interactions. Writing about emotional topics
has a positive impact on social ties (Pennebaker and Graybeal 2001) and
can even help the individual to explore and integrate unacknowledged affect
and self-representations. Brody and Park (2004, 147) liken narrative writing
to a mindfulness intervention, and suggest that participants “may initially
write with an implicit audience in mind that represents some key aspect of
their identity”. From this perspective, it is argued that this imagined audi-
ence (and beliefs held about this audience) will influence the nature of the
expressed emotions and the emotional quality of the writings. Brody and
Park (2004, 152) even suggest that writing could be a type of transference
mechanism, whereby participants project their emotions onto the imagined
audience. In this case, if the audience is felt to be accepting, the author may
come to terms with the emotions, but if the imagined audience is considered
critical, this may prevent the adaptive effects of writing from taking place.
Taken together, these studies suggest that emotional expression is also a
social act. The relevance of this research for translators is evident and is
further discussed in Part 2.
Limitations to Emotion Expression Research

According to Smyth, Pennebaker, and Arigo (2012, 181), the early litera-
ture on the topic of emotion expression was mostly concerned with demon-
strating how well emotional disclosure worked as a therapeutic technique
but that less focus had been dedicated to identifying the underlying mecha-
nisms that may explain its salutary effects. Kennedy-Moore and Watson
(2001b, 206) also note that future research should focus on how and when
expression enhances well-being, as the effects of emotion expression are
still not fully understood. Physiological, cognitive, and emotional processes
are interactive, and it may be the case that several mechanisms explain the
benefits of emotional expression (Smyth, Pennebaker, and Arigo 2012, 183).
Furthermore, it is argued that scholars do not yet know how to synthesize
results from such distinct groups as cancer patients, college students, and
the elderly, among others, and some have suggested that disclosure may
not be equally helpful for everyone (ibid.). Therefore, the mechanisms and
differential effects involved in disclosure are avenues for further research.
There is also a lack of research into the factors that might influence the
production of emotional expression in the first place. For instance, Stickney
(2010) argues that more research needs to be done on aspects such as pos-
sible gender differences.8 Emotion expression is influenced by a number of
variables, including knowledge, personality, and motivation. More needs to
be done to understand how these and other abilities affect emotional writ-
ing, though there is agreement that the success of writing interventions with
individuals from different backgrounds and ages suggests that results might
generalize to other groups (e.g. Wing, Schutte, and Byrne 2006).
Yet another limitation of emotion expression research has been the afore-
mentioned tendency to focus on separate channels of expression (e.g. written,
oral). Because of this, researchers have frequently ignored the contributions
of scholars working in other areas and failed to benefit from their findings.
One example which Collier (2014, vii) provides is the fact that facial expres-
sions have long been acknowledged as innate, but researchers in other areas
of non-verbal communication have not taken this into account and, instead,
treated non-verbal communication as a specialised language derived from
one’s culture through learning. As such, remaining research questions in the
area of written emotional disclosure could perhaps be further elucidated via
collaboration with scholars in related fields.
Scholars have also pointed out the use of different methods in studies of
emotional expression (Frattaroli 2006; Sloan, Marx, and Greenberg 2011;
Smyth, Pennebaker, and Arigo 2012). It makes it difficult to compare results
when different studies use different procedures or have different character-
istics: completing writing sessions at home or in a lab, with or without an
audience, over different periods of time, with different types of instructions,
different protocols and diagnostic criteria, different populations, and differ-
ent numbers of participants. As Frattaroli puts it, “methodological differ-
ences between studies and individual differences between participants may
contribute to differences in the effectiveness of experimental disclosure”
(2006, 827).
There is one last limitation of the research carried out in this field worth
mentioning here and which is of particular interest to translation. Although
we have seen that there is consensus around the idea that writing about top-
ics unconnected to the self can also be salutary, this is an under-researched
area. It remains to be seen whether a different type of writing process (such
as translation) can have a similar effect to the traditional emotional disclo-
sure paradigm. In addition, since the literature suggests that not express-
ing stressors (i.e. emotional avoidance) can have maladaptive outcomes, it
could be argued that individuals writing about topics unconnected to the
self are effectively not expressing stressors and ‘bottling up’. Perhaps the
process of (re)writing about another person’s emotional situation is adap-
tive in some sense, but it would be interesting to undertake further research
on the implications of writing about others’ emotional experiences, since
this is a key aspect of many professional writers’ work.
Emotion Expression and Personality Processes

In the same way that a person naturally high in confidence will tend to act
confidently, it seems logical that a person who is naturally very emotionally
expressive will tend to express their emotions regularly. There is agreement
in the psychological literature that emotional expression can be thought of
as a behavioural trait because there is consistency across time and situation
in the degree to which individuals express their emotions (Kennedy-Moore
and Watson 2001a, 2001b; Pennebaker and Graybeal 2001). As Kennedy-
Moore and Watson (2001a, 12) argue, some people will tend to express a
lot, and others less, but there is consistency across emotion domains in the
sense that people who are very expressive of negative emotions will also
tend to be very expressive of positive emotions. On the other hand, people
who are more naturally inhibited will naturally tend to express less. Accord-
ing to Smyth, Pennebaker, and Arigo (2012, 180) there is evidence that one’s
coping style and level of emotional expressiveness may impact the efficacy
of emotion-focused interventions such as written disclosure, and it has been
argued that emotionally inhibited, pessimistic, negative, or highly neurotic
individuals may actually benefit more from written emotional expression
than other people due to its function as an outlet for their emotions (Frat-
taroli 2006, 828).
Highly expressive individuals might have stronger responses to emotional
stimuli (i.e. a lower threshold for distress). Kennedy-Moore and Watson
(2001b, 188) report on research undertaken on individuals high in nega-
tive affectivity (the disposition to experience negative emotional states, also
known as Neuroticism) which demonstrates that they “have a propensity to
feel a wide variety of negative moods, including anxiety, frustration, sadness,
irritability, and anger, even in the absence of obvious stressors”. The authors
suggest that these individuals express more distress but that this expres-
sion compounds their distress rather than alleviates it. In the same vein,
Zakowski et al. (2011) report that cancer patients high in negative affectiv-
ity (or Neuroticism) are less likely to benefit from emotional disclosure and,
in fact, exhibit higher levels of distress six months later than patients lower
on Neuroticism. They argue that individuals with the personality character-
istics of Neuroticism may not be able to undertake the necessary cognitive
processing work which is necessary after emotional expression (2011, 367).
This finding makes sense if we consider that Neuroticism associates nega-
tively with the trait EI factor of emotionality which, as is discussed in the
next section, encompasses the emotion expression trait (Petrides 2009, 61).
As we have seen in previous chapters, a related construct to Neuroti-
cism is Alexithymia (a deficit in processing emotional states with cogni-
tion). Frattaroli (2006, 828) reports on a study whereby individuals with
Alexithymia are unable to properly engage with emotional expression tasks
due to their lack of understanding of their own feelings. Their inability to
express emotions does not lead to the same beneficial outcomes as for other
individuals who typically inhibit their emotions. Clearly, it is important to
remember that a particular expressive style can work in some situations but
not in others, and that specific instances of expression will have different
implications for different people even if they may have the same expres-
sive style (Kennedy-Moore and Watson 2001a, 12). The idea, however, that
individual difference and personality variables can account for the effects of
written emotion expression raises key questions for translation.
An interesting (related) observation made by Pennebaker and Graybeal
(2001, 92) is that individuals have their own linguistic styles that tend to be
consistent and stable across time and context. They found that this linguistic
style correlates with variables such as health and academic achievement and
posit that how people express themselves in language is a marker of their
personality. The issue of language use and its link with personality has been
discussed by scholars in bilingualism and second-language acquisition and is
an interesting avenue for further research in Translation Studies.
As highlighted previously, some individuals are more naturally inhibited
than others and will tend to express less, although they may not be on the
extreme end of the scale. These individuals are often described as ambiva-
lent or avoidant of emotional expression and therefore benefit most in terms
of health and psychological well-being from the opportunity to process their
negative emotions when engaged in emotional writing (e.g. Averill, Kasar-
skis, and Segerstrom 2013). Consistent with this idea, Tamagawa et al.
(2013) found that a repressive trait does not preclude the effects of expres-
sive writing. According to Lu and Stanton (2010, 670), not only do indi-
vidual differences in emotional expression moderate the effects of expressive
writing, but individuals (regardless of their ethnicity) who are ambivalent
about expressing feelings will also benefit more from expressive writing
than others. Averill, Kasarskis, and Segerstrom (2013, 710) suggest that a
structured and private mode of writing is particularly helpful for these indi-
viduals. This is interesting because, on one hand, translation could be this
structured and private mode of writing that emotionally ambivalent transla-
tors ‘need’ for their psychological health, but, on the other hand, it could
be that emotion expression via translation is not necessarily conducive to
well-being in the same way that traditional expressive writing seems to be.
In the latter case, emotionally ambivalent translators could be in trouble. If
translation does not work like other modes of expressive writing, conflicted
and emotionally ambivalent translators may struggle to communicate emo-
tions properly when translating.
With respect to the traditional Big Five personality traits, there is—to my
knowledge at the time of writing—only one study that has sought to explore
the relationship between written emotional disclosure and the Big Five per-
sonality traits. Beyer et al. (2014) found that all participants, but particularly
those with low baseline Agreeableness, low Extraversion, or high Consci-
entiousness, had relatively poor responses to individualised guidance when
disclosing. Providing these individuals with instructions on what to do when
expressing seemed to interfere with their emotional processing. In brief,
the authors suggest that providing computer-based instructions to writers
(either in real time or in advance of the task) is detrimental to the outcomes
of emotion expression. These interruptions lead to less emotional activation
and more inhibition/censoring on the part of the writers (2014, 488), and
the earlier-mentioned personality types in particular did not respond well
to being guided during their writing. If we make a parallel between writing
instructions and translating instructions, it is interesting (albeit speculative)
to think that conscientious or introverted translators may not welcome too
much interaction with, or interruptions/guidance from, clients when trans-
lating emotional material and that it may not benefit them or their work.
To conclude this section, it seems clear that personality traits influence
individuals’ emotion expression experience, and Zakowski et al. (2011)
highlight that personality is a factor that should be considered when ask-
ing people to express emotions. Having said this, there is also ample evi-
dence that all kinds of individuals may benefit from expressive writing.
One specific example is Tamagawa et al.’s (2013) study which compared
the expressive writing of so-called defensive/high-anxious groups and defen-
sive/low-anxious groups. The scholars concluded that objective responses
to written emotion expression are similar regardless of individuals’ disposi-
tional emotion coping styles. In sum, expressive writing may be helpful for
people with all sorts of habitual emotional coping styles, with the proviso—
as noted in previous chapters—that individuals high in Neuroticism seem to
have their own unique set of behaviours.
Emotion Expression and Trait EI

We have seen that there is variability in people’s ability to express emotions.
Being able to express emotions is one aspect of emotional intelligence, and
in the trait EI model adopted in the case study, emotion expression belongs
to the factor of emotionality. The emotion expression facet of emotionality
is described in the TEIQue manual as follows:
High scorers on this scale mean people are fluent in communicating their
emotions to others. They know what the best words are for expressing
their feelings accurately and unambiguously. Low scores on this scale
indicate a difficulty in communicating emotion-related thoughts, even
in situations when this is necessary. People with low scores find it dif-
ficult to let others know how they feel. Inability to express emotion may
be indicative of a more generalized problem of lack of self-confidence
and social assertiveness. This facet correlates negatively with avoidant
tendencies, and positively with extraversion, social boldness, and posi-
tive mood.
(Petrides 2009, 59)
The trait EI scale includes self-report items such as ‘‘I’m usually able to
express my emotions when I want to’’, thus shedding light on participants’
self-perceived emotion-related expressions. This description should guide
the interpretation of emotion expression scores of participants in the case
study (see Part 3).
As Linley et al. (2011, 393) report, people higher in EI are able to appraise
their emotional states more accurately than others and should, therefore,
also be more able to produce appropriate emotional expression. But despite
the fact that individuals with different levels of EI might express their
emotions differently, the relationship between emotional intelligence and
expressive writing is largely unresearched, with only a few studies having
examined the effects of expressive writing while also measuring emotional
intelligence (Pluth 2012).
One of the earlier studies undertaken by Wing, Schutte, and Byrne (2006)
suggests that writing tasks may help individuals to manage their emotions,
to re-evaluate events, and to consolidate aspects of emotional intelligence.
Using a self-report measure of EI, the study demonstrated that participants
who are made to write about positive emotional experiences rate their
EI abilities higher and report greater life satisfaction after doing so. The
authors note that this finding “suggests that one of the beneficial effects of
positive writing is the enhancing of awareness and application of emotional
intelligence abilities” (ibid., 1299). Interestingly, an additional finding was
that participants who had lower EI scores pre-intervention benefited more
from the self-examination and learning encouraged by positive writing than
did participants who already had good EI scores prior to the intervention
(ibid.). This finding is interesting because it suggests that emotional writing
can train individuals who have deficits in emotional intelligence to become
more skilled in this area.
In the same vein, Pluth (2012) investigated whether people who have low
levels of emotional understanding write about their emotions differently
than those with high emotional understanding. The outcomes of the study
showed that there are marked differences in the way that those with different
levels of emotional understanding write about their emotional experiences.
Amongst relevant findings, Pluth (ibid.) found that, as participants’ levels of
EI increased, so did the total word count for participants’ essays, the use of
insight words, and the use of adverbs. By way of explanation, Pluth argued
that (1) writing longer essays may reflect the ability to engage more fully and
easily with one’s emotional experiences, (2) individuals who are more able
to reflect on their emotions are more likely to use words that explain what
their emotions mean, and (3) using more adverbs may reflect a more precise
understanding of one’s emotions. Consistent with the wider literature, Pluth
also found that increases in EI correlated with increases in flexible pronoun
usage, which could indicate increased introspection as well as the produc-
tion of a more logical narrative that might be easier for a reader to follow
(ibid., 41). All of these findings on the links between language use and EI are
intriguing, as engagement with, understanding of, and clarity in expressing
emotional material clearly bear relevance for translation.
In other respects, Pluth’s findings were more surprising. For one, the study
showed no significant changes in levels of emotional intelligence directly
resulting from the expressive writing intervention, despite some existing evi-
dence that writing could improve one’s emotional skills (e.g. Kirk, Schutte,
and Hine 2011). Additionally, EI was positively correlated with the use of
tentative words and negatively correlated with the use of inclusive words,
two results which are counter-intuitive and difficult to explain. It is notewor-
thy that Pluth admits to using an Abridged Emotional Intelligence Scale, the
accuracy and validity of which were questionable and may serve to explain
the study’s mixed results (2012, 46).
A more recent study employing the short form of the TEIQue (the short-
ened version of the scale used in the present study) found that students’
emotional intelligence could be developed as a result of emotion-driven
communication exercises (Abe et al. 2013). Though not specifically focusing
on written expression, the study investigated how listening to other’s—and
expressing one’s own—feelings and emotions developed participants’ com-
munication skills and techniques, empathy, and total EI over a long period.
One study focused more specifically on the concept of emotional self-
efficacy, a dimension of trait EI. Kirk, Schutte, and Hine (2011) found that
an expressive writing intervention can increase both emotional intelligence
and positive affect in the workplace. They discovered that participants in a
Pennebaker-style writing intervention scored significantly higher on emo-
tional self-efficacy than a control group and, similarly to Wing, Schutte,
and Byrne (2006), they found that participants who initially had low or
moderate scores benefited more from the intervention than participants who
had scored highly on the emotional self-efficacy pretest. As Kirk, Schutte,
and Hine (2011, 189–190) suggest, individuals already gifted in this area
have less leeway for improvement as they may already routinely focus their
attention on sources of self-efficacy. Individuals with low trait EI, how-
ever, can learn to develop this skill with the help of expressive writing. It
could be argued that translating emotional material is also a way to focus
one’s attention on emotional self-efficacy, thus encouraging reflection on
emotion-related behaviour and leading to better emotional functioning.
Part 2: Emotion Expression and Translation
Translation as Expressive Writing

Much of the psychological literature on emotional expression reviewed
above will have rung true for translators, and there are certainly parallels
between expressive writing and translation. In fact, recent research has
shown that writing and translation activities share many characteristics
as both are types of text production (Dam-Jensen and Heine 2013; Koster
2014). In this section, I would like to discuss some similarities and differ-
ences between these two modes of communication in order to shed light on
where expressive writing research can have relevance for translation work.
In the first instance, we know that translation is an act of communica-
tion and, therefore, a mode of expression. Written emotion expression, or
expressing emotions in writing, is undoubtedly something that most transla-
tors will do in the course of their career, perhaps more so in the case of liter-
ary translators. Although translators write about emotions, it is clear that
translating differs from expressive writing in one key sense: Whereas tradi-
tional expressive writing involves writing about one’s own ‘story’, the act
of translating (usually) entails writing about someone else’s story. As such,
the resulting text production is not going to be a reflection or expression
of the writer-translator’s feelings and psychological health in the same way
as a piece of structured emotional writing can be. Nevertheless, it is widely
acknowledged nowadays that translated text production is unlikely to be
entirely devoid of the translator’s voice, style, and other personal touches,
and can reflect a translator’s individuality and writerly flair (e.g. Jääskel-
äinen 2012). Target texts are thus mixed products, ‘coloured’ by translators,
and can be said to contain expressed emotions of both source authors and
translators. As the translator Julie Rose (2013, 16) describes, “I’ve made the
work mine [. . .] I’m there all the time, but you won’t notice me”.
We have seen that the emotional disclosure literature focuses on the
expression of one’s own feelings and does not address expressing the feel-
ings of others. We have also seen that there is consensus around the idea
that sharing one’s experiences through writing can soothe negative emo-
tions such as stress, but whether a different type of writing process such
as translation can have a similar effect has not yet been explored. When
translating a text that deeply affects the translator, he or she may be inadver-
tently sharing his or her emotions through specific word choices for example
but, unlike traditional expressive writing, this is an indirect (and perhaps
sometimes unaware) form of communication. Translators are not directly
writing about their own emotional experiences, instead, their emotions may
leak out while they rewrite someone else’s story that initially produced an
emotional reaction in them. In this scenario, it could become difficult to
disentangle which expressed emotions belong to the translator and which
belong to the source author.
As we have seen in Chapter 2, translators are intense readers and can
be deeply affected by the texts they translate, particularly if they identify
with ST characters. The degree of identification felt by translators when
expressing feelings that are not their own therefore probably impacts on
any potential benefit derived from emotional expression. When discussing
the collaborative translation process of Les Bienveillantes, a controversial
novel about the crimes that the Germans committed during the Second
World War told from the perspective of a perpetrator who feels no contri-
tion, Holierhoek (2008) acknowledges that she did not fully identify with
the protagonist, Aue, as distance between him and the reader grows as he
becomes increasingly cruel and commits more and more horrifying murders.
Despite philosophising about him and trying to form an image of the char-
acter, Holierhoek indicates that the lack of sympathy or empathy felt for
Aue was reassuring and made the translation process easier. This observa-
tion is intriguing because it could be argued that a lack of identification with
ST characters distances the translator-reader from the emotional experience.
On one hand, this could lead to a successful translation as the translator
is not caught up in intense emotions and can work unimpeded, but on the
other hand, the translator may not get a chance to benefit from emotional
disclosure in the same way that traditional expressive writers might. As we
have seen in Part 1, expressive writing must be about a personally rele-
vant and emotionally laden topic in order to be beneficial to the writer. It
could be argued, however, that not identifying with an ST character does
not entail a complete lack of involvement or engagement with that text’s
emotion-eliciting content. Holierhoek (2008) mentions that the topic had
always interested her, and it is clear that she intimately feels the impact of
the text’s emotional charge when translating it, as she refers to the process
as affecting, horrifying, and suffocating. Despite not identifying with the
protagonist, her deep engagement with the source material is indisputable:
My bookcase is now full of books with black spines about SS uniforms,

Wehrmacht insignia, the Battle of Stalingrad, the bombings of Berlin.
The DVDs with historical material, fragments of Himmler’s speech in
Posen as they can be found on the internet, creepy neo-Nazi websites, a
visit to Sachsenhausen, a walk through the Wilhelmstrasse in Berlin, the
photos of people looking at the camera a minute before their death, the
photos of grinning Germans who have killed thousands of people but
still dare to look into the camera: the search for all kinds of details kept
me captive in an oppressive world for a long time.9
It could perhaps be surmised that there is a continuum of strength of engage-

ment with a ST, from complete identification with its characters and content,
to complete lack of engagement with it. Depending on where translators
are situated along this continuum at any one time may ultimately deter-
mine their success in expressing a source text’s emotions in translation. Too
much, or too little, emotional involvement is detrimental to translation—as
it is for expressive writing—but deep engagement combined with appropri-
ate strategies for handling it may be conducive to successful translation.
Kennedy-Moore and Watson (2001b, 191) point to the fact that “expres-
sion must involve a combination of emotional immersion plus control in
order to foster a sense of acceptance and mastery with regard to distressing
feelings”. If controlled involvement is key to experiencing the benefits of
emotional expression, translating when in a highly emotional state might be
counterproductive and prevent the translator from producing a successful
piece of writing that engenders positive effects. It could be surmised that
writing/translating topics not directly connected to the self, that is, not per-
sonally experienced, might produce a better balance between engagement
and control.
Holierhoek’s experience is a clear example of controlled emotional immer-
sion. The act of collaborating and, thus, sharing the experience with another
translator, both orally and through translation, helped her come to terms
with the emotionally charged text: She notes that collaborating on the trans-
lation with someone else enabled her to discuss tone, sentence structure,
word order and choice, meaning that “it wasn’t so bad in the end” (i.e. that
the actual work of translating affected her less than she had feared). This
collaboration was a successful working strategy, enabling emotion expres-
sion and disclosure to take place in a safe and structured working environ-
ment which, in turn, led to a rewarding translation experience. As we have
seen, Smyth, Pennebaker, and Arigo (2012, 175) argue that emotional dis-
closure can strengthen bonds between individuals, help to manage stressors,
reduce negative feelings attached to experiences, and generally lead to better
health outcomes. As such, translators of emotionally valenced texts could
arguably benefit in health terms from this type of emotional sharing and
expressing in a similar way to expressive writers.
It is also interesting to note that, in addition to collaboration, the act of
focusing on language and writing (e.g. word order) seemed to have helped
Holierhoek to finish the translation. In light of the research reviewed in
Part 1, which indicated that specific uses of language (pronouns, adverbs,
insight words) reflect enhanced emotional expression, it seems relevant that
Holierhoek (2008) mentioned deriving pleasure from specific linguistic and
technical aspects of her translating work (‘tinkering with words’, ‘shifting
sentence structures’, etc.), even when the content of the text was harrowing.
In this instance, the translator seems to have focused on specific uses of lan-
guage as a way to ‘get through’ the work. Thinking about linguistic aspects
of writing was a distraction and may have provided the change in perspec-
tive and thinking that benefits expressive writing and that was required to
produce the translation.
In her work, Koster (2014, 152) also noted that skilled translators can
make use of narrative techniques to bridge structural differences between
languages in order to produce specific textual and literary effects such as
shifting points of view. An ability to shift perspectives through language use
is therefore common to successful translation and expressive writing.
Of course, the fact that translators are tied to source texts necessarily
means that they have less freedom when it comes to employing insight
words and varied pronouns which are said to predict health improvements
(Campbell and Pennebaker 2003). For example, a translator of poetry that
reflects the poet’s detrimental inward focus and lack of social integration
is unlikely to be able to alter the perspective taken or choice of pronouns.
Nevertheless, to transfer messages efficiently, translators carry out actions
at the level of words, phrases, and sentences, and it has been demonstrated
that translators can make use of various rhetorical strategies in order to
transfer source text meanings. Nelson and Maher (2013, 3) argued that
“every translation of a text is a performance of that text as reflected in
the selection and sequence of words on a page” and that “literary transla-
tion is a highly complex activity, involving a multiplicity of exact choices
about voice, tone, register, rhythm, syntax, echoes, sounds, connotations
and denotations, the colour and texture of words”. For example, in their
study of the Italian rendering of a UNICEF report on the state of the world’s
children, Abbamonte and Cavaliere (2006, 7) highlight how the different
ST and TT uses of evaluative language and rhetorical strategies act to con-
struct different authorial voices which shape the ST and TT documents.
Translators, therefore, have a certain amount of flexibility when it comes to
manipulating language in the texts they handle and this process may enable
some level of distancing of the translator from an intense source text and its
associated emotion-eliciting content. It could also be a good idea for trans-
lators of poetry to produce different versions of the source poem, adopting
various perspectives and rhetorical strategies, in order to benefit in health
terms.
Translators are able to communicate particular emotions explicitly or
implicitly by employing specific lexical items. Abbamonte and Cavaliere, for
example, noticed that translators sometimes performed remarkable shifts
from words evoking visual/spatial scenes to more vague or bureaucratic lan-
guage, often resulting in a distancing effect or change in perspectives. They
argue that translators are capable of making the emotional relevance of a
source text fade “in the interdiscoursive systems of bureaucratic language”
(2006, 256). In a fascinating study looking at the translation of emotions in
Gunter Grass’s Unkenrufe and its Catalan and Spanish versions, Coromo-
mines (2010, 1) also notes that “linguistic, cultural and personal restrictions
make expressions referring to emotions and feelings particularly prone to
semantic flexibility, which may lead translators to introduce—especially in
the case of literary texts—cognitive and linguistic shifts in their texts”.
We also saw in Part 1 that writing structured pieces can enable individuals
to gain some control over—and reap benefits from—emotional experiences.
I queried whether translation would function like other modes of expressive
writing when it came to communicating emotions via the production of
a structured target text. Judging from professional translators’ narratives,
there is clearly a process of structuring taking place when translating. Rose
(2013, 15) makes use of the puzzle analogy to describe how translators
piece together their texts:
the task is to put the pieces together “correctly”, getting a fit that’s
“right” by respecting the shape and colour of each piece and the overall
pattern [. . .] Intuition and sensual response are bolstered by a quite
rigorous science involving linguistic and cultural investigation and pre-
cision in reproduction.
It would seem that affective aspects are weaved into the fabric of the transla-
tion in a relatively methodical manner. The well-established translator Peter
Bush (2013, 39) also spells it out quite clearly when explaining his transla-
tion process: “In my related reading and research I was more in search of an
adequate “structure of feeling” for the translation [. . .] the right emotional,
social, as well as linguistic ambiance for the protagonist’s stream of con-
sciousness and the characters swimming therein”. The translator is clearly
attempting to control emotional aspects in a similar way to other expressive
writers. By organising narrative language and linguistic features, translators
are able to empathise with characters in the texts they translate but also to
“relocate themselves at a standpoint outside the characters” (De Marchi in
Gussago 2013, 74–75). The type of carefully crafted writing that transla-
tion entails can enable a balance to be achieved when it comes to emotion
expression.
The similarities and differences between writing and translating are rela-
tively well documented in translation process research. For instance, recent
research tells us that both writers and translators make use of specific strat-
egies to resolve problems and meet their goals and that, for both types of
text producers, the use of strategies is affected by mental conditions such
as feelings, memory, competence, and knowledge (Dam-Jensen and Heine
2013, 93). Having said this, there are also notable differences between both
activities. The most interesting for our current purpose is the fact that the
planning phase is said to be fuzzier and more complex in writing than in
translation, due to the multiple sources that the writer draws from com-
pared to the translator, who is more or less restricted by the source text
(ibid.). The fact that translation is more of a controlled process than tra-
ditional expressive writing could mean that it is particularly conducive to
effective emotional expression, thus producing greater benefits for the indi-
vidual. In fact, Rose (2013, 23) suggests that attention to detail and a thor-
ough approach to the translation process, including in-depth planning and
detailed research, contributes to translators producing texts “we can believe
in, so that the abstract, emotional things follow on”.
The idea that expressing emotion in a tightly structured translation situ-
ation is beneficial for translators’ health and well-being accords well with
the psychological literature on expressive writing. The distancing effect that
translating provides is also corroborated by written evidence. For example,
when comparing original texts and their translations in terms of intensity
differences, Coromomines (2010, 1) argues that in both the Catalan and
Spanish versions of Unkenrufe, the narrator’s constant anger-like feelings
are toned down compared with the original, and a less intense, less bitter
image of the fictional world is provided to readers. Although the previously
mentioned distancing effect does not necessarily equate to the production
of less intensely emotional translations, Coromomines suggests that even
minor intensity changes to the emotional dimension of a novel may signifi-
cantly impact the way in which target readers receive the text. It is worth
bearing in mind that structured and distanced writing may benefit the trans-
lator in health terms, but that the resulting target emotional expression—
albeit effective—may be of a different kind to the original.10
Another potential parallel between emotion-laden translating and
emotion-laden writing is their influence on cognitive performance and on
problem-solving and reasoning abilities, in particular. It is beyond doubt
that translators have to undertake complex cognitive work when translat-
ing. Translators working with fine writers, Costa (2007, 114) notes, have
the opportunity to develop their own skills as writers, since these skills are
constantly challenged and expanded. When discussing several ingenuous
translation decisions she had to make over the course of her career, Costa
demonstrates the depth of reflection necessary to translate complex puns, to
create riddles, and to juggle with linguistic and cultural concepts.
Despite the clear cognitive efforts involved in translation, the specific
and mutual impact of cognition and emotion in the context of translation
remains relatively unknown, and it is therefore unclear as to whether emo-
tion expression during translation can enhance the translator’s problem-
solving abilities, for example. Nevertheless, there are convincing indications
in the literature that, when cognitive and emotional processing are combined
during translation, translators are able to conjure optimal solutions. When
Rose (2013, 16–17) translated Gorz’s distressing memoir, she resorted to
mathematics as a way to ensure that her translations ‘added up’, multiplying
sentences and adding or subtracting content in delicate and deliberate ways:
the challenge was to steer the same tense course Gorz steers in recount-
ing his fifty-eight years of marriage to his by then failing wife, written
all-of-a-piece in a spurt of defiance against the louder and louder ticking
of the clock [. . .] Translating it involved struggling to hold the formality
and emotional urgency together with as much poise as Gorz effortlessly
produces. [. . .] I had to exercise the translator’s robust liberty to depart
from the text wherever necessary—in order to remain faithful to it.
Logic and reasoning were part and parcel of the translation process and were
applied to the translation of vivid feelings in a bid to create an authentic tar-
get text. This necessary combination of cognition and emotion for success-
ful translation expression corroborates Kennedy-Moore and Watson’s point
that “expression must involve a combination of emotional immersion plus
control in order to foster a sense of acceptance and mastery with regard to
distressing feelings” (2001b, 191).
One might wonder, however, whether the act of translating and, thus, of
planning and thinking about the process might have a similar effect when it
comes to the translation of poetry. In Part 1, I reviewed work by Kaufman
and Sexton (2006), which suggested that the formation of a structured nar-
rative is necessary for salutary effects and that undertaking fragmented
writing (such as poetry) may actually be harmful for the writer. I hypoth-
esised that this might also be the case for translators of poetry. In this case,
the well-established cognitive and emotional benefits of expressive writing
would not apply.
Interestingly, research in Translation Studies seems to point to the fact
that translating (at least some types of) poetry can, indeed, be a fraught
experience for the translator. According to Boase-Beier (2006, 49–50),
poetry demands more effort than other types of translation and requires
intense mental and emotional involvement on the part of the translator. In
his study of several poetry translators, Jones (2011, 37) also highlights that
poetry translation is more driven by emotion than other types of translation
due to the fact that it is often done voluntarily and requires motivation.
When discussing her translation strategy for Les Misérables, often described
as one long prose poem, Rose (2013, 19) explains that in her first draft she
needed to ‘fling’ synonyms on the page, leaving the subtleties of sense and
significance for a later stage when she had grasped “what [she] was dealing
with and could winkle out le mot juste from its rivals”. It could be argued,
therefore, that poetry translation is somewhat of an exception, and that the
acknowledged benefits of expressive writing may not always extend to this
particular type of (fragmented and high-intensity) translation process.11 The
sheer complexity of translating poetry sets it apart from other expressive
writing exercises.
Poetry aside, it is often the case that translating emotionally laden mate-
rial helps translators to make sense of upsetting events and to explore their
feelings. Bush (2013, 38) acknowledges that part of the self is active when
translating, and that the act of rewriting literature enables one’s “individ-
ual emotional and imaginative aspect” to emerge. In a seminar held on 10
May 2014 at the School of Advanced Study, University of London, titled
‘Affective Translations’, the Spanish–English translator Isabel del Rio made
the interesting observation that emotions are built into the technique of
writing a text. In some ways, the act of translating seems to work as the kind
of cathartic experience discussed in Part 1, whereby emotions are worked
through during the writing process. During the same seminar, Cristina Viti,
an Italian-English translator, stated that translation was a healing voice for
her and that she always asks herself what texts she will allow into her day,
and into herself. If we cast our minds back to Chapter 2, it was clear that
Carol Maier (2002) eventually worked through her malaise and benefited
from improved mental well-being once she had completed the translation
of Octavio Armand’s poetry of exile. Translation seems to help to orga-
nise negative emotions into new schemas. In another example discussed
previously (i.e. Holierhoek’s experience of translating a novel about crimes
committed during the Second World War) focusing on the details of the
translation task clearly helped to reduce intrusive and avoidant thinking
about the emotionally charged content. Whether this then freed the trans-
lator’s working memory capacity, as Klein and Boals (2001) found for the
traditional task of written emotional disclosure, remains a point in question.
Nevertheless, expressing via translation does seem to be a practical means of
learning to cope with emotional material.
Writing for Oneself and Writing for Others

Having reviewed some of the similarities and differences between transla-
tion and expressive writing, I would now like to turn to two areas in par-
ticular that influence how/when emotions are inscribed in translations: the
(generally positive) outcomes of emotion management, and projected audi-
ence responses.
We have seen in Part 1 that many positive outcomes occur when indi-
viduals write about emotionally charged topics, although we have ques-
tioned whether a translation would carry sufficient emotional charge for
this to take place.12 Translators’ accounts of their experiences, as found in
the literature, indicate that translation products do benefit significantly from
the emotional work that translators undertake during the transfer process.
Indeed, translating has at times been equated with feelings of liberation, a
kind of fantasy life, where the translator can “put words on a page entirely
without embarrassment” (Weinberger 2013, 28). Having grappled with
and overcome powerful emotions, translators can be strongly motivated to
translate, a motivation which leaves its mark on target texts. According
to Peter Bush (2013, 3), his own memories of the aftermath of war were a
driving force powering his translation of Rodoreda’s work which, he states,
is “a rewriting where his historical self is inscribed”. Another example of a
target text benefitting from the translator’s emotional involvement is Hugo’s
Les Misérables. Rose (2013, 19) viewed her retranslation of this classic text
as a restoration project, and her motivation for translating was a healthy
competition with previous translations (“I can do better than that!”) What
is also interesting is her association between the language she chose to use in
the translation and how it made her feel. She mentions, for example, making
use of Aussie slang in her work—her own vernacular—in order to transport
her audience to a foreign place: “[T]his choice was ultimately about energy
and exuberance and honesty” (2013, 29). These positive feelings fuelled
her translation, and the positive connotations associated with employing
her vernacular echo Sloan, Marx, and Epstein’s (2005) point that written
expression about familiar matters may be very beneficial, in this case for
both the individual and the resulting target text.
There is also evidence in the translation process literature (cf. Albin 2012;
Kolb 2013; Bolaños Medina 2014; Hubscher-Davidson forthcoming) that
certain affective traits such as self-efficacy (belief in one’s capabilities),
confidence, and ambiguity tolerance can positively influence translation
performance. Indeed, individuals with good emotional functioning will
engage positively with and successfully manage emotion-laden situations,
thus increasing the likelihood of a good quality translation. As argued else-
where (Hubscher-Davidson 2016), effective engagement with emotional
expression tasks such as translation is linked to a good understanding of
one’s own feelings. When emotion management is successful, then emotion
expression is likely to be successful too. Recently, a few scholars (e.g. Lehr
2014; Rojo and Ramos 2016) found some evidence that emotions impact
on aspects such as creativity and accuracy in translation. For instance, in
her unpublished thesis, Lehr (2014) found that emotions can influence idi-
omatic expression, stylistic adequacy, and correctness of terminology. Lehr
argues that emotional involvement in translation tasks is usually associated
with better performance, but that positive and negative emotions can induce
different processing styles, increasing either creativity or accuracy in trans-
lation. Although this research is still in its infancy, it provides additional
evidence that emotions are inscribed in written expression in various ways
and, thus, leave their mark on translations.
As previously noted, the act of writing can intensify both positive and
negative emotions for individuals, and help to extinguish negative emotions,
or to turn these into positive ones (e.g. Grant 2013; Krueger 2014; Sheldon
and Lyubomirsky 2006). For translators, there are therefore clear benefits to
engaging with emotional material in their work, especially if they are usu-
ally introverted or emotionally inhibited, as writing works as an outlet for
their emotions. I would therefore disagree with Wittwer’s stance regarding
suppressing one’s feelings when translating. Wittwer (2007, 352) highlights
how difficult it is for translators specialising in the field of paediatrics and
dealing with topics such as diseases in children not to feel emotional sym-
pathy. He notes, however, that “the translator’s own sensibility has to be
suppressed while creating the translation to eliminate the misrepresenta-
tion of the emotionality of the source text” (ibid.) First, we have seen in
Chapter 3 that suppression is generally not a healthy way to cope with elic-
ited emotions. Second, Wittwer seems to imply that a translator who does
not suppress his or her emotional sympathy13 will be unable to produce an
accurate or faithful representation of the ST in translation. Aside from the
fact that we now know that it is not possible to suppress all emotional reac-
tions as some are automatic (unconscious), I would also argue that work-
ing through one’s ‘emotional sympathy’, rather than repressing it, could
be conducive to successful translations. In order to successfully translate
the emotionality of a source text, the translator’s sensibility needs to be
acknowledged, and his or her feelings for the ST and its content processed,
as this is much more likely to lead to successful performance. We have seen
in Chapter 3 that unregulated emotions might lead to emotional exhaustion,
but that one can employ specific strategies to process emotions in a way that
will not lead to burnout. In the previously mentioned seminar held on 10
May 2014 at the School of Advanced Study, University of London, titled
‘Affective Translations’, the role of affect in translation was discussed by
female authors and translators living in the UK. They highlighted that trans-
lating affects translators emotionally, and that, in turn, translators affect
translations. The translators agreed that it is necessary for them to express
and speak about their emotional translating experiences so as not to become
victims of the writing process. Far from misrepresenting the emotionality of
the source text, these translators were convinced that the act of acknowl-
edging and expressing their feelings helps them come to terms with and
successfully translate emotional source texts. Expressing both positive and
negative emotions through the medium of translation therefore seems likely
to enhance emotional performance and encourage creativity, attention to
detail, and problem-solving.14
Real (and self-monitored) engagement with the emotional material con-
tained in a source text is, I would argue, a necessary condition for the pro-
duction of a good translation. It is the only way to convincingly recreate a
text and produce on the new reader what Rose calls “the emotional and
aesthetic impact of the original” (2013, 15). In her description of an author–
translator relationship gone wrong, Kaplan (2013) argues that the transla-
tor’s desire to domesticate the text, to remove its foreignness and adapt its
content, meant that there was no real engagement with or understanding of
the source author’s emotions and, therefore, no real attempt to reproduce
or respect the style or content of the original. This resulted in a breakdown
of the working relationship with the author. In this case, it could be argued
that the translator resisted engagement due to a mismatch with his self-
concordant goals and interests, leading to an unrewarding experience for
all involved. It could therefore be argued that, similarly to Sheldon and
Lyubomirsky’s (2006, 80) advice that individuals should consider carefully
what kind of writing activity to undertake, as it needs to fit in with the per-
son’s interests and goals in order to be beneficial in the long term, transla-
tors should consider the “fit” of the text they are to translate.
The second area that has an impact on how emotions are inscribed in
translations is the presence of implicit readers and their imagined reactions.
Clearly, what a translator expresses or does not express in translation is
likely to have an impact, not only on the translation itself but also on its
reception by readers. In Part 1, we saw that the presence of implicit audi-
ences normally improves the nature of expressed emotions and the quality
of emotional expression (cf. Brody and Park 2004). Holierhoek (2008) was
clearly very aware of the audience’s reception of the source text Les Bien-
veillantes, as she dedicates a considerable portion of her article discussing
the criticism and debates surrounding the novel. This passion for the story,
this audience engagement, spurred her on and motivated her when trans-
lating. She claims that this alone made the work of translation worth it.
The fact that people cared to such an extent made her work worthwhile,
and predicted her effort, engagement, and performance thus suggesting that
doing well in an activity is more rewarding if that activity is important to
others as well as to the self. This suggests that (similarly to expressive writ-
ing) stress relief, emotional writing quality, and other positive outcomes can
result from expressive trauma-related translating if the translating is in line
with both self-concordant goals and what Brody and Park (2004) refer to
as beliefs held about an imagined audience. In this case, it can be surmised
that the negative emotions aroused when working on what Holierhoek calls
“an intensive and, at times, suffocating translation” have, as Grant (2013)
suggested, been channelled and led to the development of positive feelings
(e.g. a conviction that expressing is a worthwhile activity).
If the audience is felt to be unresponsive or negative, however, this ham-
pers the writing process. Expressing emotional aspects of a ST may not seem
worthwhile for a translator if the imagined audience is considered critical.
In their comparison of the English and Italian versions of a UNICEF report
on the topic of the relevance of girls’ education, Abbamonte and Cava-
liere (2006) note differences in the intensity of the affective positioning of
the Italian translator: “[there is] undeniable loss of empathy” (2006, 249).
Interestingly, Abbamonte and Cavaliere offer a possible explanation for this
change in the translator’s affective positioning, resulting in a TT devoid of
the kind of empathic message that the ST aimed to express. They argue that
the Italian translator may have altered the ST in order to more effectively
convey its meaning according to Italian uses of language and expectations
(2006, 254). The target readers’ (linguistic, ideological, institutional) expec-
tations seemed to have been an important feature influencing the Italian
translator’s decision-making. The imagined audience (and his beliefs about
this audience) influenced the emotional quality of his writing to the point
of rendering a target text where the emotional relevance had almost com-
pletely disappeared.15
Another example where audience reception was a key factor informing
the translation of intense emotions is Julie Adam’s translation of John McK-
enna’s short story “A Summer Girl”. Adam (1998) highlights the problem
of how to translate the words fuck and fucking, occurring 34 times in a text
of about 8,900 words, and representing the main character’s inner struggle
and mixed feelings for a romantic partner. Adam notes that conveying the
emotional and aesthetic power of these two words, emblematic of the nar-
rator’s feelings of love and hatred, is necessarily different in Quebec French
than it would be for another Francophone audience. In order to faithfully
transfer the character’s emotional turmoil, the translator needed to choose
words that conveyed the strength of feelings and emotions emanating
from the passage. To do so, she resorted to spoken language (“nous avons
puisé dans le vocabulaire oral pour rendre le poids de l’outrage exprimé en
anglais”; 1998, 2). It is interesting, though perhaps obvious, to note how
different audiences require different kinds of emotion expression. In a dif-
ferent context, Rose (2013, 17) made a similar observation, arguing that it
is sometimes necessary to intensify or ‘dial up’ emotions for modern-day
audiences accustomed to more hardcore material. How capable translators
are at doing this will be explored in the following section, where an analysis
of the trait emotion expression of professional translators is carried out.
Part 3: Emotion Expression in the Case Study
Introduction
In this section, an examination is undertaken of the emotion expression
profiles of the 155 professional translators in the study.16 Translators’ emo-
tion expression trait, as assessed by the TEIQue, is therefore examined in
relation to sociobiographical variables which are relevant to the transla-
tion profession and derived from the emotion expression literature review.
As mentioned previously, TEIQue measures global trait EI by incorporat-
ing four global factors and 15 facets measured through 15 subscales. The
emotion expression facet is subsumed within the factor of emotionality. An
analysis of the relationship between emotion expression and the data from
professional translators’ profiles is provided in the following.
Results
As a result of the literature review, emotion expression was expected to
correlate with the following variables: translation qualification, level of edu-
cation, self-perceived job satisfaction, self-perceived job success, length of
professional translation experience, proportion of time spent on translat-
ing, and literary translation experience. Indeed, an ability to communicate
emotions to others is said to be linked to academic and cognitive skills;
additionally, as seen in Part 1, it is hypothesised that translators will experi-
ence increased health, performance, and life satisfaction as a result of emo-
tion expression processes; it is also hypothesised that emotion expression
ability increases alongside professional and literary translation experience
as a result of work reviewed in Part 2. Pearson’s correlation analyses were
performed; the results are presented in Table 4.1 and discussed afterwards.
the trait of emotion expression and the seven variables identified show
that there are positive statistically significant correlations between emotion
expression and professional translation experience (r = .22, p < .01), job sat-
isfaction (r = .29, p < .01), literary translation experience (r = .16, p < .05),
and education (r = .16, p < .05). There is also a positive (but not statistically
significant) association with job success (r = .12, p = .14). Regarding the
factor of emotionality, Table 4.1 shows similar trends. Interestingly, emo-
tion expression and emotionality are negatively associated with the time
spent translating variable (r = −.07, p = .37; r = −.16, p < .05, respectively),
and there is also a negative association between emotion expression and the
Table 4.1 Emotion expression, emotionality, and professional translators’ sociobio-

Variables Emotion expression Emotionality
Translation qualification −.05 .03

Professional translation experience .22** .17*
Job satisfaction .29** .20*
Job success .12 .08
Time spent translating –.07 −.16*
Literary translation experience .16* .10
Education .16* .13
* p < .05. ** p < .01.
translation qualification variable (r = −.05, p = .52), though this effect did
not reach statistical significance.
Discussion
Table 4.1 clearly illustrates that emotion expression correlated positively
with five of the seven variables tested. This suggests that professional trans-
lators with high trait emotion expression are more likely to be experienced
and highly educated. They are more likely to be satisfied with their job, to
experience job success, and to have literary translation experience. In other
words, results indicate that the higher the levels of emotion expression (i.e.
the self-reported ability to communicate emotions) the more likely it is that
professional translators will be educated, experienced, and feel happy and
successful. In addition, the more experience translators have of undertaking
literary translation, the likelier it is that they will also have increased levels
of emotion expression. Interestingly, however, emotion expression did not
correlate with the proportion of total work hours spent on undertaking
translation, nor did it correlate with the acquisition of translation-specific
qualifications. These findings indicate that professional translators with
high emotion expression are not necessarily more likely to spend a lot of
time translating on a daily basis or to hold a translation degree.
Again, it is wise to be cautious when interpreting results. A discussion of
findings can be found in the following.
1. Emotion Expression Is Significantly Positively Associated

With (Years of) Professional Translation Experience
The statistically significant positive correlation found between emotion
expression and professional translation experience makes sense, in view of
the literature reviewed in Parts 1 and 2. Having acquired years of practical
experience, and dealt with a variety of texts and a wide range of authors,
professional translators are bound to have developed their communication
and interpersonal skills. In fact, these are qualities that regularly feature in
the person specifications for senior translator positions. Over the years, the
writing experience that translators acquire shapes the way that they com-
municate emotions in translations. We have seen that repeated engagement
with a task strengthens individuals’ confidence that they can express strong
emotions (Grant 2013), and that repeated or long-term exposure to simi-
lar types of emotion-related tasks can significantly improve emotional pro-
cesses (Sloan, Marx, and Epstein 2005). As such, it is logical to think that
translators with many years of experience behind them will find it easier to
communicate emotion-related information.
The fact that improvements in emotion expression often take time to
emerge (Kennedy-Moore and Watson 2001b) and that improved writing
performance (increased use of different perspectives, more sophisticated
language use) is also linked to extensive practice (Campbell and Pennebaker
2003) means that experienced professional translators will necessarily be
more skilled at expressing emotions in writing than novice translators. Prac-
tice will have taught translators to think more deeply about linguistic and
other aspects of source texts (flow, rhythm, syntax, register, diction) and to
hone their skills in what Rose (2013) called intensifying or ‘dialing up’ emo-
tions where necessary. The more experience a translator has, the more likely
he or she will be to “know what the best words are for expressing feelings
accurately and unambiguously” (Petrides 2009, 59).
It could be that, over time and similarly to emotional writing, the act of
translating can train individuals who have deficits in emotion expression to
become more skilled in this area. Indeed, since emotion expression scores
increase alongside years of professional translating experience, one might
make two speculations: (1) Individuals high in the emotion expression trait
are likely to choose a career in translation and to become experienced pro-
fessionals, or (2) experienced translators are likely to have developed their
emotion expression trait over time. Although the direction of the effect is
unknown, the correlation is statistically significant and raises interesting
questions for further research. In Part 1, I questioned whether different types
of writing processes could have similar effects to the traditional emotional
disclosure paradigm—the case study results provide further indication that
perhaps translation is a type of writing process that, at least to some extent,
can work as a channel for emotional disclosure and for the effective devel-
opment of emotion expression.
The sheer variety of situations and scenarios that professional translators
are exposed to during the course of their working lives means that they are
likely to have learnt how to tolerate and adapt to a wide range of transla-
tion situations. In fact, Künzli (2004) observed that professional transla-
tors respond more cautiously and effectively than do students to ambiguous
source texts, and in a recent piece, I noted that successful professional trans-
lators perceived ambiguity as desirable and responded positively to change,
uncertainty, and conflicting perspectives (Hubscher-Davidson forthcoming).
Because tolerating ambiguous and complex situations is viewed as a mea-
sure of adaptation and healthy functioning, it makes sense to think that
experienced professional translators who have learnt to tolerate ambiguity
and to react adaptively to complex situations in their work will also benefit
from good emotional functioning.17
We have already noted in previous chapters that, with years of profes-
sional experience, translators become habituated and learn to manage
emotions in their work more effectively and to be more accepting of the
challenges that translation brings. For instance, experienced translator Peter
Cole (2013) acknowledges that each stage of the process involves discom-
fort and pleasures of a kind. One might therefore surmise that, over time,
the repeated act of translating influences translators’ emotional information
processing positively and lessens the emotional impact of translations. The
case study results indicate that sustained translating experience could there-
fore promote the kind of therapeutic change that scholars like Sloan, Marx,
and Greenberg (2011), believe is a result of written emotional disclosure.
An additional benefit that translation experience brings is the exposure
to different clients and different audiences. The experience of writing for
specific target readerships and being accountable to those readerships is said
to improve written emotional expression (Radcliffe et al. 2010). As such,
the shared nature of translating and the repeated/long-term interaction with
implicit audiences that it entails may well lead to an improvement in the
nature of expressed emotions and the quality of emotional expression.
2. Emotion Expression Is Significantly Positively Associated With

Job Satisfaction, and Positively Associated With Job Success
In the case study, the emotion expression trait was found to be linked to the
well-being variables of self-perceived job satisfaction and success, though
only the former produced a statistically significant result. The research
reviewed in Part 1 clearly indicated a link between expressing emotions in
writing and health improvements of various kinds (i.e. psychological, social,
and physiological). The specific benefits of emotion expression in the work-
place were highlighted by Totterdell and Niven (2014), and it was noted
that written emotional disclosure tends to alleviate stress and depression
and to improve mood and life satisfaction (e.g. Sheldon and Lyubomirsky
2006). As such, it is not altogether surprising to discover that translators
high in emotion expression are happier in their jobs.
Conversely, it also makes sense that translators who are satisfied in their
jobs will be more emotionally fulfilled and more likely to communicate posi-
tively within their working context. Someone who enjoys translating on a
daily basis, and finds it rewarding and worthwhile, is likely to be working
in line with what Sheldon and Lyubomirsky (2006, 74) call self-concordant
goals. As such, translating becomes an activity that is deeply important
to the translator and likely to promote their sustained effort, emotional
engagement, and effective performance. The following example is a good
illustration of the translator’s positive engagement with her work, resulting
in successful communication of emotion-related thoughts. Ann Goldstein,
best known as the translator of the Italian novelist Elena Ferrante’s Neapoli-
tan quartet of novels and recipient of a Guggenheim translation fellowship,
makes the following observation:
There’s something about the way [Ferrante] looks at emotional relation-

ships. They examine things you might not necessarily examine your-
self. I translated The Days of Abandonment first [about a woman who
descends into an “absence of sense” when her husband leaves her]. We
all had to do a version of the first chapter, and then they picked me.
I remember that I was completely gripped by it. It’s so powerful. It’s
a story we all know, but she made it more intense, more interesting,
somehow.
(Goldstein in Cooke 2016)
In this case, motivation to translate and subsequent emotional engagement

with her work can be said to have helped Goldstein to produce successful
emotion expressions in the target text. Another instance discussed in Part 2
where job satisfaction was greatly enhanced and enabled emotion expres-
sion to take place effectively was the translation collaboration described by
Holierhoek (2008). In this case, the translators’ performance of the emotion-
ally valenced text greatly benefited from emotional sharing and expressing.
We have seen in Parts 1 and 2 that emotional processing and performance
are intertwined: too much or too little emotional involvement is detrimental
for translation, as it is for expressive writing. The kind of deep engage-
ment that Goldstein and Holierhoek discuss, combined with appropriate
techniques for managing the situation,18 can clearly be conducive to suc-
cessful and balanced translation performances. Having said that, although
being able to process and express feelings accurately and unambiguously is
certainly helpful for translation, especially when it comes to translating cer-
tain types of texts, it does not necessarily guarantee job success. Although
there is a positive correlation between emotion expression and job success
amongst the translators in the study, it is not statistically significant, and it
must be recalled that one’s self-perception of how good one is at one’s job
may not always equate to actual performance. The data regarding emotion
expression and job success are thus open to question, and it would be inter-
esting to test additional professional translators to better understand the
nature of the relationship between these two variables.
All in all, the fact that professional translators’ trait emotion expression
and self-perceived job satisfaction are significantly linked is unsurprising
in light of the wider psychological literature. Indeed, the research is very
clear that a majority of facets of trait EI are directly relevant to job satisfac-
tion, as employees with high trait EI are better at identifying and regulating
feelings of stress and frustration thus enabling them to cope better with
various aspects of their work (e.g. Kafetsios and Zampetakis 2008). Addi-
tionally, translating emotional material is a way to focus one’s attention on
emotion-related behaviour which may be helpful for individuals with all
sorts of habitual emotional coping styles. Expressing emotions via trans-
lation is likely to engender emotional self-efficacy and, therefore, positive
feelings about the job of translating.
3. Emotion Expression Is Significantly Positively Associated With

Education Levels, but not With Translation Qualifications
There is a fair amount of evidence in the literature that points to EI
traits being significant predictors of academic achievement and cognitive
functioning (e.g. Shao, Yu, and Ji 2013). As such, it is unsurprising that the
EI trait of emotion expression in this study is significantly correlated with
the education levels of professional translators. We have seen that written
emotional expression has been shown to positively affect cognitive perfor-
mance and that there is a positive link between expressing emotions in writ-
ing and various aspects of cognition and academic performance, such as
problem-solving, reasoning abilities, working memory, attention to detail,
analytical processing, creativity, and better information integration, to name
a few. These skills become increasingly important the higher the degree or
qualification sought. Individuals who find it more difficult to communicate
and who lack the right words to express themselves clearly and accurately
in writing are unlikely to do as well as their more assertive peers in a formal
academic environment.
In addition, practice in undertaking the complex writing assignments that
formal qualifications require (e.g. dissertations) is likely to train individuals
to express themselves more effectively and thoughtfully. As highlighted by
Shao, Yu, and Ji (2013, 110/118), writing is a personal and interactional
activity that requires a great amount of motivation and cognitive efforts,
and a higher level of writing draws heavily on the writer’s ability to com-
municate and empathise with his or her readers in a socially meaningful
manner. The act of writing in university contexts generally combines the
deliberative cognitive work and emotional involvement that scholars such
as Ullrich and Lutgendorf (2002) suggest are necessary for the development
of emotion expression.
Education (especially in the Humanities) provides individuals with many
opportunities to write structured pieces and to form carefully crafted and
coherent narratives. We have seen that this type of writing enables better
processing of emotions and that it allows individuals to regain control of
their emotional experiences (e.g. Kennedy-Moore and Watson 2001b). We
have seen that forming narratives that integrate both positive and nega-
tive emotions, that make increasing use of sophisticated language, and that
when there is thoughtful examination of feelings brings about emotional
benefits of various kinds. In a recent interview, Edith Grossman—perhaps
best known for her translations of works by Gabriel García Márquez—
highlighted how writing for translation provided both intellectual stimula-
tion and positive emotions:
I translated this piece called “The surgery of psychic extirpation”. And

I mean it was wonderful. This was a procedure whereby you could have
certain portions of your memory excised. It’s right out of a TV science
fiction. And I thought to sit at home and translate it was more fun
than playing with monkeys. I didn’t have to get dressed to go to work.
I could smoke all I wanted. And I thought, this is perfect, this is a per-
fect way for me to work. And so I began to do more and more.
(Grossman in Cooke 2016)
This quote underlines the importance of combining serious cognitive work
and positive emotional involvement in a writing activity (i.e. emotional
immersion plus control) something which academic environments are well-
known to foster. The higher the type of qualification acquired (MA, PhD,
etc.), the more likely it is that individuals will engage deeply with both of
these aspects through their writings.
It also seems relevant to note that emotion regulation and emotion
expression are highly correlated facets (r = .25, p < .01). The psychological
literature suggests that an individual who is adept at regulating emotions
will normally also be adept at expressing them (e.g. English et al. 2012).
For instance, we noted in Chapter 3 that the adaptive strategy of cognitive
reappraisal leads to enhanced expressions of positive emotions. This serves
to reinforce the idea that both cognitive and emotional work is necessary for
effective emotion expression.
In light of this statistically significant association between academic quali-
fications and the emotion expression trait, it seems surprising that gaining
translation-specific qualifications would not also be positively associated
with emotion expression. First, we have seen that translation as an activity
can promote enhanced emotional processing leading to effective emotional
expression and better performance. Second, we have also reviewed litera-
ture that suggests that working on translations can help the development of
monitoring strategies and coping mechanisms leading to enhanced problem-
solving and creativity. The act of translating can therefore clearly combine
complex cognitive and emotional work. There are, however, two possible
reasons for the lack of a positive correlation in this instance.
First, we have seen that translation experience correlates highly with emo-
tion expression. This suggests that working on translations does help to
develop emotion expression (or that individuals high in that trait will have
comparatively high levels of translation experience). This practical translat-
ing experience can take place without having a translation qualification.
There are a great number of highly acclaimed translators who have profes-
sional experience and/or degrees in other areas (languages, history, etc.) but
do not hold a translation qualification per se. Indeed, translation qualifica-
tions are comparatively new in the higher education landscape and, in the
present study, less than half of professional translators held a postgraduate
translation qualification. Therefore, although having practical translating
experience and a university education are clearly important when it comes
to competence in emotion expression, the specific type of qualification does
not seem to matter.
Second, as can be seen from Table 4.1, the type of translation experience
that seems to matter most when it comes to emotion expression is liter-
ary translation experience. Anecdotal and personal experience suggests that
most translation degrees, these days, focus on preparing students for com-
mercial translation (i.e. the bread and butter of translation work) and have
shied away from teaching literary translation, which is now considered a
small section of this rapidly evolving market. As such, it is unlikely that the
curriculum of a translation Masters will enable individuals to engage with
literature-based activities in the same way as, for example, a Masters in
Comparative Literature or in German or Italian Literature.
4. Emotion Expression Is Significantly Positively Associated

With the Acquisition of Literary Translation Experience,
but not With Time Spent Translating
As Table 4.1 demonstrates, the acquisition of literary translation experience
is positively and significantly associated with the trait EI facet of emotion
expression. I have discussed this particular finding in a previous publication
and argued that literary translation can be conducive to the development of
emotion expression due to the deep engagement with the delicate emotional
connections between languages and cultures that translating literature
entails. Indeed, it was shown that literature-based activities such as literary
translation could be beneficial for the development of trait EI, and emo-
tion expression more specifically (Hubscher-Davidson 2016, 146). For both
literary and non-literary translators, increasing levels of literary translation
experience go hand in hand with increasing trait emotion expression scores
(ibid.). It seems logical that translating literature helps to improve skills in
communicating and expressing emotions, and there is plenty of evidence in
the scholarly literature that literary activities foster trait EI skills and that,
in turn, trait EI contributes to better writing performance (e.g. Ghosn 2001,
2002; Abdolrezapour and Tavakoli 2012; Shao, Yu, and Ji 2013).
Recent studies on the translation process (e.g. Lehr 2014; Rojo and Ramos
2016; Rojo 2017) have shown that different kinds of emotions can impact
different facets of translation performance. In particular, Lehr (2014) argues
that positive emotions can increase creativity in translation. This is very
interesting in light of the fact that (1) positive mood tends to correlate posi-
tively with the trait EI facet of emotion expression (Petrides 2009, 59) and
(2) creativity is key for literary translation performance. As such, one might
surmise that positive emotional involvement with a literary translation is
conducive to a more creative processing style and more successful instances
of emotion expression. This pioneering work on the links between emotion
and translation is an avenue for further research and a new step in the direc-
tion of understanding how emotions impact the way that translations are
produced.
In light of the positive association between emotion expression and pro-
fessional translation experience discussed previously, it is somewhat sur-
prising that emotion expression is not also positively associated with the
amount of time that translators spend translating. Acquiring years of trans-
lation experience is likely to mean spending long stretches of time working
on translations, so this particular result is unexpected. Although it is unclear
why the results show a negative association between emotion expression
and time spent translating, there are two points worth considering which
may shed light on the result.
First, I also noted in Chapter 2 that there was a negative correlation
between emotion perception and the amount of total work hours a transla-
tor spends translating. One possible reason provided to explain this result
was that regular, but not necessarily intense, translation practice could be
conducive to a better monitoring of emotional processes and, thus, the
development of emotion perception skills over time. The same could apply
here: regular translation practice over many years will help to develop emo-
tion expression skills, but translating on a daily basis for hours on end is
less likely to lead to positive emotional outcomes. In fact, we have seen
in Part 1 that it takes regular practice (i.e. repeated exposure) over sev-
eral weeks, sometimes months, for improvements in emotion expression to
emerge but also that engaging with emotion expression for long, intense
sessions can have maladaptive outcomes (e.g. MacRobert 2012). If we con-
sider that translators who spend a majority of their working time translat-
ing (i.e. whose main source of income is translation) may not have much
choice when it comes to the texts they translate, the hours they work, the
deadlines for submission, or even the length of time spent on each transla-
tion, it becomes easier to understand that these conditions are not optimal
for developing emotion expression skills. Conversely, emotion expression
may more easily develop in the case of individuals who, for years, have
only translated on occasion—perhaps when they are offered a particularly
interesting project—and who are likely to have the time and freedom to
work at their own pace. Nevertheless, further research on the frequency and
intensity of the translator’s emotional engagement with texts over time is
warranted in order to fully understand this result.
Second, research on creative writing processes can also shed some light on
this negative association between emotion expression and time spent trans-
lating. Like translators, creative writers often have to express emotions that
are not necessarily their own. MacRobert (2012, 349) argues that providing
vicarious experiences of emotion exacts a heavy toll on authors, and we
have seen in previous chapters that translators also have to mine their own
emotions to produce good work. It is therefore pertinent that creative writ-
ing studies have found that overinvesting in writing can be deleterious to
authors’ mental health (Kaufman and Sexton 2006) and warn against long
sessions of fiction writing. In fact, scholars advocate short writing sessions
over a period, taking regular breaks, mindfulness exercises, therapy, medita-
tion, and other coping techniques in order to manage the emotional roller
coaster of the writing process (MacRobert 2012). These findings can be
extrapolated to professional translators who might be working long hours
on translation tasks. Kaufman and Sexton (2006, 276) observe that writers
may be drawn to a career in this field not realising that they (and their work)
may actually suffer from the emotional toll that full-time writing can entail.
This research therefore adds weight to the hypothesis that regular but not
intensive translation sessions can contribute to the development of emotion
expression, though no conclusions can be drawn solely based on the results
of this study.
Concluding Note
Translation can be viewed both as a way to express emotions and as a pos-
sible means of coping with those emotions. In this chapter I have demon-
strated that translation is a mode of expression that can be adaptive if it
is the result of specific cognitive and interpersonal processes. Like other
successful expressive writers, effective translators work with thoughts and
feelings through a meaning-making process, form narratives, take a socially
oriented perspective, and become good at communicating emotions via sus-
tained writing practice. When it works, translation can serve as a means
of enhancing self-awareness and processing emotional information. The
case study demonstrated that professional translators with high emotion
expression are more likely to be experienced (especially in literary transla-
tion), qualified, happy, and successful in their jobs. The fact that writings
have received less attention in the emotion expression literature than other
forms of expressive behaviour (Collier 2014) is significant as it highlights
yet another area where scholars from other fields can take the ‘translation
turn’ in interdisciplinary studies (cf. Gentzler 2003).
The following chapter summarises key findings from the study.
Notes
1 This point rings especially true for translators. As has been discussed in the
previous chapter, translators may be experiencing a lot of emotion as a result of
reading a ST, but this emotion needs to be controlled so that it is not expressed in
a jarring way in their translation. Emotion experience may, however, positively
impact on emotion expression. This point is returned to in the next section.
2 It is important to remember that the separation between emotion regulation and
perception is somewhat artificial as well and that there is no clear split between
an inner emotion and its outer expression. In a thought-provoking paper, Krue-
ger sums up Dewey’s view on this matter and highlights that emotional experi-
ences are articulated—or lived—through overt behaviour, rather than emotion
and expression being divided, or “merely causally related” (2014, 146). This
implies that emotion expression is a far more complex process than can be easily
encompassed in a model.
3 It should be noted that, although writing is a deliberate act, the traditional sepa-
ration between spontaneous and deliberate forms of expression has been chal-
lenged. Kennedy-Moore and Watson (2001a, 19–20) argue that it can be hard to
differentiate between both, and that many instances of expression are not easily
categorized as either controllable or uncontrollable.
4 Prepotent response inhibition is defined by Martin and Kerns (2011, 267) as
an aspect of cognitive control which requires maintaining the task goal, such
as following task instructions, while experiencing automatic but inappropri-
ate responses. The authors give the example of the Stroop task as involving
prepotent response inhibition, as participants are asked to name the colour of a
stimulus while at the same time reading the name of a different colour.
5 ‘Insight’ words are said to include words such as understand and realise and
causal words such as because and reason (Baikie and Wilhelm 2005, 342).
6 According to Smyth, Pennebaker, and Arigo (2012, 182) writing about an expe-
rience increases an individual’s self-awareness in relation to that experience,
and emotional expression can help to stabilize one’s responses to emotionally
charged situations, suggesting that disclosure through writing can influence
one’s emotion regulation ability. We have seen in Chapter 3 that emotion regu-
lation strategies and knowledge shape how emotions are expressed, therefore,
developing emotion regulation knowledge in the ways discussed in Chapter 3
should, logically, help individuals to gain effectiveness in their ability to express
emotions.
7 The topic may not matter, but the type of expressive writing does matter. Kauf-
man and Sexton (2006, 268) suggest that the formation of a narrative is neces-
sary for salutary effects, and that fragmented writing (such as poetry) where
there is no formation of a structured narrative may actually be harmful for the
writer. In that case, translating poetry could also be harmful for the translator.
This point is further discussed in Part 2.
8 Although it has been theorised that men may benefit more from written disclo-
sure than women, there is as of yet no evidence of the role of gender in the writ-
ing/health relationship (Stickney 2010, 166).
9 This extract is from an English translation of the original Dutch article which
I commissioned.
10 Interestingly, research on multilinguals also points to the fact that even individu-
als who have shared dominance in two languages tend not to use their languages
in equal measure to express emotions (e.g. Dewaele 2016).
11 It is useful to note that Rose’s approach to translating poetry (i.e. separating
out initial emotional reactions from a subsequent reflective process) is a kind of
planning process in itself which, it would seem, could be effective for successful
poetry translation.
12 In addition to experiencing the emotions ‘second-hand’, translators may be deal-
ing with a source text written in their L2. This could have an additional distanc-
ing effect, as the L2 has often been considered somewhat less ‘emotion intense’
(cf. Dewaele 2013).
13 Wittwer’s argument is additionally problematic because he does not define what
he means by the term ‘emotional sympathy’. There are several constructs that
could be relevant to his argument (e.g. cognitive empathy, affective empathy,
vicarious emotions) and the type of emotion felt may determine the appropriate-
ness of the response (whether it is expressed, processed, suppressed, etc.). My
thanks go to Matthias Apfelthaler for pointing this out.
14 It is worth recalling here that there may be a small difference between transla-
tors working into or out of their mother tongue. Although evidence suggests that
many translators translate into their L1, the realities of the market mean that
this is not always the case. As such, it needs to be acknowledged that communi-
cating/expressing emotions in a foreign language may be more challenging for
translators than doing so into their L1, which is said to bear stronger emotional
intensity (cf. Dewaele 2013). Emotion expression in translation may therefore
be partly influenced by the language used, since the L2 is said to enable multi-
linguals to distance themselves from emotional events (ibid.). Nevertheless, the
literature highlights that highly socialised and highly proficient L2 users who
have used their language in authentic interactions—as professional translators
are very likely to have done—are able to express emotions competently and con-
fidently in both languages.
15 Interestingly, in her study of decision-making in literary translation, Kolb (2013,
2017) observes something similar. One of the translators in her study constructed
very personal meanings when reading the ST and produced a translation that
bore witness to her profound interaction with the text. At the same time, how-
ever, Kolb notes that when producing the target text, she withholds this same
intense interaction with the text from her readers. Reasons are not provided to
explain this behaviour, but it could be surmised that the translator assumed her
target readers would not respond well to this level of intensity.
16 For a complete description of the study (participants, research instruments, pro-
cedure, etc.), please refer to Chapter 1.
17 In fact, in Hubscher-Davidson (forthcoming) a statistically significant associa-
tion was found between the Tolerance of Ambiguity construct and the trait EI
facet of emotion expression.
18 The benefits of collaborative translation and other forms of oral disclosure in
translation (e.g. Think Aloud Protocols) have often been highlighted by trans-
lation process scholars and could usefully inform the design of psychological
studies on the topic of emotion expression. Monologue or dialogue TAPs, for
example, could constitute a mode or channel via which emotional expression
can take place.
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5 Discussion
Educating the mind without educating the heart—is no education at all.

—Aristotle
Summary of Key Findings

The results of the empirical study are noteworthy in terms of the links found
between translators’ self-perceived emotional skills and a number of socio-
biographical variables; they add weight to the extensive literature attest-
ing to the impact of emotions on various aspects of people’s lives. At the
facet level, statistically significant positive relationships were found between
emotion regulation and expression, on one hand, and the variables of pro-
fessional translation experience, education level, and literary translation
experience, on the other hand. In addition, a statistically significant positive
relationship was found between emotion expression and the variable of job
satisfaction. Although the literature reviews in Chapters 3 and 4 did not
highlight age as a possible variable of interest for these facets, we can see
from Appendix 2 that both emotion regulation and expression also showed
statistically significant positive relationships with age.
At the factor level, statistically significant positive relationships were
found between emotionality and the variables of age, professional trans-
lation experience, and job satisfaction, and between self-control and the
variables of professional translation experience, education level, and literary
translation experience. A statistically significant negative association was
found between time spent translating and the factor of emotionality.
The observation that one might make when perusing the study’s find-
ings is that the profile of a highly emotionally competent translator might
be someone older/mature, educated to degree level, with several years of
professional translation experience, who is satisfied with his or her job, and
who has some experience of undertaking literary translation. Emotionally
competent translators are also likely to be undertaking other professional
activities alongside translation, therefore not spending the majority of their
time translating.
196 Discussion
Therefore, the study results indicate four key areas where emotion traits
seem to play an important role for translators: job satisfaction, experience
and age, education, and literary translation. Although findings and their
implications for different components of translators’ emotion process were
discussed in detail in previous chapters, some recapitulation of salient points
and further reflection seem relevant now that we have come to the end of a
complex study.
Job Satisfaction
This study has shown that job satisfaction is positively and significantly
associated with emotion expression, and it is also positively and signifi-
cantly linked with global trait EI (as discussed in Hubscher-Davidson 2016).
Results add to the growing literature that suggests, as we noted in Chap-
ter 1, that trait EI predicts key outcomes in the workplace such as work
engagement, entrepreneurial behaviour, and leadership skills and is nega-
tively related to job stress and burnout (Petrides et al. 2016, 338).
Recent evidence has substantiated the influence of EI on key aspects of
our lives. A recent meta-analysis of emotional intelligence (Miao, Hum-
phrey, and Qian 2017a) confirmed that trait emotional intelligence posi-
tively relates to organisational citizenship behaviour and negatively relates
to counterproductive work behaviour. The authors argued that, when
managed and stimulated appropriately, emotions can spur creativity and
improve decision-making. In the conclusion to their work, they encourage
practitioners to incorporate an EI test during their selection process, in par-
ticular for jobs that are emotion-based and involve frequent management of
emotions. In the present study, we have seen that translating can involve a
fair amount of emotion management and that being emotionally intelligent
can greatly enhance how translators cope with key challenges in their work.
Productive work behaviours, creativity, and improved decision-making are
certainly desirable attributes for translators, and it would seem logical to
include some kind of assessment of emotional competencies in translator
training and staff development events. In the same vein, Rodríguez-Castro
(2016, 224) found that it is extremely important for employers of transla-
tors to pay attention to both intrinsic and extrinsic satisfiers at all stages of
a translator’s career in order to keep them motivated and productive and to
reduce turnover.
In another recent meta-analysis of emotional intelligence, Miao, Hum-
phrey, and Qian (2017b) found that trait EI contributes to gaining job
resources and that both job resources and EI contribute to job satisfaction.
The authors highlight that all individuals equally benefit from using EI to
enhance their job satisfaction. Although it would be unwarranted to say
that emotional intelligence is more important than other factors in deter-
mining translators’ job satisfaction, it is becoming increasingly difficult to
ignore the fact that trait EI has been shown in the literature to be related
Discussion 197
to a number of important outcomes, such as job and life satisfaction, per-
formance, and mental health. Emotionally intelligent translators, like other
emotionally intelligent individuals, can activate their EI when the situa-
tion requires it, for instance, with emotionally engaging work, and they
can harness their EI to maintain positive emotions and to regulate negative
emotions, enabling them to achieve their performance goals and to thrive
in their jobs. As such, employers and educators of translators should take
note of the links found between translators’ emotion traits and their levels
of job satisfaction, particularly in light of recent evidence that translation
may be a transitory, low-status, and poorly paid occupation for some (Dam
and Zethsen 2016). Emotionally intelligent translators are able to appraise
work situations constructively, manage stressors competently, and react
adaptively. Clearly, a great deal hinges on translators’ ability to be in touch
with their own and others’ feelings in the context of their work.
Experience
The present study found that professional translation experience is posi-
tively and significantly associated with emotionality and self-control and
with emotion regulation and expression more specifically. The age variable
was also significantly linked to the factor of emotionality. The relationship
between experience and age, on one hand, and translators’ emotional quali-
ties on the other, is perhaps one of the study’s less surprising findings.
Recent evidence suggests that developmental changes can affect how
we deal with emotions—with age and experience, individuals acquire an
increasingly sophisticated ability to recognise, appreciate, and relate to the
emotions of others (Magai 2008, 377). As such, it makes sense that the
older and more experienced translators become, the easier it is for them to
recognise and control emotional states. Indeed, as they mature and acquire
translation experience, translators may learn to better handle the emotional
information encountered in the context of their work. They may cultivate
their emotional skills alongside their professional and personal develop-
ment, and it is likely that they will become more able to understand and
handle their own emotions, as well as those of other people. With accumu-
lative experience, translators may thus become more adept at gauging and
handling client expectations and target reader requirements and at using
adaptive coping strategies which, in turn, boost their levels of job engage-
ment and general well-being. In fact, we have seen that repeated exposure
to emotion-related tasks may improve the processing and communication
of emotion-related information, a point which I will return to in the recom-
mendations section of this chapter.
Although we have noted in Chapter 1 that personality traits and disposi-
tions are relatively stable over time, and therefore emotional skills would
take time and effort to develop, Zeidner and Matthews (2017, 177) argue
that repeated practice can change some emotional skills, competencies,
198 Discussion
and behaviours. Magai (2008, 378) also claims that, as people age, they
“show an enhanced capacity to experience and express complex emotions,
demonstrate greater emotion regulatory capacities, experience and reflect
greater empathy to the emotional distress of others, and sustain and enrich
interpersonal relations”. These arguments are particularly interesting in
light of recent observations in TPR that there are specific competences that
translators develop with experience, and that soft competences in particu-
lar (e.g. emotion regulation) could be relevant for the study of translation
expertise (Tiselius and Hild 2017, 429/438). Dam and Zethsen’s (2016, 182)
recent research on translators “who stay within the profession for most of
their lives”, provides a picture of longstanding and experienced professional
translators who—despite being mostly unappreciated and unrecognised by
society—are still able to describe their work in very positive terms: exciting,
joyful, confidence-giving, inspiring, stimulating, and intellectually challeng-
ing. It remains to be seen if translators’ emotional skills develop with experi-
ence or if translators’ professional experience grows as a result of emotional
skills already there, but what is clear is that the two go hand in hand.
One recurring topic in the emotion literature is that of habituation. We
noted in previous chapters that, with experience, individuals become bet-
ter at managing emotions in their work, possibly because of a process of
habituation which entails becoming used to the effects of intense emotions.
Indeed, with experience, all translators will acquire practice in implement-
ing adaptive and less effortful strategies that enable them to handle emo-
tions entangled in their work. The act of repeatedly translating emotional
experiences into another language forces the translator to make the cogni-
tive effort to find meaning in these, to structure them, and to (re-)express
or (re-)interpret them in a different way enabling the translator to move
beyond the event. Although not necessarily comforting for novice trans-
lators, it would seem that the saying ‘it gets easier with time’ holds true.
As habituation to negative stimuli is believed to decrease individuals’ nega-
tive emotional responses, it could be that translators become habituated to
responding to negative stimuli in their work over time, thus neutralising the
emotional impact of challenging events. Habituation thus develops with age
and experience and serves to alter the behaviours and responses of transla-
tors to specific situations. From this perspective, we could argue that, in
time, translating experiences can shape emotional development in signifi-
cant ways and offer new vantage points from which to perceive, regulate,
and express emotional experiences.
In the same vein, it is interesting to note that experience was found to be
linked to perseverance and long-term grit in a recent study of sign language
interpreters. Indeed, McCartney (2016) found that grit scores were high-
est in interpreters who had many years of experience. That is, the longer
interpreters stayed in the profession, the more determined and willing they
were to persevere when faced with obstacles. It would seem that the endur-
ing exposure to challenges that comes with age and experience plays an
Discussion 199
important part in how translators and interpreters learn to handle work-
related issues. Like McCartney (2016, 47) I think it would be interesting to
investigate more thoroughly how personality traits like grit and trait EI can
fluctuate depending on factors such as years of translating experience.
Education
We noted in Chapter 1 that trait EI is associated with a wide range of vari-
ables in educational contexts, including academic performance and com-
mitment. Zeidner and Matthews (2017) have even suggested that EI and
academic giftedness could be related. We also highlighted previously that,
in the case of professional translators in this study, the higher the level of
education, the higher the levels of trait emotion regulation and expression.
In line with the wider psychological literature and other language-related
studies (e.g. Dewaele 2010), global trait emotional intelligence and educa-
tion are also significantly correlated in the present study. This link between
education levels and emotional functioning makes sense. Indeed, trait EI
positively affects academic achievement because it enables individuals to
cope better with emotional stress and anxiety in the course of their stud-
ies (Petrides, Frederickson, and Furnham 2004). This finding underscores
the importance of maintaining emotional well-being during a translator’s
education.
Zeidner and Matthews (2017, 165) argue that “students encounter a
wide array of both positive and negative emotions of varying intensity in the
classroom and in daily life, each of which may engage their emotional apti-
tudes and skills”. This is certainly true for language students who may, for
instance, experience positive emotions when successfully completing chal-
lenging assignments, and negative emotions when the problematic dynamics
of a group-work situation impact task performance. Throughout their edu-
cation, individuals have rich emotional experiences, and it makes sense that
the longer they stay in that learning environment, the more proficient they
may become at handling both cognitive and affective issues in and around
their work, in particular if we accept the idea that EI is somewhat amenable
to change.1
However, I noted in Chapters 3 and 4 that translation qualifications
did not, in the present study, seem to have a selective advantage over and
above other academic subjects when it comes to trait EI. This finding is
initially surprising in light of research that suggests that trait EI may influ-
ence academic performance by conferring a selective advantage for certain
academic subjects that require consideration of affect-related issues, such as
English literature, arts, design, and so on (Petrides, Frederickson, and Furn-
ham 2004). One might wonder, however, whether the increasingly technical
and business-focused curricula of translation degrees could be somewhat
unconducive to developing what Massey (2017, 510) terms the ‘psycho-
physiological’ dimension of translation competence and, in particular, the
200 Discussion
capability to manage emotions. In fact, in the UK at least, it is debatable
whether a translation degree can be considered a humanities degree, as it
is equally likely to bear the BSc/MSc degree abbreviation which tradition-
ally refers to a science qualification, as it is the BA/MA degree abbreviation
which traditionally refers to an arts qualification. Interestingly, professional
translators in the present study who had particularly high levels of trait EI
tended to have degrees in traditional humanities subjects, such as compara-
tive literature, history, and the arts. This finding is in line with other studies
that have found differences in the trait EI profiles of students in different
university departments. For instance, Sánchez-Ruiz, Perez-Gonzalez, and
Petrides (2010) found that arts students scored higher on the emotionality
factor of trait EI than did technical studies students.
As Petrides, Frederickson, and Furnham (2004) highlight, it is not easy
to determine the processes through which emotion traits relate to education
levels, especially because these processes could be reciprocal. Nevertheless,
it is clear from this and other studies that emotions are implicated in aca-
demic performance and that the kind of subjects studied may have a differ-
ential role in terms of the link between emotion traits and education level.
Since emotion traits have been shown, in the present study, to positively
impact professional translators’ job satisfaction and the length of time they
spend in the translation profession, it seems crucial for translator educa-
tion programmes to cater for their students’ emotional development. Future
translators who choose translation-specific qualifications need to become
emotionally educated to the same extent as their counterparts choosing
other types of qualifications.
Since the direction of the relationship between education and trait EI is
unclear, there is another explanation for the result that translation quali-
fications do not seem to produce translators high in EI to the same extent
as qualifications in (some) other subject areas. Rather than the result of a
defect in translator training, it could be that high trait EI individuals are
drawn to academic subjects that they perceive to be (rightly or wrongly) as
more affect-related than translation. Either way, this is an issue for transla-
tor educators, as it is in their interest that graduates entering the translation
profession are both adequately trained and emotionally functional. Aristo-
tle’s claim could be adapted to make the argument that educating the trans-
lator’s mind without educating the translator’s heart is no education at all.
Literary Translation
One of the most revealing findings in the study is the significant positive
relationship between literary translation experience and the trait EI facets
of emotion regulation and expression. I have noted elsewhere (Hubscher-
Davidson 2016) that professional translators’ trait EI is positively associ-
ated with literary translation experience amongst this group of participants,
Discussion 201
and that this is consonant with the wider literature indicating that literature-
based activities can improve both trait EI and writing ability, and that high
EI individuals are more likely to become successful writers (e.g. Abdolreza-
pour 2013; Ghosn 2001; Shao, Yu, and Ji 2013). Indeed, the literature offers
evidence that undertaking a creative literary activity can help to improve
skills in communicating and expressing emotions. We also noted in previous
chapters that translating literary fiction entails emotional engagement, emo-
tion sharing, and channelling, and that acquiring experience in this area can
help to hone translators’ emotional skills and intuitive abilities.
The present study offered some indication of the specific ways in which
literary translation experience can be helpful in contributing to translators’
emotional intelligence, but future studies could usefully investigate which
strategies are particularly adaptive. We noted in previous chapters that
undertaking literary translation involved the following (potentially adap-
tive) processes: identifying with literary characters, picking up on emotional
cues, habituating to emotion-evoking stimuli, sharing/channelling emo-
tions with readers, and repeatedly implementing regulatory strategies that
become less cognitively taxing with experience.
Deliberate practice in implementing adaptive coping strategies when trans-
lating literary texts is an opportunity for professional translators from all
backgrounds to learn to develop their emotional skill set. It can be hypothe-
sised that this kind of deliberate practice might also lead professional transla-
tors to produce target texts of higher quality, regardless of the genre they are
used to working with. Indeed, Hvelplund and Dragsted (forthcoming) found
that translators specialising in a particular genre acquire ‘source text inti-
macy’ and are able to apply automated strategies to solve problems during
the translation process. As such, it can be surmised that the (hopefully adap-
tive) strategies learnt by translators when undertaking literary translation
will eventually become automated, and can then be used effectively to solve
problems such as transferring a source text’s tone and style to the target text.
When translating literary material, both automatic and effortful strategies
can thus be employed to influence the generation and experience of emotions.
As previously mentioned, affect is very relevant to all kinds of writing and
translation activities, even those that are less affectively charged. The strate-
gies that translators will have acquired when practising literary translation
can, therefore, be applied to the translation of other genres or text types.
Literary translation could also constitute a kind of practice activity during
which translators can learn to implement strategies in a safe environment,
as we have seen that fictional events and characters are less likely to elicit
extreme emotions than those strictly based on fact. In the psychological lit-
erature, there are suggestions that the beneficial impact of processing styles
and strategy use could be explored through the means of creative writing
(e.g. Hoyt, Austenfeld, and Stanton 2016), and it could be that these could
also be explored via the creative activity that is literary translation.
202 Discussion
The beneficial effects of literary translation do not end here, however. We
noted in Chapter 3 that the use of adaptive emotion regulation strategies
also led to reduced fatigue, stress, and surface-acting, as well as increased
personal insight, openness to challenging work, and a positive frame of
mind. These are very desirable attributes for professional translators to have
and, if literary translation helps their development, it could also become an
integral part in the designing of training courses that develop and reinforce
these traits. In this sense, some level of regular training or practice in liter-
ary translation would seem to be useful, and the activity should no longer
be viewed as marginal—it has clear value beyond its acknowledged cultural
significance and prestigious status.
Nevertheless, although the study points towards an important link
between certain emotion traits and translation experience, literary or oth-
erwise, results were mixed regarding links between EI facets and the ‘time
spent translating’ variable. That is, although translation experience is linked
to trait EI, the number of total work hours that professional translators
spend translating does not seem to be a predictor of trait EI scores. The
emotion regulation facet did show a positive link with this variable, either
because intense translation work may provide translators with opportuni-
ties to practice emotion regulation, or because translators high in emotion
regulation stay motivated to spend longer periods of time on translation
activities. This link, however, was not statistically significant. Although a
seemingly surprising finding, the literature reviewed offered the possible
explanation that regular translation practice could be more conducive to
the development of emotion perception and expression skills than long and
intense sessions. Because spending long periods of time translating can be
tiring, emotionally draining, and damaging for a translator’s health and cog-
nitive processing, it seems to be in the translator’s interest to work in rela-
tively short bursts and to take regular breaks, particularly when working
with challenging and emotion-eliciting texts. Regular practice over longer
stretches of time would work some way towards combatting the emotional
toll that full-time translating can entail and would result in enhanced emo-
tional processing and self-monitoring processes.
Recent work by Angelone (2010) and Shreve and Angelone (2011)
highlighted the key role for professional translators of self-regulating and
self-monitoring, defined as “the ability to reflect on, plan for, and exer-
cise deliberate and strategic control over the progress of a problem solving
sequence” (Angelone 2010, 19). Indeed, they suggested that professional
translators with these abilities will have developed more effective working
mechanisms (Shreve and Angelone 2011, 110). By working regularly over
time, but not intensely, translators would be able to dedicate the necessary
time and mental resources to effectively plan, reflect, and problem-solve.
This seems especially important as problem-solving can be complex and,
thus, cognitively taxing.
Discussion 203
Implications for Teaching and Professional Development
General Considerations
As highlighted by both Lee-Jahnke (2005, 361) and Massey (2017, 497),
process-oriented approaches to research have pedagogical potential as they
can lead to a better understanding of the different processes leading to trans-
lation quality, for example, by collecting data from professionals and identi-
fying successful patterns of behaviour. The present study collected data from
professional translators and identified specific behaviours that could posi-
tively impact on translation performance. For instance, we have seen that
the process of learning to manage emotions involved in translation work
goes hand in hand with translation experience and job satisfaction, both of
which have clear potential to impact quality. The real-world implications
of trait EI are currently underestimated both in translation research and in
the profession; nevertheless, this study’s findings have clear implications for
translator education.
Given the potential for emotional involvement in translation work,
translators should be prepared during their training and professional devel-
opment to handle some of the emotions they may encounter when working
in the translation profession. It makes sense for students preparing to enter
the translation profession to spend some time reflecting on their emotional
triggers and considering how they will handle various texts and contexts
where strong emotions are likely to be elicited. Translator educators may
wonder whether it is necessary to actively develop emotional skills during
training if these are likely to develop in any case with time spent in the
translation profession. However, initiating engagement with these issues at
an early stage of development may go some way towards preparing transla-
tors for what lies ahead, possibly influencing their future engagement with
the profession.
Although enhancing the psychological skills of translators has been
mooted elsewhere (e.g. Atkinson 2014), enhancing translators’ trait EI has
not yet received attention in translator education research, despite its rel-
evance. According to Petrides et al. (2016, 338), “trait EI should be given
serious consideration in vocational psychology as well as in the practice of
career guidance and coaching”. Educators should help translators develop
their own emotional competencies, especially since doing so could facili-
tate how they gain resources at work and boost their job satisfaction (see
Miao, Humphrey, and Qian 2017b). Addressing emotional development in
translation programmes should enable translators to become more skilled
in dealing with emotion-laden and difficult issues in their work, to be less
stressed and depleted after emotional work, to develop a self-aware and
balanced attitude towards their work, and to respond more effectively to
environmental demands.
204 Discussion
There are, however, two cautionary notes. First, as argued in Chapter 1,
trait EI is a broad personality trait and, as such, is likely to remain relatively
stable across the life span despite recent indications that emotional function-
ing is somewhat malleable and that trait EI could be amenable to change
(e.g. Kotsou et al. 2011). We have seen in previous chapters that improve-
ments in trait EI can be short-lived. The TEIQue technical manual highlights
that there are two major ways in which changes in trait EI may take place:
First, severe, abrupt, and unforeseeable changes in a person’s life cir-

cumstances (e.g., divorce, rapid promotion, health problems) can have
a pronounced and lasting impact on all aspects of personality, including
trait EI. Second, profile shifts may occur in response to conscious efforts
on the part of the individual.
(Petrides 2009, 21)
These conscious efforts on the part of the individual are what translator edu-
cation programmes can focus on. It is important to bear in mind, though,
that this kind of personal development requires a great deal of effort, and
Petrides (ibid.) reports that behaviour modification by effortful manage-
ment of how personality dispositions are externalised is more likely to bear
fruit than trying to change a latent personality trait. It would seem that trait
EI training is therefore most efficient when it targets shifts in behaviours: “it
may be better to train the requisite skills directly, rather than seek to change
the rather more nebulous characteristics of EI” (Matthews, Zeidner, and
Roberts 2017, 323). Interestingly, recent work has shown that EI training
programmes have been quite effective in improving psychological, physical,
and social adjustment and in building resilience in the context of stressful
occupations (Austin and Saklofske 2014; Nelis et al. 2011; Mikolajczak and
Bellegem 2017).
The second cautionary note is a reminder that there is no dream profile of
the emotionally intelligent individual and that certain emotion profiles will
be advantageous in some contexts and not in others (Petrides et al. 2016).
It is important to remember that high trait EI scores can be maladaptive,
depending on the particular situation. A translator high in emotion percep-
tion could experience greater mood deterioration after reading a distressing
source text than a translator with low scores in that area, and this could
negatively impact on the translation process. If trait EI evaluations are to
be used as part of translator training and continuing professional develop-
ment (CPD) activities, this needs to be borne in mind as well as the need to
provide contextualised feedback to respondents (Petrides 2009, 8).
Linked to this, it is also useful to remember that experiencing both nega-
tive and positive emotions can have either negative or positive outcomes.
We have seen that beneficial or adaptive emotional experiences are not
necessarily pleasant, and there is a strong argument for a synthesis of the
‘positive’ and ‘negative’ in expressive writing paradigms (e.g. Hayes and
Discussion 205
Hefferon 2015). Because the experience of both positive and negative emo-
tions, depending on duration and context, could lead to either adaptive or
maladaptive outcomes, translator educators should consider exploring with
translators what Hayes and Hefferon (ibid., 80) call the ‘dark’ side of posi-
tive emotions, as well as the ‘light’ side of negative emotions. Only by doing
this will translators be able to cultivate beneficial emotional experiences for
future use.
Of course, just as some individuals do not benefit from emotion-focused
writing interventions that are designed to foster emotional processing
(Frattaroli 2006), it is possible that some translators will not benefit from
trait EI training. Seeley et al. (2017) note that writing which involves emo-
tional processing may be best suited to those who have the ability to pro-
cess emotions related to a stressor, and this could hold true for translators
as well—translators’ individual differences can moderate the benefits of
emotion-focused interventions during training. It is beyond the scope of this
study to elucidate the mutual influences between translators’ dispositions
and their amenity to training, but it is an aspect worth considering in the
context of educational interventions.
According to the literature, changes in emotional self-efficacy are gener-
ally evident after several weeks of training and are maintained for at least
one year subsequently (Petrides et al. 2016). This implies that regular bouts
of training might be necessary for maintaining one’s skills in emotion percep-
tion, regulation, and expression. If one considers that translation can work
as a channel for emotional disclosure and the development of adaptive emo-
tional responses (see Chapter 4), the fact that it takes time and practice for
there to be improvements in emotional self-efficacy could partly explain the
finding in this study that translation experience is associated with higher lev-
els of emotional self-perceptions. Indeed, experienced translators will have
had more opportunities to undertake emotion work and to learn from it.
Implementing translator training that is focused on emotional competence
could therefore provide translators with the necessary time and space for
developing the awareness, monitoring, insight, and reflection that they need
to reap the benefits of emotion work and to identify successful and less suc-
cessful strategies and behaviours. This kind of training seems timely because
opportunities for self-monitoring and reflection are diminishing in many of
today’s fast-paced and technology-focused translation programmes.
Training can include group discussions, role plays, vignettes, journal writ-
ing, and self-observations where translators are encouraged to experience
and practice several methods and strategies (rooted in theory) to develop a
number of emotional competencies. According to Kotsou et al. (2011, 830),
training sessions in the area of emotional processing strive “to improve the
participant’s flexibility in addressing emotionally difficult and stressful situ-
ations in a more adaptive manner. Participants learn to change the relations
they have with difficult emotions by learning how to tame them instead of
avoiding or struggling with them”. As argued elsewhere (Hubscher-Davidson
206 Discussion
forthcoming), focused training can develop translators’ trait EI levels and
have real effects on behaviour modification. Translators’ trait EI could be
trained by taking the following steps: (1) developing translation exercises
that provide translators with a wide range of emotion-eliciting challenges so
that they acquire experience and tolerance of making decisions where emo-
tions play a part, (2) regularly asking translators to discuss emotion-eliciting
texts in groups so that they are exposed to other perspectives and attitudes
on how to handle possible emotion-eliciting translations and can identify
ways to successfully proceed with their tasks without undue stress, and (3)
actively promoting the benefits of engaging in translation situations where
there is potential for emotion and a sense of personal responsibility in order
to develop their trait EI skills.
Some techniques mentioned in previous chapters and which could be
adapted for translator education include Pennebaker-type interventions,
narrative writing with implicit audiences in mind, positive writing, and
other emotion-driven communication exercises. To start with, however, just
the simple process of filling in a questionnaire about emotions can be help-
ful. Participants in the present study reported a new self-awareness after
completing the TEIQue: “I learned a thing or two about myself”; “[The
survey] made me think a lot about myself, which isn’t always a good thing.
But, it has to be done, hasn’t it?”
I have already suggested that undertaking literary translation could pro-
vide opportunities for students (and professionals) to develop and improve
their emotional competencies by implementing adaptive strategies. To my
mind, undertaking carefully designed literary translation activities with a
focus on emotions and coping strategies would constitute legitimate trans-
lator training exercises, and the translation of literature could also be a
legitimate professional development exercise for experienced translators,
particularly for those with little to no experience in literary translation.
Indeed, we have seen that the background and training of literary transla-
tors may already habituate them to the challenges of emotion work, and
therefore, accumulating further experience in this area may not be as impor-
tant for them as it might be for non-literary translators for whom the kind
of emotion activation brought about by literary translation may have a
more positive impact.
Therefore, whether or not a professional translator is likely to acquire
paid literary translation work in future, it is my contention that literary
translation should be integrated in both translator training programmes
and CPD activities. Recently, the University of Warwick launched a Future
Learn course on the topic of Literature and Mental Health2 titled ‘Litera-
ture and Mental Health: Reading for Wellbeing’ which aimed to show how
poems, plays, and novels can help individuals understand and cope with
deep emotional strain. The approach that I am suggesting here (i.e. using
literary translation as a means to enhance professional translators’ emo-
tional well-being) promotes a similar idea. Engaging with literature-based
Discussion 207
activities could help to sharpen translators’ emotional skills and intuitive
abilities, something which is useful for translators of all genres.
Zeidner and Matthews (2017, 170) observe that the implementation of
programmes that target emotional and social competencies has become
a priority in many schools, and that research supports the many positive
impacts of soundly implemented EI interventions in academic contexts.
They offer a useful set of guidelines for developing EI training programmes
which could be adapted for translator training contexts. Above all, they
highlight that training emotional skills should involve respect for individual
differences, sensitivity to context, avoidance of simplistic recommenda-
tions, and a genuine desire to broaden individuals’ coping resources and
self-insight (ibid., 177). Schutte, Malouff, and Thorsteinsson (2013) also
offer useful suggestions about how future research can uncover what types
of training most effectively increases emotional intelligence. Amongst other
advice, they suggest focusing on increasing component competencies, and
exploring mindfulness interventions.
In Interpreting Studies, Bontempo and Malcolm (2012) offer some very
useful safeguards for tackling emotionally challenging content in inter-
preter training contexts, and these should be required reading for educa-
tors wishing to explore these issues in the translation classroom. If carried
out appropriately, training in emotional competencies, and emotion regula-
tion in particular, could have a great many benefits for translators, as it has
been shown to have a significant effect on well-being, life satisfaction, self-
esteem, mental and physical health, social relationships, and employability
(Nelis et al. 2011). Investing in improving EI in academic curricula could
even lead to important financial savings in the long-term for institutions
(Mikolajczak and Bellegem 2017).
Practical Strategies
The main contribution of this monograph is to give the topic of transla-
tion and emotion a sound theoretical basis and to provide empirical data
to support it. The focus does not lie on providing simplistic advice on ‘how
to become a successful translator’. It seems worthwhile, however, to briefly
address the issue of practical applications for translation professionals and
scholars interested in developing translation competencies.
As previously noted, trait EI interventions are likely to be more success-
ful if individuals are trained in specific skills adapted to their needs, rather
than if they try to change EI in a global sense. Matthews, Zeidner, and Rob-
erts (2017, 323) claim that it is particularly useful to train people in emo-
tion regulation techniques that can then be applied to different contexts.3
As mentioned in Chapter 3, Hild (2014) argued that interpreting students
would struggle to become self-regulated learners on their own and that
self-regulation skills should be included in training programmes. Similarly,
it could take translation students several years of professional translation
208 Discussion
experience to become emotionally regulated on their own. As such, it is
important that translator education involves some level of training in the
use of effective strategies.4
There are many different kinds of emotion regulation techniques or strat-
egies, some of which are automatic and others effortful: “strategies can
include efforts aimed at selecting or modifying aspects of a stressor, direct-
ing attention toward or away from stressors, reappraising one’s associated
thoughts, or modulating internal or external responses to an experienced
emotion” (Gross 2001, in Hoyt, Austenfeld, and Stanton 2016, 1183). If
one considers the five points in the emotion process model discussed in
Chapter 3, translators have some clear strategies open to them in order to
influence their emotion-generative process:
• Situation selection: translators can learn to avoid certain people, places,

or activities so as to limit their exposure to situations likely to trig-
ger negative emotion. For example, a translator may wish to refuse
to translate a criminal case file dealing with sexual abuse if he or she
has been sexually abused in the past. By refusing the commission, the
translator is selecting not to enter into a situation which would prob-
ably trigger a great deal of distress. Gross and Thomson (2007, 11)
claim that this particular strategy “requires an understanding of likely
features of remote situations, and of expectable emotional responses
to these features”. This level of self-understanding is difficult to gain,
notably because individuals misestimate their emotional responses to
future events. Asking trainee translators to think about which circum-
stances they would choose for themselves seems to me to be a key area
for reflection. Cristina Viti, an Italian-English poet and translator, has
claimed at a seminar held in London in 2014 that she regularly asks
herself what texts she will allow into her day and into herself.
• Situation modification: translators can learn to tailor or change a situ-
ation in order to decrease its negative emotional impact. For example,
a translator has accepted to translate a medical report as he or she has
done this countless times before. However, this time the report describes
a patient’s battle with cancer and deteriorating condition, something
which the translator finds particularly difficult to cope with as his or
her father has just passed away following a long battle with cancer. The
translator may choose to discuss the issue with a fellow translator, or
even to work with them on part of the translation, thus modifying the
situation and altering its emotional impact. In this instance, both emo-
tion regulation and expression come into play. Asking trainee transla-
tors to think about how they might modify and shape emotion-eliciting
situations would therefore also seem to be an important area for reflec-
tion and discussion.
• Attentional deployment: translators can learn to focus their attention on
less negatively valenced aspects of a situation, using either distraction
Discussion 209
or concentration. In the same seminar held in London in 2014, Aoi
Matsushima, a Japanese–English translator, provided an example of a
translator who had been directly affected by the 2011 Tsunami and, as
such, had found it very difficult to cope with translations dealing with
this topic. The translator, however, could invoke thoughts relating to the
benefit of spreading the word to as many people as possible, and to the
need to prevent loss of life in future, thus redirecting his attention to dif-
ferent aspects of the situation. It seems useful for trainee translators to
practice applying attentional shifts to emotionally arousing situations,
particularly in cases where they may not be able to change the transla-
tion situation itself.
• Cognitive change: translators can learn to construct more positive
meanings out of the many possible meanings that may be attached to
a situation, for instance, by using reappraisal. In fact, trait EI is reli-
ably and substantially associated with greater use of the reappraisal
strategy (Matthews, Zeidner, and Roberts 2017, 320). For example,
a translator might become bored or annoyed when translating a long,
repetitive, and dry instruction manual but then decide that, actually, he
or she could be translating worse texts and is lucky to be learning new
terminology; the translator might therefore be able to change how he
or she feels about the situation and start to enjoy the translation task.
Learning to change how we appraise the situations we are in in order to
alter their emotional significance is arguably another key strategy that
translators need to be able to deploy.
• Response modulation: translators can learn to influence their emotion-
response tendencies once these have already been elicited. For instance,
a translator who is spending several months translating Adolf Hitler’s
Mein Kampf and has noticed the emotional toll it has on him or her
may decide to start the working day with some exercise and finish with
some yoga or other relaxation technique in order to decrease his or her
negative emotions and modify/manage his or her emotion experience.
Gross and Thompson (2007, 15) indicate that attempts to regulate the
physiological and experiential aspects of emotion are common and that
the availability of adaptive response alternatives is situation-dependent
and increases with age. As such, it seems eminently wise to teach trans-
lation students how to modulate their responses in ways that are adap-
tive according to different situations.
These are some possible empirically and theoretically supported strategies

that can form the basis of teaching interventions. There are other ways that
translators could engage with emotion processing, and some constructive
processing methods such as affect labelling (identifying emotions and con-
verting emotional experiences into words) and insight utilisation (building
a coherent narrative and creating meaning out of an experience) have also
been shown to impact positively on emotional health (e.g. Hoyt, Austenfeld,
210 Discussion
and Stanton 2016).5 Additional work exploring the benefits of these spe-
cific methods of engaging with emotions during translation work would be
a very useful addition to the translator-education literature. Supplement-
ing traditional translator training programmes with methods for emotional
processing holds promise, as increasing translators’ self-awareness of their
tendencies towards adaptive or less adaptive strategies, combined with fos-
tering an ability to employ adaptive strategies, may serve to improve both
translators’ well-being and translation performance.
During their training, translators can start to learn how to regulate their
emotions through regular translation practice with a wide range of texts
that require the use of adaptive strategies. As highlighted previously, this
would provide them with opportunities to deal with emotions, to use per-
sonal insight and effort, to practice problem-solving coping, and to become
habituated to the effects of emotion-eliciting work. Eventually, this will
lead to better communication of emotions, higher levels of well-being and
enjoyment of translation, and to experiencing more positive feelings and less
anxiety and distress. In turn, this may also impact positively on creativity
and divergent thinking (e.g. Rojo and Ramos Caro 2016).
In educating the translators of the future, our goal is to produce com-
petent and effective translators who are happy to be a part of the transla-
tion profession and mentally ready to cope with its challenges. Translator
trainers are not therapists but, given the growing evidence of the impact of
personal characteristics on translation performance, one might argue that
they should be. I see it as an essential part of our role as educators to enable
translators to become more resilient when faced with emotion laden and
difficult issues in the context of their work and to develop their ability to
draw on both their mental and physical resources. Translators who are cog-
nisant of their own dispositions and coping styles will be better prepared to
thrive in what Dam and Zethsen (2016, 174) call the “porous and unstable”
translation profession.
Professional Responsibilities
Professional translators, we have seen, can borrow others’ emotions through
processes of emotional sharing when translating. Bontempo and Malcolm
(2012) drew attention to the potential for emotional contagion leading to
the manifestation of vicarious trauma for interpreters in healthcare settings,
and they outlined a number of strategies that interpreters could be taught
in order to better plan to manage their emotions in professional settings.
More importantly, they argued that it is time for the interpreting profession
to recognise the vulnerability of interpreters when working with emotion-
ally challenging material and to respond appropriately (2012, 127). The
same holds true for the translation profession where there needs to be more
acknowledgement of translators’ human feelings and reactions.
Translators also need to be proactive and have the courage to take
responsibility by making use of the different strategies available to them. In
Discussion 211
Chapter 2, I highlighted that it would be better for translators to work on
an emotion-eliciting text for two hours a day for four days, rather than a
single eight-hour stretch, because they would have more time to think about
and process the text, thus making time for self-monitoring and processing of
emotion-eliciting content. For many professional translators working with
tight deadlines, this will not always be possible. Nevertheless, if translators
are aware that a text they have been asked to translate may ‘strike a chord’
with them, then it is their responsibility to draw on their emotion-related
knowledge and skills in order to manage the situation. Their informed
decision-making might result in asking for extra time, in refusing the work,
or in implementing other coping strategies (e.g. talk therapy, journal writing,
cognitive reappraisal) in order to successfully produce the translation. In this
sense, translators could assess a text in relation to its affective potential in
a similar way to how they assess a text in relation to its level of specialisa-
tion. This behaviour is both ethical and healthy, and professional translators
are thus empowered to show responsibility towards themselves, as well as
towards their clients and readers. It remains important to challenge the wide-
spread belief that translators should be entirely uninvolved and impartial and
to raise awareness amongst the translation community and beyond of the
impact of emotions on translation work. As Bontempo and Malcolm (2012,
127) argued, while wholesale change throughout the profession may be dif-
ficult, it is the obligation of everyone involved in the field to bring it about.
Strengths and Limitations

This is the first study of its kind, and it contributes to enriching our under-
standing of trait emotional intelligence and its role in translation. The phe-
nomenon under consideration, however, is large and complex. Findings,
although suggestive of interesting and relevant effects, can only offer a
glimpse into a multifaceted reality. There is no doubt that trait EI is just
one element in a complex web of factors that affect translation. The effects
of emotions on translation are not constant but dynamic and complex, as
many different variables also interact with and influence the translation pro-
cess. This complexity means that all possible factors and variables cannot be
included in one single study, and the focus was necessarily quite restricted.
This study shed light on the relationship between trait EI and translation
and, in particular, among translation and emotion perception, regulation,
and expression, but causal connections could not be established, and there
are other relationships of interest in the context of translation that need to
be analysed. As Dewaele (2017, 444) notes in the case of foreign-language
anxiety, “this narrow focus does not lessen the value of the findings but it
requires intellectual honesty about their generalizability”.
Nevertheless, the combination of questionnaires with open and closed
questions from 155 professional translators and the numerous personal
accounts generated independently of the research and embedded in the
discussions, provided sufficient information to shed light on the study’s
212 Discussion
research questions. A clear strength of the present design is the gathering
of data with different research methods, including the use of a research
tool with a strong theoretical and psychometric basis. The research design
also enabled data to be collected from a relatively large and heterogeneous
sample of professional translators, with a range of language combinations
and coming from different countries and settings. This served to enhance the
ecological validity of the research, while also marking a contrast with much
of the research carried out in Psychology, where samples are—more often
than not—composed of students. However, the sample of participants in the
present study is not representative of the entire translation population, and
results of the research may not have general applicability. It is important
that replications of this work are conducted with different populations and
in different contexts to gauge the degree of confidence to place in its find-
ings. Sample size should also be increased.
The present study did not analyse the translation product and its quality.
While I agree with Balling and Hvelplund (2015) that process data should
ideally be supplemented with considerations of the outcome of that process,
product analysis would have been a very difficult undertaking with such a
large sample, even without considering the thorny issue of how to measure
translation quality. As mentioned, other kinds of qualitative analyses sup-
plement the quantitative data and help to explain them, but future studies
could usefully investigate trait EI alongside variations in product quality.
The limitations associated with relying on self-report instruments have
been extensively reported in both the Psychology and Translation Studies lit-
erature and were also addressed in previous chapters. Although self-reports
can be good predictors of behaviour (Martins, Ramalho, and Morin 2010),
these can nonetheless be affected by the social desirability bias. Translators
volunteering to complete a questionnaire about emotional intelligence, or
speaking and writing about emotions in their work, are probably likely to
be high in emotional intelligence. It is therefore likely that a positive bias
towards emotionally intelligent translators is present in this study. These
drawbacks, however, are not unique to this study and pertain to all research
survey design.
Another limitation of the study is linked to the abovementioned point that
trait EI does not explain the whole picture. Indeed, it is worth remember-
ing that not all the test results showed statistical significance and the effect
sizes in this study were typically marginal or moderate, thus not explaining
a very large percent of the variance.6 Caution must therefore be taken when
interpreting results from the trait EI questionnaire. As argued elsewhere
(Hubscher-Davidson 2016; forthcoming), it is often the case that correlation
coefficients are low for studies attempting to predict complex human behav-
iour, but this does not mean that valuable information cannot be drawn
from the data. Indeed, humans are harder to predict than physical processes,
and when effect sizes are low but results are statistically significant, one can
still draw important conclusions. To an extent, the collection of qualitative
Discussion 213
data (i.e. translators’ accounts) helped to compensate for weaknesses inher-
ent in the collection of the quantitative data and enabled the sketching of a
more complete and richer picture of the presence and influence of emotions
on translators. Results that appeared to be of interest from the statistical
analysis were then further explored with reference to translators’ experi-
ences and perspectives as well as the wider literature.
Like Bontempo et al. (2014, 36) found in the framework of their study
on the personalities of sign language interpreters, findings here suggest that
taking account of the additive effect of personality on top of general cogni-
tive ability results in potentially very powerful predictors of performance
and that “personality variables are important ingredients in the theoretical
‘pie’ ”. Despite its limitations, the present study provided some convincing
evidence of the impact that emotions can have on translation work and
strengthened the argument that emotional intelligence is a personality vari-
able that can make a difference in the context of professional translation.
Notes
1 Interestingly, in the context of a health care expenditure study, Mikolajczak and
Bellegem (2017) found that people with low educational levels would benefit more
from an intervention to increase their EI than would people with post-graduate
degrees. This reinforces the point that the longer one stays in education, the more
opportunities there are for honing one’s trait EI, and hence, the less worthwhile it
might be to attempt to increase it.
2 www.futurelearn.com/courses/literature, last accessed 13 June 2017.
3 It is noteworthy that EI traits are highly correlated with one another. Developing
emotion regulation skills is therefore likely to influence the development of other
aspects of emotional self-efficacy.
4 The fact that conscious strategies can be used to change the translator’s response to
emotional stimuli highlights the impact of cognition on emotion, and makes it very
apparent how intertwined the mechanisms of emotion and cognition really are.
5 Hoyt, Austenfeld, and Stanton (2016) suggest that affect labelling, for example, is
beneficial because identifying emotions draws attention to the emotional state and
facilitates habituation.
6 Nevertheless, Petrides, Frederickson, and Furnham (2004) observe that the impor-
tance of trait EI research should not be judged according to effect sizes but, rather,
according to the extent to which it elucidates and explains the nature of the con-
struct. It has also recently been suggested that some TEIQue facets might actually
underestimate the construct’s predictive power at the global-composite level (Sieg-
ling, Vesely, and Saklofske 2013; Siegling, Petrides, and Martskvishvili 2015).
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Conclusion and Future Directions
The aims of the present study were to shed light on the role of emotions
in translation, and to show the different ways that these might influence
professional translators. The combination of quantitative and qualitative
data enabled a detailed analysis of professional translators’ experiences and
profiles, and noteworthy links were found between professional translators’
self-perceived emotional skills and a number of sociobiographical variables.
The study showed that emotions impact on various aspects of translators’
lives and work and that professional translators with different levels of trait
emotion perception, regulation, and expression have different profiles in
terms of age, education, experience, and job satisfaction, thus supporting
the study’s general hypothesis. The research also indicated that professional
translators with higher levels of trait emotionality are more successful at
handling emotions in their work, which includes the perception of emotional
material contained in source texts, the regulation of their own emotions,
and the expression of emotions for target readers. The correlations found
between translators’ trait emotion scores and some key variables linked to
professional expertise (e.g. professional experience) suggest that aspects of
translator behaviour and professional success are dependent on emotional
intelligence. As a result of this study, it thus seems justified that trait EI
be considered a meaningful variable with which to profile translators in
future TPR studies. It also seems justified that translators’ emotional skills
are given serious consideration in training and professional contexts. Find-
ings strengthen Whyatt’s (2012, 275) argument that there needs to be an
interplay among the physical, the intellectual, and the emotional domains of
human experience for a career in translation to be fulfilling and satisfying.
While it is clear that there is no ideal translation student and no ideal
professional translator profile, if translator educators had information on
individuals’ emotional intelligence alongside other information (working
memory capacity, language competence, cultural levels, etc.), then they
may be in a better position to design and deliver their teaching taking into
account translators’ needs and expectations and to provide adequate sup-
port for the development of their emotional skills. They may be better
placed to teach the types of emotional behaviours that are most adaptive
218 Conclusion and Future Directions
in particular circumstances, depending on the individual and the situation.
Not only would having this information maximise the benefits of training,
but it would enable translators to manage their own emotional health and
psychological well-being in the long term. Findings in this study suggest
that professional translators with high levels of trait emotional intelligence
are likely to stay longer in the translation profession and to be more satis-
fied with their jobs. Although increased knowledge and understanding of
emotions will not necessarily guarantee that translators will be able to put
this into practice once they enter the profession, it is clearly an important
first step. Notably, it is in the interest of the translation community to pro-
duce translators who perceive themselves as emotionally intelligent, if only
because “individuals who describe themselves as having higher emotional
complexity [. . .] are more attentive to their feelings, are more open to new
experiences, are more emphatic towards others, and show greater interper-
sonal adaptability” (Kang and Shaver 2004). These qualities are desirable in
all professional contexts, arguably even more so in intercultural ones.
During the data collection phase, I received many emails and even let-
ters from professional translators who were keen to engage in a discussion
on translators’ emotions and wanted to know what techniques they could
apply practically as part of their professional development and training.
Many translators seemed acutely aware of the emotional implications of
their work and related issues. As one translator reported, “I have discov-
ered that over time I understand the fellow I translate through my own life
experiences”. During a workshop on the topic of emotions and translation
held in London in 2014, the Japanese–English translator Aoi Matsushima
observed that translating subtitles for horror films can affect the translator’s
mood; that poorly written source texts can make the translator irritated,
frustrated and angry; but also that putting a lot of passion in a translation
dealing with a topic close to the translator’s heart can be extremely moti-
vating and even lead to winning a translation prize. These narratives add
weight to the argument that translators’ emotions are not just an antecedent
or outcome of action but that they are an integral part of the translation
process itself. Emotions can influence the translation process, and the trans-
lation process can also influence translators’ emotions.
Professional translators’ positive reactions and interest in this research
provide an additional justification for developing emotional competencies
in translator-training programmes and continuing professional development
courses. Emotional intelligence training shows promise, but theoretically
oriented, as well as practically oriented, research remains to be done in this
area in Translation Studies. Intervention studies are needed to establish the
extent to which emotional intelligence training can be effective in the con-
text of translation. Although this study breaks new ground, future research
is needed to refine its findings.
Recent work in TPR has drawn attention to the role that affective and
emotional processes play in the translation act, but research in this area
is only just beginning to flourish, and there is clearly a place for more sys-
tematic studies in this promising field. The argument put forward some
time ago by Damasio (1994), amongst others, that emotions are linked to
decision-making has only recently started to sink into our research realms.
In exploring the consequences that emotions can have on the translation
process, and analysing in some depth the effects of different emotions and
regulation strategies on translation performance, the present study adds an
important piece to the puzzle. The combination of theoretical renewal, on
one hand, with empirical research to support it, on the other, is one of the
key strengths of this research study.
However, there remains much work to be done to fully appreciate the role
of emotions on translators’ behaviours and how these can be managed. As
our understanding of the impact of emotions on professional translators’
work continues to grow, work will also need to be done to clarify and share
findings among the scholarly community. Emotion research can stimulate
new interpretations or help to refine and enrich current thinking about the
translation process. For instance, in his work on experienced poetry trans-
lators, Jones (2011) acknowledged that emotion can influence whether a
translator undertakes and continues working on a project, that it is a key
element in motivation, and that it can influence evaluations of translation
solutions. Nevertheless, he concluded that emotions “seem to play a minor
role in translating itself—except as input to acceptability judgements” (ibid.,
142). Jones’s interpretation may be perfectly legitimate in the context of his
study which is based on poets’ narratives, but probably very few emotion
researchers would have drawn the same conclusion. Emotions can have an
important impact on various cognitive processes central to translation tasks
on a nonconscious level, and as such, emotions probably play a more impor-
tant role in translation processes than many translators and scholars think.
One might also argue that, since translation acts are embedded in transla-
tion events (Chesterman 2013), the significant role that emotions play in,
for example, influencing whether a project is undertaken, is likely to extend
to what Jones calls “translating itself” (2011, 142).
The research presented in this monograph contributes to the literature by
generating evidence that emotions are regularly entangled in the perception
of material contained in source texts, in translators’ regulation processes,
and in how target texts are expressed. This has far-reaching repercussions
for various areas of Translation Studies and the potential is there to generate
new and exciting research studies. For example, it would be highly useful to
investigate the possible impact of EI (and EI training) on translators’ ethical
decision making, particularly because there may be a link between emo-
tional intelligence and ethical perspectives (e.g. Grieve and Mahar 2010).
In light of recent work on situated approaches to translation (e.g. Risku
2014) future research could also explore the role of environmental factors
in optimising translators’ acquisition of emotional competencies. Because
social contexts in which others display emotional competencies are said to
encourage the learning of emotional competency (Schutte, Malouff, and
Thorsteinsson 2013), it would be very relevant to investigate the impact of
professional translators’ social contexts on their levels of emotional intel-
ligence. Another avenue for further research is the extent to which trans-
lators’ cultural and emotional worlds are linked. Different cultures define
or perceive emotional competency differently, and more research could be
undertaken to understand the influence of cultural context on dispositional
differences and similarities when it comes to emotional functioning.
Results from this study also provide a roadmap for future research to
explore additional salient trait EI facets that could not be analysed within
the scope of the present study. Indeed, future research studies focusing on
the translation profession could usefully investigate the other links found
here between translators’ emotional functioning and their levels of job
satisfaction/success and professional translation experience. For instance,
variables that showed significant relationships with translators’ job satis-
faction include optimism, happiness, stress management, self-motivation,
self-esteem, relationships, emotion management, and adaptability (see
Appendix 2). In particular, the traits of adaptability (being flexible and
enjoying novelty and change) and self-motivation (being determined, perse-
vering) would seem to be particularly useful personality traits for part-time
freelance workers who, according to Dam and Koskinen (2012), make up
the majority of the translation profession. The fact that assertiveness and
social awareness were significantly correlated with self-perceived job success
is also worthy of investigation. Indeed, being able to ask for things and con-
front issues while remaining socially sensitive certainly seem to be key skills
for professional translators. The other variable that, in this study, showed a
significant relationship with both translators’ job satisfaction and their pro-
fessional experience is stress management. One might speculate that being
able to handle pressure and having successful coping mechanisms is some-
thing that will keep translators in the profession for longer and contribute
to how happy they are with their work. As vulnerability to occupational
stress could be a key factor having an impact on the transitory nature of
the translation profession (see Dam and Zethsen 2016), it is hoped that this
monograph will inspire further research in this area.
According to Rojo (2017, 382), in order to pursue important research on
the role of emotions in translation, methodological advances are required
which include more precise testing methods and varied research instru-
ments. It is my contention that, with an increase in the creation of short
versions of existing theory-driven EI tests and their availability for research
purposes, more translation researchers should be encouraged to include psy-
chometrically sound EI measures in their studies. This would be useful even
in projects which are not centred on the study of EI, since trait affect serves
as a constant source of information. The systematic use of psychometric
tools in translation process research studies would be a significant method-
ological innovation in the field.
This does not mean, however, that other methods cannot be used (and
triangulated) to tap into translators’ emotional self-efficacy. Although the
present study made use of psychometrics and personal accounts, future
research could employ more traditional TPR methods. This is an area where
collaboration with other fields is paramount. For instance, researchers into
individuals’ cognitive-affective states during learning have made use of an
‘emote-aloud’ procedure which works in a similar way to think-aloud and
involves subjects verbalising their affective states during learning (e.g. Craig
et al. 2008). The scholars concluded that the emote-aloud methodology
proved to be useful for studying affective states during the learning experi-
ence, but they also reported that not all learners seemed to express their
thoughts verbally, something which translation process researchers have
also often reported and theorised (e.g. Göpferich and Jääskeläinen 2009).
More recently, emotion researchers D’Mello and Mills (2014) also suggested
implementing think-aloud to tap into cognitive and affective processes dur-
ing writing. If translation and emotion researchers are using the same meth-
ods and working on the same issues, it makes sense to avoid duplicating our
efforts. Verbal reporting methods are a clear area where the disciplines of
Translation Studies and Psychology can come together.
Another issue that future studies will need to address is how trait theory
should be integrated in the field of Translation Studies. This question is
increasingly important because of the borrowing of models and concepts
from personality and individual difference psychology that is currently tak-
ing place in translation research. Translation scholars are making use of
psychological paradigms and adopting psychological constructs, but at the
moment the conversation between the two fields is somewhat of a mono-
logue, at least where written translation is concerned. Personality psycholo-
gists are not yet engaging in a proper conversation with translation scholars
or looking at how translation process research can relate to their work.
Without a real dialogue between the two fields, it is difficult to see how
there can be a proper integration of trait theory into TPR. The challenge
for future researchers wishing to integrate trait theory into TPR, and into
translator education, will be to make this conversation happen. This is espe-
cially important because EI has been the object of unprecedented success
among the public. Recent articles in the press have tackled gender stereo-
types related to EI (Burnett 2015), the phenomenon of emotional conta-
gion (Colino 2016), and the influence of language on emotion experience
(Lofthouse 2015). For this reason, scientific research on EI and translation
needs to flourish “in order to distinguish science from myth” (Mikolajczak
2010, 28). It will be important to organise interdisciplinary conferences and
workshops in order to draw attention to areas of common interest to the
different disciplines. For instance, psychologists interested in constructive
and unconstructive emotion regulation processes could analyse translators’
processing of emotion-eliciting texts. Those looking for ways to enhance
individuals’ emotional expression skills could use intralingual translation
tasks in their experiments. As this monograph demonstrates, the cognitive
and affective skills required for translating provide an ideal context for the
communication of emotions. The field of Translation Studies has the poten-
tial to provide different perspectives on, and applications of, various aspects
of trait and emotion research.
The present research adds to the extant body of knowledge related to
emotions in written translation by combining insights from Psychology
about emotional intelligence with insights from Translation Studies about
the translation process. It is a good starting point for further research in
the psychology of translation. It is hoped that the future will bring new
studies combining theories, models, methods, and findings from personality
psychology with those of translation process research. Closer collaboration
between psychologists and translation process scholars is necessary for the
advancement of the field of translation. A two-way conversation between
the disciplines could lead us to unchartered territories and a brighter future.
After all, emotional skills have significant consequences for the most impor-
tant aspects of translators’ lives: their health and their work.
References
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Appendix 1
Background Questions
1. Please indicate your gender and year of birth:
 Male  Female
19 . . . . .
2. What is your mother-tongue and what are your working languages?
3. What is the highest translation qualification you have received?
 None
 Bachelor degree (e.g. a BA)
 Graduate degree (e.g. an MA)
 PhD in Translation
 Other (please specify)
4. If you have received any non-translation qualifications or degrees,
please list these below.
5. Which of the following categories best describes your employment
status?
 Employed by a translation company or agency
 Employed by a non-translation company or agency as a translator
 Self-employed/freelancing as a translator
 Not currently employed
 Retired
6. How many years of professional translation experience do you have?
Please enter a number.
7. As a translator, how much time do you spend translating?
 Full time (at least 85 % of your total work hours)
 Three quarters of your total work hours
 Two thirds of your total work hours
 Half time
 A third of your total work hours
 Occasionally (less than a quarter of your total work hours)
 Rarely or otherwise (please specify)
226 Appendix 1
8. Would you consider yourself a professional literary translator? [If you
are retired, please answer in relation to the whole of your career]
 Yes, I am a professional literary translator—applies to literary
translators who publish at least one literary translation every
two to three years
 No, I am not a professional literary translator
9. Over the space of your working life, what level of experience of pub-
lished literary translation do you feel you have had?
 No experience (0% of my working life)
 Little experience (0–20% of my working life)
 Some experience (20–50% of my working life)
 Quite a lot of experience (50–75% of my working life)
 Extensive experience (75–100% of my working life)
10. If you have won any prizes or awards for published translations, please
give details.
11. If you are a member of any professional translation associations, please
give details.
Appendix 2
Correlations between the trait EI facets and the study variables (N = 155)
Age Prof Job sat Job suc Time Lit Trans Education
exp exp qual
Adaptability .08 .05 .26** .02 .03 .04 −.06 .14

Assertiveness .01 .05 .12 .20* .08 .05 .01 .10
Emotion .24** .22** .29** .12 −.07 .16* −.05 .16*
expression
Emotion −.04 .04 .17* .08 −.02 .01 .06 .13
management
Emotion .12 .10 .10 .12 −.12 .08 .03 .05
perception
Emotion .29** .24** .07 .09 .09 .17* −.04 .20*
regulation
Impulsiveness .10 .14 .07 .06 .01 .07 .06 .07
Relationships .01 .04 .19* −.05 −.21** −.03 .08 .07
Self-esteem .07 .10 .16* .16 −.06 .10 −.13 .05
Self- .19* .13 .30** .18* −.01 −.03 −.07 .07
motivation
Social .11 .14 .13 .23** −.13 .19* −.11 .18*
awareness
Stress .17* .21** .23** .04 .07 .19* −.06 .21*
management
Empathy .09 .14 −.01 .03 −.14 .06 .08 .12
Happiness .15 .12 .41** –.01 −.00 .03 −.04 −.01
Optimism .14 .08 .28** .02 −.07 −.00 −.09 .06
Note. Some of the figures for the literary translation experience variable vary very slightly
from those provided in Hubscher-Davidson (2016) because of the removal of an outlier in
that article. Removing the outlier was necessary in the context of that study and did not
change the results. There was, however, no just cause to exclude the outlier here.
* Correlation is significant at the .05 level (2-tailed).
** Correlation is significant at the .01 level (2-tailed).
Index
Abbamonte, Lucia 168 – 169, 176 Armand, Octavio 81, 84, 85, 172
acceptance 111, 115 Association for Professional Translators
Adams, Julie 176 and Interpreters in Catalunya
adaptive strategies 111, 208 – 210 (APTIC) 38
Adolphs, Ralph 73 – 74, 97 Atkinson, Anthony P. 73 – 74, 97
affect 66, 77, 79, 85, 120; adaptive attentional deployment 116, 139,
strategies for positive 130; as 208 – 209
constant source of information 220; Austin, Elizabeth 78
happening during the writing process Averill, Alyssa J. 155, 162
154; influence on cognitive control
152; labelling of 209; regulation 111; Baikie, Karen A. 154, 156
self-efficacy 173 Balling, Laura Winther 39, 212
affective costs 122 – 123 Bänziger, Tanja 75
affective information, multisensory Barboni, Thilde 30
integration of 71 Barenbaum, Nicole B. 14
affective meanings 95 Barlow, David H. 110, 111, 129
affective reactions 114, 117, Barrett, Lisa Feldman 67, 69 – 70, 74,
126 – 127, 148 76, 114
affective science 2, 5, 10 basic emotion theories 11, 66 – 67
affect spin 126 Bassnett, Susan 82
age and emotion perception 90 – 91 Baumgartner, Thomas 74
Aggreableness 15, 116 Beal, Daniel J. 126
Albert, Dustin 121 Bernofsky, Susan 84, 120
Aldao, Amalia 114 Berns, Gregory S. 83
Alexithymia 17, 161 Beyer, Jonathan A. 162
Allen, Esther 120 Big Five personality traits 15, 17,
Ambady, Nalini 71 29 – 31, 116, 134, 162
American Literary Translators Biswas-Diener, Robert 153
Association (ALTA) 35, 38 Boals, Adriel 152 – 153, 172
American Translators Association Boase-Beier, Jean 171
(ATA) 38 Bontempo, Karen 29, 46, 139, 140,
American Translator’s Association 207, 210, 213
Conference 2, 36 Booth, Roger J. 151
Anderson, Jean 2, 4 Bornhofen, Christina 76
Andrei, Federica 19 – 20, 22, 39 British Centre for Literary Translation
Angelone, Erik 202 (BCLT) 38
antecedent-focused strategies 111 British Psychological Society 49
appraisal theories 66 British Secret Intelligence Service
Arigo, Danielle 152, 159, 161, 168 (MI6) 34
Aristotle 195 Brody, Leslie R. 158 – 159, 175
230 Index
Brosch, Tobia 65 – 66, 67, 74 – 75 dissonance and emotional labour
Burton, Chad M. 153, 154, 157 122 – 127
Bush, Peter 3, 85, 169, 172, 173 D’Mello, Sidney 154, 156, 221
Byrne, Brian 164, 165 Dörnyei, Zoltán 45
Byron, Kristin 73, 77
education levels 199 – 200; emotion
Campbell, R. Sherlock 157 expression and 181 – 184; emotion
Campbell-Sills, Laura 110, 111, 129 regulation and 131 – 133
Cardinal, Marie 1 EI see emotional intelligence (EI)
Carrasco, Marisa 67 electroencephalogram (EEG) studies 18
case study, translation process 37 – 50; Elfenbein, Hillary Anger 71
see also translation process research Ellsworth, Phoebe C. 16
(TPR); emotion expression in Emmerich, Michael 87, 97
176 – 186; emotion perception “emote-aloud” 221
in 88 – 98; emotion regulation in emotional intelligence (EI); see also
127 – 139; implications for teaching trait EI model: individual differences
and professional development and 16 – 19; in language and writing
203 – 211; methods 40 – 45; note on research 23 – 25; practical strategies
variables, correlations, and effect 207 – 210; summary of key findings
sizes 45 – 46; other considerations 195 – 202; translation and 25 – 26
49 – 50; participants 38 – 40; research emotionality 3 – 5, 96 – 98
aims and hypotheses 37 – 38; emotional labour and dissonance
strengths and limitations 211 – 213; 122 – 127
summary of key findings 195 – 202; emotion expression: in the case
validity, reliability, and related issues study 176 – 186; defined 147 – 151;
46 – 47 personality processes and
Castano, Emanuele 83 160 – 163; positively associated
Castiglione, Baldesar 1 with acquisition of literary
Cavaliere, Flavia 168 – 169, 176 translation experience but not with
Chacel, Rosa 82, 85 time spent translating 184 – 186;
Clarke, Michael J. 35, 94 positively associated with education
cognition 10 – 11 levels, but not with translation
cognitive change 209 qualifications 181 – 184; positively
Cole, Peter 98, 125, 179 associated with job satisfaction
Collier, Gary 147, 150, 159 and success 180 – 181; positively
Conscientiousness 15, 29, 31, 116 associated with professional
Conseil Europeen des Associations de translation experience 178 – 180;
Traducteurs Litteraires (CEATL) 38 psychology and 147 – 165; research
constructivist theories 66 limitations 159 – 160; trait EI and
Cooke, R. 182 163 – 165; translation and 165 – 176;
Coromines i Calders, Diana 169, 170 in writing 151 – 159
Costa, Paul T., Jr. 14, 16, 170 – 171 emotion perception: in the case
study 88 – 98; defined 65 – 68;
Dam, Helle V. 198, 210, 220 familiarity with foreign languages/
Damasio, Antonio 219 cultures and 94 – 96; personality
D’Avanzato, Catherine 111 processes and 75 – 77; positively
Davou, Bettina 32 – 33 associated with acquisition of
Deary, Ian J. 15 – 16 literary translation experience, but
Devotion and Disorder 1 not with time spent translating
Dewaele, Jean-Marc 16, 24, 37, 91 – 94; positively associated with
95, 211 age 90 – 91; in practice, empirical
dimensional theories 66 findings on 68 – 73; psychology and
disinhibition-catharsis 156 65 – 80; reception and identification
Index 231
82 – 85; research limitations 73 – 75; Frederickson, Norah 200
resolution, bias, and culture 85 – 88; Frijda, Nico H. 13
trait EI and 77 – 80; translation Furmanek, Olgierda 30
and 80 – 88; violent and individual Furnham, Adrian 24, 78 – 79, 91,
80 – 82 117, 200
emotion regulation: in the case
study 127 – 139; defined 107 – 110; Gaddis Rose, Marilyn 35 – 36
emotional labour and dissonance in Garcá Márquez, Gabriel 182
122 – 127; interpersonal, cultural, Gardner, Howard 17
contextual, and linguistic factors Geerligs, Liesbeth 154
119 – 122; positively associated with Gendron, Maria 69 – 70
job satisfaction and success 134 – 137; German Federal Association of
positively associated with time spent Interpreters and Translators
translating 133 – 134; psychology (BDU) 38
and 107 – 119; research limitations Gökçen, Elif 46
112 – 114; significantly positively Goldstein, Ann 180 – 181
associated with education levels, but Gorz, Andre 171
not with translation qualifications Grant, Adam M. 153, 175
131 – 133; significantly positively Grass, Gunter 169
associated with professional Graybeal, Anna 161
translation experience 129 – 131; Great Gatsby, The 134
strategies 110 – 112, 208 – 210; trait Greenberg, Eva M. 152, 155, 180
EI and 117 – 119; translation and Greenburg, Melanie A. 148
119 – 127 Grenier, Roger 83
emotion research in process-oriented Gross, James J. 11, 49, 139, 208 – 209;
translation 31 – 34 on emotion expression 148; on
emotions: basic theories of 11, 66 – 67; emotion perception 67; on emotion
breadth of domain and current states regulation 108 – 109, 112, 114 – 117;
of 12 – 13; defined 9; interaction on suppression 123 – 124
with cognition 10 – 11; link with Grossman, Edith 182
language 9; personality and 13 – 16;
in professional translators’ work habituation 198
34 – 37; suppression and reappraisal Hansen, Gyde 32, 35, 37, 122
109 – 112, 114, 115, 121 – 127 Hayes, Megan C. 205
emotion science 10 Hefferon, Kate 205
emotions in psychology 9, 10 – 26; Hemingway, Ernest 86
case study 37 – 50; definitions and Henderson, John A. 29
theoretical frameworks of 10 – 13; Henitiuk, Valerie 4
emotion traits and translation Higgins, E. Tory 76
process and 27 – 37 Hild, Adelina 30, 124 – 125, 130,
English, Tammy 112 132, 207
Epstein, Eva M. 155, 173 Hills, Lia 4
Esslen, Michaela 74 Hine, Donald W. 165
European Masters in Translation Hitler, Adolf 209
(EMT) Expert Group 132 Holierhoek, Jeanne 166 – 168, 172,
exposure 158 175, 181
Extraversion 15, 116 Holmes, James S. 3
Hubscher-Davidson, Séverine 47, 158
Feltrin-Morris, Marella 35 Huffman, B. L. 83, 87
Ferrante, Elena 180 Hugo, Victor 81, 173
Fraser, Janet 32 Humphrey, Ronald H. 196
Frattaroli, Joan 151, 156 – 158, Hvelplund, Kristian Tangsgaard
160 – 161 39, 212
232 Index
individual differences and emotional Lopes, Paulo N. 121, 131
intelligence 16 – 19 Lu, Qian 155, 162
Institute of Translation and Interpreting Luminet, Olivier 117
(ITI) 38 Lutgendorf, Susan K. 157, 182
Lyubomirsky, Sonja 154, 175, 180
Jääskeläinen, Riitta 83
Jäncke, Lutz 74 MacRobert, Marguerite 185
Jasper, D. M. 83, 87 Magai, Carol 198
Ji, ZhongMin 182 Maher, Brigid 168
job satisfaction 196 – 197; emotion Maier, Carol 65, 80 – 82, 84 – 85, 172
expression and 180 – 181; emotion Malcolm, Karen 139, 140, 207, 210
perception and 96 – 98; emotion Malouff, John M. 207
regulation and 134 – 137 Marsh, Abigail A. 71
John, Oliver 116 – 117, 123, 124, 139 Martin, Elizabeth A. 152 – 153
Johnson, D. R. 83, 87 Martin, Rod A. 78
Johnson-Laird, P. N. 13 Martins, Alexandra 20
Jones, Anne 2 – 3 Marx, Brian P. 152, 155, 173, 180
Jones, Francis R. 172, 219 Massey, Gary 199, 203
Joormann, Jutta 111 Mather, Mara 91
Matsumoto, David 77, 79, 95 – 96, 115
Kaplan, Alice 9, 83, 175 Matsushima, Aoi 209, 218
Kasarskis, Edward J. 155, 162 Matthews, Gerald 15 – 16, 197,
Kashdan, Todd 153 199, 207
Kaufman, James C. 157, 171, 185 Mavroveli, Stella 22
Kenesei, Andrea 83 McCartney, Jamie L. 30, 198 – 199
Kennedy-Moore, Eileen 147 – 148, 150, McCrae, Robert R. 14, 15, 16
153, 155, 157 – 161, 167, 171 McDonald, Skye 76
Kensinger, Elizabeth A. 74 McKenna, John 176
Kerns, John G. 152 – 153 Mein Kampf 209
Kidd, David C. 83 Menil, Clémentine 117
King, Laura A. 153, 154, 157 Mesquita, Batja 69 – 70, 121
Kinsella, John 96 Miao, Chao 196
Kirk, Beverley A. 165 Mikolojczak, Moïra 17, 19, 117
Kissler, Johanna 72 Miles, Eleanor 124
Klein, Kitty 152 – 153, 172 Mills, Caitlin 154, 156, 221
Kolb, Waltraud 86, 97 mindfulness 158 – 159
Koster, Cees 93, 168 Mischel, Walter 14 – 15
Kotsou, Ilios 205 Momm, Tassilo 40, 98
Krueger, Joel 154 Mortillaro, Marcello 75
Künzli, Alexander 179 Muñoz Martin, Ricardo 28, 125
Murakami, Haruki 134
Labarca, Amanda 81 – 82, 84, 85 Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
language and writing research, (MBTI) 29
emotional intelligence in 23 – 25
Laukkanen, Johanna 32 Nelson, Brian 168
Layder, Derek 107 Neuroticism 15, 17, 29, 76 – 77,
Lee-Jahnke, Hannelore 203 116 – 117, 134, 161
Lehka-Paul, Olha 31 New York Times 153
Lehr, Caroline 32 – 33, 173 – 174, 184 Niiya, Yu 16
LeRoux, Jeffrey A. 77, 79, 95 – 96 Niven, Karen 180
Les Bienveillantes 93, 166, 175
Les Misérables 81, 172, 173 Oatley, Keith 13
Ling, Sam 67 O’Brien, Sharon 28
Linley, P. Alex 163 Openness 15, 29, 31, 116
literary translation experience 91 – 94, Ożańska-Ponikwia, Katarzyna 24,
184 – 186, 200 – 202 115, 118
Index 233
Park, Suzanne H. 158 – 159, 175 178 – 180; emotion perception and
Parker-Pope, Tara 153 96 – 98; emotion regulation and
Pavlenko, Aneta 11, 12, 122 129 – 131
Pennebaker, James W. 152, 154 – 157, psychology, emotions in: case study
159, 161, 168 37 – 50; definitions and theoretical
perception, emotion: case study frameworks of 10 – 13; emotion
88 – 98; defined 65 – 68; familiarity expression and 147 – 165; emotion
with foreign languages/cultures and perception and 65 – 80; emotion
94 – 96; personality processes and regulation and 107 – 119; emotion
75 – 77; positively associated with traits and translation process and
acquisition of literary translation 27 – 37
experience, but not with time putting into perspective 138
spent translating 91 – 94; positively
associated with age 90 – 91; in Qian, Shanshan 196
practice, empirical findings on
68 – 73; psychology and 65 – 80; Radcliffe, Alison M. 158
reception and identification Ramos, Marina 33
82 – 85; research limitations 73 – 75; reappraisal 109 – 112, 114, 115, 138,
resolution, bias, and culture 85 – 88; 209; cultural differences in 121 – 123;
trait EI and 77 – 80; translation and emotional labour and dissonance
80 – 88; violent and individual 80 – 82 in 122 – 127; emotion expression
Pérez-González, Juan Carlos 17, and 183
117, 200 regulation, emotion: in the case
personality: Big Five personality study 127 – 139; defined 107 – 110;
traits 15, 17, 29 – 31, 116, 134, emotional labour and dissonance in
162; emotion and 13 – 16; emotion 122 – 127; interpersonal, cultural,
expression and 160 – 163; emotion contextual, and linguistic factors
perception and 75 – 77; emotion 119 – 122; positively associated with
regulation and 114 – 117; research job satisfaction and success 134 – 137;
on, in translation 29 – 31 positively associated with time spent
Petrides, Kostantinos Vasily 91, 117, translating 133 – 134; psychology
199, 200, 203, 204; on emotion and 107 – 119; research limitations
expression facet of emotionality 112 – 114; significantly positively
163; on emotion perception facet associated with education levels, but
of emotionality 78 – 79; on emotion not with translation qualifications
regulation and conventional careers 131 – 133; significantly positively
132; on emotion regulation facet associated with professional
of self-control 118; trait EI model translation experience 129 – 131;
17 – 24, 26, 47 strategies 110 – 112; trait EI and
Phaedre 85 117 – 119; translation and 119 – 127
Phelps, Elizabeth A. 10, 67, 98 Reiss, Katarina 30
Pinkham, Amy E. 74 resolution, bias, and culture 85 – 88
Pluth, Kate M. 164 response modulation 209
Poon, June M. L. 79, 97 – 98 responsibilities, professional 210 – 211
Porter, Catherine 131 – 132 Revelle, William 13
positive refocus 138 Richards, Ivor 147
positive reframing 115 Rimé, Bernard 120
post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) Roberts, Richard D. 207
152, 155 Robins, Richard W. 68, 74
Pourtois, Gilles 65 – 66, 67, 74 – 75 Rodríguez-Castro, Mónica 196
problem-solving strategies 111 Rojo, Ana 33, 219
process-oriented research 27 Rose, Julie 81, 84, 166, 169 – 173,
professional responsibilities of 175, 179
translators 210 – 211 Rotteveel, Mark 67, 91
professional translation experience rumination 117
197 – 199; emotion expression and Rutherford, Mel D. 74
234 Index
Saldanha, Gabriela 28 TEIQue (Trait Emotional Intelligence
Salovey, Peter 114 Questionnaire) 19 – 23, 36, 40 – 41,
Sánchez-Ruiz, María José 17, 116; descriptive statistics 47 – 49;
22, 200 emotion expression in case study on
Sander, David 65 – 66, 67, 74 – 75 176 – 186; emotion perception in case
Sapolsky, Robert M. 112 study on 88 – 98; emotion regulation
Scherer, Klaus R. 11 – 12, 13, 75 in case study on 127 – 139
Scholer, Abigail A. 76 Think Aloud Protocols (TAPs) 27
Schutte, Nicola S. 164, 165, 207 Thompson, Ross A. 108, 109,
Seagal, Janel D. 154 114 – 115, 148, 208 – 209
Seeley, Saren H. 205 Thorndike, E. L. 16 – 17
Segerstrom, Suzanne C. 155, 162 Thorsteinsson, Einar B. 207
self-efficacy 173, 205 time spent translating and emotion
self-esteem 29 regulation 133 – 134
Sexton, Janel D. 157, 171, 185 Totterdell, Peter 126 – 127, 180
Shao, KaiQi 182 Towns, Ashley M. 74
Sheeran, Paschal 124 TPR see translation process research
Sheldon, Kennon M. 154, 175, 180 (TPR)
Sheppes, Gal 109, 112 Tracy, Jessica L. 68, 74
Shields, Kathleen M. 35, 94 trait EI model 18 – 23, 36, 40 – 41; see
Shoda, Yuichi 14 – 15 also emotional intelligence (EI);
Shreve, Gregory M. 202 descriptive statistics 47 – 49; emotion
Singer, Isaac Bashevis 126 expression and 163 – 165; emotion
situation modification 116, 121, 208 perception and 77 – 80; emotion
situation selection 116, 130, regulation and 117 – 119
139, 208 translation: defined 9; emotional
Sixteen Personality Factor intelligence and 25 – 26; emotionality
Questionnaire 29 in 3 – 5; emotion expression and
Sleek, Scott 83 165 – 176; emotion perception and
Sloan, Denise M. 152, 155, 173, 180 80 – 88; emotion regulation and
Smyth, Joshua M. 152, 159, 119 – 127; experience in literary
161, 168 91 – 94, 184 – 186, 200 – 202; as
Society of Authors’ Translators expressive writing 165 – 172;
Association (TA) 38 personality research in 29 – 31;
Spanish Association of Translators, process and emotion traits 27 – 37;
Copy-editors and Interpreters professional experience in 96 – 98,
(ASETRAD) 38 129 – 131, 178 – 180, 197 – 199;
Spranger, Eduard 30 professional responsibilities in
Stanton, Annette L. 155, 162 210 – 211; years of professional
“Summer Girl, A” 176 experience in 96 – 98, 129 – 131
suppression 109 – 112, 114, 115; translation process research (TPR)
authenticity and 126; cultural 3; see also case study, translation
differences in 121 – 123; depleting process; case study 37 – 50;
effects of 125; emotional labour and conclusion and future directions
dissonance in 122 – 127 in 217 – 222; emotion research in
surface-acting 127, 138 31 – 34; emotion traits and 27 – 37;
Suri, Gaurav 109, 112 implications for teaching and
SurveyMonkey 40, 42 professional development 203 – 211;
Sutherland, Matthew R. 91 overview of 27 – 29; strengths and
limitations 211 – 213
Tamagawa, Rie 162 Translation Studies 2 – 3, 5, 31, 171;
Tanaka, Akihiro 71 conclusions and future directions for
TAPs 27 217 – 222
TBI see traumatic brain injury (TBI) traumatic brain injury (TBI) 69, 76
Index 235
Ullrich, Philip M. 157, 182 Wittwer, Michael 174
United Nations Development Wortman, Camille B. 148
Programme (UNDP) 34 Wranik, Tanja 114
Unkenrufe 169, 170 writing: emotion expression in
151 – 159; translation as expressive
Valenzuela, Javier 33 165 – 172
violent and individual perceptions 80–82 writing for oneself and writing for
Viti, Cristina 208 others 172 – 176
Wagenmakers, Eric-Jan 67, 91 Yamaguchi, Susumu 16

Watson, Jeanne C. 147, 150, 153, 155, Yoo, Seung Hee 77, 79, 95 – 96
157 – 161, 167, 171 Yu, Wei-Hua 182
Webb, Thomas L. 124
Weinberger, Eliot 130 Zakowski, Sandra G. 161
Whiteman, Martha C. 15 – 16 Zannirato, Alessandro 29
Whyatt, Boguslawa 31, 217 Zeelenberg, René 67, 91
Wilhelm, Kay 154 Zeidner, Moshe 207
Wing, Joanna F. 164, 165 Zethsen, Karen 198, 210, 220
Winter, David G. 14 Ziedner, Moshe 197, 199, 207

Translation and Emotion - A Psychological Perspective

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Translation and Emotion - A Psychological Perspective

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An excellent and timely overview of translation and emotion, a topic that

Séverine Hubscher-Davidson is Head of Translation at The Open Univer-

23 Translation and Public Policy

25 The Changing Role of the Interpreter

26 Translation in Russian Contexts

27 Untranslatability Goes Global

28 Queering Translation, Translating the Queer

29 Translating Foreign Otherness

31 Translation and Emotion

List of Figures vii

1 Emotion and the Translation Process 9

3 Emotion Regulation 107

4 Emotion Expression 147

Conclusion and Future Directions 217

1.1 Simplified mapping of study concepts onto three existing

1.1 Operationalising the study variables 43

CPD continuing professional development

On reading this extract from Marie Cardinal’s Devotion and Disorder,

Translators’ emotional reactions to source texts such as these are rarely

I had to draw on all my skills as a writer to render hers as effectively

Peter Bush (2012, 122) highlights instances of fraught relationships between

Emotionality: Author, Translator, Reader

Language and emotions are inextricably linked, as emotional factors are

Definitions and Theoretical Frameworks

Although certain stimuli may be prone to evoke an emotional reaction,

Emotion and cognition therefore interact in order to guide behaviour.

Basic emotion theories see primary affective processing as discrete

Emotion perception Emotion regulation Emotion expression

feeling state (basic)

Figure 1.1 Simplified mapping of study concepts onto three existing traditions of

[t]rait differences in emotionality2 increase the odds of experiencing

Personality and Emotion

[the] processing approach construes personality as an organized system

Social-cognitive approaches offer a valuable alternative account of person-

Individual Differences and Emotional Intelligence

Trait Emotional Intelligence Measurement and Applications

1. self-perceptions have a strong influence on cognition, behaviour, and

Factors Facets High scorers perceive themselves as

Figure 1.2 The factors and facets of the TEIQue

Figure 1.3 Visual representation of the TEIQue factors and facets

3. it has been acknowledged that participants are generally honest in their

Emotional Intelligence in Language and Writing Research

Emotional Intelligence and Translation

Michael is a seasoned professional freelance translator with several

Translation Process Research: An Overview

Traditions from cognitive, experimental, and individual difference psychol-

Personality Research in Translation

Emotion Research in Process-Oriented Translation

[s]elf-confidence and trust in one’s own abilities might have observable

Emotions in Professional Translators’ Work

The Case Study

Research Aims and Hypotheses

While the statistical analysis enables the measurement of the interac-

A Note on Variables, Correlations, and Effect Sizes

Validity, Reliability, and Related Issues

TEIQue Descriptive Statistics

Global trait EI 4.94 0.55 4.88 0.55 −0.50 .11

Translation implies a porosity that cannot be considered solely cerebral, or if

In this chapter, the construct of emotion perception is discussed. This is a

Part 1: Emotion Perception and Psychology

Emotion Perception: A Definition

Table 2.1 Different emotion theories and their conceptualisations of emotional

Basic Appraisal Dimensional Constructivist

List of Figures vii

1 Emotion and the Translation Process 9

3 Emotion Regulation 107

4 Emotion Expression 147

Conclusion and Future Directions 217

1.1 Operationalising the study variables 43

Figure 1.1 Simplified mapping of study concepts onto three existing traditions of

Figure 1.2 The factors and facets of the TEIQue

Figure 1.3 Visual representation of the TEIQue factors and facets

1. Emotion Perception Is Positively Associated With Age

2. Emotion Perception Is Positively Associated With the Acquisition

3. No Relationship Was Found Between Emotion Perception

4. Emotionality Is Significantly19 Positively Associated With

Figure 3.1 Process model of emotion regulation

Professional translation experience .24 .25

1. Emotion Regulation Is Significantly Positively Associated

2. Emotion Regulation Is Significantly Positively Associated With

3. Emotion Regulation Is Positively Associated With Time

4. Emotion Regulation Is Positively Associated With Job

5. Emotion Regulation Is Significantly Positively Associated