Sonnentag Sabine, Niessen Cornelia
Department of Psychology, University of Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany.
Chair of Work and Organizational Psychology, Institute of Psychology, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany.
Front Psychol. 2020 Oct 16;11:560156. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.560156. eCollection 2020.
Previous correlational studies have shown that both psychological detachment from work and positively thinking about work during non-work time are associated with favorable affective states. In our research we integrate these contradictory findings and add more rigor to detachment research by using an experimental design. In two experimental studies conducted in the laboratory, we manipulated two different kinds of detachment from work (thinking about a hobby; explicit detachment instruction) and three different kinds of thinking about work (thinking negatively, thinking positively, thinking in an unspecific way) by short written instructions. Results show that both detachment strategies lead to a reduction in negative affect (in both studies) and to an increase in positive affect (in one study). The effect of detachment was particularly strong when it was contrasted with thinking negatively about work and when end-of-workday negative affect was high. In some of the comparisons, the affective benefits of positively thinking about work were stronger than those of psychological detachment from work. Taken together, our studies demonstrate that detachment from work as well as positive thinking improves subsequent affect, highlighting the causality underlying the association between psychological detachment from work - as a core recovery experience - and subsequent affective states.
以往的相关性研究表明，工作时的心理脱离以及在非工作时间积极思考工作都与良好的情感状态相关。在我们的研究中，我们整合了这些相互矛盾的发现，并通过实验设计使脱离研究更加严谨。在实验室进行的两项实验研究中，我们通过简短的书面指示操纵了两种不同的工作脱离方式（思考一项爱好；明确的脱离指示）和三种不同的工作思考方式（消极思考、积极思考、无特定方式思考）。结果表明，两种脱离策略都能减少消极情绪（在两项研究中）并增加积极情绪（在一项研究中）。当与消极思考工作形成对比且工作日结束时消极情绪较高时，脱离的效果尤为显著。在一些比较中，积极思考工作的情感益处比工作时的心理脱离更强。综上所述，我们的研究表明，工作脱离以及积极思考都能改善随后的情绪，突出了作为核心恢复体验的工作心理脱离与随后情感状态之间关联的因果关系。
