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Masking is a process in which an individual changes or "masks" their natural personality to conform to social pressures, abuse, and/or harassment. Some examples of masking are a single overly dominant temperament, or humor, two incongruent temperaments, or displaying three of the four main temperaments within the same individual. Masking can be strongly influenced by environmental factors such as authoritarian parents, rejection, and emotional, physical, or sexual abuse. An individual may not even know he or she is wearing a mask because it is a behavior that can take many forms.
Contents
- History
- Causes
- Situations
- Gender Differences
- Ethnicity
- Signs and Symptoms
- Consequences
- Masked emotions
- References
Masking should not be confused with masking behavior which is to mentally block feelings of suffering as a survival mechanism.
History
The term masking was first used to describe the act of concealing disgust by Ekman (1972) and Friesen (1969). It was also thought of as a learned behavior. Developmental studies have shown that this ability has begun as early as preschool and improves with age. In recent developmental studies, masking has evolved and is now defined as concealing one's emotion by portraying another emotion. It is mostly used to conceal a negative emotion (usually sadness, frustration, and anger) with a positive emotion.
Causes
Contextual factors including relationships with one's conversation partner, status differences, location, and social setting are all reasons as to why an individual would express, suppress, or mask an emotion. Masking is a facade to behave in certain ways that would help one hide their emotions and represses emotions that are not approved by those around them. Because a person wants to receive acceptance from the public, masking helps disguise characteristics like anger, jealousy or rage - emotions that would not be considered socially acceptable.
Situations
Gender Differences
Masking negative emotions differ for each gender. Females tend to have an easier time hiding their negative emotions towards something they dislike than males do. One of the disputable reasons as to why females are able to mask their negative emotions better is society's pressure that a girl must act nice.
Ethnicity
Masking also differs between cultures. Some studies state that certain cultures tend to moderate their expressions of emotion while others show a greater amount of positive emotions and expressions.
Signs and Symptoms
Each person masks their emotions differently. During one's childhood, an individual learns to behave a certain way when they receive approval from those around them and thus develops a mask. The individual is "not conscious of the role they’ve adopted and is projecting outwards to people they meet." In some cases where the individual is highly conscious, they may not know that they are wearing a mask. Wearing a mask takes away energy from our consciousness and, in the long run, wears out our energy. A person's mask is noticeable when he or she is sick or weak as the individual will no longer have the power to keep the mask on.
Consequences
Little is known about the effects of masking one's negative emotions. In the workplace, masking leads to feelings of dissonance, insincerity, job dissatisfaction, emotional and physical exhaustion, and self-reported health problems. Some have also reported experiencing somatic symptoms and deleterious physiological and cognitive effects as a consequence.
Masked emotions
Emotions that are usually concealed:
Emotions that are expressed in place of the concealed emotions: