Masquage des émotions et des attentes de soutien psychologique sur des forums d’entraide professionnelle

Abstract

The article focuses on the well-being of people at work and explores whether forums might be a new tool to improve it. The present study examines the subjective experience of forum participants during exchanges between education professionals, focusing on their expectations and emotional states. The challenge is to identify whether there are discrepancies between what the participants share in their messages and the experiences expressed during post-activity interviews. We carried out self-confrontation interviews followed by elicitation interviews with nine participants from the discussions we had previously analysed, based on written traces of these discussions. The results show that sharing experience (especially emotional) and personalized emotional support are the two most expected and satisfying types of support. The emotional dimension is very significant in the appreciation of support. However, in written discussions, we observed that participants tend to conceal specific emotional states that are difficult to communicate (shame, guilt, uneasiness). Expectations of emotional relief and psychological support are systematically hidden in written messages and are sometimes disguised as requests for advice. We observe that the reactants infer this type of expectation through emotional self-disclosure. They then show this support through the type of support that they would expect for themselves or that has helped in the past. The results are discussed in relation to Walther’s hyperpersonal communication theory.

Keywords

• forums for professionals
• social support
• self-confrontation interview
• elicitation
• masking
• emotions