An Exploration of the Relationship between Psychological Capital and the Emotional Labor of Taiwanese Preschool Teachers

Abstract: Preschool teachers interact with both children and adults every day; thus, they have to keep their emotions under control all the time. This constitutes "emotional labor." Psychological capital is a combination of the concepts "positive psychology" and "capital". This study was aimed at an exploration of whether preschool teachers' emotional labor is influenced by their psychological capital, and whether their psychological capital is gradually lost as a result of having to continuously expend emotional labor. 390 samples were adapted to explore the relationship between psychological capital and emotional labor in Taiwanese preschool teachers. This study also discussed the human resource management issues related to preschool teachers based on the research results and proposed some suggestions for future research.