German higher education academic staff’s positive emotions through work domains

This experience-sampling study explores positive state emotions (enjoyment, contentment, pride, relief) and cognitive appraisals (value, control) of N = 50 German higher education academic staff in work domains (teaching, research, service). Results indicate that academic staff experience contentment and enjoyment stronger than pride and relief. Value and control are both positively related to the four emotions. The teaching domain enhances stronger experiences of enjoyment, pride and relief when compared with research, and stronger enjoyment when compared with service. The appraisal-emotion relations were not specific for the domain with the exception of research moderating the relation between control and contentment. In sum, the present study suggest differences of emotion intensities between domains, whereas the appraisal-emotion relations are found as domain independent.