Week 8 Lecture 12 - Mood Flashcards
What is Mood?
affective ‘states of mind’ that underlie our subjective mental life.
What does the concept of mood overlap with?
emotion
Beedie, Terry & Lane (2005) tried to determine the conceptual separation between mood and emotion.
What perspective did they take?
“Folk Psychology perspective”
Beedie, Terry & Lane (2005) tried to determine the conceptual separation between mood and emotion.
What was the method?
- Asked 106 participants from a range of (non-psychology) professions (snowball sampling): What do you believe is the difference between an emotion and a mood?
Comparison with Academic Literature:
- 65 published articles distinguishing between mood and emotion
Beedie, Terry & Lane (2005) tried to determine the conceptual separation between mood and emotion.
What was found?
Clear conceptual distinction, but:
- Some criteria require testing.
- Interactions between the two.
- Not universally agreed.
- Terminology used inconsistently in the literature…
What are mood traits?
- Dispositions of mood
- Reflect capacity and tendency to experience mood states
True or false?
Mood is moderately stable over time
True
- Costa et al collected data on mood over a period of 10 years
True or false?
There are characteristic patterns of variability of mood states
True
- McConville and Cooper –> some people vary more or are more stable in their mood (patterns)
Watson and Tellegen (1985):
Reviewed previous factor analysis studies of mood adjective ratings
What did they determine about the structure of mood?
Two (at least partly) orthogonal dimensions:
- Positive Affect (PA)
- Negative Affect (NA)
What is positive affect (Watson and Tellegen,1985)?
- The extent to which an individual feels a positive zest for life
What is negative affect (Watson and Tellegen,1985)?
- related to feelings of unpleasant arousal
Larsen et al. (2001) examined co-activation of happiness and sadness:
- 189 Participants
- ‘Emotional state’ ratings before and after watching ‘tragic comedy’ film
What was found?
After film:
- evidence of co-activation
- ‘Bittersweetness’
- Co-activation of positive and negative feelings (even ‘Happiness’ and ‘Sadness’) is possible (though probably not common)
Larsen et al. (2001) examined co-activation of happiness and sadness:
- 189 Participants
- ‘Emotional state’ ratings before and after watching ‘tragic comedy’ film
They also gave some other examples of when the positive and negative emotions co-occur - name them
- ‘Dorm’ move out day
- Graduation
Larsen et al. (2001) examined co-activation of happiness and sadness:
- 189 Participants
- ‘Emotional state’ ratings before and after watching ‘tragic comedy’ film
What is a more recent study that supports these findings?
Conrad et al. (2019):
- 16% of songs that people listen to on repeat reflect bittersweet feelings.
- “It makes me feel sad. But not the bad kind of sad, and I like singing with it.”
Matthew, Jones and Chamberlain (1990) factor analysed responses to 48 item ‘University of Wales Institute of Science & Technology Mood Adjective Checklist’ (UMACL)
What was found/produced?
Three-dimensional model of mood:
- tense arousal (anxious to calm)
- energetic arousal (active to idle)
- hedonic arousal (pleased to low-spiritied)
- Hedonic tone modestly associated with arousal scales.
What did Diener (2000) define happiness as?
‘Happiness’ = Positive Affect – Negative Affect
What do most methods for assessing individual differences in mood involve?
retrospective judgements
Are retrospective judgements subject to bias?
- yes
subject to bias from: - your memory
- Your current mood
- Your most extreme mood state during the period covered (‘peak’ mood)
- Your mood state at the end of the period covered (‘end’ mood)
- Beliefs, stereotypes, and expectations about mood patterns
Areni and Burger (2008) investigated cultural mood stereotypes
- Do beliefs about our typical moods fit with cultural stereotypes about days of the week?
- 202 participants recruited into an online study.
- All in full-time employment
What questions were ppts asked?
Think of the time when you first wake up in the morning…
- On what morning of the week are you typically in your best mood?
- On what morning of the week are you typically in your worst mood?
Think of that period in the evening after dinner but before you go to sleep…
- On what evening of the week are you typically in your best mood?
- On what evening of the week are you typically in your worst mood
Areni and Burger (2008) investigated cultural mood stereotypes
- Do beliefs about our typical moods fit with cultural stereotypes about days of the week?
- 202 participants recruited into an online study.
- All in full-time employment
What was found?
- worst moods were Monday mornings and evenings
- best moods were Friday evenings and Saturday mornings
- fits the stereotypical pattern
In a second study, Areni and Burger (2008) investigated:
- Do mood stereotypes reflect actual moods experienced?
- Do mood stereotypes influence memories of previous mood?
- 351 ppts were recruited
What was the method?
Days 1-7:
- Daily momentary mood assessments
- What is your mood like right now?
Day 8:
- Mood stereotypes
- What is your mood like on a typical Wednesday / Thursday / etc ?
Day 8:
- Retrospective mood assessments
- What was your mood like last Wednesday / Thursday? etc
In a second study, Areni and Burger (2008) investigated:
- Do mood stereotypes reflect actual moods experienced?
- Do mood stereotypes influence memories of previous mood?
- 351 ppts were recruited
What was found?
- Little evidence that mood stereotypes reflect real moods
- For Mondays: Mood stereotypes were a better predictor of remembered mood than actual moods were
Schwartz and Clore (1983) investigated the effects of current mood:
- Telephone interview with participants on sunny or rainy days.
What did they ask ppts?
- ‘How happy do you feel at this moment? (1-10)
- ‘How happy do you feel about you life as a whole?’ (1-10)
Schwartz and Clore (1983) investigated the effects of current mood:
- Telephone interview with participants on sunny or rainy days.
What was found?
- mean happiness and global life happiness ratings were higher on sunny days compared to rainy days
What is Peak-End theory?
- a cognitive bias that impacts how people remember past events
- Intense positive or negative moments (the “peaks”) and the final moments of an experience (the “end”) are heavily weighted in our mental calculus
Redelmeier and Kahneman, 1996 demonstrated peak-end theory in relation to remembering pain.
What was found?
- Patients’ retrospective ratings were strongly influenced by Peak and End experiences.
- Lower correlations with duration of experiences (‘duration neglect’).
Chajut et al. (2014) recruited 324 pregnant women on entering delivery dept
- Momentary pain reports every 20 minutes until birth
- Retrospective pain ratings (of entire period) taken 2 days/months later
What was found?
Average of peak and end pain ratings stronger predictors of remembered pain ratings than actual average levels of pain experienced
Ganzach & Yaor (2019) explored asymmetries in recall of positive vs negative affect
What was found?
- Negative influenced more by peak experiences
- positive by end experiences
What are contemporaneous mood assessments?
Mood collected contemporaneously with the experience
What are some benefits of contemporaneous mood assessments?
- Accurate snapshot of mood state
- Free of (memory-related) cognitive biases
- Temporal precision
What are some limitations of contemporaneous mood assessments?
- A single snapshot only
- Interfere with everyday activities
Tells you nothing about people’s memories of their experiences:
- …which influence future behaviour;
- … inform our sense of wellbeing;
- .. and contribute to our sense of who we are!
