Common attitudes about the effect of positive and negative mood on task related motivation]

Several theories on emotion and mood have stressed the close relationship between emotion and motivation. However, assumptions on mood contingent motivations have mainly been studied in the field of social behavior, and there are only few studies concerned with mood contingent task motivations, an area in which nit is possible to distinguish between two motivational sets, the deliberative and the implemented mind set. Assuming that positive mood is associated with a stronger task-oriented deliberative mind set, and that negative mood is associated with a stronger self-oriented deliberative mind set, and that implemented mind set should be intrinsically task-oriented during positive mood and instrumentally task-oriented during negative mood. The present paper is concerned with these assumptions from a subjective perspective: The respondents were asked about their lay perceptions of mood influences (positive, elated versus negative, sad mood) on task related motivations. In study I the respondents (N = 40) were asked about their deliberative mind sets during positive versus negative mood and about their general perceptions of mood influences on performance. In study II the respondents (N = 58) were requested to imagine situations which elicit positive, negative or neutral mood, and then to answer questions on deliberative and implemented mind sets during these states; they also hat to answer a general question about mood influences on task performance. Both quantitative and qualitative measures are used in these studies. The findings support the above general notions, and they additionally show that in the respondents' opinions negative mood effects are more variable than positive mood effects; further, that there are quite a few individual differences in assumed mood effects on task-related motivation.