Inducing changes in arousal and valence: Comparison of two mood induction procedures

This research examined the relative effectiveness of two mood induction procedures (MIPs) for inducing four specific moods varying along the dimensions of both valence and arousal. Participants were randomly assigned either to an autobiographical recall or to a music and guided imagery MIP and underwent a happiness, serenity, anger, or sadness mood induction. The findings confirmed the effectiveness of the two MIPs in producing changes on both the valence and arousal dimensions of mood. The results also revealed an unexpected greater efficiency of the autobiographical recall than of the combined procedure.     

The effectiveness of individual versus group induction of depressed mood.

This study is an investigation of the effectiveness of an individually administered mood induction procedure compared with an equivalent procedure administered to a group. Seventy-nine nondepressed individuals (25 men, 54 women) were randomly assigned to either a depressive or a neutral mood induction in an individual or a group setting. In each procedure, the mood induction involved the Velten self-statement procedure (E. Velten, 1968) enhanced by related mood music. Overall, both the individual and group induction procedures were effective in producing a depressed mood state, and their effectiveness was unrelated to social desirability or the sex of the participant. However, the group procedure was more vulnerable to individual differences in response, and its use in research on depression requires stringent criteria for mood change.     

Assessing the effectiveness of drawing an autobiographical memory as a mood induction procedure in children

The objective of our study was to examine the effectiveness of a new version of the autobiographical recall procedure (i.e., drawing a happy personal event) in eliciting a positive mood in 6-, 8-, and 10-year-old children and to compare the drawing condition to the more classical telling condition. The mood of children was assessed before and after induction using the Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM) and across the two emotional dimensions of valence and arousal. The results showed that the drawing condition was as effective as the telling condition for inducing a positive mood. Furthermore, in the drawing condition, children reported feeling calmer than in the telling condition, suggesting that drawing was more likely to help children regulate their emotional state. The drawing procedure could be used in future research aiming to induce positive moods in school-aged children, to help further investigate the relationship between cognition and emotion.     

Interpersonal mood induction: Situational and individual determinants

Several situational and individual aspects of interpersonal mood induction were investigated in an attempt to elucidate the mechanisms by which depressed mood is transmitted from one individual to another. Eighty-four psychology students interacted with confederates previously trained to enact one of three mood states — depressed, neutral, or elated. Participants were randomly assigned to same-sex confederates in one of two roles — helper or stranger, resulting in a 3×2×2 design. Mood and self-esteem were independent variables assessed prior to the interaction. Mood, perceptions, and reactions to the confederate were dependent variables assessed following the interaction. Results indicated induction of depression and anxiety in participants exposed to depressed confederates, and induction of hostility following interaction with elated confederates. Induction of depression and hostility were significantly attenuated in participants in the helper role as opposed to person perception role, while the concept of individual vulnerability to mood induction was not supported in this study. Rejection of depressed persons was only modestly associated with negative mood induction. Thus, role components of the situation affected mood induction more than did individual participant differences. The results and their implications for therapists and family members of depressed individuals are discussed within the framework of Lazarus's cognitive model of emotional arousal.The authors gratefully acknowledge the contributions and talents of Bill Dorfman, Mike Harrington, Ginger Johnson, Anita Navarra, and Debbie Illman.     

Cognitive reactivity to sad mood: structure and validity of a new measure.

Cognitive reactivity to the experimental induction of sad mood has been found to predict relapse in recovered depressed patients. The present report describes the development and test of a questionnaire that aims to measure cognitive reactivity independently from a mood induction procedure. The Leiden Index of Depression Sensitivity (LEIDS) was filled out by 198 participants. After Principal Components Analysis, 26 items were retained, which comprised four factors with good psychometric properties: Negative Self-Evaluation; Acceptance/Coping; Indifference; and Harm Avoidance. In a sample of 48 college students, LEIDS scores--particularly Negative Self-Evaluation and Harm Avoidance--were rather strong predictors of cognitive reactivity in a mood induction procedure. In contrast, baseline depression and baseline cognitive dysfunction did not predict cognitive reactivity. It is concluded that the LEIDS is a promising measure of cognitive reactivity, and that clinical studies need to be carried out to test its ability to predict relapse of depression.     

Relative effectiveness of concurrent forward/backward versus simple forward and simple backward Pavlovian conditioning procedures

Concurrent forward/backward Pavlovian conditioning procedures were compared with simple forward and simple backward procedures for differential excitatory and inhibitory conditioning. Four groups of dogs each received 30 shocks while restrained in a Pavlovian harness. One group of dogs (CON) received concurrent conditioning with a clicker signaling shocks and with a tone following shocks. For another group of dogs (SF), a clicker signaled the shocks, whereas the tone was randomly related to shocks. For a third group (SB), the tone followed shock termination, whereas the clicker was randomly related to shocks. For a fourth group (TRC), both the clicker and the tone were randomly related to shocks. All stimuli were then superimposed on a temporally paced avoidance baseline and their associative properties were assessed relative to the TRC group. Differential excitatory-inhibitory conditioning was significantly reduced in the concurrent procedure relative to that which occurred in the simple conditioning procedures despite exactly equal CS + -US and US-CS-contingencies. These results were interpreted with reference to contextual conditioning effects predicted by the Rescorla-Wagner conditioning model and the theoretical issue of independence vs. interdependence of CS-US associative strengths.     

The Wartegg Zeichen Test: a literature overview and a meta-analysis of reliability and validity

All available studies on the Wartegg Zeichen Test (WZT; Wartegg, 1939) were collected and evaluated through a literature overview and a meta-analysis. The literature overview shows that the history of the WZT reflects the geographical and language-based processes of marginalization where relatively isolated traditions have lived and vanished in different parts of the world. The meta-analytic review indicates a high average interscorer reliability of rw = .74 and high validity effect size for studies with clear hypotheses of rw = .33. Although the results were strong, we conclude that the WZT research has not been able to establish cumulative knowledge of the method because of the isolation of research traditions.     

Understanding the relationship between mood and creativity: A meta-analysis

A meta-analysis of 62 experimental and 10 non-experimental studies was conducted to evaluate the positive-mood-enhances-creativity generalization. While the results demonstrate that positive mood enhances creativity, the strength of that effect is contingent upon the comparative or referent mood state (i.e., neutral or negative mood) as well as the type of creative task. Further, the pattern of effect sizes supports a curvilinear relationship between affective intensity and creative performance. In general, a contextual perspective of mood–creativity relations is supported.     

Generalization in the effects of a mood induction procedure

Mood Induction Procedures (MIP's) requiring subjects to read depressing self-referent statements have recently been employed in laboratory analogues of depression. Although these procedures have been shown to effect mood, their effectiveness in producing more general changes in behaviour has been less consistent. An alternative MIP was used in this study. Thirty-two male and female students listened either to a depressing or an affectively neutral tape. The MIP produced significant mood disturbance and significant decrease in self-rated activation. However, during the test phase, the MIP group showed greater behavioural activation in a counting speed measure, and facilitated performance on a shuttlebox noise-escape task. Evidence is presented which suggests that this represented a characteristic initial response by depressed and helpless subjects on laboratory tasks.     

Relative validity of contextual and discrete cues

Contextual conditioning during relative validity training was explored in 3 experiments that used an appetitive Pavlovian conditioning preparation with rats. Magazine entries were the conditioned response. In Experiment 1, true-discrimination (TD: AX+, BX-) training generated weaker conditioning of X than did pseudodiscrimination (PD: AX+/-, BX+/-) training. The context showed a similar relative validity effect. Also, both PD training and simple partial reinforcement (X+/-) reduced contextual conditioning more than did unsignaled food, a demonstration of relative validity using partial reinforcement. Experiments 2 and 3 used within-subject and between-subjects designs, respectively, and showed that relative validity was determined by the summation of differences in conditioning to both the common element (X) and the context. Our results are consistent with an attentional model or with a computational comparator model but not with the Rescorla-Wagner (R. A. Rescorla & A. R. Wagner, 1972) model.     

The relationship between state anxiety and depressed mood: A validity study

The validity of the A-State Scale of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory and the Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale was assessed using data from a general health survey. Depression and anxiety states were found to coexist, however, evidence from a factor analysis, showing items from the two tests loaded on separate factors, demonstrated that these states can be measured independently. Both the A-State and the Zung Scales were found to comprise two factors, and for each scale, one factor consisted of positively phrased items, and the other of negative items. The implications of these findings for the construct validity of the two scales are discussed.     

Reduced specificity of autobiographical memories following a negative mood induction

Reduced autobiographical memory specificity (AMS) to emotional and neutral cue words appears to be a stable cognitive marker of clinical depression. For example, reduced AMS is present in remitted/recovered depressed patients and shows no reliable relationship with current levels of depressed mood in correlational studies. The present study examined whether reduced AMS could be induced in healthy volunteers with no history of depression, using a negative mood manipulation and whether levels of AMS and induced mood were positively correlated. Results showed a reduction in AMS following negative mood induction, compared to a neutral induction, whereas positive mood induction had no effects on AMS. Furthermore, lower happiness following the induction phase correlated positively with reduced AMS, and the extent of happiness reduction from pre- to post-induction correlated positively with reduction in AMS. These results suggest that AMS is, at least in part, a function of current emotion state. The implications for the literature on AMS as a stable marker of clinical depression are discussed.     

The mood effect: How mood,disclosure language and ad skepticism influence the effectiveness of native advertising

This research investigated the interplay between mood, disclosure language, and ad skepticism on consumers' recognition and evaluation of native advertising. During two online experiments, participants first received a mood manipulation and then read an article-style native advertisement. Results from both studies indicated that participants were more likely to recognize a native ad with an explicit rather than an implicit disclosure label, and a negative mood was more likely than a positive mood to drive participants to recognize the native ad. More importantly, participants in a positive mood evaluated a native ad with an implicit disclosure more favorably than an ad with an explicit disclosure. By contrast, participants in a negative mood responded more positively to a native ad with explicit disclosure compared to an ad with implicit disclosure. Study 2 demonstrated that the interaction between mood and disclosure language was further moderated by individuals' levels of ad skepticism. These results are believed to provide meaningful theoretical and practical implications to the field of native advertising and consumer behavior.     

The velten mood induction procedure: A methodological review

The Velten Mood Induction Procedure (1968) has been used extensively to induce elated and depressed moods in experimental subjects, and a wide range of psychological and behavioral effects have been studied following mood induction. This paper reviews experimental findings relating to the effectiveness of the Velten Mood Induction Procedure. Evidence is provided from 46 experiments concerning behavioral and self-report measures of assessment. Implications for the use of this procedure in mood induction research are discussed. It is concluded that the findings relating to the Velten procedure's effectiveness, and assessments of the contribution of demand characteristics to the procedure, are inconsistent and equivocal.     

The effectiveness of stand-alone cognitive-behavioural therapy for body image: a meta-analysis

This meta-analysis examined the effectiveness of stand-alone body image (BI) cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT). Nineteen studies met inclusion criteria. The behavioural dimension of BI improves most after BI CBT while the investment dimension improves the least. Individuals with clinical BI disturbances improve more than do college student samples. Treatments addressing the attitudinal, behavioural, and perceptual components of BI are more effective than treatments addressing attitude and behaviour only. Therapist-assisted therapy is more effective than is self-directed therapy. BI variables improve somewhat more than do general psychological variables, while the latter show equivalent improvement. Finally, treatment gains are maintained at follow-up. More research is needed to better understand and treat the investment dimension of BI.     

Self-report measures of defeat and entrapment during a brief depressive mood induction

Recent studies have reported that depression is strongly associated with perceptions of defeat and entrapment, and have proposed that such perceptions are central features of depression. This study used experimental mood induction procedures to investigate the putative causal relationship between perceptions of defeat/entrapment and depressed mood. Two groups of female undergraduate volunteers (n = 16) completed visual analogue mood scales, as well as Defeat and Entrapment scales, before and after either a negative or a positive musical mood induction procedure (MIP). Scores on the Defeat and Entrapment Scales were significantly correlated with scores on the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). The negative MIP caused a worsening of mood and significantly increased perceptions of defeat and entrapment, particularly internal entrapment. The positive MIP caused a small but significant improvement in mood, and significantly decreased defeat scores. Individuals with elevated BDI or internal entrapment scores prior to the negative MIP showed the greatest increases in internal entrapment after the negative mood induction. The results demonstrate that induction of a depressed mood increases perceptions of defeat and entrapment, and suggest that, in the case of internal entrapment, this effect increases with the initial level of depression or entrapment.     

Process assessment: An examination of reinforcer effectiveness and predictive validity

This research describes an assessment procedure based on measures of actual learning. First-grade children (N = 120) learned five sight vocabulary words under feedback only, and were then assigned to one of five conditions where they learned five additional words either under feedback, praise, candy, praise and candy, or reproof. In a sixth condition (reciprocal to the first treatment), students learned the first five works under praise and the second five under feedback only. Although results indicated no differences in learning rate under different reinforcement conditions, learning measures under feedback accounted for approximately 39% of the variance in achievement (r = .62), with combined reinforcement learning measures slightly improving prediction (r = .68). The order of treatments had no effect on learning rate. Implications for this process approach to assessment are discussed. Directions for future research are suggested.     

Further evidence for the validity of assessment center dimensions: a meta-analysis of the incremental criterion-related validity of dimension ratings

This study investigates the incremental variance in job performance explained by assessment center (AC) dimensions over and above personality and cognitive ability. The authors extend previous research by using meta-analysis to examine the relationships between AC dimensions, personality, cognitive ability, and job performance. The results indicate that the 7 summary AC dimensions postulated by W. Arthur, Jr., E. A. Day, T. L. McNelly, & P. S. Edens (2003) are distinguishable from popular individual difference constructs and explain a sizeable proportion of variance in job performance beyond cognitive ability and personality. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2008 APA, all rights reserved).