Induced mood and preschoolers' behavior: isolating the effects of hedonic tone and degree of arousal

A circumplex model of emotion was used to examine the role of hedonic tone and degree of arousal in the effects of induced mood on children's persistence behavior. A total of 45 preschool children were asked to describe and think about either exciting, calm, or sad experiences and then perform a persistence task. Heart rate was continuously recorded throughout the session. Observers' ratings of facial expressions and parents' ratings of the experiences provided convergent validation of the induction procedure. Children in the excited induction were rated as displaying facial expressions and generating situations that were high on both pleasure and arousal. The facial expressions and situations of those in the calm induction were also rated as positive, but less arousing, whereas those in the sad induction were rated as low on both. Concurrent heart rate recordings showed differential effects of the mood condition on autonomic arousal during the period when the children were generating the affect-inducing situations. These effects dissipated shortly after the beginning of the concentration phase of the induction procedure. Subsequent performance on a persistence task indicated that higher levels of arousal increased the amount of work completed, whereas higher levels of pleasure did not. Differential levels of autonomic arousal were displayed during the persistence task. These findings validate two important elements of the experimental design: excited versus calm states induce similar levels of pleasure but different levels of arousal, and calm versus sad states induce similar levels of arousal but different levels of pleasure. In previous research, hedonic tone and degree of arousal have often been confounded.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

Smoking, mood regulation, and personality: an event-sampling exploration of potential models and moderation

The aim of the present study was to test potential models of smoking-related changes in mood and how these are moderated by personality (behavioral activation and inhibition systems). Three models yielding distinct predictions regarding mood changes associated with cues to smoking and effects of ingestion were identified: the negative reinforcement model, the appetitive-incentive model, and the incentive-sensitization model. Seventy participants provided baseline data on personality and mood, and subsequently monitored their smoking behavior over 48 hours using an event-contingent diary--eliciting reports of mood state immediately prior to, and after, each cigarette smoked. MANOVA and multilevel modeling indicated that mood (hedonic tone and energetic arousal) improved significantly (p<.001) from baseline to pre-smoking, but did not change from pre- to post-smoking, thereby supporting the incentive-sensitization model. Further multilevel analyses indicated that significant variability in hedonic tone was moderated by the behavioral activation system.     

Situational factors and personality traits as determinants of college students’ mood

In the present study we measured three dimensions of mood (energetic arousal, tense arousal, and hedonic tone) using a student sample in six academic situations. The first three measurements took place during neutral lectures, the fourth and fifth before and after an exam, respectively, and the last during the two weeks after the exam when students’ grades were announced. Moreover, we also measured students’ personality traits according to the five factor model. The study revealed a few significant results. First, each mood dimension had different dynamics during the semester. Second, the most consistent personality predictors of mood were neuroticism (positive relationship with tense arousal and negative with hedonic tone) and conscientiousness (positive association with energetic arousal). Moreover, the results showed different relationships between tense and energetic arousals across situations, with the weakest association being before an exam.     

A conditional process model of perfectionism,goal-realization,and post-competition mood

Research has recently begun to examine the relationship between multidimensional perfectionism and athletes’ post-competition mood. However, to date, there have been few attempts to examine the interaction between dimensions of perfectionism or model possible explanatory processes. To address these limitations, in the current study we tested a novel conditional process model whereby the relationship between perfectionistic strivings and post-competition affect was mediated by the degree to which goals were considered to have been met (goal-realization) and that this indirect effect was, in turn, moderated by levels of perfectionistic concerns. We tested this model in a sample of 251 athletes who took part in a “Runmageddon” event - a cross-country obstacle race. Athletes completed measures of perfectionism (perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns) before the race and measures of goal-realization and mood (tense arousal, energetic arousal, and hedonic tone) between 24 and 48 h after the race. Analyses revealed that perfectionistic strivings were indirectly linked to a more unpleasant post-competition mood (higher tense arousal and lower hedonic tone) via perceptions of lower goal-realization. In addition, these two indirect effects were statistically significant only when perfectionistic concerns were medium and high. The results support the proposed conditional model and suggest the interplay between dimensions of perfectionism is important for athletes’ post-competition mood, and the level of perfectionistic concerns, especially.     

诱发及个体自发认知重评对情绪唤醒反应及情绪记忆的影响

为了明确诱发（IRE）及个体习惯化的自发（SRE）认知重评策略对情绪唤醒反应及情绪记忆的影响,在测量被试SRE水平的基础上,先呈现一系列中性与负性情绪图片,要求被试对图片内容进行自然观看或认知重评,同时记录被试的主观与生理唤醒水平,之后对图片进行自由回忆及再认测试。发现IRE显著降低了情绪唤醒水平及再认正确率,但只对情绪唤醒反应较高的LR（SRE水平较低）被试有效。结果提示,IRE对情绪唤醒反应与情绪记忆的调控受到SRE的影响。     

Laughter: an empirical test of some reversal theory hypotheses

Hypotheses derived from reversal theory on state-specific responses to humorous material were tested by recruitment of 10 telic (serious minded) and 10 paratelic (playful) state-dominant individuals from a larger sample of university students completing the Telic Dominance Scale. They were individually exposed to a comedy programme displayed on television in a psychophysiological laboratory. Polygraph record of respiration provided operational measurement of laughter. Subjects ratings were derived for felt and preferred level of arousal and for telidparatelic state in the laboratory situation. Results confirmed (1) that humorous material tends to induce the paratelic state, even in telic state-dominant individuals, and (2) that frequency of laughter in the paratelic state is positively correlated with degree of felt arousal and with arousal preference, thus indicating a linear , rather than ditonic, relation of hedonic tone to felt arousal in this state.     

Feelings or words? Understanding the content in self-report ratings of experienced emotion

People differ in the extent to which their verbal reports of experienced emotion are valence focused or arousal focused. Three multimethod studies are reported to explore whether differential focus reflects individual differences in the cognitive structure of emotion language versus differences in phenomenological experience. Although there was some evidence that valence focus and arousal focus were linked to variations differences in cognitive structure, the findings are also consistent with the view that self-report ratings are being driven by the properties of the feelings that are being reported. Implications for the study of experienced emotion are discussed.     

The role of fear of emotion in distress, arousal, and cognitive interference following an emotional stimulus

Diverse theories of psychopathology suggest that reactions to internal experiences, such as emotion, are important in the development and maintenance of psychological distress and symptomatology. This study examines the relationships between one type of reaction to emotion, fear of emotion, and reactivity to, recovery from, and interference of emotional material. As predicted, fear of emotion was related to greater increases in distress, negative affect, and skin conductance in reaction to an emotional film clip, and to greater interference of film-related material in a modified emotional Stroop task. These relationships remained when variance contributed by general negative affect was removed. Findings provide preliminary evidence that fear of emotion may be related to emotional distress and physiological arousal, and that this relationship may exist beyond shared variance due to self-report response style and general negative affectivity.     

When Arousal Influences Ad Evaluation and Valence Does Not (and Vice Versa)

This research examines, across 2 studies, the interplay between the valence and arousal components of affective states and the affective tone of a target ad. In the first study, music was used to induce a pleasant or unpleasant mood, while controlling for arousal. Participants were subsequently exposed to an ad that either had a positive‐affective tone or was ambiguous in its affective tone. As predicted, the valence of the affective state colored the evaluation of the ad in a mood‐congruent direction, but this coloring effect occurred only when the ad had an ambiguous‐affective tone. In the second study, the target ad had a clear positive or negative affective tone, and the valence and arousal dimensions of the mood state were manipulated independently. As predicted, the arousal dimension, but not the valence dimension, influenced ad evaluation. Ad evaluations were more polarized in the direction of the ad's affective tone under high arousal than under low arousal. This effect was more pronounced for self‐referent evaluations (e.g., “I like the ad”) than for object‐referent evaluations (e.g., “The ad is good”), favoring an attributional explanation—the excitation transfer hypothesis—over an attention‐narrowing explanation—the dynamic complexity hypothesis. Taken together, the results of the 2 studies stress the important contingency of the affective tone of the ad, when examining the effects of the valence and arousal dimensions of a person's affective state on ad evaluation. The results also provide additional insights into how and when affect serves as information in judgment processes.     

Hedonic arousal, time intervals, and excitation transfer

Zillmann’s (1978, 1983) excitation transfer theory was tested in relation to arousal processes opposite in hedonic valence. Sixty female subjects, randomly assigned to six experimental conditions, were initially exposed either to arousal stimulation positive in hedonic valence (sexual humor), or to arousal stimulation negative in hedonic valence (insulting remarks), or to a neutral unarousing task. In each condition, half of the subjects rated mildly arousing positively valenced male models’ photographs on several scales either immediately or with a 4 minute delay following prior arousal. In support of Zillmann’s theory, subjects in the positive hedonic arousal condition gave significantly lower photograph ratings on the arousal-related scales at the immediate, than at the delayed, rating time. However, contrary to Zillmann’s theory, the pattern of these ratings was reversed in the negative hedonic arousal condition, with the significantly higher ratings at the immediate, rather than delayed, rating time. Also, there were significant differences in these ratings among all three conditions both at the immediate and at the delayed rating time, but, as predicted, no significant differences were obtained for these ratings between the rating times in the control unarousing condition. The differences in excitation transfer between arousal processes positive and negative in hedonic valence may be due to their differences on a temporal dimension with regard to the speed of accumulation and the speed of dissipation of each arousal type.     

Metacognition and emotion – How accurate perception of own biases relates to positive feelings and hedonic capacity

Metacognition refers to awareness of one’s own cognitive processes, including examining own biases and decision making. Metacognitive self (MCS), defined as accuracy in perception of own biases, is associated with pro-health behaviors and desire for feedback, including negative information.Two studies investigated MCS in relation to emotion and hedonic capacity. First, in a longitudinal study of college students, MCS measure was stable over time, and correlated with feelings of love and joy. In the second study, MCS, mood, and hedonic capacity ratings were collected prior to evaluating stimuli for pleasure from engagement during an fMRI. Higher MCS was associated with greater hedonic capacity and increased signal in cortical areas involved in self-reflection and decision making.Our findings implicate self-awareness of biases as a cognitive process supporting positive emotional state and hedonic capacity. Future studies should explore how MCS relates to changes in mood and vulnerability to mood disorders.     

Emotional State,Physical Well-Being,and Performance in the Presence of Feigned Ambient Odor1

Measures of emotional state, physical well-being, performance, and room odor were obtained from subjects given the suggestion of a pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral ambient odor (n= 30 per condition). The hedonic quality of the feigned odor altered self-reports of pleasure, but not dominance or arousal. Subjects given the pleasant suggestion reported a more positive mood. The number of reported physical health symptoms differed as a function of the hedonic quality of the feigned odor. The category corresponding to the fewest number of physical symptoms was predominated by subjects in the pleasant condition, while subjects in the unpleasant condition predominated the category with the greatest number of symptoms. Subjects predicted higher task performance in the unpleasant condition, but no differences were found among conditions in actual performance. Room odor ratings differed in directions consistent with the hedonic quality of the feigned odor. The effects of olfactory suggestion may be relevant to the psychosomatic component of sick building syndrome and to the perception and marketing of fragrance.     

How you ask matters: An experimental investigation of the influence of mood on memory self-perceptions and their relationship with objective memory

Stronger relationships often emerge between mood and memory self-efficacy (MSE) than between MSE and memory abilities. We examined how social desirability, mood congruency and framing influence the mood–MSE relationship. Social desirability correlated with all self-report measures, and covarying social desirability diminished the mood-MSE relationship while enhancing the relationship between MSE and objective memory. Participants rated their memory more harshly on positively than neutrally or negatively worded MSE items. Current mood state did not affect MSE overall or when items were worded positively or neutrally. However, on negatively worded items, participants in a negative mood exhibited lower MSE than participants in a positive mood. Thus, both MSE and the mood–MSE relationship depended upon question wording. These results indicate that controlling social desirability and item framing on MSE questionnaires may reduce their confounding influence on memory self-perceptions and the influence of mood on self-reported abilities, allowing subjective memory to more accurately reflect objective memory in healthy and clinical populations.     

Self-criticism in adulthood and recalled childhood experience.

We investigated in a sample of 75 medical students the hypothesis that higher levels of self-criticism, a major vulnerability factor for depression, are related to retrospective reports of less satisfactory parenting, even when the potentially confounding factors of mood state and social desirability response set are controlled. At each of 2 measurement times, there were significant cross-sectional correlations between parental ratings and both depression and self-criticism, but the associations with self-criticism were no longer significant when depression was controlled. However, even after controlling for the effects of mood state and social desirability, persons with high levels of self-criticism at both measurement points (high trait self-criticism subjects) reported significantly worse relationships with their mothers than did the remaining subjects. They were also more likely to report below average relationships with both parents jointly.     

Mood as a Result of Temperament Profile: Predictions from the Regulative Theory of Temperament

The paper examines the relationship between three dimensions of mood and temperament traits according to the Regulative Theory of Temperament (RTT). The theory emphasises the role of temperament in meeting environmental requirements and implies that temperamental traits influence mood. The results showed that subjective level of energy was linked most strongly to activity (undertaking behaviours providing intense stimuli). It is questioned whether energy should be considered as a result or a cause of high activity. The best predictor of tense arousal and hedonic tone proved to be emotional reactivity. The former mood dimension was positively related to emotional reactivity, whereas the latter was negatively linked to this trait. The results are consistent with previous investigations on neuroticism and extraversion and widen the knowledge on temperamental predictors of mood by showing associations between briskness and all three mood dimensions. Moreover, the results showed that advantageous mood profile was associated with advantageous temperamental structure which corroborates the relevance of RTT.     

Caffeine effects on mood and memory.

The purpose of the present research was to assess whether a psychoactive dose of caffeine would have differential affects on the mood dimensions of arousal versus feelings of pleasantness and whether these mood alterations would influence memory either by (1) the experience of arousal at learning and/or (2) altered and congruent mood states at learning and recall. To address these questions, the administration of 5 mg/kg caffeine or placebo at learning and retrieval sessions was manipulated and subjects' mood was evaluated by several different self-report measures. Sixteen words were incidentally studied during the learning session and memory was evaluated by the number of words correctly recalled at the retrieval session two days later. Results revealed that caffeine reliably increased arousal, but did not affect any emotion dimensions related to feelings of pleasure. Subjects who received caffeine at learning and retrieval were also in equivalent mood states at both sessions. Moreover, caffeine did not produce any effects on memory; thus, neither hypothesis concerning the influence of arousal on memory was supported. These data show that caffeine is a useful method for manipulating arousal in the laboratory without influencing feelings of pleasantness or learning and memory performance.     

An interpersonal analysis of Rorschach aggression variables in a normal sample

This study investigated the relationship between Rorschach aggression variables and a self-report measure of interpersonal control and aggression (Structural Analysis of Social Behavior), rated for best and worst states, with 50 college students using forward stepwise regression analyses. Aggressive Movement (AG) was related to the report of self-attack for the best state ratings. The following findings were significant for the worst state ratings. AG was related to viewing the other as reacting as if attacked but the self as acting more affiliatively to the other. Aggressive Past (AgPast) was related to reacting to the other more submissively. A combined Aggressive Potential (AgPot)/Aggressive Content (AgC) variable was related to viewing the other as reacting less submissively and acting more dominantly. AgC was related to viewing the other as reacting less submissively. Methodological limitations are discussed, including potential problems regarding social desirability for the self-report aggression measure.     

Sad mood,emotion regulation,and response inhibition

ABSTRACT

Affect-as-information models, resource allocation models, and arousal biased competition theory predict different effects of mood on cognition. To test these theories, this study examines the effect of sad mood on response inhibition (RI) and whether emotion dysregulation impacts this potential relationship. Participants were 273 undergraduates who wrote about either a typical day or a sad event from their life. They self-reported mood and emotion regulation difficulties, and RI was a composite score of Colour-Word Stroop, Stop-Signal, and go/no-go computerised tasks. The intensity of self-reported sad mood did not affect RI as predicted, but those who wrote about sad events had worse RI. Worse emotion regulation also predicted worse RI. Cognitive loads, rumination, and mind-wandering are discussed as possible mechanisms. Findings are extended from well-established areas such as working memory to the less-established area of RI.     

Valence and Arousal Ratings for Velten Mood Induction Statements

Participants rated 84 statements adapted from Velten's original mood induction statements—designed to induce positive and negative mood—on two dimensions of emotion (valence and arousal), using the Self Assessment Manikin (SAM) (P. J. Lang, M. M. Bradley, & B. N. Cuthbert, 1999). Fifty-two of these Velten positive, negative, and neutral statements yielded SAM valence ratings that were consistent with Velten's previous valence designation (E. Velten, 1968). Reliability analyses for the positive, negative, and neutral statements indicated a high level of internal consistency in the three statement groups. Arousal and valence ratings of the statements were positively correlated. Related issues concerning differences in rating verbal versus visual emotional stimuli and recommendations for future work to improve the validity of Velten's mood induction statements are addressed.     

Reactions to uncertainty: A comparison of three motivational theories

This study attempted to explicate some of the variables underlying preference, pleasure, and reward. In order to accomplish this, Jones's (1966, 1969) information drive theory, Berlyne's (1967, 1971, 1973, 1978) optimal arousal potential theory, Helson's (1964, 1966, 1971, 1973) adaptation-level theory, and McClelland and Clark's (1953) discrepancy hypothesis were experimentally contrasted. Subjects (316) rated the hedonic tone, perceived uncertainty, arousing properties, and interest value of two series of visual stimuli of specified uncertainty. Regression analyses revealed that immediately prior experience with stimuli varying in uncertainty affected rating of perceived uncertainty and arousing properties but had no major effects on ratings of hedonic tone and interest value. The results did not support Jones's and McClelland and Clark's models. Berlyne's model seemed to account for the affective hedonic tone and interest results, while Helson's model best explained the nonaffective perceived uncertainty and arousal data. It was concluded that nonaffective variables are affected by short-term experience with uncertainty while affective variables are not. Speculations concerning the phenomenon of interest value were then offered.Jewish Child Care AssociationThis article is based on a dissertation submitted to the New School for Social Research in partial fulfillment of the Ph.D. requirements. I would like to thank Drs. Nathan Brody and Nathan Kogan for their help in conducting this experiment and preparing this article.