Effects of Mood on Evaluative Judgements: Influence of Reduced Processing Capacity and Mood Salience

Schwarz and Clore (1983) proposed that the effects of mood on evaluative judgements are due to people's use of a “feeling heuristic”. Results of the present study suggest that this heuristic is particularly likely to be used under conditions of reduced processing capacity, induced by time pressure and competing task demands, as both factors intensified the effects of mood on evaluative judgements. In addition, previous findings that increasing the salience of a judgement-irrelevant cause disrupts the effects of mood on evaluative judgements were replicated. All of these effects were, however, obtained only when mood was salient to the participants, suggesting that to be effective, mood must exceed a threshold of salience. Taken together, the findings further support the hypothesis that at least in some situations, the effects of moods on evaluative judgements are based on a controlled inference strategy, rather than on automatic priming effects.     

Linking automatic evaluation to mood and information processing style: consequences for experienced affect, impression formation, and stereotyping

According to the feelings-as-information account, a person's mood state signals to him or her the valence of the current environment (N. Schwarz & G. Clore, 1983). However, the ways in which the environment automatically influences mood in the first place remain to be explored. The authors propose that one mechanism by which the environment influences affect is automatic evaluation, the nonconscious evaluation of environmental stimuli as good or bad. A first experiment demonstrated that repeated brief exposure to positive or negative stimuli (which leads to automatic evaluation) induces a corresponding mood in participants. In 3 additional studies, the authors showed that automatic evaluation affects information processing style. Experiment 4 showed that participants' mood mediates the effect of valenced brief primes on information processing.     

Come rain or come shine: individual differences in how weather affects mood

There is a widespread belief that weather affects mood. However, few studies have investigated this link, and even less is known about individual differences in people's responses to the weather. In the current study, we sought to identify weather reactivity types by linking self-reported daily mood across 30 days with objective weather data. We identified four distinct types among 497 adolescents and replicated these types among their mothers. The types were labeled Summer Lovers (better mood with warmer and sunnier weather), Unaffected (weak associations between weather and mood), Summer Haters (worse mood with warmer and sunnier weather), and Rain Haters (particularly bad mood on rainy days). In addition, intergenerational concordance effects were found for two of these types, suggesting that weather reactivity may run in the family. Overall, the large individual differences in how people's moods were affected by weather reconciles the discrepancy between the generally held beliefs that weather has a substantive effect on mood and findings from previous research indicating that effects of weather on mood are limited or absent.     

The dynamics of daily events and well-being across cultures: when less is more

The authors examined cultural and individual differences in the relation between daily events and daily satisfaction. In a preliminary study, they established cross-cultural equivalence of 50 daily events. In the main study, participants in the United States, Korea, and Japan completed daily surveys on the 50 events and daily satisfaction for 21 days. The multilevel random coefficient model analyses showed that (a) the within-person association between positive events and daily satisfaction was significantly stronger among Asian American, Korean, and Japanese participants than among European American participants and (b) the within-person association between positive events and daily satisfaction was significantly weaker among individuals high in global life satisfaction than among those low in global life satisfaction. The findings demonstrate a weaker effect of positive events on daily well-being among individuals and cultures high in global well-being.     

Recovery from conflict and revival of intimacy in cohabiting couples

Couples who seek a stable and satisfying relationship must recover emotionally and reestablish their intimate connection after their conflicts are over. In a 3‐week diary study, 100 cohabiting couples reported on their daily moods, intimacy, relationship satisfaction, and conflicts. Results indicated that on days following a conflict, couple partners have worse mood, less satisfaction, and less self‐disclosure than on other days. Attachment security and intimacy partially moderated the ability of relationship partners to recover positive and reduce negative affect on days following conflict. Partners of anxiously attached individuals experienced more pronounced postconflict changes in mood and intimacy than partners of securely attached individuals. More intimacy in postconflict interactions was associated with a faster recovery from conflict.     

Depression history and coping with chronic pain: a daily process analysis.

This study examined how a previous episode of depression is related to daily pain and reactions to pain among individuals with fibromyalgia, a chronic pain syndrome. Seventy-one women with fibromyalgia (including 30 who were previously depressed) rated their pain and mood 3 times daily for 30 days. Each night, participants rated the extent to which they responded to pain by catastrophizing, how much control they had over that day's pain, their ways of coping with pain that day, and the effectiveness of their coping efforts. Multivariate multilevel regression models revealed that after controlling for neuroticism and current depressive symptoms, formerly depressed and never-depressed individuals differed in how they coped with increased pain and in how they appraised the efficacy of their coping efforts. Formerly depressed participants who also reported more current depressive symptoms showed a greater decline in pleasant mood on more painful days than did formerly depressed participants who were experiencing fewer current depressive symptoms. These findings illustrate how a history of depression can be captured in the dynamics of daily life.     

Determinants of depressive mood states in everyday life: An experience sampling study

This study tests relative contributions and time-course of proposed risk/protective factors (e.g., stress, coping, and lack of social interactions) for influencing depressed mood states in daily life. Seventy-three participants completed baseline measurement of major depressive disorder symptomatology, followed by smartphone app-based monitoring of momentary experiences of depressed mood and risk/protective factors for 7 days. All predictors had deteriorating impacts on mood as lag increased, and the optimal lag appears to be less than 120 min. Linear decay in effect sizes was found for physical activity, social interaction, and tiredness, whereas exponential decline in effect sizes was found for stress and coping ability. Stress, coping, and depressed mood at the prior time-point were the best predictors of subsequent mood. These effects did not differ as a function of trait depressive symptom severity. Findings highlight the influence of spacing of assessments in identification and magnitude of predictors of mood states, and provide insights into key drivers of change in mood and their time-course.     

The Relationships Between Life Satisfaction, Happiness, and Current Mood

The present research proposes and tests a conceptualization of happiness as a situation-dependent evaluation of hedonic experiences, specifically the valence and activation of current mood, as well as being related to cognitive judgments of life satisfaction. In Experiment 1 86 undergraduates rated their life satisfaction (five scales forming the Satisfaction With Life Scale), happiness on five rating scales, and valence and activation of current mood, each on three rating scales, before and after attending a lecture. The results showed that happiness was related to life satisfaction mediated by valence of current mood. The change in happiness from before to after attending the lecture was only influenced by the change in valence of the current mood. In Experiment 2 which used scenarios to induce valence and activation of current mood in four randomized groups with a total of 135 undergraduates, happiness was related to preference for current mood rated on three scales which in turn was directly affected by both the valence and activation induction. Valence was in the mood-induction scenarios related to the expected rate of goal pursuit and activation to incidental events. Experiment 3 demonstrated for another 59 undergraduates that happiness stayed related to preference for a positive mood despite that its relation to a positive mood was reversed in an incongruent situation.     

A Follow-Up Study of a Reminiscence Intervention and Its Effects on Depressed Mood,Life Satisfaction,and Well-Being in the Elderly

The purpose of this study was to investigate the extent to which a reminiscence intervention reduces depressed mood and improves life satisfaction and psychological well-being. 160 healthy elderly people participated in a 10-session intervention. An experimental design with pretest and posttest evaluations was applied, comparing a control group to an intervention group to evaluate the effects of the program. Follow-up measures were also taken to find out whether the intervention's positive effects lasted over time. Mixed Model ANOVAs showed significant increases in the time-group interaction, life satisfaction, and psychological well-being measures, and decreases in depressed mood, after treatment. The effects remained after three months in the case of life satisfaction and some dimensions of psychological well-being, but they were lower on depressed mood. This study provides additional support for the effectiveness of a reminiscence program as a useful intervention to improve the quality of life of older adults.     

Well-Being’s Relation to Religiosity and Spirituality in Children and Adolescents in Zambia

The relations among dimensions of subjective well-being (i.e., happiness and life satisfaction), spirituality and religiousness were assessed in children (aged 7–12, n = 391) and adolescents (aged 13–19, n = 902) in Zambia. These participants were sampled from schools in both urban and rural regions that represented a relatively wide range of affluence. Participants self-reported their happiness using the Faces Scale and the Subjective Happiness Scale, and their life satisfaction using the Student Life Satisfaction Scale. The surveys were available in English as well as two local languages, and were delivered in classroom settings. To assess religiosity, participants were asked about the frequency that they attended church and about the importance of religion in their life. To assess spirituality, participants were asked about whether they considered themselves to be a spiritual person and about the nature domain of spirituality (e.g., “I feel connected to nature”). Results indicated that age, gender, grade and religiosity were not strong predictors of children’s well-being. However, spirituality accounted for 21 % of the variance in life satisfaction beyond these demographic variables and religiosity, but did not account for additional variance in happiness. The results were similar for adolescents except that the demographic variables were weakly predictive of their life satisfaction, and religiosity was a modest predictor of their happiness. Spirituality predicted variance in happiness and life satisfaction more so among adolescents than among children. These results confirm earlier work showing that spirituality, but not necessarily religiosity, is associated with children’s and adolescents’ well-being.     

The role of group identification in the well-being of Spaniards with gypsy ethnicity

ABSTRACT

Objective: To describe the role of sex, age, educational level and psychosocial group-identification factors in well-being and satisfaction with life. Method: 229 Spanish Gypsies completed a survey of demographic data, psychological well-being, life satisfaction, ethnic identity and the individual’s inclusion of self within the ingroup. Results: (a) only level of studies is related to satisfaction with life; (b) participants with higher scores in ethnic identity reported more well-being and more life satisfaction; and (c) assessment of ethnic belonging affects more areas of well-being than does perception of closeness to the ingroup. Conclusion: objective conditions of deprivation are not related to well-being as reported by the participants; it is important to study how Spanish Gypsies value and perceive their ethnicity in order to predict their well-being and satisfaction with life.     

Does Weather Actually Affect Tipping? An Empirical Analysis of Time‐Series Data1

Prior literature has found evidence that pleasant weather (namely, sunshine) leads to higher tipping rates, presumably because it improves the moods of either servers or patrons. However, studies examining the relationship between pleasant weather and tipping behavior have involved relatively small samples of participants and daily observations. In addition, only one such study ( Cunningham, 1979 ) used actual weather data to examine this relationship. We address these shortcomings by testing empirically the weather–tipping relationship on 2 years of actual sales data from a busy restaurant. We found no statistically significant relationship between sunshine and tipping. Tipping appears to be better explained as an institutional standard or norm, rather than as a prosocial behavior that can be modulated by weather‐induced changes in mood.     

Event centrality of positive and negative autobiographical memories to identity and life story across cultures

The aim of this study was to investigate whether cultural differences exist in event centrality, emotional distress and well-being in a total of 565 adults above age 40 from Mexico, Greenland, China and Denmark. Participants completed questionnaires to determine their level of post-traumatic stress disorder and depression symptoms, and of life satisfaction. They also completed event centrality scales for their most positive and most negative life events. Across cultures, participants rated positive events as more central to their identity and life stories, compared with negative events. Furthermore, participants with higher levels of emotional distress rated negative events as more central to their identity and life story, compared with participants with lower scores. However, a converse pattern was not found for positive events. Finally, participants with higher scores of life satisfaction tended to rate positive events as more central and negative events as less central to their identity and life story, compared with participants with lower scores. It is concluded that across cultures, positive events are considered more central to identity and life story than negative events and that event centrality ratings tend to be affected in similar ways by higher versus lower levels of emotional distress or well-being.     

Regulatory Fit in Self-Enhancement and Self-Protection: Implications for Life Satisfaction in the West and the East

This online study examined whether regulatory focus and culture moderate the links between self-enhancement/self-protection and life satisfaction. The study assessed promotion and prevention foci, manipulated self-enhancement or self-protection, and measured self-reported life satisfaction in both Western participants (127 English-speaking individuals; 73 female, 50 male, 4 unspecified; M _age = 29.01, SD _age = 10.26) and Chinese participants (141 Zhanjiang Normal University members; 88 females, 53 males; M _age = 22.18, SD _age = 3.14). Promotion-focused individuals experienced higher life satisfaction when engaging in self-enhancement strivings, whereas prevention-focused individuals experienced equal levels of life satisfaction when engaging in self-protection strivings, in both Western and Chinese participants. Furthermore, Western participants manifested higher levels of life satisfaction when employing self-enhancement strivings independently of regulatory focus. On the other hand, Chinese participants experienced equivalent levels of life satisfaction when engaging in self-enhancement and self-protection strivings. The findings establish regulatory focus and culture as independent moderators of the association between self-enhancement/self-protection and life satisfaction.     

Can bad weather improve your memory? An unobtrusive field study of natural mood effects on real-life memory

Can good or bad mood induced by the weather influence people’s ability to correctly remember everyday scenes? In this unobtrusive field study, we predicted and found that weather-induced negative mood improved memory accuracy. Randomly selected shoppers on bright, sunny days (good mood) or on cloudy, rainy days (bad mood) saw 10 unusual objects in the check-out area of a suburban shop, and their recall and recognition memory for these objects was later tested. Shoppers in a negative mood showed better memory and higher discrimination ability. The cognitive mechanisms responsible for everyday mood effects on memory performance are discussed, and the implications of these findings for current affect/cognition theories and applied areas are considered.     

An Examination of the Joint Effects of Affective Experiences and Job Beliefs on Job Satisfaction and Variations in Affective Experiences over Time

This study investigated the joint influences of episodic levels of pleasant mood at work and beliefs about one's job on judgments of job satisfaction, as well as examining the prediction of the patterns of affective states over time. Twenty-four managerial workers completed a diary during work hours which required them to report their mood state at four different times during the workday. The diaries were completed for 16 workdays. At a separate time they completed a measure of overall satisfaction, a Valence-Instrumentality-Expectancy (VIE) measure of beliefs about the job and two dispositional variables, dispositional happiness and affect intensity. Results showed that average levels of pleasant mood over the 16 days and VIE beliefs about the job made significant and independent contributions to the prediction of overall job satisfaction and did so over and above the contribution of dispositional happiness. Results also indicated that individual differences in affective intensity predicted the variability of pleasant mood over time as well as mean levels of mood activation. Finally, spectral analyses applied to the series of mood observations showed that the variability over time in the series of mood observations showed two definite cycles, one corresponding to a daily cycle and one corresponding to a two-period oscillation in mood. Results are discussed in terms of the joint influences of affective experiences and job beliefs on job attitudes and the importance of studying affect over time independent of job satisfaction. Copyright 1999 Academic Press.     

Understanding Stress and Life Satisfaction for Children of Clergy: A Retrospective Study

Because clergy children live within a unique family context, the goal of this study was to examine the individual and family stressors that adult clergy children experience while growing up and how individual and family coping resources, along with the adult clergy children’s perceptions of their experiences or sense of coherence, have affected the perceived life satisfaction. The present study examined the life satisfaction of clergy and non-clergy children, both retrospectively as adolescents and currently as adults, to determine the stability of their perceived life satisfaction over time. Compared to a sample of adult non-clergy children, adult clergy children experienced greater levels of individual and family stress along with a lower sense of coherence and less life satisfaction as adolescents. A path analysis of the model based on family stress theory indicates that sense of coherence provided the greatest total effect on participants’ life satisfaction as adolescents, whereas life satisfaction as adolescents provided the greatest total effect on life satisfaction as adults. These findings provide several implications for research and practice.     

The Impact of Different Forms of #fitspiration Imagery on Body Image,Mood, and Self-Objectification among Young Women

The present study experimentally examined the impact of different forms of inspirational fitness images (“fitspiration”) on women’s body image. Australian female participants (n = 152, 17–30 years-old; M _age = 21.55, SD = 3.94) were randomly assigned to view fitspiration media which depicted the body in a functional (performing exercise) or non-functional (posed) way, with or without accompanying appearance-focused text. There were no main effects of image type or text presence for body satisfaction, mood, or state self-objectification. However, state body satisfaction decreased and negative mood increased over time following exposure to the fitspiration images. Trait self-objectification moderated the impact of image type and text on state body satisfaction, such that viewing functional images presented with appearance-focused text resulted in poorer body satisfaction for women with higher trait self-objectification, but not for those with lower self-objectification. The findings demonstrate that irrespective of focus or presence of text, exposure to fitspiration images decreases body satisfaction and increases negative mood, highlighting the potential negative consequences of engaging with fitspiration media.     

创伤后应激障碍对青少年生活满意度的影响：社会支持的调节作用

采用问卷法对雅安地震2.5年后的397名中学生进行测试,考察创伤后应激障碍及其各维度对生活满意度的影响,并检验社会支持在其中的调节作用。结果发现,侵入性症状、负性认知和情绪改变症状、警觉性增高症状和PTSD总分负向预测生活满意度,回避性症状对生活满意度预测作用不显著;社会支持在警觉性增高症状、回避性症状、PTSD总分与生活满意度之间起调节作用,社会支持在侵入性症状、负性认知和情绪改变症状与生活满意度之间不起调节作用。