Skip to main content
Log in

Cognitive involvement in the mood response system

  • Published:
Motivation and Emotion Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

There is currently common agreement that moods are organized responses that affect many psychological subsystems, including the cognitive subsystem. The pleasant versus unpleasant quality of an individual's mood was the dependent measure in this study, which examined cognitive correlates of mood level. A set of tasks hypothesized to change with mood, an adjective scale measuring present mood state, and four personality scales were administered to 194 students. Results indicate that three tasks—giving advice to others, estimating the probability of events, and subjective ratings of associations to words—are correlated with mood state and mood-related traits (e.g., emotional distress). Because of the measurement of mood along a pleasant-unpleasant continuum, the present findings of cognitive change can be generalized to any mood that is mostly pleasant or unpleasant. Results also indicate that individuals low in neuroticism had greater correspondence between self-reported mood and performance on affect-sensitive tasks. The changes in cognition are discussed in the context of a spreading-activation view of mood effects and a depressive-schema theory of information processing. More generally, the results suggest that moods lead to broad influences on cognitive responses over considerable portions of an individual's life-span.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Alloy, L. B., Abramson, L. Y., & Viscusi, D. (1981). Induced mood and the illusion of control.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 41 1129–1140.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beck, A. T. (1967).Depression: Clinical, experimental, and theoretical aspects. New York: Harper & Row.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bendig, A. W. (1956). The development of a short form of the Manifest Anxiety Scale.Journal of Consulting Psychology, 20 384.

    Google Scholar 

  • Berscheid, E. (1982). Attraction and emotion in interpersonal relations. In M. S. Clark & S. T. Fiske (Eds.),Affect and cognition (pp. 37–54). Hillsdale, New Jersey: Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bower, G. H. (1981). Mood and memory.American Psychologist, 36 129–148.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bower, G. H., & Cohen, P. R. (1982). Emotional influences in memory and thinking: Data and theory. In M. S. Clark & S. T. Fiske (Eds.),Affect and cognition (pp. 291–331). Hillsdale, New Jersey: Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Campos, J. J., & Barrett, K. C. (1984). A new understanding of emotions and their development. In C. E. Izard, J. Kagan, & R. B. Zajonc (Eds.),Emotions, cognition, and behavior (pp. 229–263). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coyne, J. C., & Gotlib, I. H. (1983). The role of cognition in depression: A critical appraisal.Psychological Bulletin, 94 472–505.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crowne, D. P., & Marlowe, D. (1964).The approval motive: Studies in evaluative dependence. New York: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Depue, R. A., & Monroe, S. M. (1978). Learned helplessness in the perspective of the depressive disorders: Conceptual and definitional issues.Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 87 3–20.

    Google Scholar 

  • Emmons, R. A., & Diener, E. (1985). Personality correlates of subjective well-being.Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 11 89–97.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eysenck, H. J. (1973).On extraversion. New York: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gotlib, I. H., & McCann, C. D. (1984). Construct accessibility and depression: An examination of cognitive and affective factors.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 47 427–439.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hamilton, V. (1983).The cognitive structures and processes of human motivation and personality. New York: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heerman, E. F. (1963). Univocal or orthogonal estimators of orthogonal factors.Psychometrika, 28 161–172.

    Google Scholar 

  • Isen, A. M., & Gorgoglione, J. M. (1983). Some specific effects of four affect-induction procedures.Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 9 136–143.

    Google Scholar 

  • Isen, A. M., Shalker, T., Clark, M., & Karp, L. (1978). Positive affect, accessibility of material in memory and behavior: A cognitive loop?Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 36 1–12.

    Google Scholar 

  • Izard, C. E. (1977).Human emotions. New York: Plenum Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, E. J., & Tversky, A. (1983). Affect, generalization, and the perception of risk.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 45 20–31.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, W. B. (1937). Euphoric and depressed moods in normal subjects.Character and Personality, 6 79–98.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lang, P. J. (1984). Cognition in emotion: Concept and action. In C. E. Izard, J. Kagan, & R. B. Zajonc (Eds.),Emotions, cognition, and behavior (pp. 192–226). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lefebvre, M. F. (1981). Cognitive distortion and cognitive errors in depressed psychiatric and low back pain patients.Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 49 517–525.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mayer, J. D. (1983).Cognitive personality processes in the evaluation of verbal stimuli with affective content. Paper presented at the 54th Meeting of the Eastern Psychological Association, Philadelphia.

  • Mayer, J. D., & Bower, G. H. (1985). Naturally occurring mood and learning: Comment on Hasher et al.Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 114 396–403.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mayer, J. D., & Bremer, D. (1985). Assessing mood with affect-sensitive tasks.Journal of Personality Assessment, 49 95–99.

    Google Scholar 

  • Meddis, R. (1972). Bipolar factors in mood adjective checklists.British Journal of Social Clinical Psychology, 11 178–184.

    Google Scholar 

  • Millham, J., & Kellogg, R. W. (1980). Need for social approval: Impression management or self-deception?Journal of Research in Personality, 14 445–457.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nelson, R. E., & Craighead, W. E. (1977). Selective recall of positive and negative feedback, self-control behaviors and depression.Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 86 379–388.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nowlis, V. (1965). Research with the Mood Adjective Checklist. In S. S. Tomkins & C. E. Izard (Eds.)Affect, cognition, and personality (pp. 98–128). New York: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Russell, J. (1979). Affective space is bipolar.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37 1152–1168.

    Google Scholar 

  • Velten, E. (1967). The induction of elation and depression through the reading of structured sets of mood-statements.Dissertation Abstracts International, 28 1700–1701. (University Microfilms No. 67–13, 045).

    Google Scholar 

  • Wallach, M. A., & Gahm, R. C. (1960). Personality functions of graphic constriction and expansiveness.Journal of Personality, 28 73–88.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weinberger, D. A., Schwartz, G. E., & Davidson, R. J. (1979). Low-anxious, high-anxious, and repressive coping styles: Psychometric patterns and behavioral and physiological responses to stress.Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 88 369–380.

    Google Scholar 

  • White, R. W. (1956).The abnormal personality (pp. 154–201). New York: Ronald Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Additional information

Preparation of this article was supported in part by an Individual National Research Service Award, MH08978, from the National Institute of Mental Health to the first author. We gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Phoebe Ellsworth, Steven Tublin, Daniel Weinberger, and the reviewers for comments on earlier drafts of this article.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Mayer, J.D., Volanth, A.J. Cognitive involvement in the mood response system. Motiv Emot 9, 261–275 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00991831

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00991831

Keywords

Navigation