Incongruent effects of sad mood on self- conception valence: It's a matter of time
Corresponding Author
Constantine Sedikides
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Department of Psychology, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, CB # 3270, Davie Hall, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3270. U.S.A.Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Constantine Sedikides
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Department of Psychology, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, CB # 3270, Davie Hall, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3270. U.S.A.Search for more papers by this authorAbstract
A new hypothesis is proposed to account for the relation between sad mood and self- conception valence, the ‘first, congruency; then, incongruency’ hypothesis. According to this hypothesis, sad mood initially influences the valence of open-ended self-descriptions in a mood-congruent fashion, but after a short period of time self-descriptions become mood-incongruent. Subjects were placed into a sad, neutral, or happy mood state, and were subsequently asked to freely describe themselves in writing. The results were consistent with the hypothesis. Sad mood affected the valence of the first half of self-descriptions in a congruent manner, but affected the valence of the second half of self-descriptions in an incongruent manner That is, with the passage of time sad mood led to increasingly positive self-descriptions (i.e. equally positive as neutral mood did). Implications of the findings are discussed.
References
- Berkowitz, L. (1987). ‘Mood, self-awareness and willingness to help’, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52: 1–9
- Berkowitz, L. and Troccolli, B. T. (1990). ‘Feelings, direction of attention, and expressed evaluations of others’, Cognition and Emotion, 4: 305–325.
- Blaney, P. H. (1986). ‘Affect and memory: A review’, Psychological Bullem, 99: 229–246.
- Bower, G. H. (1981). ‘Mood and memory’, American Psychologist, 36: 129–148.
- Bower, G. H. (1991). ‘ Mood congruity of social judgments’ In: J. P. Forgas (Ed.) Emorion and Social Judgments, Pergamon Press, Oxford, pp. 31–53.
- Bullington, J. C. (1990). ‘Mood congruent memory: A replication of symmetrical effects for both positive and negative moods’, Journalof Social Behavior and Personality, 5: 123–134.
- Carlson, M. and Miller, N. (1987). ‘Explanation of the relation between negative mood and helping’, Psychological Bulletin, 102: 91–108.
- Clark, M. S. and Isen, A. M. (1982). ‘ Toward understanding the relationship between feeling states and social behavior’ In: A. Hastorf and A. M. Isen (Eds). Cognitive Social Psychology, Elsevier, New York, pp. 73–108.
- Fiedler, K. (1990). ‘ Mood-dependent selectivity in social cognition’ In: W. Stroebe and M. Hewstone (Eds). European Review of Social Psychology, Vol. 1, Wiley, Chichester, pp. 1–32.
- Forgas, J. P. (1991). ‘Affective influences on partner choice: Role of mood in social decisions’, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 61: 708–720.
- Forgas, J. P. (1992). ‘ Affect in social judgments and decisions: A multiprocess model’. In: M. P. Zanna (Ed.) Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, Vol. 25, Academic Press, New York, pp. 227–275.
- Frijda, N. H. (1986). The Emotions, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
- Isen, A. M. (1984). ‘ Toward understanding the role of affect in cognition’ In: R. S. Wyer, and T. K. Srull (Eds). Handbook of Social Cognition, Vol. 3, Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ, pp. 179–236.
- Martin, L. L. (1986). ‘Set/Reset: Use and disuse of concepts in impression formation’. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51: 493–501.
- Mathews, A., and Bradley, B. (1983). ‘Mood and the self-reference bias in recall’, Behavior Research and Therapy, 21: 233–239.
- Mischel, W., Coates, B. and Raskoff, A. (1968). ‘Effects of success and failure on self-gratification’, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 10: 381–390.
- Mischel, W., Ebbesen, E. B. and Zeiss, A. R. (1976). ‘Determinants of selective memory about the self’, Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 44: 92–103.
- Morris, W. N. and Reilly, N. P. (1987). ‘Toward the self-regulation of mood: Theory and research’, Motivation and Emotion, 11: 215–249.
- Natale, M. and Hantas, M. (1982). ‘Effect of temporary mood states on selective memory about the self’, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 42: 927–934.
- Parrott, W. G. (1991). ‘Mood induction and instructions to sustain moods: A test of the subject compliance hypothesis of mood congruent memory’, Cognition and Emotion, 5: 41–52.
- Parrott, W. G. and Sabini. J. (1990). ‘Mood and memory under natural conditions: Evidence for mood incongruent recall’, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 59: 321–336.
- Riskind, J. H. (1983). ‘Nonverbal expressions and the accessibility of life expenence memories: A congruency hypothesis’, Social Cognition, 2: 62–86.
- Salovey, P. (1992). ‘Mood-induced self-focused attention’, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 62: 699–707.
- Salovey, P. and Singer. J. A. (1989). ‘Mood congruency effects in recall of childhood versus recent memories’, Journal of Social Behavior and Personality, 4: 99–120.
- Scheier, M. F. and Carver, C. S. (1982). ‘ Cognition, affect, and self-regulation’. In: M. S. Clark and S. T. Fiskt (Eds). Affect and cognition, Erlbaum, Hiflsdale, NJ, pp. 157–183.
- Schwarz, N. and Clore, G. L. (1988). ‘ How do I feel about it? The informative function of affective states’. In: K. Fiedler and J. Forgas (Eds). Affect, Cognition and Behavior. New Evidence and Integrative Attempts, C. J. Hogrefe, Toronto, pp. 44–62.
- Sedikides. C. (1992a). ‘Changes in the valence of the self-as a function of mood’, Review of Personality and Social Psychology, 14: 271–311.
- Sedikides, C. (1992b). ‘Attentional effects on mood are moderated by chronic self-conception valence’, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 18: 580–584.
- Sedikides, C. (1992c). ‘Mood as a determinant of attentional focus’, Cognition and Emotion, 6: 129–148.
- Sedikides, C. (1993a). Assessment, enhancement, and verification detemnants of the self-evaluation process. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 65: 317–388.
- Sedikides, C. (1993b). ‘ Differential effects of mood on the valence of central and peripheral self-conceptions’. Manuscript under review. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
- Snyder, M. and White, P. (1982). ‘Mood and memories: Elation, depression, and the remembering of the events of one's life’, Journal of Personality, 50: 149–167.
- Strack, F., Schwarz. N. and Gschneidinger, E. (1985). ‘Happiness and reminiscing: The role of time perspective, mood, and mode of thinking’, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 49: 1460–1469.
- Taylor, S. E. and Brown, J. D. (1988). ‘Illusion and well-being: A social psychologcal perspective on mental health’, Psychological Bulletin, 103: 193–210.
- Teasdale, J. D., Taylor, R. and Fogarty, S. J. (1981). ‘Effects of induced elation-depression on the accessibility of memories of happy and unhappy expenences’, Behaviour. Research, and Therapy, 18: 339–346.
- Wood, J. V., Saltzberg, J. A. and Goldsamt, L. A. (1990). ‘Does affect induce self-focused attention?’ Journal of Personality and social Psychology, 58: 899–908.