Psychiatric resident conceptualizations of mood and affect within the mental status examination

To explore the ways in which psychiatry residents conceptualize the terms "mood" and "affect," a 14-item questionnaire was sent to residency programs in New York.

The questions consisted of possible definitions of mood and affect; all questions required a "true" or "false" response. Residents (N=99) were asked how they viewed mood and affect from a temporal perspective (i.e., sustained versus momentary) and in terms of an objective-subjective (or external-internal) dichotomy.

There were inconsistencies in the temporal view of mood (said to be sustained by 60.6% and momentary by 50.5%) and affect ("pervasive" by 26.3% and "momentary" by 66.3%). Residents overwhelmingly defined mood as being subjective and internal and affect as being objective and external.

If mood and affect are to be viewed from both perspectives, psychiatrists must infer the enduring internal emotional tone (mood) of a patient over an entire interview.