[Effect of emotions on the choice of goals and actions]

The present paper concerns the influence negative emotions exert on motivational processes, i.e., on the selection of goals and corresponding actions. It is assumed that, in a negative emotional state, the goal to overcome this negative mood state takes precedence over the goal to succeed in a nonemotional task. Correspondingly, emotion-related activities should be preferred to task-related ones. In order to test this assumption, subjects in a negative and a neutral emotional state were given a series of activities, some suited for coping, some suited for task fulfilment. They were instructed to name (Experiment I) or to carry out (Experiment II) those activities they preferred at the very moment and to give a short reason for each choice. Results showed that subjects in a negative mood compared to those of the neutral control group were less occupied with the nonemotional task, but instead more frequently chose emotion-related activities with the explicit reason that these activities served to overcome their negative emotions.