Identification and Description of Novel Mood Profile Clusters

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Behavioral Science

Background:

• Mood profiling is a common assessment, but distinct profiles are mainly documented in sport and exercise contexts.
• Limited evidence exists for generalized mood profiles across diverse populations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate and identify distinct mood profiles using the Brunel Mood Scale in a general population.
• To determine if these mood profiles are theoretically meaningful and empirically distinct.

Main Methods:

• Utilized data from three large samples (N > 6,500) analyzed via agglomerative, hierarchical cluster analysis.
• Employed K-means clustering for refining the parameter solution and discriminant function analysis for classification accuracy.
• The Brunel Mood Scale's six subscales were used to derive mood profiles via the 'In The Mood' website.

Main Results:

• Identified six distinct and theoretically meaningful mood profiles: iceberg, inverse iceberg, inverse Everest, shark fin, surface, and submerged.
• Cluster membership was accurately classified, indicating the robustness of the identified profiles.
• Significant associations were found between mood profile distribution and participant demographics (gender, age, education).

Conclusions:

• Established the existence of six distinct mood profiles applicable beyond sport and exercise settings.
• Demonstrated that these mood profiles are unequally distributed across demographic variables.
• Recommended further research into the antecedents, correlates, and consequences of these identified mood profile clusters.