Related Experiment Videos
The experience and meta-experience of mood
1Division of Natural Sciences, State University of New York, Purchase 10577.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
|July 1, 1988
Summary
This study explores the direct and meta-levels of mood experience. Findings confirm a two-dimensional mood structure and reveal that meta-mood experiences vary across different moods, impacting overall mood perception.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Affective Science
Background:
- Mood experience involves direct emotional states and meta-level reflections about those states.
- Understanding the structure of mood and meta-mood is crucial for affective science.
Purpose of the Study:
- To validate the two-dimensional structure of direct mood experience.
- To conceptualize and measure meta-mood experience as a mood regulatory process.
Main Methods:
- Study 1: Administered three mood scales, including a new brief scale, to 1,572 subjects to test the Watson and Tellegen mood structure.
- Study 2: Administered a meta-mood experience scale and the brief mood scale to 160 participants.
Main Results:
- The two-dimensional mood structure was supported across all scales in Study 1.
- Meta-mood experience dimensions showed variations across different moods in Study 2.
Conclusions:
- The findings support a comprehensive model of mood experience, encompassing both direct feelings and reflective meta-mood processes.
- Meta-mood experiences are integral to the personal experience of mood and may reflect mood regulation.