Related Experiment Videos
[Effects of probabilistic judgments on negative moods]
1Fachrichtung Psychologie, Universität Gesamthochschule Kassel.
Zeitschrift Fur Experimentelle Und Angewandte Psychologie
|January 1, 1994
Summary
Negative moods and anxiety are sustained when analytic cognitive processing, like probabilistic judgments, aligns with the feeling state. Neither mood nor cognitive style alone maintains negative emotions.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Affective Science
Context:
- Previous research focused on mood's impact on cognition, not vice versa.
- Studies primarily examined memory and cognitive tasks, with less focus on social behavior.
- Existing models suggest mood influences processing strategies (negative mood: analytic; positive mood: heuristic).
Purpose:
- To investigate the effect of cognitive style on feeling states, extending the compatibility thesis.
- To generalize the compatibility thesis to negative feeling states (anxiety) and analytic processing (probabilistic judgments).
- To determine if cognitive-affective congruence is necessary to sustain negative moods.
Summary:
- A study with 76 students induced negative (anxiety-prone) or neutral moods.
- Participants rated life events using either probabilistic judgments (analytic) or general applicability (control).
- Results indicate that negative moods (anxiety) are sustained only when paired with analytic processing (probabilistic judgments), supporting the compatibility thesis.
Impact:
- Findings suggest moods are sustained by a combination of emotional and cognitive elements.
- Demonstrates that analytic cognitive processing is crucial for maintaining anxiety.
- Highlights the bidirectional relationship between mood and cognitive processing styles.