In this week’s blog, I am focusing on the topic of moodand how it impacts one’s mental and physical actions in our everyday sociallife. Our cognitive activities are shaped by biological and environmentalprocesses, behavior, judgments, interactions and personal experience. Mood heavily influences our social behaviorand how we operate amongst certain situations. It creates our own judgments andinferences on a particular scenario. Our moods can be self-generated, whichmeans it is influenced by our thoughts, personal inferences, judgments and evenfrom day dreaming (Ruby, Smallwood, Engen and Singer, 2013).
Mood is also situationalrelated, which depends on the contextual setting one is in and who they areinteracting with. A study done by Ruby, Smallwood, Engen and Singer (2013),explores the relationship between self-generated thought and negative moods.The test used certain analysis to explore how each of these factors affected aperson’s thought. It indicated that some types of self-generated thoughts leadto negative impacts on mood and emotion. It was also concluded that although,an individual may seem to be in control of their own behavior, many factors areinternally and externally involved.
Our everyday decision-making skills are shaped byour mood and emotions at the time, even though it may not seem like it.Generally, individuals who are in a happy and optimistic mood, their actionsare shifted towards a positive direction (Schwarz, 2000). I do agree with thisstatement as looking at my past experiences and interactions, when I knew I wasin a better internal mood state, I’d be more positive with how I approachedsituations. Romans et al., (2009), study was specifically done on women andhow they perceive mood influences. Majority of the women stated that generallytheir negativity towards their mood had to do with physical health and stress.
Gingnellet al., (2013) analyzed women who take combined oral contraceptives compared toa placebo group. The results showed that women who take oral contraceptivesincreased levels of mood swings and depressive moods. The findings alsocompared the differences in brain activity between the two groups. In some cases, sudden shifts in moods can cause alterations inone’s behavior and this can result in a mood disorder. For example, bipolar mood disorder is theabrupt change in one’s mood and energy, which tends to impact behavior andactions drastically, without the individual knowing itself.
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In extreme cases ofmood disorders individuals generally have a greater risk for developingsuicidal tendencies. Grande, Berk, Birmaher and Vieta, (2016) found thatindividuals who have attempted suicide in their past either had bipolar mooddisorder, depressive traits, anxiety or some borderline personality disorders. Mood is a tricky aspect of ourselves as it varies throughoutevery individual depending on many internal and external influences. Our socialcognitive interactions are dependent of our mood and it affects how we migratethroughout the social world.
References: Ruby, F., Smallwood, J., Engen, H., & Singer, T. (2013). Howself-generated thought shapes mood–the relation between mind-wandering andmood depends on the socio-temporal content of thoughts.
PLOS One, 8(10), e77554.doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0077554Schwarz, N. (2000). Emotion, cognition, and decision making.
Cognition& Emotion, 14(4), 433-440.doi:10.1080/02699930040745Romans, S., Asllani, E., Clarkson, R., Meiyappan, S.
, Petrovic,M., & Tang, D. (2009). Women’s perceptions of influences on their mood.
Women& Health, 49(1), 32-49.doi:10.1080/03630240802708523Gingnell, M., Engman, J., Frick, A.
, Moby, L., Wikström, J.,Fredrikson, M.
, Sundstrom, Poromaa, I. (2013). Oral contraceptive use changesbrain activity and mood in women with previous negative affect on the pill–adouble-blinded, placebo-controlled randomized trial of alevonorgestrel-containing combined oral contraceptive. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 38(7), 1133-1144.
doi:10.1016/j.psyneuen.2012.11.006Grande, I., Berk, M.
, Birmaher, B., & Vieta, E. (2016).Bipolar disorder. TheLancet, 387(10027),1561-1572.
doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(15)00241-X
