Abstract
This article reports an experiment conducted to estimate whether and how subjects' mood states would influence their scores on three personality measurement scales. The three scales were Larsen's (1984) Affect Intensity Measure, Scheier & Carver's (1985) Life Orientation Test, and Leary et al.'s (1986) Objectivism Scale (the third scale was included only for control purposes). Four experimental groups were exposed to a very negative, mildly negative, neutral or positive mood-inducing film. Significant differences in scores between groups were found for the first two scales. This indicates that the scales are unstable measurement instruments in the presence of mood variations, and the appropriateness of employing these measurement scales in mood studies can thus be questioned.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bradburn, N. M. & Caplovitz, D. (1965). Reports on Happiness: A Pilot Study of Behavior Related to Mental Health. Chicago: Aldine.
Buss, D. M. & Craik, K. H. (1984). Acts, dispositions, and personality, pp. 241–301 in: B. A. Maher & W. B. Maher (eds.), Progress in Experimental Personality Research (Vol. 13). New York: Academic Press.
Carver, C. S. & Gaines, J. G. (1987). Optimism, pessimism, and postpartum depression, Cognitive Therapy and Res. 11: 449–462.
Diener, E., Larsen, R. J., Levine, S. & Emmons, R. A. (1985a). Intensity and frequency: Dimensions underlying positive and negative affect, J. Personality and Social Psychol. 48: 1253–1265.
Diener, E., Sandvik, E. & Larsen, R. J. (1985b). Age and sex effects for emotional intensity, Develop Psychol. 21: 542–546.
Epstein (1984). The stability of behavior across time and situations, pp. 209–268 in: R. A. Zucker, J. Aronoff & A. I. Rabin (eds.), Personality and the Prediction of Behavior. Orlando, FL: Academic Press.
Forgas, J. P., Bower, G. H. & Krantz, S. (1984). The influence of mood on perceptions of social interactions, J. Exp. Social Psychol. 20: 497–513.
Forgas, J. P. & Bower, G. H. (1987). Mood effects on person-perception judgements, J. Personality and Social Psychol. 53: 53–60.
Graeff, T. R., Sujan, H. & Zwick, R. (1990). The Influence of Positive Mood and Optimism on Consumers' Goal Expectations. Paper presented at the 20th Ann. Albert Haring Symp., Indiana University, April 1990.
Griffitt, W. (1970). Environmental effects on interpersonal affective behavior: Ambient temperature and attraction, J. Personality and Social Psychol. 15: 240–244.
Hedges, S. M., Jandorf, L. & Stone, A. A. (1985). Meaning of daily mood assessments, J. Personality and Social Psychol. 48: 428–434.
Isen, A. M. (1984). Toward understanding the role of affect in cognition, pp. 179–236 in: R. Wyer & T. Srull (eds.), Handbook of Social Cognition. Hillsdale, N. J.: Erlbaum.
Isen, A. M. (1985). Asymmetry of happiness and sadness in effects on memory in normal college students: Comment on Hasher. Rose, Zacks, Sanft, and Doren, J. Exp. Psychol.: General 114: 388–391.
Isen, A. M., Daubman, K. A. & Nowicki, G. P. (1987). Positive affect facilitates creative problem solving, J. Personality and Social Psychol. 52: 1122–1131.
Isen, A. M., Shalker, T., Clark, M. & Karp, L. (1978). Positive affect, accessibility of material in memory and behavior: A cognitive loop?, J. Personality and Social Psychol. 36: 1–12.
Johnson, E. J. & Tversky, A. (1983). Affect, generalization, and the perception of risk, J. Personality and Social Psychol. 45: 20–31.
Laird, J., Wagener, J., Halal, M. & Szegda, M. (1982). Remembering what you feel: Effects of emotion on memory, J. Personality and Social Psychol. 42: 646–657.
Larsen, R. J. (1984). Theory and Measurement of Affect Intensity as an Individual Difference Characteristic. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Larsen, R. J. (1987). The stability of mood variability: A spectral analytic approach to daily mood assessments, J. Personality and Social Psychol. 52: 1195–1204.
Larsen, R. J., Diener, E. & Emmons, R. A. (1986). Affect intensity and reactions to daily life events, J. Personality and Social Psychol. 51: 803–814.
Leary, M. R., Shepperd, J. A., McNeil, M. S., Jenkins, T. B. & Barnes, B. D. (1986). Objectivism in information utilization: Theory and measurement. J. Personality Assessment 50: 32–43.
Masters, J. & Furman, W. (1976). Effects of affective states on noncontingent outcome expectancies and beliefs in internal or external control, Develop. Psychol. 5: 481–482.
Mayer, J. D. (1986). How mood influences cognition, pp. 290–314 in: N. E. Sharkey (ed.), Advances in Cognitive Science. Chichester: Ellis Horwood Ltd.
Nowlis, V. (1965). Research with the mood adjective checklist, pp. 352–389 in: S. S. Tomkins & C. E. Izard (eds.), Affect, Cognition and Personality. New York: Springer.
Peterson, R. & Sauber, M. (1983). A mood scale for survey research, pp. 409–414 in: P. Murphy et al. (eds.), AMA Educators' Proceedings. Chicago: American Marketing Association.
Riskind, J. H. (1983). Nonverbal expressions and the accessibility of life experience memories: A congruence hypothesis, Social Cognition 2: 62–86.
Samuel, W. (1980). Mood and personality correlates of IQ by race and sex of subject, J. Personality and Social Psychol. 38: 993–1004.
Scheier, M. F. & Carver, C. S. (1985). Optimism, coping and health: Assessment and implications of generalized outcome expectancies, Health Psychol. 4: 219–247.
Scheier, M. F., Weintraub, J. K. & Carver, C. S. (1986). Coping with stress: Divergent strategies of optimists and pessimists, J. Personality and Social Psychol. 51: 1257–1264.
Schwarz, N. & Clore, G. L. (1983). Mood, misattribution, and judgements of well-being: Informative and directive functions of affective states, J. Personality and Social Psychol. 45: 513–523.
Smith, H. C. (1961). Personality Adjustment. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Srull, T. (1983). Affect and memory: The impact of affective reactions in advertising on the representation of product information in memory, pp. 520–525 in: R. Bagozzi & A. Tybout (eds.), Advances in Consumer Research. Ann Arbor, MI: Association for Consumer Research.
Stone, A. A. & Neale, J. M. (1984). Effects of severe daily events on mood, J. Personality and Socïal Psychol. 46: 137–144.
Tversky, A. & Kahneman, D. (1973). Availability: A heuristic for judging frequency and probability, Cognitive Psychol. 5: 207–232.
Underwood, B., Froming, W. J. & Moore, B. S. (1980). Mood and personality: A search for the causal relationship, J. Personality 48: 15–23.
Veitch, R. & Griffitt, W. (1976). Good news-bad news: Affective and interpersonal effects, J. Appl. Social Psychol. 6: 69–75.
Veroff, J., Feld & Gurin, G. (1962). Dimensions of subjective adjustment, J. Abnormal and Social Psychol. 64: 192–205.
Werner, P. D. & Pervin, L. A. (1986). The content of personality inventory items, J. Personality and Social Psychol. 51: 622–628.
Wessman, A. E. & Ricks, D. F. (1966). Mood and Personality. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Heide, M., Grønhaug, K. The impact of mood on personality measures. Qual Quant 30, 1–17 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00139832
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00139832