Abstract
This research uses a new time sampling method to compare adolescent and adult mood variability. Over 9,000 self-reports from 182 people are used to evaluate the widespread theoretical assumption that adolescents experience greater mood variability as part of a syndrome of psychosocial disequilibrium. The findings confirm that adolescents experience wider and quicker mood swings, but do not show that this variability is related to stress, lack of personal control, psychological maladjustment, or social maladjustment within individual teenagers. Rather than representing turmoil, wide mood swings appear to be a natural part of an adolescent peer-oriented life style. However, there are indications that adolescent mood variability interferes with capacity for deep Involvement, especially in school.
Reed Larson: Training Program in Adolescent Clinical Research, Michael Reese Hospital and the University of Chicago. Received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. Current interests are the study of enjoyment on everyday experience and the creation of meaning.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: Committee on Human Development, University of Chicago. Received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. Current interests are the study of enjoyment on everyday experience and the creation of meaning.
Ronald Graef: Committee on Human Development, University of Chicago. Received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. Current interest are the contributions of states and traits to everyday experience.
Springer Article. Reprinted from the Journal of Youth and Adolescence, vol 9/no 6, pp. 469–490 © 1980 Plenum Publishing Corporation, All rights reserved.
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This difference is also evident in the autocorrelations for the two groups. The adults’ moods show higher average autocorrelations over the sequence of the week.
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This research was partially funded by the Spencer Foundation.
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Larson, R., Csikszentmihalyi, M., Graef, R. (2014). Mood Variability and the Psycho-social Adjustment of Adolescents. In: Applications of Flow in Human Development and Education. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9094-9_15
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