Everyone pursue happiness. It is well known that good mood can promote many behaviours that lead to a possitive effects. Thinking in an optimistic way also encourages outright and brave actions that can result in more positive outcome of our activity.
But is it possible that bad mood could also have some benefits?
Please, read the following article:
What are the pros and cons of good mood?
What are the pros and cons of bad mood?
What type of long term effect would you expect from frequent mood swings?
How moods can influence our behavior?
What are the pros and cons of good mood? What are the pros and cons of bad mood?
ReplyDeleteBoth of these are listed in the article and I can certainly agree with some of them. Good mood can make a person less critical about certain issues and people, more willing to accept "half truths" and not paying as much attention to details. This seems fairly logical and well grounded in reality - I certainly witnessed some of that in my own life, even though personally I'd qualify as "neutral" or "bad" mood person. These are definitely the strengths of grumpy little pesimists.
On the other hand, the idea that good mood makes people less "fair" is certainly surprising and I'm not sure if I buy that. I'd expect the exact opposite - someone who is annoyed and/or angry to be mostly out for himself, not caring about the others nearly as much. Research *seem* to prove me wrong, but still, it's rather hard to believe.
Biggest con of bad mood for me would be social awkwardness and difficulty in dealing with such people. Someone giving you a death glare in exchange for a harmless joke or barking others left and right can be a pain to deal with. In short time period, it wouldn't be that bad, but the longer it takes, the more annoying it would get.
What type of long term effect would you expect from frequent mood swings?
Making irrational decisions, being prone to anger, shunned by coworkers and unpredictable. No offense to women, but it would be like dealing with someone on constant PMS, where you're not sure if any innocent remark won't backfire. Or if seemingly innocent conversation won't turn nasty all of sudden, because "mood swing" happened.
How moods can influence our behavior?
Just as mentioned above. Bad mood can make someone pay higher attention to details, being more attentive and focused - but also give up when faced with problems and having issues forcing himself to progress further.
Good mood could make a person adapt a "never give up" mentality and easily deal with various situations - but also skim on details and consider them something that could be easily improvised when needed. Which isn't always the case.
It looks like that exact benefits got from moods are personal and they stimulate every one of us in a different manner.
DeleteDo you think that mood swings can be controlled at some point?
Frequent and serious mood swings would probably qualify for psychological assistance, maybe even some sort of treatment. It could be a sign of some mental disorder, not merely "having a bad day". I'm not really qualified to talk about it, seeing as I'm no psychologist/psychiatrist, but it really does seem like their area of expertise.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteFor me it's hard for to answer for your question, because for me it doesn't matter which mood I have / had. If I'm in a bad mood then I just don't work efficiently, or trying to do nothing - this is all - and even if someone create the best thesis for this problem this doesn't change me. But it's hard traced to the positive and negative sides - this issue is more for psychologists - maybe they will write new futuristic theories ;). Article which you presented shows (table on right side) the pros and cons which doesn't refer for example to me. I understand that the article wrote Behavioral Sciences but it's very one-way analysis. I can agree with some of this points from article - but this is natural, and we don't need to create some theories for this.
ReplyDeleteYour point of view proves that things as complex as behaviour and efficiency of work shouldn't be generalised and marked as bad or good.
Delete@Artur, behaviour is a very complicated thing, so it's very hard to discuss me on this topic because my knowledge base is a computer science, mathematics, physics. Of course for people who study psychology this topic perhaps will be very interesting. Sorry ;) Of course you are doing a great job here!
DeleteSimilarly to Kamil I wouldn't to repeat pros and cons of good or bad moods written in the presented article. If you asked me about doing it in a comment I might try :-).
ReplyDeleteThis article reversed something in my mind: I've treated my mood only as a result of my activities and I haven't supposed that a bad mood may have such significant positive influence on outcomes of my activities.
People with bad mood are often seen as uncertain their knowledge, skills - according to the article I don't know whether they only focus on details :-).
I suppose that mood swings aren't good at all - especially for collaboration between coworkers. I see that some people can suit their activities and a way of managing different people which seem to be still happy or sad. But when we see a person with a mood swing we probably analyze too much what's happened or whether everything is ok. It wastes our time and power.
I see that moods influences our behaviours more than I thought previously. Next time when my boos give me any task I will ask him whether he expects from me creativity or detail orientation and then I will try to be in a good or bad mood to better do my job :-).
Yes, and always approach your boss when he's in a bad mood: after all, you want to take advantage of his increased “fairness to others” according to that table from the article. What a joke!
DeleteThat's an interesting point: trying to guess other people's moods is an important social skill.
I still can't get over that part. How is being angry resulting in being more fair? It makes no sense to me. Maybe it's only true in a controled, testing environment, where participants know it's not serious. In real life? I guess I'm constantly interracting with the "minority" - people who don't act "fair" when they're angry.
DeleteI didn't mean to rewrite the table of pros and cons from the article, I rather expected you to share what are the consequences of mood in your case :)
DeleteI don't agree with the fair issue. I would never ask my boss for something important for me when he is in a bad mood :)
After the Artur's comments I also see that I often ask my CEO's secretary about mood of boss before meeting him :-). I also prefer to wait for a better his mood.
DeleteI often see too optimistic my approach for solving some problems when I am in a really good mood. I really don't notice many aspects which I normally see (or should see) then. I don't know why it occurs me. Maybe a good mood causes jamming the brain areas responsible for accurate detailed thinking? Maybe a similar phenomena is connected with the fair evaluation described by Kamil. We probably also should remember that "having a bad mood" is something different than "being under influence of bad emotions".
As far as consequences of having a bad mood are concerned - nobody wants to talk me then:-).
I think it's all relative. How would you know you're in a good mood if you haven't experienced a bad mood recently? If you're constantly happy, you may find it boring and start looking for even more happiness and that in itself can be depressing. So I guess the neutral level of mood must vary from person to person and changes over time.
ReplyDeleteTrying to link thinking styles to moods is interesting but it seems like just an extension of the basic principle: you're happy - you're satisfied with the way things are, you're not happy - you want things to change. Everything else follows from this.
So I agree that there are benefits to both good and bad moods, or rather good and bad moods are the correct response to various situations that we find ourselves in everyday. Frequent wild mood swings may lead to bipolar disorder, so moderation is also advised.
I agree that in each fielsd of life and work balance is the most important thing
DeleteI will not repeat pros and cons of good or bad mode. In my opinion it is just beauty of live that our moods are not always constants. You never really appreciate good times until you safer bad with a really bad mood. Some people pretend to be always happy or always sad and usually that mean that is something wrong with them. Being in constant bad mood can lead to depression, phobias or other serious disease. Being always in good mod seems to me rather like fake. I think those up and downs are important. When we are in good mode we are more optimistic, so we try to realize our plans without warring about all this thinks that can go wrong. When we are in bad mod we are more pessimistic, so we can analyze all week points of our plans and maybe make some improvements. According to your question about frequent mood swings I think that until these changes are not to frequent that everything is ok. Problem appears when these changes are too often. As an answer to your last question I will say that moods do not have an influence on my behavior but even if they do I never admit that.
ReplyDeleteWhat are the pros and cons of good/bad mood?
ReplyDeleteI'm not having any exciting insights concerning first two questions, so I’ll deliberately omit it.
What type of long term effect would you expect from frequent mood swings?
Mood swings are normal, because for longer period of time it is not possible to have same mood all the time and if it happens, it rather means having some emotional disorder. Of course rapid and frequent change in a mood could also indicate some illness. Since I believe that mood changes are quite normal I do not see any particular long term effect on ones’ psyche.
How moods can influence our behavior?
Moods influence us in virtually every aspect of our life. What is getting quite recognized is that our mood can change our likeliness to spend money. This will be soon used by companies selling their products or targeting their marketing campaign.
There have been convicted research where was concluded that people in sad mood are more willing to spend money. You could imagine a commercial on one of websites that You are visiting – buy that shoes, You will feel better – at particular moment in which You are feeling low!
First of all, I want to say that I really enjoyed this article.
ReplyDeleteWhat are the pros and cons of good mood ?
I think a lot depends on the individual character of the person, but I agree with the article that for many people it triggers creativity and willingness to engage in new ventures. The negative element is the apparent impression that everything is possible and falling into an exaggerated optimism .
What are the pros and cons of a bad mood ?
Typically, negative mood is not something we often want to experience, but as the article suggested it also has positive side. For example let's consider yesterday's car accident with Paul Walker, the actor known for movie series Fast & Fourius. His death is a very sad and tragic situation, but for many people it has become an occasion to reflect on how fragile life is. Sadness allowed to consider the fact that we need to appreciate each day of our life and that we should be careful, because we do not know what can happen to us.
What type of long term effect would you expect from frequent mood swings ?
The mood is rather something that last short, but probably person who in unexpected way changes his/her mood very often is tiring to closest community and this may be the reason for the later problems and frustration.
How moods can influence our behavior ?
I think that mood could change our behavior in very powerful way. Many times negative emotions affect our decisions, that we regret later. Similarly, after time of carefree joy and fun which were triggered by good mood we could regret how much time/money we lost.
Like almost everyone I will not repeat pros and cons of good or bad mode:)
ReplyDeleteIt is very interesting article I have to admit that I was surprised that bad mode can have good side:) ,that people have a bad mood see more details are remember more things.
Personally I think that a bad mood is needed because if everyone would have only good mode then they wouldn't appreciate it, thats why sometimes we need to have bad mode to be able to appreciate the good moments.
I fully agree. We need bad moods to truly value the good ones we have.
DeleteI was also surprised seeing that a bad mood can help us in making good decisions.
DeleteProbably we should admire scientists researching such undiscovered areas :-).
I find most of this findings very volatile.
ReplyDeleteIt is somehow difficult to be sure that experiments involving mood measurement can be accurate.
"... Sad moods also improve eyewitness memory, apparently by lowering the tendency to incorporate false and misleading details into accounts of what was observed ..."
Most of similar statements sound reasonable to me.
When you are not blinded with to strong happiness then it is easier to spot real details of things.
The Good And Bad moods should be left to psychologists. Hard to judge the mood is us humans. Psychologists are not
ReplyDeleteable to define the human mood. What to do to keep a good mood in the autumn days?
- Physical activity - sport is health improves mood,
- Healthy Food - food improves humor,
- Relax - while relaxing the body and calms the humor is better,
- Sleep - sleepy man will be a bad man,
- Friends - Surround yourself with people positive attitude to life,
- Music - everyone has their own music, which improves our mood,
- Dancing - doing what we like to be happy,
- Massage - can relax man
- Passion - doing what we like to forget about the bad things,
Whether we have a good or bad mood depends only on ourselves. It depends on the mood of your friends. Too often
we allow other people to break our spirits. Life is not perfect but you always find something to please us. Happiness is
a state of mind. You have to allow that our brain receives positive things. So what is needed for a good mood. You need
to think about their advantages, success, family. You have to enjoy the little things, try to think positively. People in a good
mood slowly solve deductive tasks, those in the mood negative slower solve mathematical induction. Negative mood
conducive to concentration of attention on himself, positive atmosphere conducive to focusing on external objects.
In fact I don’t know what to say (I have no opinion on this topic). I don’t won’t repeat pros and cons of good and bad mood because mostly I agree with my college. I find two more articles with similar topic:
ReplyDeleteColor Psychology
How Colors Impact Moods, Feelings, and Behaviors
http://psychology.about.com/od/sensationandperception/a/colorpsych.htm
Modelling the influence of human behavior on the spread of infectious diseases: a review
http://rsif.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2010/05/25/rsif.2010.0142.full