Mood repair strategies

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Mood repair strategies offer techniques that an individual can use to shift their mood from general sadness or clinical depression to a state of greater contentment or happiness. A mood repair strategy is a cognitive, behavioral, and interpersonal psychological tool used to affect the mood regulation of an individual. Various mood repair strategies are most commonly used in cognitive therapy. They are commonly assigned as homework by therapists in order to help positively impact individuals who are experiencing dysphoria or depression.[ failed verification ][ need quotation to verify ] [1] However, these tools can also be used for individuals experiencing temporary unwanted moods. Many factors go into the effectiveness of mood repair strategies on an individual ranging from the client's self-esteem [2] to their experience with the strategy being used.[ unreliable medical source? ] [1] Even the way the mood repair strategy is presented (either to avoid negative moods or to pursue positive moods) may have an effect on that strategy's ability to improve mood.[ unreliable medical source? ] [1]

Contents

Background

Mood repair strategies have existed in a casual and unscientific way for basically all of modern human history due to general affect and the desire to change that affect when it is negative. Generally the techniques could be considered "common knowledge" but these techniques were unexplored in research. Concepts such as "think happy thoughts" and "don't listen to sad music" are commonly prescribed by friends or family to those suffering in negative moods. What remained to be seen though, was how the various individuals differed and subsequently, which of these "common knowledge" concepts should be suggested or how they should be phrased when presented. The first scholarly mention of mood repair strategies came from Joseph Forgas and Gorden Bower in 1988.[ original research? ] [3] Extensive listing and studying of these techniques started in the mid 1990s. It has primarily focused on the differences in the individuals to whom the mood repair strategies are given and how the strategies prove effective on each type of person. While various personality types may be more receptive to mood repair strategies it appears that there has been some success in working with all types of individuals.[ unreliable medical source? ] [4] While professional use of mood repair strategies began primarily in the clinical cognitive psychology movement the expansion of the positive psychology movement is helping to increase the professional use of these mood repair strategies.[ citation needed ]

Cognitive mood repair strategies are primarily concerned with the ability of recognizing emotional upset and taking one of three courses of action. An individual can choose to evaluate the feelings of dysphoria and better understand the source of the negative mood to give the individual a sense of control of his or her mood. [5] Re-evaluation can also occur which allows for individuals to take a negative situation that cause a mood and seek to find a positive perspective from the circumstance. Distraction can also occur which allows for individuals to recall mood-incongruent memories or positive thoughts in order to distract from the current upset in mood.[ unreliable medical source? ] [6] Behavioral mood repair strategies allow for individuals to regulate their moods by the utilization of activities or tasks. Working on a task allows for individuals to temporarily distract from their current mood. Exercise also allows for a release of tension and an improvement of mood.[ unreliable medical source? ] [7] Interpersonal mood repair strategies deal primarily with the focus of mood repair deriving from a relationship with other people. This can occur from individuals seeking out emotional support and a deeper processing of the possible circumstance that led to the negative mood. This can also be achieved by distracting the individual and being with individuals that could lift the overall positivity of the individual. [7]

Presentation

Presentation of mood repair strategies has been the primary focus of much of the research studying the efficacy of mood repair strategies. The initial thing to consider when proposing the use of a mood repair strategy is what kind of state the unhappy individual is in. If the individual is depressed, avoidance framed messages have been shown to have the greatest influence on increasing mood. This means that presenting mood repair strategies in such a way that they do not seem like they are attempting to achieve happiness, but rather to avoid sadness, are more effective. Individuals who are not clinically depressed respond better to approach framed messages of mood repair. These individuals are usually more interested in achieving happiness. Individual’s perceptions of the desirability of mood change and the likelihood that a strategy may work are what bring about success.[ unreliable medical source? ] [1]

Directing the individual seeking mood repair to engage in concrete, as opposed to abstract, processing is another important part of presentation. Abstract processing focuses on “why” questions while concrete processing is focused on moment-to-moment experiences. Concrete processing allows people to focus away from their current negative state. This kind of processing naturally coincides with the use of imagery. Pairing highly sensory imagery with emotionally relevant memory has been shown to give people the best chance at experiencing mood repair. This is taken into account when presenting mood repair strategies to people.[ unreliable medical source? ] [8]

Techniques

Retrieving positive memories

Sometimes known as distraction or Mood Incongruent Recollection, this is one of the most common mood repair strategies. Normally people engage in thoughts of mood congruence, which are ones that are in harmony with their mood. Mood incongruent recollection is usually the forced consideration of memories not related to the current mood. The theory behind this thinking is that when the mind is engaged in a track of negative mood, the forced recall of positive memories will break the cycle and force the brain to reorient into a more positive state.[ unreliable medical source? ] [9] There are two ways to recall these memories, abstractly and concretely. [8] An abstract recollection of memories consists of a kind of comparison between an individual's memory and their current situation. This can sometimes be helpful unless the individual suffers from depression. A concrete recollection is when a memory is recalled especially vividly and the individual experiences the phenomenology of this memory more acutely. This has been used extensively even among those suffering with clinical depression. [8]

Music

Music is often used for two different reasons in mood repair strategies. The first is to allow the listener to identify themselves with the current music and to allow for some ventilation or mood attenuation. The other is a form of mood-repair strategy which allows the listener to take action to achieve their desired mood. These two approaches are considered the mood-congruent listening approach and the mood-incongruent listening approach, respectively.[ unreliable medical source? ] [5]

Listening to music in a mood-congruent state with those who are experiencing negative mood states such as dysphoria, or sadness, can allow for those individuals to be more likely to identify with the music that shares their current mood. This mood-congruency effect can allow for individuals engaging in the listening of mood-congruent music to become increasingly aware of their own mood. It is theorized that with a heightened sense of mood recognition, an individual is capable of being empowered by recognizing that the current mood is their own, and they are in control of their mood. With a greater sense of empowerment over one’s emotional state, individuals can take steps in which to take their control and change their current unwanted mood. The acknowledgment of a person’s mood is a critical precursor in attempts made to regulate moods.[ unreliable medical source? ] [5]

Listening to music in a mood-incongruent state, such as someone sad listening to happy music, allows for possible mood attenuation through distraction, and enforces positive thoughts for the individual such as feelings of happiness, encouragement, a sense of hope, a change in perception, etc. In mood attenuation through distraction people are allowed time to “cool off” and let their heightened mood dwindle. Enforcing feelings of positivity can allow for the participant to model his or her actions and behaviors towards ones that are congruent with the type of music that is being used.[ unreliable medical source? ] [5]

Social support

While many forms of mood repair strategies are individualistic in their approach, social support allows for individuals to engage in form of repair that focuses on others. Social support can occur in many ways. Ventilation is a form of social support in which a participant is able to “vent” his or her current cause of the undesirable mood. This allows for the emotion to be released from any form of tension due to an individual ruminating on the issue and open for a reinterpretation by the listener. Gratification is a pleasurable reaction in response to a communication of the cause of unwanted mood. This type of gratification can be a reward for the participant in releasing the tension carried by the cause of the mood and a feeling of relief. Spending time with someone and engaging in an emotional activity are also considered to be forms of social support. These forms of social support allow for an individual to become distracted from the cause of the issue and allow for time to go by and allow for a process of mood attenuation. Engaging in emotional activities contrary to the emotions the participant is currently experiencing, like helping others or experiencing pleasure things, may also increase the speed of attenuation by diverting the focus of their mood towards other things. [10]

Active mood management

Relaxation techniques are often used as mood-repair strategies to help an individual achieve a level of calm and reduce the stress or tension that can come from negative moods. These techniques are often very methodical in their approach and can be actively engaged by willing participants who are aware of how to enact them. [10] Meditation and conscious control of breathing are two common examples.

Exercise is used to help an individuals alleviate unwanted moods by physically engaging the body to activate endorphins. These endorphins bring about a sense of euphoria and can alleviate undesirable moods by participants that focus on engaging this euphoria. Exercise can also serve to distract individuals by allowing their focus to be on a specific task, such as focusing on lifting weights, or getting across the finish line, allowing less room for rumination on negative thoughts. [10]

Stress management activities are used for mood repair strategies and the stress that is typically accompanied by them. By coping with stress through a variety of techniques individuals are able to learn how to manage their day-to-day lives and the stimuli that can be known to cause stress. [10]

Sex

Sex is a form of direct tension reduction, which puts it in the same category as things like the consumption of drugs and alcohol. Generally engaging in sexual intercourse is a much safer and less destructive alternative to the other direct tension reducing measures. To those in a healthy, committed relationship[ citation needed ] it can prove to be a very beneficial mood repair strategy. Sexual intercourse’s main purpose in mood repair is the releasing of tension. It activates the release of oxytocin in the brain that serves to calm nerves, relax muscles, and induce brief euphoria. These results each have a positive effect on unwanted moods and in combination they present a powerful reaction. The second major reason that sex constitutes as a mood repair strategy is because of the feelings of closeness it creates between the two people engaging in the action. The intimacy involved in sex serves as an important counter to the feelings of loneliness and isolation that often contribute to sadness or depression. [10]

Humor

Humor is also a known mood-repair strategy. Humor is able to bring about a sense of attenuation and allow for individuals to engage in pleasurable activities. Engaging in activities that can evoke a humorous response can often lead individuals to laughter. Laughter is able to increase serotonin levels which are known to bring about a greater level of contentment. [11]

Related Research Articles

In psychology, a mood is an affective state. In contrast to emotions or feelings, moods are less specific, less intense and less likely to be provoked or instantiated by a particular stimulus or event. Moods are typically described as having either a positive or negative valence. In other words, people usually talk about being in a good mood or a bad mood. There are many different factors that influence mood, and these can lead to positive or negative effects on mood.

Depressive realism is the hypothesis developed by Lauren Alloy and Lyn Yvonne Abramson that depressed individuals make more realistic inferences than non-depressed individuals. Although depressed individuals are thought to have a negative cognitive bias that results in recurrent, negative automatic thoughts, maladaptive behaviors, and dysfunctional world beliefs, depressive realism argues not only that this negativity may reflect a more accurate appraisal of the world but also that non-depressed individuals' appraisals are positively biased.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Affect (psychology)</span> Experience of feeling or emotion

Affect, in psychology, refers to the underlying experience of feeling, emotion or mood.

Mood congruence is the consistency between a person's emotional state with the broader situations and circumstances being experienced by the persons at that time. By contrast, mood incongruence occurs when the individual's reactions or emotional state appear to be in conflict with the situation. In the context of psychosis, hallucinations and delusions may be considered mood congruent or incongruent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emotionality</span>

Emotionality is the observable behavioral and physiological component of emotion. It is a measure of a person's emotional reactivity to a stimulus. Most of these responses can be observed by other people, while some emotional responses can only be observed by the person experiencing them. Observable responses to emotion do not have a single meaning. A smile can be used to express happiness or anxiety, while a frown can communicate sadness or anger. Emotionality is often used by experimental psychology researchers to operationalize emotion in research studies.

Evolutionary approaches to depression are attempts by evolutionary psychologists to use the theory of evolution to shed light on the problem of mood disorders within the perspective of evolutionary psychiatry. Depression is generally thought of as dysfunction or a mental disorder, but its prevalence does not increase with age the way dementia and other organic dysfunction commonly does. Some researchers have surmised that the disorder may have evolutionary roots, in the same way that others suggest evolutionary contributions to schizophrenia, sickle cell anemia, psychopathy and other disorders. Psychology and psychiatry have not generally embraced evolutionary explanations for behaviors, and the proposed explanations for the evolution of depression remain controversial.

Affect displays are the verbal and non-verbal displays of affect (emotion). These displays can be through facial expressions, gestures and body language, volume and tone of voice, laughing, crying, etc. Affect displays can be altered or faked so one may appear one way, when they feel another. Affect can be conscious or non-conscious and can be discreet or obvious. The display of positive emotions, such as smiling, laughing, etc., is termed "positive affect", while the displays of more negative emotions, such as crying and tense gestures, is respectively termed "negative affect".

The Affect infusion model (AIM) is a theoretical model in the field of human psychology. Developed by social psychologist Joseph Paul Forgas in the early 1990s, it attempts to explain how affect impacts one's ability to process information. A key assertion of the AIM is that the effects of affect tend to be exacerbated in complex situations that demand substantial cognitive processing. In simpler words, as situations become more complicated and unanticipated, mood becomes more influential in driving evaluations and responses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rumination (psychology)</span> Focused attention

Rumination is the focused attention on the symptoms of one's distress, and on its possible causes and consequences, as opposed to its solutions, according to the Response Styles Theory proposed by Nolen-Hoeksema (1998).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Negative affectivity</span>

Negative affectivity (NA), or negative affect, is a personality variable that involves the experience of negative emotions and poor self-concept. Negative affectivity subsumes a variety of negative emotions, including anger, contempt, disgust, guilt, fear, and nervousness. Low negative affectivity is characterized by frequent states of calmness and serenity, along with states of confidence, activeness, and great enthusiasm.

Autobiographical memory is a memory system consisting of episodes recollected from an individual's life, based on a combination of episodic and semantic memory. It is thus a type of explicit memory.

In psychology, context-dependent memory is the improved recall of specific episodes or information when the context present at encoding and retrieval are the same. In a simpler manner, "when events are represented in memory, contextual information is stored along with memory targets; the context can therefore cue memories containing that contextual information". One particularly common example of context-dependence at work occurs when an individual has lost an item in an unknown location. Typically, people try to systematically "retrace their steps" to determine all of the possible places where the item might be located. Based on the role that context plays in determining recall, it is not at all surprising that individuals often quite easily discover the lost item upon returning to the correct context. This concept is heavily related to the encoding specificity principle.

Affect measures are used in the study of human affect, and refer to measures obtained from self-report studies asking participants to quantify their current feelings or average feelings over a longer period of time. Even though some affect measures contain variations that allow assessment of basic predispositions to experience a certain emotion, tests for such stable traits are usually considered to be personality tests.

Paula M. Niedenthal is a social psychologist currently working as a Professor of Psychology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She also completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Wisconsin at Madison where she received a Bachelor's in Psychology. She then received her Ph.D. at the University of Michigan before becoming a faculty member of the departments of Psychology at Johns Hopkins University and Indiana University. Until recently, she served as the Director of Research in the National Centre for Scientific Research at the Université Blaise Pascal in Clermont-Ferrand France. The majority of Niedenthal's research focuses on several levels of analysis of emotional processes, this would include emotion-cognition interaction and representational models of emotion. Niedenthal has authored more than 80 articles and chapters, and several books. Niedenthal is a fellow of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology.

Meta-mood is a term used by psychologists to refer to an individual's awareness of their emotions. The term was first utilized by John D. Mayer and Peter Salovey who believed the experience of mood involved "direct" and "indirect" components. While the direct level refers to the simple appearance of mood - happiness, fear, anger, sadness, and surprise, the indirect level, or the meta-mood experience, does not solely consist of the emotions experienced by an individual in the moment. Rather, it is a reflective state which involves additional thoughts and feelings about the mood itself. "I shouldn’t feel this way" or "I am thinking of ways to improve my mood" are examples of reflective thoughts during a meta-mood experience.

Mnemic neglect is a term used in social psychology to describe a pattern of selective forgetting in which certain autobiographical memories tend to be recalled more easily if they are consistent with positive self-concept. The mnemic neglect model stipulates that memory is self-protective if the information is negative, self-referent, and concerns central traits.

A cognitive vulnerability in cognitive psychology is an erroneous belief, cognitive bias, or pattern of thought that predisposes an individual to psychological problems. The vulnerability exists before the symptoms of a psychological disorder appear. After the individual encounters a stressful experience, the cognitive vulnerability shapes a maladaptive response that increases the likelihood of a psychological disorder.

The fading affect bias, more commonly known as FAB, is a psychological phenomenon in which memories associated with negative emotions tend to be forgotten more quickly than those associated with positive emotions. It is important to note that FAB only refers to the feelings one has associated with the memories and not the content of the memories themselves. Early research studied FAB retrospectively, or through personal reflection, which brought about some criticism because retrospective analysis can be affected by subjective retrospective biases. However, new research using non-retrospective recall studies have found evidence for FAB., and the phenomenon has become largely accepted.

Interpersonal emotion regulation is the process of changing the emotional experience of one's self or another person through social interaction. It encompasses both intrinsic emotion regulation, in which one attempts to alter their own feelings by recruiting social resources, as well as extrinsic emotion regulation, in which one deliberately attempts to alter the trajectory of other people's feelings.

Watson and Clark (1991) proposed the Tripartite Model of Anxiety and Depression to help explain the comorbidity between anxious and depressive symptoms and disorders. This model divides the symptoms of anxiety and depression into three groups: negative affect, positive affect and physiological hyperarousal. These three sets of symptoms help explain common and distinct aspects of depression and anxiety.

References

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