THE EFFECTS OF MOOD AND FOCUS OF ATTENTION ON SELF-RELEVANT THOUGHTS AND HELPING INTENTION

Mood has pronounced effects on social behavior. Changes in how one thinks about oneself induced by mood states may mediate this relationship. It is believed that (a) mood promotes a shift in attentional focus on to the self affecting changes in the availability of mood congruent self-relevant thoughts, (b) these changes facilitate or inhibit various social behaviors, and (c) behavior then serves to maintain positive states or contribute to the relief of negative states. Two studies examined the effects of mood on self-relevant thought. In the first, subjects experienced a happy or a neutral mood while their attention was self-focused, externally focused, or allowed to wander freely. The second study used the same three focus of attention conditions and subjects experienced a sad mood or a neutral state.; Happiness led to a greater emphasis on personal rather than social aspects of the self-concept, greater complexity in the way the self was represented in memory, higher ratings of state self-evaluation, and a tendency to see one's behavior as inconsistent, depending on the situation. Happy subjects also indicated greater confidence about performing specific helping behaviors. Positive mood often interacted with focus of attention such that externally focused subjects responded more like internally focused subjects following the induction of a happy mood state. Sad mood had weaker and less consistent effects on self-relevant thought. Like happy subjects, sad subjects deemphasized social aspects of the self-concept, and self-evaluation ratings shifted in a mood congruent direction. However, sadness had little impact on other dependent variables. Further, with the exception of dispositional tendencies toward mindwandering, individual difference variables tended not to be associated with self-relevant thoughts or helping intention.