EFFECT ON MOOD OF THINKING ABOUT EXTREME EMOTIONAL TERMS

The hypothesis that being asked to think about extreme emotional terms influences mood in the direction of the polarity of the terms was tes ted in three experiments. Subjects answered items about their mood bef ore and after being asked to think about nine extreme, positive emotio nal terms (e.g., ecstatic) or nine extreme, negative emotional terms ( e.g., wretched). It was found that when subjects were asked to think a bout extreme, positive emotional terms, mood changed in a positive dir ection, and when they were asked to think about extreme, negative emot ional terms, mood changed in a negative direction. The effect on mood of being asked to think about extreme emotional terms did not depend o n whether the subjects were asked just to think about the terms (Exper iment 1), to think about the terms in relation to the self (Experiment 2), or to think about the meaning of the terms (Experiment 3).