DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION OF VELTEN-LIKE IMAGE-ORIENTED ANXIETY AND SERENITY MOOD INDUCTIONS

Great interest has been shown in the effects of both naturally occurri ng and induced affective states on self-perception and judgment. Howev er, mood inductions often underrepresent the construct mood and often contain confounds because inductions do not map onto orthogonal Valenc e x Arousal dimensions. It also is important that researchers in the a rea of the effects of affective states devise and use a more diverse a rray of mood induction techniques. Two studies were conducted in order to develop and validate Velten-like serenity and anxiety mood inducti ons. In Study 1, participants were randomly assigned to evaluating the valence or arousal content of self-referent statements designed to re present anxiety and serenity. The 59 statements rated as lowest on val ence and highest on arousal were selected as anxiety statements. The 5 9 statements rated as highest on valence and lowest on arousal were se lected as serenity statements. In Study 2, the anxiety and serenity st atements were organized so that they became progressively more represe ntative of the mood they were intended to induce. Anxiety and serenity incubation instructions were developed. Participants, in a single gro up, were randomly assigned to mood induction conditions in a 2 (Valenc e: Positive vs. Negative) x 2 (Arousal: Active vs. Passive) factorial design. Modified Velten elation and depression inductions served as th e active-positive and passive-negative inductions, respectively. The s erenity and anxiety inductions served as the passive-positive and acti ve-negative inductions, respectively. Participants read 60 mood-relate d statements at the rate of 1 per 15 sec and concentrated on experienc ing the mood represented by the statements. Participants then read inc ubation instructions and focused, for 2 min, on events in their own li ves that made them feel like the mood represented by the statements. T he valence and arousal components of participants' affective states we re measured. Results indicated that the anxiety and serenity induction s were effective. Furthermore, the use of the anxiety and serenity ind uctions, in conjunction with the modified Velten depression and elatio n inductions affords the opportunity to induce moods mapping onto 2 (P ositive vs. Negative) x 2 (Active vs. Passive) orthogonal dimensions. Therapeutic implications, implications in terms of a new tool for rese arch, and methodological considerations are discussed.