Toward a science of mood regulation

Mood is distinguished from emotion, and mood regulation is distinguished fr om coping. A model of mood regulation is presented which draws on principle s of control theory, which distinguishes between maximizing pleasure and mi nimizing psychic pain, and which emphasizes individual differences in sever al component subprocesses. A preliminary taxonomy of strategies and behavio rs for remediating unpleasant affect is presented Important topics for futu re research are discussed, including the assessment of successfulness of mo od-regulation strategies, affective specificity in strategies (e.g, what wo rks for anger might not work so well for sadness), and person specificity i n strategies (e.g, socializing or helping others may be more effective stra tegies for extraverts than introverts). The relationship of mood regulation to overall life satisfaction and global happiness is discussed.