Chapter 1: THE IMPACT OF POSITIVE MOOD ON LEARNING

 

Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION

 

A.   Background of the Study

 

Numerous studies show that individuals who are in a positive mood are successful across multiple life domains like marriage, friendship, income, work performance, and health. Because most people in that mood are more focus on the positive things and the positive outcome of being happy on what they are doing, but it doesn’t mean ignoring the bad sides of their life, but it shows the balance on how we will take things seriously or not. All that information shows only the concept of positive mood in our lives but in arguing with that, the happiness and success exists not only because success makes people happy, but also because positive mood affect engenders success. Relevant studies are described and revealed that “happiness is associated and precedes numerous successful outcomes, as well as behaviors paralleling success.” Furthermore, the evidence suggests that “positive mood affect our well-being that may be the cause of many of the desirable characteristics, resources, and successes correlated with happiness.”(http://www.researchgate.net/publication
/7419311_The_benefits_of_frequent_positive_affect_does_happiness_lead_to
_success).

 

Positive mood allows human brain to think more creatively. This study shows that people who do things like reading books, listening to music and other things that they do in their vacant time are not necessarily wasting their time but putting themselves in a right mood so they can think and do things right and more creatively. For this study, Nadler one of the researcher in Association for Psychological Science done an experiment to different kinds of students who is in a positive mood and in the negative mood, They are given an specific task to do, to test who is better at learning capabilities. After that they said that "If you have a project where you want to think innovatively, or you have a problem to carefully consider, being in a positive mood can help you to do that" (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/12/101215113253.htm).

 

            Positive mood facilitates cognitive functions in our actions. According to the article of Ika Febrilia, it includes “the flexibility, integration, and utilization of cognitive material such as memory, categorization, creative problem solving, decision-making and learning.” This study proposes a further explanation between positive and negative mood to students’ learning and the impact of that learning on student’s academic performance. Their study also found out that positive moods motivate a student to organize the academic material in memory for better recall. It supports the student in a positive mood will provide excitement to him/her to study and as the result; they are able to perform a better academic performance.(http://sv.libarts.psu.ac.th/conference5

/proceedings/Proceedings3/article/2pdf/007.pdf)

            Other studies used cartoons, movies, reading stories, or manipulated winning and losing scores on a game to induce moods. The performance of children in self-generated positive moods was contrasted with the students in a neutral mood. According to the article of Tanis Bryan and James Bryan entitled “Positive mood and math performance” from the website of Journal of Learning Disabilities, he employed students identified by teachers as being at risk for referral because of reading or math problems. The task involved learning five survival vocabulary words. Children in the positive mood condition learned more words than children in the neutral condition. Two studies also of Tanis Bryan and James Bryan examined the impact of mood induction on the performance of addition and subtraction problems. In the first study, subjects were children at risk for referral; in the other study, subjects were third through eleventh-grade students with severe learning disabilities attending a private school for students with learning disabilities. The results of both studies showed that students in the positive mood computed more problems accurately than students in the neutral mood condition.

 

            In addition to the positive mood, according to the Mental Health News by Dr. Trupti Shirole, they says that positive mood has also negative effects on memory storage capacity of the brain, because they conducted a study that when you are in positive mood because of the happy environment, you tend to forget something, like in the party you asked the phone numbers of people but you forgot it, because you’re enjoying yourself in the party unlike if you are in a neutral mood your more focus and better at remembering things.

            So, instead of thinking other benefits of having a positive mood in our daily lives, this paper focuses on the main reasons and impact of positive mood on learning performance.



 

 

B.   Statement of the Problem

          This study aims to answer this question:
 

1. What is the impact of having a positive mood on learning?

 

C.   Significance of the Study

Students. This research paper would be helpful to all the students just like me, to know if our mood affects our way of learning or our learning performance, because it is important to us, as a student to know the best way for us to improve our learning capabilities and to determine the other factors, such as student’s self-motivation to study when his\her mood is in positive or negative.

Teachers and Professors. Teachers and professors would also benefit from this study, because they would be able to know the effective strategy on how to manage their mood in order for them to keep the general mood to the class, to have a positive and focused learning environment to the class and to have a great day of learning for the students.

 

Parents. This would also help our parents to know that not only our personal characteristic, environment, peer relations, social class and other things that can affects our learning but also our moods, because it boost up our credibility and sincerity of learning, that is why it is important to our parents to know if we are in a positive or negative mood to help us and motivate us in studying.
 

Future Researchers. Many researchers have been studied this topic in the past, that is why it has many results, but I think until now many researchers are not done examining and proving that positive mood can affect our learning, that is why this research paper is significant to the future researchers, because it summarize and explain the other things that can affect our learning performance. And if in the future, they will conduct a study about this, this paper would be a source of some valuable information about the moods and learning process and there might be an improvement in the learning process of every individual that has that certain mood.

D.   Scope and Delimitation

This study focuses on the impact of having a positive mood on learning. Positive mood has been considered as the big impact to our learning capabilities, learning process and our learning performance, also if you’re in a negative mood, because mood is a type of affective state which is temporarily we feel in a particular to a specific time and situation.

 

            Due to the wide benefit of positive mood and learning problems, this study will only discuss the effects of having positive mood on learning and give emphasis on how positive moods help us in our learning skills and does our mood really help and contribute to our ability to learn. Therefore, this study would be relevant for those people whose searching for the impact of our moods on our learning ability. Aside of it is a wide topic, I will not discuss more about the other not important things about positive mood but to only give the researchers the answers to the main impact of positive mood on learning.

 

E.    Materials and Methods

 

In this research, it employs a descriptive and informative method, because most of the researchers described the result and the information that they gathered to the experiment or test that they conducted to know if the mood affect on learning. And in this method we will know if it is true and if it is helpful to us, so I use to describe and cite some example to support my gathered information about learning and positive mood. I think this method that I used is a very helpful to have the best answer to the problem.

 

The materials and references that I used in this research paper to gathered a right and factual information are journal articles from the internet, old research papers that is related to my topic and psychology articles that proven my topic.

 

F.    Definition of Terms

Mood. It is is defined as “a type of affective state which is transient and particular to a specific time and situation” (Jeon, 1990, p.24).

 

Positive Mood. Is one’s mental state and feelings where she/he feels more confident, optimistic, and unconstrained (Forest, Clark, Mills, & Isen, 1979).

 

Negative Mood. When one feels, depression, anxiety and fatigue, it can be said that negative mood takes place his/her feeling state (Watson and Tellegen, 1985).

 

Learning process. Happens when one is acquiring new knowledge, behaviors, skills, values, or preferences and may involve synthesizing different types of information (Magno, 2003). He also explained learning as a process that takes place through assimilation, accommodation, and equilibration.

 

Academic performance. It is measured from the increasing of examination and assignment results’ efficiency, effectiveness, and quality, as an evaluation or assessment method on student’s performance. This performance can be achieved, if it is supported by qualified education system and effective learning process. (Lebcir, Wells, and Bond, 2008; Lasso, 2008).

Blog Post 6: Things that affects our mood

Every moods that we experienced in our daily lives has an specific cause or root, like for example I'm in a good mood, because I ate one of my favorite food today. I think that is one of the things that can affect our mood.

To know more about the things that can affect our moods here is one of the articles from the website "voices.yahoo.com" entitled "Factors that Affect Your Mood" by Reginald Herron that provide the important things that can affect our moods.

 

As what I have read to that article, she only give two important things that can affects our mood and how to deal with it. The first one is our body clocks, he said from the article that body clocks is "the way you respond to external cues such as daylight and darkness, temperature changes, and social cues, and body clocks regulate time-sensitive internal systems governing mood and performance."

It means that we need to know what are the right things that we will do, that our body needs it. And second is the food that we ate, I think that the most important things that can affect our mood because she said that "what we eat affects how we feel. Specific foods can react with chemicals in the brain to make us feel tired, depressed, anxious, or happy, alert, and energetic."

 

So I learned that even if it is few factors that she gave from that article, it is well explain that all of the things around us affects our mood especially our body clocks, it is important that you follow the regular sleeping time also eating three times a day because your body knows what is the right time to do it and if you did not do it like you skip your meal your mood will be affected and also some of components of our body and last is, it is important that you know what food you are allergic, that can increase alertness and mental energy, that can disrupt your nervous and more. To determine how your diet is affecting your mood and how to do that, by experimenting eating different meals at different times and varying food combinations and eliminate suspected bad mood foods and eat nutritious food that can help you to display a happy mood. 

Blog Post 5: Ways to get in a Good Mood

The idea of positive mood is a state of mood that we experience no stress or the cause of an happy events, situations or a happy moments in our daily lives. But this blog post focuses on ways to be in a good mood in different things and different situations or events that you may encounter. 

I think this article from the website "www.sparkpeople.com" entitled "15 Natural Mood Lifters" by Ellen G. Goldman shows different ways on how to be in a good mood or how to lift your mood in natural ways.

These are her some important advice "eat regularly, sleep regularly, indulge your senses like sights, smells, sounds, tastes and tactile sensations that can quickly change your mood, do something that brings you joy, hangout with your friends, and last is create a list of your own mood enhancers."
 

I think her article shows her opinion to help people to be in a good mood and for me I learned I lot of things in having and maintaining in a positive mood, but I think that is not all the things that can help us to be in a positive mood. It depends on us on how will you be in a positive mood in a particular situation of our life, that's why I conclude that every one of us, has our own ways of being in a good mood but I think the most common thing that we maintain is having a regular sleep and eating regularly to attain the normal mood.

Everyone of us can feel how to be in a good mood or in a bad mood anytime, anywhere with different kinds of reasons, but you want to know how to manage your mood? And these is the article for you.

In this article of Ken Makovsky from the website "www.forbes.com" entitled "Managing your mood".

He discuss about focus and staying positive all the time and he gives example like in a workplaces if you have consistent positive mood, you can easily think clearly, communicate to other people and builds confidence and calmness to creates a sense of balance surroundings to other people. He gives also the result of being in a good mood or in a bad mood to us and to other people that they can portray a good or bad expression and thoughts depending no your mood. So, to manage your mood is depending on the kind of mood you are in. For example, they are all in the good mood to have a party then you to be also in that mood.

That is why it is important to manage your mood and be in a consistent positive mood because it has benefit to you and to other people like you'll be more active, happier, and being example to other people that being in a positive mood will lead you to have better living unlike being in a bad mood always you will only feel down and it can lead to mood disorder

 

Blog Post 4: Mood Disorders

Do you know what is mood disorder is? or what is the cause of having mood disorder? or have you experience having a mood disorder?

I think this article from the website "www.nasponline.org" by  Ralph E. (Gene) Cash, PhD, NCSP & Katherine C. Cowan entitled "Mood Disorders: What Parents and Teachers Should Know" will answers all that questions.

That "Mood disorders are mental disorders characterized by periods of depression, sometimes alternating with periods of elevated mood."

And I learned that it is most common mental health problems experienced by children and adolescents. And it is said that mood disorder can lead you to serious academic and behavior problems, possible school failure, extreme irritability, substance abuse, very risky or self-injurious behaviors, or even suicide.

Now, because of that article, I learned that mood disorder is one of the most common mental health problems that can anyone experience that can also lead serious academic and behavioral problems but having a mood disorder is not so vital and severe if only treated it immediately and you know how to control and react to the things around you.

Luckily, I learned that mood disorders are treatable and can be cure, because I found one article from "www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov" by Russell T. Joffe entitled "Treating mood disorders". 

He explained it well that "Mood disorders, bipolar and unipolar, are common and cause an enormous burden of suffering. Treatment of acute episodes and, more particularly, incomplete treatment of acute episodes, address only one component of the long-term suffering of our patients."

 

It means that treatment to these symptoms are not easy and it takes time to improve one's mood disorder, because all the treatments that are conducted to it, aims for complete resolution of the mood disorder to serve our patients best by reducing not only their current symptoms, but also their future likelihood of recurrence.

 

I conclude that mood disorder are treatable it depend on what kind of disorder, like minor episodes of illness, minor depression or hypomania and subsyndromal manic or depressive symptoms, those illness are part of acute treatment and major mood disorder like depressive disorder, dysthymic disorder and bipolar disorder are need to treat well or immediately consult to a doctor, if you feel an abnormal feeling or your mood extremely changed in only a short period of time, that shows you need an specialist that will help you to overcome your mood disorder and maintain a balance mood in the future. But even only by yourself you can maintain a balance mood by knowing the things that gives you enjoyment and comfort.

 

Blog Post 3: Difference between Mood and Emotion

When we heard the word mood it is something connected to emotions and personality, but are moods and personality really the same? And what are their differences?

To be more clear and not get confused of personalities and moods here is one of the article posted by Tami Port in the website "www.suite101.com" entitled "Difference between Personality & Mood Disorder" that explain and verify the personality and mood are not the same but has a connection.

The writer said that "Personality and mood are sometimes misinterpreted as having the same meaning. This confusion often contributes to a consequent misunderstanding of the mental disorders of personality and mood." 

As what I have read to this article that mood is an general thought of having positive and negative emotional feelings like being excited, happy, gloomy, assertive, cheerful and more. And personality are combined and consistent patterns of emotion, thought and behavior that make an individual unique .

My conclusion to that is temperament or personality traits are different from mood. However, personality and mood do affect one another, because people with optimistic personalities are more likely to display an upbeat or happy mood and people with pessimistic or insecure personality traits may be more likely to exhibit a depressed mood. Nevertheless, personality traits such as optimism and neuroticism predispose certain types of moods. So it is connected and related to each other.

To avoid being in a bad mood here is the article from "www.scientificamerican.com" entitled "How Your Moral Decisions are Shaped by a Bad Mood" by Travis Riddle.

It says that "moods could influence the thought process itself"

It means that mood could also be bias in our thoughts resulting in different patterns of moral thinking. That's why I learned that it affects each other also like our personality, emotions and feelings because positive moods validate accessible thoughts, and negative moods invalidate accessible thoughts. For example a person who in a positive mood are more likely to feel as though this is an acceptable behavior and negative mood has a parallel effect,  it is like the opposite of negative mood.

So my advise is having and being in a good mood is the best thing to maintain the balance of having a right and good morals because being in a bad mood can turn you to a  unpleasant behavior or depress.

Blog Post 2 : What is Mood Swing?

I think our mood is not only stick and stay always in one mood state like always being in a good mood or in a bad mood but it also change, sometimes fast, sometimes not quick, and sometimes extremely change and I think that's we call mood swing.

And it is explained in this article I have read from the website "www.psychcentral.com" entitled "All about Mood of Swing" by John M. Grohol, Psy.D.

That "mood swing is a part of mood where your mood easily change. Example for that is, a one person feel happy and excited then a little while his/her mood changed and became frustrated, depressed or angry. This mood swing is common to a person who has mood disorders and also it is a common symptoms of premenstrual syndrome and pregnancy."

It explains there the literal meaning of mood swing, that it is an extreme or rapid change of mood. Such mood swings can play a positive part in promoting problem solving and in producing flexible forward planning. However, when mood swings are so strong that they are disruptive, they may be the main part of a manic depressive or bipolar disorder.

Mood swings are universal, varying from the microscopic to the wild oscillations of manic depression, so that a continuum can be traced from normal struggles around self-esteem, through cyclothymia, up to a depressive disease. However most people's mood swings remain in the mild to moderate range of emotional ups and downs.

So my conclusion to that is having a mood swing is not bad, because it is the natural part of our lives facing any particular situation but if it is disruptive or strong it can lead to serious health problems like mood disorder.

         
What triggers our mood swing? I think this article from "www.webmd.com" entitled "Mood Swings and Bipolar Disorder" reviewed by Joseph Goldberg.

Shows that many different things affects and trigger mood swings, like unhealthy diet or life style, drug abuse or hormonal imbalance and other improper living activities. A person that has a problem with sleep patterns , self-esteem, concentration, or even improper eating habit can be sign of an oncoming mood disorder. Because of that I knew the major cause of mood swings is hyperactivity sometimes accompanied by inattentiveness, symptoms associated with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. If the mood swing is not associated with a mood disorder, treatments are harder to assign. However, mood swings are the result of dealing with stressful and/or unexpected situations in daily life.

My conclusion is mood  rapidly change because of thinking too much that you forgot many things and sometimes you can't sleep because of many things that troubling to your mind, but take care of yourself and be wise to manage your task, don't take things very serious and be responsible in every situation that you encounter in our daily lives to have a balance and a good mood. And people having a mood swing or rapid change in their mood is not bad, because these are natural part of people's lives and this is only the result of dealing with stressful and/or unexpected situations in daily life.

Blog Post 1: What is Mood?

Our moods are like weather, constantly changing. When a cloud appears, it’s time to mobilize all your resources to help you get through it.  Whether you feel blue, blah, or just plain gloomy. But do you think only weather affects our mood? I think that's not the only thing that affects our mood, everything around us affects our moods, feelings, personality and us. Example sometimes when I heard a rock music I feel I'm in a good mood to play a musical instrument or when I'm in the mood to do my assignments, but my friends ask me to go out and hangout with them. All that examples affects our mood, but do you think that is the true meaning of mood?

In dictionary, Mood is defined as a state or quality of feeling at a particular time. It is simply mean a subjective and emotional state that people may experienced that may last anywhere from a few minutes to several weeks.

In an article by Amado-Boccara I, Donnet D, and Olié JP from the website "www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov" entitled "The concept of mood in psychology".

The meaning of mood in psychology is brief explained to that article, that "mood is considered as a group of persisting feelings associated with evaluative and cognitive states which influence all the future evaluations, feelings and actions". 

I think that it is true that it affects all the components of our lives like our personalities, emotions, and feelings. And also that article said that mood is difficult to define because it depend on us how we will understand the perception of mood of other people. It means that everyone of us has our own perception or understanding about mood, for example I do something that will turn me to be in a good mood but because of that someone turns to be in a bad mood that's why mood is difficult to define and it depends to a person on how he or she will react on it.

 

That is why it is important to be open and understandable to everyone because not everyone of us can determine or understand other people's mood easily because they don't know what is the main cause of it, why they are in a happy or bad mood, but some said that it is because they have a good sleep, or a good morning and also because they have no sense of stress in their lives.

Next is, the most common moods that that we know is positive mood.

In the article of Marcia Hughes from the website "www.cgrowth.com" entitled "Positive Mood = Success".

The writer said that "a positive mood counts in the quality of your day and in your organization’s success".

I learned that being in a good mood can be caused by many different aspects of our daily lives and especially our emotions and personalities. Because according again to the article example that people who has optimistic personality traits are more like to display an upbeat and a happy mood and can easily relate to other people.

But there is this one article from "link.springer.com" entitled "Positive mood is associated with the implicit use of distraction" by Renée K. Biss, Lynn Hasher, and Ruthann C. Thomas 

They explained that most of people in a positive mood are can easily be distracted, example for this would be if you were trying to study in the library (considering you are in a positive mood) you see people constantly walking around or making small noises. But the conclusion for this is, happy person may be more sensitive to the hedonic consequences of message processing than sad people, because people in the positive mood always think positive, that is why their ideas and thoughts are more likely to express well.