The word ‘affect’ is used to refer to the expression of moods and emotions associated with an idea, action and feeling.
Basically, if we talk about positive affect, we refer to positive moods, emotions, feelings and thoughts. If we talk about negative affect, we refer to negative moods, emotions, feelings and thoughts. Affect ‘colours’ how we perceive people, situations and events in our world and, because of this, ‘affect’ impacts our social interactions, behaviours and judgments. Our thoughts, feelings, moods and emotions colour how we interpret everything and everybody in our perception of the world we live in.
From Dr Russ Harris’s book The Happiness Trap: “We generally focus on the last few hours or days; if these were good, we say we are doing good; if these were bad, we might refer to what happened, or is still happening, but we would never say ‘well, I’m in a mood right now, I’ve been grumpy for days and have no idea why’ … or ‘I had a big blow out with my partner a week ago and I’m still emotionally overwhelmed, it’s affecting everything I do’. We normally just respond with ‘I’m good, thank you’. This response is not only acceptable in our society today, it’s practically demanded so we can fit in comfortably and others don’t have to feel uncomfortable.”
This may be acceptable for society, but it is not acceptable when it comes to telling ourselves the truth of how we are doing. Think about how you are doing; remember, our psychological state of mind determines the number of stressors in our lives; it’s a very important part of our health and wellbeing.
What is psychological wellbeing? Academically, it’s explained as an evaluation of a combination of past and present positive and negative moods, judgements, achievements and perceptions of present and future life satisfaction (Diener et al. 1999). An easier version might be ‘an assessment of our feelings, thoughts, moods, emotions affecting our current and future states of happiness, health and wellbeing’.
It’s not easy to evaluate how we are doing. It demands an understanding of what needs to be assessed and our ability to be realistic, honest and accepting with ourselves, our achievements and our failures. For now, all we really need to know is that positive mood corresponds to optimism, positive emotions, good health and past goal achievements, and negative mood impacts negatively on health and doubts of future goal achievements.
So, if I were to ask you to assess your feelings, thoughts, emotions and general state of happiness, health and wellbeing over the last three months, and your expectations of the next three months, what would you tell me? Think about this seriously, then formulate how you would answer, truthfully. Now, look in the mirror and tell yourself truthfully how you really are doing and how you are coping with how you are doing.
What’s the difference between moods, feelings and emotions? Even though they both involve feelings, they are different. We all experience them, so we should know what they are.
In his book The Happiness Trap, Dr Russ Harris tells us that “a mood is interpreted as an all-inclusive set of ‘affective (coloured) states’ experienced on a daily basis and classified in terms of depressed mood state or enthusiastic mood state; put simply, good or bad mood states”.
‘The Mood’ is a combination of emotions, feelings and thoughts and refers to the general ‘shade’ of the emotion across a period of time; like being in a bad mood for days.
Emotions are like the weather; they’re always present and constantly changing, while a feeling refers to a discrete episode of emotion with distinctive, recognizable characteristics; example, ‘I have a feeling it’s going to rain’; the feeling is most likely caused by the building pressure in the atmosphere, the visual image is the darkness caused by the rain clouds, with the smells and other distinctive characteristics of the pending rain. This all adds up to gloom, a mild depressed sad emotion and if you don’t want it to rain, the emotion most likely will be anger.
Thus, a bad mood is like an overcast day, a feeling of anger or anxiety is like thunder or a shower of rain. A bad mood can last all day while a feeling doesn’t last long.
There is always weather of some sort, just like we’re always experiencing emotion of some sort. However, sometimes our emotions are not strong or distinct enough for us to describe, so if you’re asked how you’re feeling, you might say, ‘I’m not feeling anything in particular’.
From Professor Paul Ekman’s book Emotions Revealed – Understanding Faces and Feelings, 2003: “Once an emotion has begun and we’re aware of it, we can usually point to the event that caused it. However, we rarely know why we are in a mood; a mood is a general feeling, not a reaction to a particular situation, it just seems to happen to us. We can wake up in a particular mood or, for no apparent reason, we can become moody halfway during the day.
“A mood resembles a slight but continuous emotional state. If this is irritability, it’s like being mildly annoyed all the time, ready to become angry. A mood activates specific emotions, so when we’re irritable, we’re seeking an opportunity to become angry; everything we interpret permits us or even requires us to become angry. We get angry about things we normally wouldn’t get angry about. The anger is stronger and lasts longer than it would if we were not in an irritable mood. A blue mood will make us slightly sad, primed to become very sad. A ‘high’ mood primes us for joy while an apprehensive mood primes us for fear.”
I’ll leave you with Dr Danial Goldman’s book Emotional Intelligence: “Strong episodes of anger or depression (sadness) will not stop us from experiencing a sense of wellbeing if we offset the anger and depression with equal episodes of happy and joyous emotions.”
By Joan Maycock
Joan Maycock MSc Health Psychologist specialising in designing, setting up and presenting Stress and Burnout Educational Retreats, Workshops and 1 on 1 sessions on Stress Response, Stress-Illness Link and De-Stressing for business owners, directors and staff in Ireland and Portugal.
Telephone 00351-915793592 Email: mindsynergyint@proton.me
