Thursday, June 7, 2012

Am I Moody or Emotional?

I knew that emotions and moods were different, but I never really thought about how they may be different until reading the section about moods in chapter thirteen. The text describes the differences between moods and emotions nicely. In it, it describes a mood as something that could last a few hours or days even and it describes an emotion as something that lasts for seconds or minutes. This got me thinking because I never thought of an emotion only lasting for seconds. When I get emotional, in that moment (depending on what the situation is), it could feel a lot longer than it actually is.

Something that always facinated me as a psychology major was the seasonal affective disorder. What this is, is depression in the wintertime. During the winter, the sun goes down earlier, it is cold and people are generally not as happy. Their moods are lifted in the spring time, on weekends or in the afternoon, depending on the day. For me, my mood lifts when I have accomplished something. My mood tends to motivate me to get done what I need to, so that I can be in a better mood. For example, when I am at work, I may have a good day and be in a good mood, but as soon as I get home, my mood gets even better because my goal (getting through the work day) has be resolved.

7 comments:

  1. Seasonal Affective Disorder always interested me too. I have a relative that this effects in the Fall. After Summer is over Mid-October they start to get depressed. It is interesting that a change in the season, and how long the sun is out can effect someone that much.

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  2. I think sometimes you can switch emotions so easily. You can be watching a sad movie and balling your eyes out, but if a funny commercial comes on you might laugh hysterically. It's crazy that emotions can change so fast or be so strong that they can last hours or days.

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  3. I can relate to this Jen because my mood and emotions motivate my behavior also. I also had the same reaction when I learned about seasonal affective disorder, I could not believe what I was reading because I never heard about it before.

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  4. I agree with Julie, she mentioned how while watching tv your emotions can change very quickly. Last week I was watching Angela's Ashes, and for anyone who's seen that movie you know as a woman you can cry and cry and cry. Well it turned to commercial break, and as soon as I went to wipe away my tears, one of my favorite commercials about Double Impact Liquid Plumber (if you haven't seen it, you tube it.. its hysterical) came on, and I burst out laughing. Now my tears of sadness became tears from laughing so hard. Emotions are really a very interesting subject and part of human personality.

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