Neuroscience
Negative events at work, like being criticised, affect our mood far more than positive events, such as receiving praise. That’s according to Andrew Miner from the University of Minnesota and his colleagues. They gave 41 employees a palmtop computer that prompted them to answer questions several times a day.
The participants all worked at a light manufacturing company, some in engineering, some in information services and others in customer services. The palmtop beeped when they first started work prompting the participants to indicate their ‘baseline’ mood. Then it beeped again at four further random times during the day, each beep prompting the participants to indicate briefly whether any positive or negative events had occurred, what they were currently doing, and how they were feeling. This went on for about two weeks.
Reassuringly, Miner’s team found the employees spent most of their time (76 per cent) on work-related tasks, usually in a pleasant mood. On average, the workers reported feeling unhappy 14.7 per cent of the time they were asked, and sad just 7.8 per cent of time. But when employees reported that a negative event had occurred since the last Palmtop beep, this affected their mood five times as much than if a positive event had occurred. “Employees generally went about their work in mildly positive states, as most people do”, the authors said, “but when a negative event occurred, it captured attention through large changes in mood”. Organisations should therefore focus more attention on reducing negative events at work, than on increasing the frequency of positive events, the researchers advised.
The workers who tended to start each day in a better mood than most, also tended to respond more to positive events, but they weren’t protected from the powerful influence of negative events.
Unsurprisingly perhaps, Miner found that people tended to report being in a better mood when the Palmtop beeped while they were avoiding doing their work, than when it beeped while they were working. “It’s possible that participants engaged in work withdrawal because they were in more pleasant moods, perhaps as an effort to maintain a positive mood state”, the authors speculated.
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Miner, A.G., Glomb, T.M. & Hulin, C. (2005). Experience sampling mood and its correlates at work. Journal of Occupational and Organisational Psychology, 78, 171-195.
Post written by Christian Jarrett (@psych_writer) for the BPS Research Digest.
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Neuroscience
Measuring our mood at work
Negative events at work, like being criticised, affect our mood far more than positive events, such as receiving praise. That’s according to Andrew Miner from the University of Minnesota and his colleagues. They gave 41 employees a palmtop computer that prompted them to answer questions several times a day.
The participants all worked at a light manufacturing company, some in engineering, some in information services and others in customer services. The palmtop beeped when they first started work prompting the participants to indicate their ‘baseline’ mood. Then it beeped again at four further random times during the day, each beep prompting the participants to indicate briefly whether any positive or negative events had occurred, what they were currently doing, and how they were feeling. This went on for about two weeks.
Reassuringly, Miner’s team found the employees spent most of their time (76 per cent) on work-related tasks, usually in a pleasant mood. On average, the workers reported feeling unhappy 14.7 per cent of the time they were asked, and sad just 7.8 per cent of time. But when employees reported that a negative event had occurred since the last Palmtop beep, this affected their mood five times as much than if a positive event had occurred. “Employees generally went about their work in mildly positive states, as most people do”, the authors said, “but when a negative event occurred, it captured attention through large changes in mood”. Organisations should therefore focus more attention on reducing negative events at work, than on increasing the frequency of positive events, the researchers advised.
The workers who tended to start each day in a better mood than most, also tended to respond more to positive events, but they weren’t protected from the powerful influence of negative events.
Unsurprisingly perhaps, Miner found that people tended to report being in a better mood when the Palmtop beeped while they were avoiding doing their work, than when it beeped while they were working. “It’s possible that participants engaged in work withdrawal because they were in more pleasant moods, perhaps as an effort to maintain a positive mood state”, the authors speculated.
__________________________________
Miner, A.G., Glomb, T.M. & Hulin, C. (2005). Experience sampling mood and its correlates at work. Journal of Occupational and Organisational Psychology, 78, 171-195.
Post written by Christian Jarrett (@psych_writer) for the BPS Research Digest.
- 10 Studies That Show The Advantages Of Feeling Sad
As human beings, there's no avoiding feeling sad – as R.E.M. put it "everybody cries, and everybody hurts sometimes". We usually think of this as an unpleasant state, and for those of us who want to minimise our miserable moods as much as possible,...
- Don't Suppress Negative Thoughts About Yourself
Most of us have those horrible nagging thoughts of self-doubt that begin ‘I wish I weren’t so…’ or ‘I hate that I’m so…’ but apparently the worst thing we can do is push them out of mind. According to Jennifer Borton and Elizabeth Casey...
- Social Phobics' Memories Are Focused On Themselves
People with social phobia experience extreme anxiety when they mix with other people. Now a study has shown their memories for social events tend to be experienced as if looking in on themselves from another person’s perspective. And they also contain...
- Exploring The Physiological Effects Of Thinking Positively
Whereas countless studies have examined the effect of negative psychological states on levels of cortisol – a corticosteroid hormone that is associated with stress and ill-health – few, if any, have looked at the effect of positive psychological states...
- ...a Pleasant Thing It Is For The Eyes To Behold The Sun (ecclesiastes 11.4)
It’s the excuse you’ve always needed to work outside on sunny days – researchers have shown that pleasantly warm, sunny weather can improve people’s mood and mental ability, but not if they’re stuck indoors. Matthew Keller and colleagues tested...