Contingent effects of weather on mood and cognition
It is often that we hear about the effects of weather on people’s activities and their moods. According to many researches done, it is highly thought that the link between weather and moods is that the weather in a certain environment gives people some enlightenment into views about life and how to understand them. According to the study analysts, the two most important variables to take into consideration while studying whether weather can affect our moods in any way, are how much time the individual being studied spends time outside and which season it is in the subject’s environment. Aside from the researches, it is clear to us that the weather greatly affects our moods to great extents. This is seen in the changes of weather patterns where mood changes automatically and sometimes unconsciously occur.
The mood changes might either be positive or negative depending on the subject or the type of weather change. The common thought and generalized attitude that people have is that the sunny weather tends to make one happy, rainy weather brings about depression and stress while extreme weathers bring about agony, inactivity and restlessness.
For a long time now, weather has been at the core of our day to day lives and according to layman’s psychology, the kind of weather can have a significant effects on our day to day moods. It is from there that psychologists discovered that there was very little, if any, scientific information on the subject, and it was a shocking discovery. There are only few works that have been able to look into the seasonal changes and the effects they have on weather, but little has been made to give comparative data and sound arguments. Besides that, there are very few studies on the direct relationship between everyday weather and the moods of a human being in relation to the natural thought process.
To be exact, there are presently only two studies that have been carried out in relation to mood and cognition. In one of them, the scientists were testing on the effects of weather on memory where they looked into the most suitable temperatures to memorize and the peak of a human’s memory level. The scientists found that a warm weather was favorable to the memory than the other extreme ends either colder or hotter. The peak of a human being’s memory was found to be at 22 degrees Celsius. However, he research on the effects of weather on moods has been attempted more with some findings being that there is no subtle relationship between the two.
There was one single test that was almost accurate and had been the largest one on the weather-mood hypothesis. The hypothesis was that the weather has diverse effects on the social mood cognition depending on the changes in seasons. The study involved collection of data from undergraduate students in Dallas, Texas. The study involved daily collection of mood data from the students during the spring season. The students were administered with questionnaires, and some were involved in interviews. The study involved a positive and negative scale where all variables of the weather were taken into consideration. The results were, however, found to be null where no subtle correlations were found to be between weather and mood. The findings helped to give answers to the common belief that weather has adverse effects on moods. This is, however, in contrast to other findings where larger populations were put into consideration, and it was found that weather is associated to some behavioral changes. (Matthew C Keller , 2005)
Some psychological processes are affected by weather sometimes even unconsciously. Some researchers have found that warm or sunny weather is associated with violent behavior in people. In other studies, it is shown to be related with happiness and high levels of excitement. The research on aggression, however, faced a lot of controversies in relation to its accuracy. Other researchers have also indicated a relation of weather with business. This has been seen in the stock market, where the share prices tend to be high when it is sunny, and investors tend to be in a buying mood where their toleration for risk is heightened. This also sees their aggression increase and a lot of conflicts may increase in such an environment where the proximate cause was the sunny weather.
The people in research were clearly identified where a diverse group was brought together through a newspaper advertisement, and a careful selection was made to determine who should participate in the research. The balance of all possible variables in an accurate population sample were also considered. This was done by looking into their personalities which could be determined by their moods at the time and other aspects like gender, occupation or geographical location. Also for accuracy purposes in terms of selection of the best sample of the population they were administered with questionnaires and no one was told about weather until the briefing time. This helped in the enhancement of sincerity while answering the questionnaires given.
The sample was made in a way that the subjects were not fully briefed on the changes or inner details since they were supposed to act naturally. For accuracy purposes, any data in relation to weather was collected from the National Climatic Data Center. The subjects were expected to give personal accounts of changes in moods for the sake of accuracy. For that, the subjects in the research were addressed on a personal basis and were assessed privately to eliminate the hazard of a group mindset and the alteration of results to please the researchers.
There were several features that were put into consideration while carrying out the research. This involved some independent variables which included the weather, the time spent outside by the members and the effects of seasonal changes in weather to the members. These three features were all experimented in three different experiments. They were all done in a manner that was related but not similar. All of them, however, had the moral hazard of the members in control where, they assembled a population and the information they intended to get from them was not addressed directly until the end of the experiment.
Some of the dependent variables that were considered included time space and the environment of the participants. The mood of the participants was also considered a dependent variable where it was subject to change as the conditions and other aspect vary with time. The aspect of openness to information was also considered to be a key dependent variable in the experiment. There were little minor extraneous variables which included the stress of the members and how they are affected by weather.
The experiment involved a complex control method where the researchers looked to be outstanding from the rest of the other experiments carried out previously. The researchers used multiple regression analysis where the control groups involved activity levels and the time space involved inside the lab by the participants. This aimed at comparing the effects that time spent outside could have in relation to the predictions made in the lab.
The control experiment involved 97 participants who had different traits, 54 of them being female and 43 male students. They were all placed in a lab where the assessment was carried out involving them in different examinations and activities. The experimental group involved 121 members where 85 of them were females and 36 males of various ages ranging from 18y-32 years.
The research method used in the experiment was adequate since there was a wide range of features that were put into consideration not neglecting even the miscellaneous factors. The experiment involved different population samples in every section of the experiment to avoid bias and alteration of the information. Also to avoid bias, the selection process was done carefully to pick the members of the experiment. The standard procedure was followed where different aspects of people were put into consideration including age, gender and habits.
The discussions and conclusions were accurately based on the findings and had reliable evidence supporting the arguments. The experiment was done well taking into consideration the important aspects of weather in relation to the cognitive process of the mind. It was a helpful research in the field of psychology where an in-depth and thorough experiment was finally carried out to eliminate the stereotype knowledge that people initially had concerning the subject. It would also help in the enlightenment of people in regard to their moods and psychological reasoning.
References
Matthew C Keller . (2005). A warm heart and a clear head. The contingent effects of weather on mood and cognition. Psychological Science , 724-731.
