AN EXAMINATION OF THE INFLUENCE OF AFFECTIVE STATE ON THE RECALL AND EVALUATION OF JOB BEHAVIORS (MOOD, PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL, PERSON PERCEPTION)

KAREN ANN COUTURE, Purdue University

Abstract

This study examined the relationship of affect, or mood, to behavior recall and evaluation in a performance appraisal context. It was proposed that mood would bias recall and judgment in a mood-congruent manner; that is, that positive mood would promote recall of more positive behaviors and result in more favorable judgments, while negative mood would yield the opposite finding. It was also expected that recall would be influenced by mood at the encoding stage of information-processing, when material was first encountered, and that evaluations would be biased instead by mood at the time of information retrieval. A total of four studies were conducted which varied mood induction technique (movies, false feedback) and also task context (performance appraisal task, memory task). All studies failed to find support for the hypothesized mood effects. Due to these findings of non-significance for mood, no study was conducted to examine the additional hypothesis that cognitive set, the provision of cues to guide information encoding, would reduce the biasing effects of mood on recall. Several possible explanations for the non-support of the experimental predictions are presented and difficulties associated with the manipulation of affect are discussed.

Degree

Ph.D.

Subject Area

Occupational psychology

COinS