Psychological characteristics of moods, reasons for their occurrence

Mood in the system of emotional states

The emotional sphere of a person is represented by various types of experiences. They differ in duration, strength, connection with a certain area of life. For example, feelings are always objective, that is, directed towards a specific object. You can't just love and hate. But emotions are situational and are determined not by the attitude towards the subject, but by the situation, that is, by a certain set of circumstances. The strongest, but short-term emotional states are affects, and the most stable are feelings.

In the system of emotional experiences, mood occupies a special place, since it colors all a person’s activities, his entire worldview and influences his assessment of the environment.

Mood in psychology is defined as the general emotional state of a person, which is not associated with a specific object or situation. More precisely, our mood can change under the influence of some circumstance or event. But this is only a push, an external stimulus. The object that ruined our mood has long disappeared from our field of vision, but the bad mood remains and will continue to poison the lives of us and our loved ones for a long time.

There are 3 main features that distinguish mood from other emotional states:

The mood is not objective, but personal. Its characteristics and stability largely depend on the person himself, his individual psychological characteristics, physical condition, experience, worldview, etc.
Mood is a generalized emotional state that is not associated with any situation. It manifests itself in all areas of life and affects our communication, professional activities, and attitude to reality in general.
The mood is diverse and multifaceted. This is a complex alloy, a peculiar mix of emotional experiences. It can be difficult to diagnose and describe even to the individual himself. The mood is ambiguous; it can combine both positive and negative emotions, joy and sadness, peace and impatience, irritation and pleasure.

The famous Russian psychologist S. L. Rubinstein, emphasizing the uncertainty of mood, called it “vague” and “iridescently diverse.”

An adult is a wise and loving mentor to a child

Nowadays, we often encounter the position of parents who are not inclined to cherish the courtesy and nobility of their own child, explaining this by the fact that the formation and education of such traits is not relevant, that a polite and noble person is more quickly “pushed out” from the road of life by those who are more self-confident, tough, and arrogant. Denial alone will not change anything.

Adults are skeptical about children's touchiness, and a preschooler acutely feels when he is treated unfairly. Not a single such situation should be missed; an adult must find a way to make amends for even the slightest offense inflicted on the child.

In fact, the adult basically neglects this responsibility, brushes off the child, pays off by insulting, and does not think that he so recklessly missed a convenient situation will organically influence the strengthening of the preschooler’s sense of justice. But the child gets an undesirable experience: if he is offended, then he can offend others. At first this is recorded at the subconscious level, but subsequently contributes to the formation of a negative habit.

If a child from preschool age gets used to indifference on the part of others, he gradually loses the ability to act humanely. An adult should adhere to the mandatory rule of raising a child: his life should be positively emotional. Therefore, the entire process of supporting a child’s life support should be made emotionally expressive, constantly provoking the child to show his attitude to situations and his own actions; explain to him incomprehensible situations, especially those that contradict generally accepted social rules.

It is possible for a long time to build a chain of life situations into which a child finds himself every day in the first years of life - a period when self-awareness, the formation of self-awareness, is actively taking place, when he is not yet able to give himself advice in assessing the events of which he is a witness and subject. The mission of being a wise mentor to a preschooler here belongs to close adults. And does every child have such an infinitely loving mentor? The answer to this question should also be given by employees of preschool institutions, because they, too, are mentors for their students.

Mood formation factors

Mood often arises and changes regardless of a person’s desire and will. Of course, we can tune in and try to create the right mood for ourselves. But this does not always work out, and some insignificant event can bring all our efforts to naught in a single moment. In addition, a person is not always even aware of the reasons for the formation of this emotional experience. And mood is influenced by several factors of different nature.

Organic wellness

This is the general tone of the body, associated with the activity of various physiological systems, primarily hormonal, nervous, autonomic, and cardiovascular. Changes in hormonal levels are one of the common causes of mood swings, and heart disease can cause feelings of fear, unaccountable melancholy and anxiety.

No less important is the state of the physiology of higher nervous activity. Neurons - the nerve cells of the brain - are entire factories for the production of various protein compounds, many of which affect the emotional background. For example, serotonin is known as the “good mood hormone,” and the higher the level of this compound in the cerebral cortex, the more positive a person feels. High emotional tone is also influenced by the content of another protein - dopamine. Its excess causes a feeling of euphoria, and its deficiency leads to deterioration of mood and apathy.

However, the organic sensory background is not decisive; it plays a key role only in cases of obvious pathologies, mental or physical illnesses.

External factors

The objects, situations, and circumstances that influence us are the main factors in the formation of mood. However, their influence is quite complex, since many different objects, circumstances, and events act on us at the same time. Moreover, this impact cannot always be clearly assessed as positive, negative or neutral.

The influence of external factors is very diverse and often gives rise to ambiguous sentiments. For example, when a child starts going to kindergarten, parents experience a real “bouquet” of feelings. This is both relief (finally free time for household chores), and anxiety (How will he be there alone? How will he get used to it? Will they hurt him?), and pride (he’s grown so big already), and hope (perhaps he will become more disciplined, accustomed to order), etc.

Any, even relatively minor, external event can affect our mood, but it is simply impossible to predict in advance how. So, the bright sun in the morning can color the whole day with positivity. Or it may not color if another event, say coffee spilled on clothes, spoils the mood.

The experience to which you are predisposed will dominate in the formation of your mood. Remember Eeyore from the cartoon Winnie the Pooh. It seemed that nothing could improve his sad mood, simply because he was initially predisposed to it and was accustomed to expecting negativity.

It is not for nothing that mood is called a generalized experience; it is formed under the influence of various factors, but largely depends on the individual characteristics of a person.

Individual psychological characteristics

Since mood is personal in nature, it is closely related to the inner world of a person and the characteristics of his mental processes.

Easily excitable people with choleric temperament traits are prone to frequent mood swings. Their emotional experiences are vivid, strong, but unstable.
Phlegmatic people, on the contrary, maintain a certain emotional mood for a long time, but their experiences are calmer, smoother, and their mood is often closer to neutral, without pronounced positive and negative shades. They simply don’t understand why they get so excited and suffer from choleric people.
Melancholic people usually have low emotional tone, but are incapable of strong, vivid emotions. Therefore, people with traits of this temperament are often in a melancholic mood, in a state of slight sadness and unaccountable melancholy. Even a minor event that phlegmatic and sanguine people will not notice at all can ruin the mood of a melancholic person. Although it's usually not very good anyway.
It is best to study the nature of mood and understand its influence on a person’s life and behavior using the example of people with pronounced traits of sanguine temperament. Their mood is quite bright and clearly expressed and at the same time relatively stable. It is associated mainly with external factors. Sanguine people are capable of experiencing strong feelings, but are not inclined to get upset or happy over trifles. These are energetic, active people, self-confident and able to control their mood.

Personal experience

Our reaction to a particular event is connected not only specifically with this event, but also depends on personal experience, on those associations that arise in the brain under the influence of various situations. These associations play an important role in shaping mood. Moreover, they, or rather the memories stored in memory, make the mood stable and can maintain it for a long time.

Thus, the sound of a melody evokes a memory of a past event and awakens the feelings that we experienced then. These feelings are mixed with a real assessment of the event, its rethinking, and a unique and very complex mood is created, in which tenderness, slight sadness, bitterness of loss, nostalgia, a bright feeling of returning to the moment when we were happy are intertwined.

Due to the individuality and uniqueness of personal experience, the same event can give rise to completely different moods in different people. For example, for some, September 1 evokes a feeling of nostalgia, regret about past youth and bright, joyful memories of fun days, friends and childhood pranks. And for some, associations with the beginning of the school year are completely unhappy and are associated with memories of boring lessons, hated homework, strict teachers and the constant fear of punishment for a bad grade.

Associations arise spontaneously, often completely uncontrollably, and sometimes their source is completely in the subconscious, which a person does not control. Therefore, often even a seemingly neutral event can leave an unpleasant aftertaste and ruin our mood. Or vice versa, color our day with the warm light of quiet joy.

Mood as a manifestation of children's emotions

The strongest and most persistent emotions of a child are manifested in his mood. Who cares about the baby's mood? Who cares about him?

Of course, the primary place in the formation and cultivation of a child’s mood is occupied by the family, and nothing and no one can replace it in this aspect. The family is the first school of a child’s life, where the child’s formation takes place and positive or negative childhood emotions develop.

And the decisive factor here is the general atmosphere in the family circle. Friendliness, courtesy, and politeness are inherent in a family in which a positive attitude reigns. And vice versa - overwhelming irritation, mother’s raised tone, father’s dissatisfaction, lack of order create a negative mood for both adults and children.

We asked mothers (since they are the ones who get their children ready for kindergarten every day), what mood predominates in their child in the morning?

Most sincerely admitted that they had no time to pay attention to their child’s mood in the morning. The only exception is the child’s complaints about his health. Parents pay somewhat more attention to the child’s mood in the evening. And first of all, because children are more capricious in the evening, do not hear an adult’s calls, and cry more often.

It is a mistaken belief among adults that a sensitive, compassionate person is a soft-bodied, spoiled creature. After all, meekness, compassion and other noble feelings of a person do not at all indicate his tearfulness and weakness. A child can be responsive, not be offended by anyone, and at the same time capable of not allowing a peer to offend him.

We determine children's mood and the rules of their cohabitation

For clarity and confirmation of the above theses, we offer a picture from the life of modern children. We conducted a survey in a group of a preschool educational institution, in which 27 children took part. In the morning, each child was asked to describe his mood. For a third it turned out to be: “bad”, “not very good”, “sad” and even “terrible”. Then we had a conversation with all the children to find out what spoils their mood.

Here are the answers we heard:

when they shout at me;
when mom is angry;
when they don't play with me;
when they offend;
when children fight;
when the toy is taken away;
when forced to eat;
when something doesn’t work out for me;
when they call me names;
when they don't take you home for a long time.

And these are only those statements that relate to life in a kindergarten group, that is, in fact, what we can change. The children were given homework to think about what rules should be introduced in the group so that their mood would not spoil during the day.

The next morning we spoke with everyone again. Not everyone was able to speak out; some simply forgot about their homework. There were 18 meaningful statements.

Five children, together with their parents, wrote down and brought the following rules at home - children must:

respect each other;
be able to apologize if you have offended someone else;
don't be angry with your friend;
forgive, forget grievances and play together again;
do not say bad words to a friend even when you are angry with him;
learn to play together, share toys, and not fight.

In their other statements, the children repeated the same rules in different variations, adding reasons for their own grievances: name-calling, aggression of individual children, reluctance to sleep during the day or to finish eating everything.

In parallel with the survey, the reasons for the children’s bad mood in the morning were clarified during a series of individual conversations and consultations between a practical psychologist and a teacher-methodologist with the students’ parents.

The main topics of the meetings were:

Are adults attentive to the child’s experiences?
Do adults notice the hurt, sadness, anger, and fear that children experience?
What is the source of these experiences?
What mark do these experiences leave on the child’s soul?
What rules of emotional contact with a child should you know about?

Considering that preschoolers quite often cited the fact that they are being “pushed” to sleep among the reasons that spoil their mood, a consultation with a practical psychologist on the topic “Evening idyll, harmony, tranquility” was specially organized for the mothers and grandmothers of these children.

We were talking about the need to create an atmosphere of calm for the child just before bedtime, so that he would be full and the child’s body would rest and gain strength. Mothers were asked to remember what their children look like at the end of the day and how they behave.

Most adults noted that children are often capricious in the evening, becoming disobedient, irritable and stubborn. All these are indicators of fatigue in the child’s psyche, which requires rest after an active day. In addition, a child who is excited and tired during the day loses the ability to self-regulate and thus becomes capricious. An adult, with his authority, forces her to get ready for bed and go to bed, but the process of falling asleep is, as a rule, far from desired. The child cries, fidgets for a long time, complains about something, is capricious until sleep overtakes her. As a result, the whole family becomes nervous and the child suffers.

When a practical psychologist suggested that parents think about how to help their child’s bad mood before bedtime, he heard interesting statements from them:

In the statements of 10 preschoolers - in which parents seemed to make excuses for their mistakes in relationships with children: “I have so many things to do in the evening that I sometimes forget to watch the clock. So I’m pushing it quickly,” “He’s used to bargaining with us all for a little more time to play or watch TV. And when he starts to get capricious, he has to do things a little tougher,” and the like.

A practical psychologist advised adults to try to change their behavior. In particular, be sure to set aside 10-15 minutes for your child to have intimate, personal communication with her while getting ready for bed. This portion of mother’s affection and love can take different forms, in particular it can be a song or a story about something magical, memories of happy situations or dreams of the next day off with the family.

In a word - “psychotherapy of mother’s (or father’s) love.” At these moments, you should put a taboo on everything unpleasant and negative. Only harmony of happiness should reign, followed by a calm, pleasant rest.

But the most important thing is that moments of harmony between soul mates before bedtime cannot be ignored no matter how busy you are.

Let's not be indifferent to children

Are we doing everything to find a way to the heart of every child? How often do adults talk to a child alone in order to understand his thoughts, feelings, and desires? The vast majority of teacher messages are addressed to all children, while teachers ensure that every child speaks out to everyone.

If the teacher has formed an image of an abstract child, then he uses the same methods of influence, ways of interacting with preschoolers, and the result of this approach is formalism in educational means and insignificant results of work. The formal attitude of an adult towards a child in a bad mood is a source of her experiences of injustice. A state of nervous excitement dulls sensitivity, provokes anxiety or relaxation in the child, which further depresses the mood.

In such a state, the preschooler is not able to adequately perceive the surrounding reality, does not feel the good around him, and therefore is not capable of humane actions. Adults should remember that under the influence of systematic experiences of such emotions, the child’s character may also change.

You cannot be indifferent to children's requests. You can often observe a situation where a child turns to an adult several times, and in response he hears something like “Wait, I’m busy,” “Oh, not now,” or just an excuse. This is the best breeding ground for insincerity. This trait is not inherent in the child; he adopts insincerity from relatives and close adults. The child is wise and very quickly assesses the benefits of insincerity, one of which is the benefit of hiding the truth. And adults, when they notice a child’s insincerity, rarely admit their guilt. This is how trust is undermined. After all, sincerity, trust and love cannot exist apart.

Preschool age is a very important period in terms of developing a child’s character. He gradually assimilates moral principles, and his conscience emerges. Based on emotional and spiritual experience, the content and form of behavior are built - the basis of character. Nothing, of course, is realized by itself, automatically, with age. This process requires careful, humane support from close adults.

Rules for a restful and healthy sleep

Put your child to bed at the same time every day.
Set aside 10-15 minutes for emotional communication with your child so that he feels your love, affection, care and attention.
Create a “sleepy” atmosphere in the room: curtain the windows, turn off the TV, close the room door, etc.
A few hours before bedtime, do not organize noisy games or entertainment.
Create your own bedtime ritual that you will stick to every day, such as reading a story or singing a lullaby.
Do not insult your baby: a good mood is the key to sound sleep.

We have not presented a thorough study, but only a superficial picture of the life of modern children. But it should alert adults.

After all, emotional comfort, the formation and experience of positive emotions is a necessary condition and basis for the formation of a child’s multifaceted personality, his full development and life activity. Improve your mood with your child or a selection of positive videos