Mood and Temperament

David Watson

Hardcover
Hardcover
January 27, 2000
ISBN 9781572305267
Price: $65.00
340 Pages
Size: 6" x 9"
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Much has been learned about mood and temperament in recent years—yet until now, investigations into these domains have remained relatively distinct and disconnected. This groundbreaking volume presents a comprehensive framework for understanding short-term mood fluctuations and their relationship to longer-term differences in temperament and emotionality. David Watson integrates key findings from both literatures within the context of his own ongoing 20-year research program on daily mood. Illuminated are the basic properties of everyday moods, the processes that produce change, and the connections between affective experience, personality, health, and psychopathology. Providing a clear summary and synthesis of a vast body of knowledge, this unique book will be of interest to readers across a wide range of psychological disciplines.

“Provides a comprehensive review and synthesis of the scientific literature on subjective mood, its structure and measurement and its association with such important qualities as temperament, personality, psychopathology, and health. Graduate students and professionals in diverse mental health fields will find this a highly readable and informative overview of an increasingly significant area in the biobehavioral sciences.”

—Richard J. Davidson, PhD, William James and Vilas Research Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry and Director, Wisconsin Center for Affective Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison


“For most of his career, David Watson has been the world's leading authority on positive and negative moods. His contributions have influenced many of the fundamental questions in social, personality, and clinical psychology. Mood and Temperament integrates Watson's impressive research with exciting new theories and approaches in psychology. This should be one of the most highly cited books in psychology for years to come.”

—James W. Pennebaker, Department of Psychology, The University of Texas at Austin


“Watson's numerous studies on mood, daily emotion, and temperament are like pieces of a mosaic. In this book, he steps back from his active research program to present the whole mosaic, such that the 'big picture' clearly emerges. The book summarizes the major advances that have occurred in our understanding of daily mood in the last 20 years. It is the most thorough coverage I have seen of the dispositional nature of mood, and should appeal to personality and social psychologists, clinical psychologists, and anyone else with an interest in the stream of affect we call day-to-day life.”

—Randy J. Larsen, PhD, Department of Psychology, Washington University

Table of Contents

1. An Introduction to the Study of Mood and Temperament

2. Measuring Mood: A Structural Model

3. Situational and Environmental Influences on Mood

4. The Rhythms of Everyday Experience: Patterned Cyclicity in Mood

5. The Dispositional Basis of Affect

6. Temperament and Personality

7. Understanding Individual Differences in Affect and Well-Being

8. Affect and Psychopathology

9. Affect, Personality, and Health

References

Index


About the Author

David Watson, PhD, is Professor of Psychology and head of the Personality and Social Psychology Training Program at the University of Iowa. He received his doctorate in Personality Research and Assessment from the University of Minnesota in 1982, followed by two years of postdoctoral training in the Psychiatry Department of the Washington University School of Medicine. Dr. Watson has broad interests in personality, health, and clinical psychology and has published widely in the top journals in these fields. He has also served on the editorial boards of numerous journals, and since 1994 has been the Associate Editor of the Journal of Abnormal Psychology.

Audience

Students, professors, and researchers working in the areas of affect and emotion, personality, psychopathology, and health psychology; mental health practitioners in any clinical setting.

Serves as a text for advanced undergraduate and graduate-level courses on motivation and emotion, personality, and related topics.

Course Use

Serves as a text for advanced undergraduate and graduate-level courses on motivation and emotion, personality, and related topics.