The influence of mood-congruent expectancies on social judgments and the processing of judgment-relevant information

计划项目的重点是情绪对社会信息处理和社会判断的影响。理论背景是一种新的情绪一致性期望方法（MCA; Ziegler, 2010）。这一方法的相关性应参照若干现有方法和有关发现加以检验。根据MCA，当与情绪一致的积极或消极预期分别被否定（vs.证实）时，处于积极和消极情绪中的人可能会更广泛地处理社会信息。与现有的方法不同，MCA因此认为，两种情绪下的个体在处理努力方面都是灵活的，消极情绪不仅在影响尝试被认为是非法的时候导致较少的广泛处理，积极情绪不仅在消极信息是自我相关的时候导致更广泛的处理，积极信息在消极情绪下被广泛处理不仅是因为它能提升情绪。相反，情绪对加工的影响被认为是情境依赖的，特别是由基于情绪的预期的基本认知机制驱动。其他的，例如动机因素（情绪管理、长期目标）可能会加强、削弱或超越这种认知机制的影响。计划中的实验以若干目标为指导。首先，他们的目的是检验在给定与情绪一致的信息（正如大脑中皮层所预测的那样）的情况下，较少的深度处理是否会导致在第二项任务中表现更好，以及在两种情绪下对一般知识结构的依赖程度更高。其次，进一步的研究测试在哪种情况下判断会受到两种情绪的共识信息的影响。第三，它将检查MCA是否可以为基于情绪作为输入方法的发现提供另一种解释，或者两种方法假设的每一种机制是否在特定情况下出现。最后，研究将检验基于情绪作为资源方法的发现中基于情绪的期望的作用，以及基于情绪的期望在积极和消极情绪处理中的突出作用。

The focus of the planned project is on the effects of moods on processing of social information and social judgments. The theoretical background is a new mood-congruent expectancies approach (MCA; Ziegler, 2010). The relevance of this approach shall be tested with reference to a number of extant approaches and pertaining findings. According to the MCA, people in both positive and negative mood may process social information more extensively when mood-congruent positive or negative expectations, respectively, are disconfirmed (vs. confirmed). Different from extant approaches, the MCA thus holds that individuals in both moods are flexible in regard to processing effort, that negative mood does not only lead to less extensive processing when an influence attempt is perceived as illegitimate, that positive mood does not only lead to more extensive processing of negative information when such information is self-relevant, and that positive information is processed extensively in negative mood not only because it is mood-elevating. Rather, mood effects on processing are assumed to be context-dependent, in particular driven by the presumably fundamental cognitive mechanism of mood-based expectancies. Other, for instance motivational factors (mood management, long-term goals) may strengthen, weaken, or override effects of this cognitive mechanism. The planned experiments are guided by a number of goals. First, they aim to examine whether less extensive processing given mood-congruent information (as predicted by the MCA) leads to better performance on a secondary task and higher reliance on general knowledge structures in both moods. Second, further studies test under which circumstances judgments are affected by consensus information in both moods. Third, it will be examined whether the MCA may provide an alternative explanation for findings based on the mood-as-input approach or whether each of the mechanisms postulated by the two approaches emerges under specific circumstances. Finally, studies will examine the role of mood-based expectancies for findings based on the mood-as-a-resource approach, and the role of the salience of mood-based expectancies for processing in positive and negative mood.