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

该计划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;齐格勒，2010）。应参照若干现有办法和有关调查结果来检验这一办法的相关性。根据MCA，当情绪一致的积极或消极期望分别被否定（与确认）时，积极和消极情绪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，两种情绪中的个体在处理努力方面都是灵活的，当影响尝试被认为是非法的时，消极情绪不仅会导致更广泛的处理，积极情绪不仅会导致更广泛的处理消极信息，当这些信息是自我相关的时，积极信息在消极情绪中会被广泛处理，这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依赖于上下文的，特别是由基于情绪的预期的基本认知机制驱动的。其他因素，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。计划中的实验是由一些目标指导的。首先，他们的目的是研究是否不太广泛的处理给定的情绪一致的信息（如预测的MCA）导致更好的性能在次要任务和更高的依赖于一般的知识结构，在两种情绪。第二，进一步的研究测试在何种情况下判断的影响，在两种情绪的共识信息。第三，它将审查是否MCA可以提供一个替代解释的基础上的情绪作为输入的方法，或是否每一个机制假设的两种方法出现在特定情况下的结果。最后，研究将探讨基于情绪的期望的基础上的情绪作为一种资源的方法，以及基于情绪的期望的处理在积极和消极的情绪的显着性的作用的结果的作用。

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.