title: Mood-management dynamics: the interrelationship between moods and behaviours.
abstract: People actively attempt to create and maintain positive moods and to escape from negative moods by engaging in various activities. The principle of homeostasis explains the essence of the mood-management system: adjustments of individuals' moods and activities help maintain constant their conditions of life. We model the dynamics of mood and mood-management behaviour through a pair of interdependent, linear differential equations and estimate the equations using mood and behaviour data collected from an adult panel. Because empirically fitting continuous-time differential equations to intermittent observations is uncommon in the literature, we show how to transform differential equations into equations that can be estimated using simultaneous-equation regression methods. Our adult panel shows strong homeostasis in mood management with mood episodes of several hours and no evidence of endogenous mood cycles.
authors.affiliation: Department of Marketing, University of Houston, TX 77204, USA. jhess@uh.edu
authors.forename: James D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Hess
authors.forename: Jacqueline J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Kacen
authors.forename: Junyong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kim
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D001143:Arousal; D001519:Behavior; D003625:Data Collection / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D003674:Defense Mechanisms; D005260:Female; D006706:Homeostasis; D006801:Humans; D007899:Leisure Activities; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012737:Sex Factors