Abstract
This research uses a new time sampling method to compare adolescent and adult mood variability. Over 9,000 self-reports from 182 people are used to evaluate the widespread theoretical assumption that adolescents experience greater mood variability as part of a syndrome of psychosocial disequilibrium. The findings confirm that adolescents experience wider and quicker mood swings, but do not show that this variability is related to stress, lack of personal control, psychological maladjustment, or social maladjustment within individual teenagers. Rather than representing turmoil, wide mood swings appear to be a natural part of an adolescent peer-oriented life style. However, there are indications that adolescent mood variability interferes with capacity for deep Involvement, especially in school.
Reed Larson: Training Program in Adolescent Clinical Research, Michael Reese Hospital and the University of Chicago. Received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. Current interests are the study of enjoyment on everyday experience and the creation of meaning.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: Committee on Human Development, University of Chicago. Received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. Current interests are the study of enjoyment on everyday experience and the creation of meaning.
Ronald Graef: Committee on Human Development, University of Chicago. Received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. Current interest are the contributions of states and traits to everyday experience.
Springer Article. Reprinted from the Journal of Youth and Adolescence, vol 9/no 6, pp. 469–490 © 1980 Plenum Publishing Corporation, All rights reserved.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
This difference is also evident in the autocorrelations for the two groups. The adults’ moods show higher average autocorrelations over the sequence of the week.
References
Batson, C., Coke, J., Chaud, F., Smith, D., & Taliaferro, A. (1979). Generality of the “glow of goodwill”: Effects of mood on helping and information acquisition. Social psychology quarterly, 42, 176–179.
Benedict, R. (1938). Continuities and discontinuities in cultural conditioning. Psychiatry, 1, 161–167.
Block, J. (1971). Lives through time. Bancroft, Berkeley: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Blos, P. (1961). On adolescence. New York: Free Press.
Bradburn, N. (1969). The structure of psychological well-being. Chicago: Aldine.
Csikszentmihalyi, M., & Graef, R. (1980). The experience of freedom in daily life. American Journal of Community Psychology, 8, 401–414.
Csikszentmihalyi, M., Larson, R., & Prescott, S. (1977). The ecology of adolescent activity and experience. Journal of youth and adolescence. 6, 281–294.
Donner, Ε. (1981). Past life stress and current experience. Unpublished manuscript, University of Chicago.
Douvan, E., & Adelson, J. (1966). The adolescent experience. New York: Wiley.
Erikson, E, (1968). Identity: youth and crisis. New York: Norton.
Fox, V. (1977). Is adolescence a phenomenon of modern times? Journal of Psychohistory. 1, 271–290.
Freud, A. (1937). The ego and the mechanisms of defense (C. Barnes Trans.). New York: International Universities Press.
Freud, A. (1958). Adolescence. Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 13, 255–278.
Guilford, J. (1967). Creativity, yesterday, today, and tomorrow. The Journal of Creative Behavior, 1, 3–14.
Hall, G.S. (1904), Adolescence. New York: Appleton.
Hersey, R. (1932). Workers’ emotions in shop and hom. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Hess, R., Goldblatt, I. (1957). The status of adolescence in American society: a problem in social identity. Child Development, 28, 459–468.
Huba, G., Lawlor, W., Stallone, F., & Fieve, R. (1976). The use of autocorrelation analysis in the longitudinal study of mood patterns in depressed patients. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 128, 146–155.
Jacobson, Ε. (1961). Adolescent moods and the remodeling of psychic structures in adolescence. Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 16, 164–183.
Larson, R. (1979a). The significance of solitude in adolescents’ lives. Doctoral dissertation, University of Chicago.
Larson, R. (1979b). Adolescent experiences: Riding the roller coaster of emotions, Paper Presented at the 2nd Annual Adolescent Fellows’ Conference, Michael Reese Hospital, Chicago, June 1979.
Lewin, Κ. (1938). Field theory and experiment in social psychology: concepts and methods. American journal of sociology, 868–896.
Loeviriger, J., & Wessler, R. (1970). Measuring ego development. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Maddi, S., Kobasa, S., & Hoover, M. (1979). An alienation test. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 19, 73–76.
Mayers, P. (1978). Flow in adolescence and its relation to school experience, Doctoral dissertation, Univeristy of Chicago.
Mead, M. (1928). Coming of age in Samoa. New York: Morrow.
Musgrove, F. (1963). Intergenerational attitudes. British Journal of Social Clinical Psychology, 2, 209–223.
OfferM D. (1969). The psychological world of the teen-ager. New York: Basic Books.
Offer, D., & Offer, J. (1975). From teenage to young manhood. New York: Basic Books.
Paton, S., Kessler, R., & Kandel, D. (1977). Depressive mood and adolescent illicit drug use: A longitudinal analysis. The Journal of Genetic Psychology, 131, 267–289.
President’s Commission on Youth. (1974). Youth: transition to adulthood. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Rutter, M„ Graham, P., Chadwick, O., & Yule, W. (1976). Adolescent turmoil: fact or fiction? Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, 17, 35–56.
Simmons, R., Blyth, D., Van Cleave, E., & Bush, D. (1979). Transition into early adolescence: the impact of school structure, puberty, and early dating on self-esteem. Paper presented at the Midwest sociological association annual meeting, Apr 1979.
Simmons, R., Rosenberg, F., & Rosenberg, M. (1973). Disturbance in the self-image of adolescents. American Sociological Review, 38, 553–568.
Vaillant, G. (1977). Adaptation to life. Little, Boston: Brown.
Wessman, A., Ricks, D. (1966). Mood and personality. New York: Holt Rinehart and Winston.
Acknowledgments
This research was partially funded by the Spencer Foundation.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Larson, R., Csikszentmihalyi, M., Graef, R. (2014). Mood Variability and the Psycho-social Adjustment of Adolescents. In: Applications of Flow in Human Development and Education. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9094-9_15
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9094-9_15
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-017-9093-2
Online ISBN: 978-94-017-9094-9
eBook Packages: Behavioral ScienceBehavioral Science and Psychology (R0)