I'm not sure exactly ehere to post this thread, but I guess it is a mix of Philosophy and Psychology. Is "bad" mood contagious? The fact that "good moods" are contagious is a pretty mainstream belief. There are even commercials on main T.V. networks that insist that a meaningless compliment can spark the spread of good mood. Is it the same for bad mood? This thought came to me recently because it seems that the spread of "bad mood" is multiplying throughout my local community. I only noticed it because I'm making a conscious effort to be more pleasant and high-spirited. Everyone seems to be snapping at eachother for no reason. I'm going to give a couple of examples that seem meaningless, but it's the driving force of this "mood attack": example #1 - we've been having activities all week at my educational institution. At lunch time, we had a few crib games between some members of the teams. I was paired up with another member of my clan, and played against a pair from another team (one student and one teacher). I'm used to playing two-person crib but the concept is the same. Maybe I was a bit paranoid because I played high-stakes poker (well, the biggest pot was $1100, but it's high stakes for a poor student) and euchure all weekend, but I noticed what looked like hand signals when it was time for the other team to throw cars in the crib. I mentioned it once jokingly ("I saw that" *smile*). I mentioned it again when I saw the universal card gesture for "two hearts". I said it a second time in a not-so-serious manner ("two hearts, I see"). The teacher from the other team freaked out at me "CHRIST, it gets annoying after the third time!". I was taken aback a bit. The game was slightly compeditive and cheating is a pain in the ass. We all kind of played in silence for the rest of the game other than the usual "fifteen two, fifteen four, run seven....". Normally, I might be a bit batty for a while after that, but I didn't let it bother me. Instead, I started pondering the psychology behind what happened and how it afected everyone that heard what happened. Comments? example #2 - In the cafeteria, we can buy food on a tab (or "bill" as they call it). The bills are due on Friday, but it's not enforced as long I usually have money on me, so I will buy in cash most of the time. The most I buy a week is usually a diet coke or two and a V8. If I do end up getting something on a bill, I will almost always pay it back the next day and I will always pay it back by the due date even though it is not enforced. I had a diet coke and a pack of gum on my bill (damn that gum addiction Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!) on Wednesday last week. The tiotal bill was $2.25 which is virtually nothing. I had to fix a server glitch at work during lunchtime on Thursday, so I wasn't even in the cafeteria. I was gone to Ottawa on Friday for a specialist doctor's appointment which I have been waiting for for several months, so I was gone all weekend (I visited family and friends on the weekend). I remembered that I had a cafeteria bill, so I put the money in my purse for to pay my bill on Manday. I was going to apologize for being late, pay my bill and buy a Diet Coke in cash. I know people that have had three-week overdue $60 bills, so a one-day overdue bill of $2.50 would be no big deal, right? I went to pay it back and the cafeteria lady started yelling at me (literally) so the whole cafeteria could hear including people that I was getting to know and several teachers. I was embarassed. then later in the day, I got a bit grouchy at someone for no big reason because I was in a bad mood. I realized that I was spreading the disease. Then I recognized that in the past few weeks, the whole school community has been edgy because of this large-scale mood swing. could this spread of the mood virus happen on a macro scale? Can whole cities be engulfed in a happiness down-time that was triggered by a small group of people? could factors such as cold weather play a factor in this? Is this message that I am typing on this forum going to cause a specific contagious mood in someone else? I think people are being sent mixed messages by society. we are told that good mood is spreadable my mainstream media, but we are also told that bad mood is an internal action. This is quite contradictory. If good mood can spread, so can bad mood. Have you ever observed a larger scale mood twist towards a positive or negative state? I see the mood of my town rise during the summer festival (maybe it the unusually high alcohol and drug consumtion at this time that causes it Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!). I can detect a passive mood decline when there is bad weather or conflict in the town. Am I just crazy, or is the mood of others mostly influenced by their peers? I think the only way to change this is to make a conscious effort to reverse the downward trends like I have. It's difficult, but it makes you feel better and lightens everyone around you. I put a couple of silly examples because I noticed that this downward spiral usually commences through silly things which is like psychological abuse to a thinker. Comments?
Perfect example of both the Biological and Humanistic theories in Psychology (which admittedly, I don't really agree with, nor am I very experienced with them). I guess it depends on your point of view. I don't have much to add, but I certainly agree that moods can be influenced by outside forces, but I also think it depends upon the person's personality and situation. Generally if I am not directly involved in things (such as outbursts similar to your "crib game incident"), I don't really change my mood, subconsciously or not. I tend to be very indifferent to things around me (not that I want to be, I just am not used to being overtly "emotional" or whathaveyou). On the other hand, if I were in the crib game when this happened, I would probably revert to being quiet and alert to things happening around me, and generally try to stay consistent with the group. I cannot say I can explain why, nor that my reactions are accurate or average, but they are mine. You interpret these things happening, and actually realize the way people are acting, so you try to do something about it. In a way, your mood is being influenced by others. I just think it depends on the person.
ah i definitely think moods or states of consciousness can be chain reacted. actually i know. ive experienced it a thousand times. i first considered the whole thing when i was in high school, sr yr and had a job after school at a grocery just "facing" the whole store. you know, pulling all the stock on the shelves forward to make it look all nice and tidy. that was supposed to be my only duty, as it took almost exactly 4 hours in a 4 hour shift. so i wasn't very good about being bothered for other things when i first started. but of course shoppers would approach me to help find things. i was never exactly openly rude to anyone, in fact i was always at least appropriate outwardly but a lot of the time id think really annoyed thoughts. id usually explain that it would be better if they asked someone else, but id usually end up helping anyways. now i didn't always think shitty thoughts. after a little while there the job became incredibly tedious. so when people came to me for assistance id sometimes feel really grateful internally. in fact id be hoping for someone to come ask me. it wasn't until then that i really noticed how people reacted to me. when id be working along hoping no one would bother me people would approach me with a half shitty kind of attitude before we even made eye contact. i didn't notice this at first because i had a shitty attitude and i didn't expect much else from anyone i guess? but after i started welcoming it a bit more, people would approach me like an old friend.. all warm and easy. it was that more than anything that made me think WTF? so i started experimenting with it. it became clear to me that the energy i carried inside affects things around me whether i am expressive about it or not. certainly some of it comes from subtle body language we all wear in accordance to our internal states. our higher selves are exceptionally keen to that stuff even when were unconscious of us and it affects us. its kind of like on those days when it starts out where the first few tasks you get into turn to shit on you and you say to yourself, " ah fuck! its going to be one of those days." and if you're like me it usually is. nothing goes right, people intercept you just to screw with you.. and sometimes you just have to give it up. its all about internal states of energy. like dominoes falling, or rather ripples from a drop in still water. its very tangible. play with it. when you're going into a group of people that have been negative recently and are so typically, be unaffected and have positive compassionate input to contribute ready before hand if possible. try and spread it to just one or two people around you in conversation and sustain it and notice how other people around you will follow suit. conversely approach a group notoriously positive or upbeat with just a generally low or negative attitude and see how that affects things too. keep it all subtle and just do it to learn but dont do too often like you're messing with people. youll be amazed. for some reason it works really well driving in traffic. be unforgiving and curse and insult drivers in your mind only and see how drivers around you react. and then pick a day when youre absolutley forgiving and patient and generous with other drivers and see how it affects things. the whole idea of a world consciousness is very sound. in my opinion we all share one mind, we just all tap into it differently and use it our own way. but when you get people together on things.. on a large scale,, shit happens. look at the sunami relief effort. by the way, refrain from apocolyptic thinking. we have a great opportunity yet to fix up the bullshit in the worlld without it having to crumble to ruin before it happens. be positive and have hope and spread that idea around as much as possible .you know. peace
It's all rather middle class i mean of COURSE. when things are shit. when the surroundings are grim, and the whole schebangle is shit, then people are viscious. there are areas here it is dangerous some more vulnerable members to even LOOK at some youths on the STREET, for fear of confrontation and possible serious head damage. now THAT is shitty mood what i got after reading the above is just how senstive we ALL are really deeply. the slightest remrak, look etc. and yet some members of our soceity are treated so bad. and yet when then their mood is shitty, THEY get blamed for it so it's important to know our part in the oeverall proceedings and preceedings. REALIZE our sensitivity is shared by all doesn't mean you take unfair shit. be real. but from a position that you just want to be real and expect same back
I tell you what, im going to post something personal to prove that spreading of moods is possible. My girlfriend is bipolar, and she is manic depressive. Whenever i first met her, none of this showed, but within a month or two i knew exactly what was going on. She began to cut herself. Then she ended up in the hospital recently. On top of all of this, my friends are almost all bipolar (just happens to be that they know they can trust me and talk to me, so they DO) and they tell me all about them cutting themselves and how "horrible" there lives are... This has eventually led to me losing it. My grades in school dropped... i began getting depressed and feeling as though i was in a hole. I, just today, had to break up with my girlfriend. I am now moving to another state just so i can get away from all of this. Too many people committing suicide and cutting themselves, and relying on me to make them feel better. I can't tell them to fuck off because im afraid to... and i can't not help them. The only way to get out of this one is to move 4000 miles and watch out for people like this again. That's screwed one year of my life up... and possibly more unless i can get on the right track again. There are more things going on right now than just that... and it's pretty bad. I wont post all of it... it's too personal and i will not post anything about the individuals involved. Now you know... yes the slightest bad mood CAN spread. Music can effect emotions too... i made a thread about that once, but im not sure where.
Ouch Caffeine fubar. I hope you don't feel guilty for saving yourself. I know how hard it is to leave behind peple you love. Spread of mood: Remember the feel of the emotions that can ripple through a sports stadium or concert hall? Ever feel something distressing on a subway car only to look around and see the face that goes with the distraught soul that you had felt? And were you sure that you had not seen the source of the pain with your peripheral vision prior to looking round? Did you ever go to buy or rent a house and feel like the emotional presence of the previous occupants will be sharing the house with you for months? Did you ever spend a few days thirty miles away from the nearest other human? If you did, did you notice a sort of absense of mental/emotional background clutter out there?
theres the concept of the mandala. perhaps we do spiral/revolve around things that are somehow like ourselves or are fitting. id be interested to hear how things go after the next two years of your life,fubar. there is usually deeper meaning in things than were often aware of, espccially intense things i can see extracting yourself from the situation for sure..but if i were you at least, id really think it all over to see if you can find more in it.
I was just at a huge concert a couple of nights ago that had tens of thousands of happy (or stoned or drunk) people. I still am on a bit of an emotional upswing from it, it was an escape from reality. caffeine_fubar, I have empathy for your situation. It's hard to see things out of your control happen to friends. It's best to go away. Now, I used insignificant examples of "bad moods" to show that it's the little things. Do the little things add up, or do they remain constant. I notice that it's the little things that usually cause a person to "lose it". The recipient may not get the full transfer of mood, but they may fall down into a quiet solemn state that is not necessarily a form of depression, but if they transfered that state to someone else and add it to a received depressed state, it can be lethal. At the end fo the day, I think about all of the good and bad things that happened in a day. I focus on rising above the bad things and cherishing the good things. It's a lot easier to let the bad things slide whjen you are fully aware of the type and degree of emotion they created and then alter your emotions consciously. I think it may have the effect of being able to alter one's own brain chemistry towards a happier state. I'll be able to go into this further once I take some neuroscience classes when they are available to me. I just have one quick comment that's unrelated to the topic (or it may be, it might make someone feel bad, but it is unintentional if I do so). VossistArts, you have potential in your writing but it's difficult to read because of your use (or failure to use) the Shift key. you are a welcome member of Sciforums and I see that you do have some good writing. Try to dress it up a bit and use proper opunctuation and caps to a degree that it will be easy to read. This isn't a chat room. Have a good eternity!
yeah id have to learn to type to do that. i have enuf trouble with just the two fingers and a thumb thing. if i had to hold a key while pressing another one id be done. my typist will be back from vaca in two weeks tho. No worry Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! As for the days end, start or beginning and moods: personally I try not to take the past events into consideration at all. In any given moment eye ask myself " what's happening around me? What's happening inside me? Is anything around me causing me grief, pain, joy or bliss whatever? When aye pull myself away from my thoughts and their accompanying emotions I often find there is nothing present to cause grief or even joy. Being even is the ideal in my opinion. Neither attract nor repulse to thoughts and concepts. or the shift key. sorry. I'm having internal conflict. think outLOUD. er... Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! I don(o)t go into chat rooms.
You know, it truly is hard leaving people you love, but once you get away from them, you then realize truly how messed up things were, and exactly how they were messing YOU up. I leave you know, and im leaving tomorrow. My plane arrives at 9 in the morning. Heh... big change all over a few people that trust me and know that i care... What am i supposed to do? Not care? No... i should just be careful who i let know i care, and should be careful and not let people run over me with there problems. Everything is going to be better. Im glad i got people on here to listen and all, thanks =D WOOT! Im excited about moving...
