MOOD, SELF-EFFICACY, AND PERFORMANCE STANDARDS - LOWER MOODS INDUCE HIGHER STANDARDS FOR PERFORMANCE

This research examined the effects of induced mood on personal standards for performance and judgments of one's performance capabilities, or self-efficacy judgments. In Experiment 1, standards and self-efficacy judgments were assessed on common social and academic tasks. In Experiment 2, these variables were assessed on 2 novel tasks. In both experiments, negative mood induced higher standards for performance. Induced mood had no effect on perceived self-efficacy. Negative mood Ss thus held minimal standards for performance that significantly exceeded the levels of performance they judged they actually could attain. A 3rd experiment provided support for the hypothesis that negative mood raises standards by lowering evaluations of prospective outcomes. Processes underlying the results and their relation to research on naturally occurring depressed mood and stringent personal standards are discussed.