| Three experiments showed that attentional focus moderates the influence of mood on perceived success. These experiments tested the hypothesis that mood-congruent perceptions of personal success occur under conditions of self-focus but that this effect is modified or eliminated after attention is focused on other individuals. In Experiment 1, attentional focus moderated the influence of mood on perceived success at an ambiguous creativity test, as predicted, but the simple effect of mood was not reliable among self-focused participants. Experiment 2 replicated these results using an ambiguous object identification task, with happy participants reporting greater perceived success at the task compared to sad participants only under self-focus. Experiment 3 replicated these results in the context of students' perceptions of their academic success. When self-focused, happy participants reported greater perceived academic success compared to sad participants. In contrast, mood failed to influence perceptions of academic success among participants who had been prompted to think about the performance of other individuals. These results suggest that self-focused attention plays a critical role in producing mood-congruent perceptions of personal success. The implications of this for investigating mood and social judgment, more generally, and for understanding problems such as depression are considered. |
