A convenient self-referencing mood induction procedure

We describe a brief, convenient, and effective procedure for experimentally inducing mood states in the laboratory that are especially useful in the study of cognition and emotion. The procedure is like that of Velten’s (1968) in that a verbal self-instructional procedure is used to induce a temporary mood state. It differs from Velten’s in that the mood induction items contain current language usage familiar to typical college undergraduates, contain no reference to potential cognitive processing deficits or strategies that may either interfere with or facilitate performance on some criterion cognitive task, contain no reference to suicidal or somatic states, and is briefer than Velten’s procedure in that only 25, rather than 60, items are employed. Validation of the mood induction procedure demonstrated that the induction procedures were effective, as assessed by a depression adjective checklist (DACL), and that the induction of both sad and happy moods produced poorer recall than did a neutral mood control.

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