Intellectual giftedness

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_giftedness 

Intellectual giftedness is an intellectual ability significantly higher than average. It is a characteristic of children, variously defined, that motivates differences in school programming. It is thought to persist as a trait into adult life, with various consequences studied in longitudinal studies of giftedness over the last century. There is no generally agreed definition of giftedness for either children or adults, but most school placement decisions and most longitudinal studies over the course of individual lives have followed people with IQs in the top 2.5 percent of the population—that is, IQs above 130. Definitions of giftedness also vary across cultures.

The various definitions of intellectual giftedness include either general high ability or specific abilities. For example, by some definitions, an intellectually gifted person may have a striking talent for mathematics without equally strong language skills. In particular, the relationship between artistic ability or musical ability and the high academic ability usually associated with high IQ scores is still being explored, with some authors referring to all of those forms of high ability as "giftedness", while other authors distinguish "giftedness" from "talent". There is still much controversy and much research on the topic of how adult performance unfolds from trait differences in childhood, and what educational and other supports best help the development of adult giftedness.

Identification

Overview

The identification of giftedness first emerged after the development of IQ tests for school placement. It has since become an important issue for schools, as the instruction of gifted students often presents special challenges. During the twentieth century, gifted children were often classified via IQ tests; other identification procedures have been proposed but are only used in a minority of cases in most public schools in the English-speaking world. Developing useful identification procedures for students who could benefit from a more challenging school curriculum is an ongoing problem in school administration.

Because of the key role that gifted education programs in schools play in the identification of gifted individuals, both children and adults, it is worthwhile to examine how schools define the term "gifted".

Definitions

Since Lewis Terman in 1916, psychometricians and psychologists have sometimes equated giftedness with high IQ. Later researchers (e.g., Raymond Cattell, J. P. Guilford, and Louis Leon Thurstone) have argued that intellect cannot be expressed in such a unitary manner, and have suggested more multifaceted approaches to intelligence.

Research conducted in the 1980s and 1990s has provided data that supports notions of multiple components to intelligence. This is particularly evident in the reexamination of "giftedness" by Sternberg and Davidson in their collection of articles Conceptions of Giftedness (1986; second edition 2005). The many different conceptions of giftedness presented, although distinct, are interrelated in several ways. Most of the investigators define giftedness in terms of multiple qualities, not all of which are intellectual. IQ scores are often viewed as inadequate measures of giftedness. Motivation, high self-concept, and creativity are key qualities in many of these broadened conceptions of giftedness.

Joseph Renzulli's (1978) "three ring" definition of giftedness is one frequently mentioned conceptualization of giftedness. Renzulli's definition, which defines gifted behaviors rather than gifted individuals, is composed of three components as follows: Gifted behavior consists of behaviors that reflect an interaction among three basic clusters of human traits—above average ability, high levels of task commitment, and high levels of creativity. Individuals capable of developing gifted behavior are those possessing or capable of developing this composite set of traits and applying them to any potentially valuable area of human performance. Persons who manifest or are capable of developing an interaction among the three clusters require a wide variety of educational opportunities and services that are not ordinarily provided through regular instructional programs.

In Identifying Gifted Children: A Practical Guide, Susan K. Johnsen explains that gifted children all exhibit the potential for high performance in the areas included in the United States' federal definition of gifted and talented students:

There is a federal government statutory definition of gifted and talented students in the United States.

The term "gifted and talented" when used in respect to students, children, or youth means students, children, or youth who give evidence of high-performance capability in areas such as intellectual, creative, artistic, or leadership capacity, or in specific academic fields, and who require services or activities not ordinarily provided by the school in order to fully develop such capabilities." (P.L. 103–382, Title XIV, p. 388)

This definition has been adopted partially or completely by the majority of the individual states in the United States (which have the main responsibility for education policy as compared to the federal government). Most states have a definition similar to that used in the State of Texas:

"gifted and talented student" means a child or youth who performs at or shows the potential for performing at a remarkably high level of accomplishment when compared to others of the same age, experience, or environment, and who

• exhibits high-performance capability in an intellectual, creative, or artistic area;
• possesses an unusual capacity for leadership; or
• excels in a specific academic field." (74th legislature of the State of Texas, Chapter 29, Subchapter D, Section 29.121)

The major characteristics of these definitions are (a) the diversity of areas in which performance may be exhibited (e.g., intellectual, creativity, artistic, leadership, academically), (b) the comparison with other groups (e.g., those in general education classrooms or of the same age, experience, or environment), and (c) the use of terms that imply a need for development of the gift (e.g., capability and potential).

Since the late 90s, the development of the brain of people with high IQ scores has been shown to be different to that of people with average IQ scores. A longitudinal study over 6 years has shown that high-IQ children have a thinner cerebral cortex when young, which then grows quickly and becomes significantly thicker than the other children's by the time they became teenagers.

Identification methods

IQ scores can vary for the same person, so a person does not always belong to the same IQ score range each time the person is tested. (IQ score table data and pupil pseudonyms adapted from description of KABC-II norming study cited in Kaufman 2009.)

Pupil	KABC-II	WISC-III	WJ-III
Asher	90	95	111
Brianna	125	110	105
Colin	100	93	101
Danica	116	127	118
Elpha	93	105	93
Fritz	106	105	105
Georgi	95	100	90
Hector	112	113	103
Imelda	104	96	97
Jose	101	99	86
Keoku	81	78	75
Leo	116	124	102

In psychology, identification of giftedness is usually based on IQ scores. The threshold of IQ = 130 is defined by statistical rarity. By convention, the 5% of scores who fall more than two standard deviations from the mean (or more accurately 1.96) are considered atypical. In the case of intelligence, these 5% are partitioned to both sides of the range of scores, and include the 2.5% who score more than two standard deviations below the mean and the 2.5% who score more than two standard deviations above the mean. Because the average of IQ is 100 and its standard deviation is 15, this rule places the threshold for intellectual disability at IQ = 70, and the symmetrical threshold for giftedness at IQ = 130 (rounded). This arbitrary threshold is used by most psychologists in most countries.

While IQ testing has the advantage of providing an objective basis for the diagnosis of giftedness, psychologists are expected to interpret IQ scores in the context of all available information: standardized intelligence tests ignore actual achievement and can fail to detect giftedness. For example, a specific learning disorder such as dyslexia or dyspraxia can easily decrease scores on intelligence tests and hide true intellectual ability.

In educational settings, many schools in the US use a variety of assessments of students' capability and potential when identifying gifted children. These may include portfolios of student work, classroom observations, achievement tests, and IQ test scores. Most educational professionals accept that no single criterion can be used in isolation to accurately identify a gifted child.

One of the criteria used in identification may be an IQ test score. Until the late 1960s, when "giftedness" was defined solely based on an IQ score, a school district simply set an arbitrary score (usually in the 130 range) and a student either did or did not "make the cut". This method is still used by many school districts because it is simple and objective. Although a high IQ score is not the sole indicator of giftedness, usually if a student has a very high IQ, that is a significant indicator of high academic potential. Because of this consideration, if a student scores highly on an IQ test, but performs at an average or below-average level academically, school officials may think that this issue warrants further investigation as an example of underachievement. However, scholars of educational testing point out that a test-taker's scores on any two tests may vary, so a lower score on an achievement test than on an IQ test neither necessarily indicates that the test-taker is underachieving nor necessarily that the school curriculum is under-challenging.

IQ classification varies from one publisher to another. IQ tests have poor reliability for determining test-takers' rank order at higher IQ levels, and are perhaps only effective at determining whether a student is gifted rather than distinguishing among levels of giftedness. The Wechsler test manuals have standard score ceilings of 160. However, higher ceilings, including scores into the exceptionally and profoundly gifted range, exist for the WISC-IV and WISC-V, which were specifically normed on large samples of gifted children. Today, the Wechsler child and adult IQ tests are by far the most commonly used IQ tests in hospitals, schools, and private psychological practice. Older versions of the Stanford-Binet test, now obsolete, and the Cattell IQ test purport to yield IQ scores of 180 or higher, but those scores are not comparable to scores on currently normed tests. The Stanford-Binet Third Revision (Form L-M) yields consistently higher numerical scores for the same test-taker than scores obtained on current tests. This has prompted some authors on identification of gifted children to promote the Stanford-Binet form L-M, which has long been obsolete, as the only test with a sufficient ceiling to identify the exceptionally and profoundly gifted, despite the Stanford-Binet L-M never having been normed on a representative national sample. Because the instrument is outdated, current results derived from the Stanford-Binet L-M generate inflated and inaccurate scores. The IQ assessment of younger children remains debated.

While many people believe giftedness is a strictly quantitative difference, measurable by IQ tests, some authors on the "experience of being" have described giftedness as a fundamentally different way of perceiving the world, which in turn affects every experience had by the gifted individual. This view is doubted by some scholars who have closely studied gifted children longitudinally.

Across cultures

Characteristics and attributes associated with giftedness varies across cultures. While intelligence is extremely important in Western and some other cultures, such an emphasis is not consistent throughout the world. For example, in Japan, there is more of a value placed on an individual's motivation and diligence. When Japanese students are given a task, they attribute success to factors like effort, whereas American students tend to attribute success to ability. Similarly, when Japanese students fail, they refer the failure to lack of effort. On the other hand, American students believe failure is due to a lack of ability. There are conceptions in Rural Kenya that identify four types of intelligence: initiative (paro), knowledge and skills (rieko), respect (luoro), and comprehension of how to handle real-life problems (winjo). Chan cites the Chinese belief that aspects of giftedness are innate, but that people can become gifted through industriousness, perseverance, and learning. Not all who are intellectually gifted display every noticeable characteristic.

There are many reasons gifted students who have various backgrounds are not as successful at Western intelligence/achievement tests:

• Not used to answering questions just for the purpose of showing knowledge – they must use their knowledge to respond to authentic problems.
• May perform poorly on paper-and-pencil tasks in an artificial lab setting.
• May perform poorly on a culturally biased test, especially if not their own.
• Have test anxiety or suffer from stereotype threat.

Many traits that demonstrate intellectual giftedness are identified across a multitude of cultures, such as:

• Displaying advanced reasoning and creative thinking, generating ideas beyond the norm
• Resourceful and adaptable
• Strongly motivated to understand the world
• Well developed vocabulary in native language
• Learns concepts quickly, and builds/develops these concepts
• Strong sense of justice and morality
• Displays leadership skills in various ways, such as persuasion, taking initiative, and leading by example
• Comprehending and using humor beyond their age

Developmental theory

Gifted children may develop asynchronously: their minds are often ahead of their physical growth, and specific cognitive and emotional functions are often developed differently (or to differing extents) at different stages of development. One frequently cited example of asynchronicity in early cognitive development is Albert Einstein, who was delayed in speech, but whose later fluency and accomplishments belied this initial delay. Psychologist and cognitive scientist Steven Pinker theorized that, rather than viewing Einstein's (and other famously gifted late-talking individuals) adult accomplishments as existing distinct from, or in spite of, his early language deficits, and rather than viewing Einstein's lingual delay itself as a "disorder", it may be that Einstein's genius and his delay in speaking were developmentally intrinsic to one another.

It has been said that gifted children may advance more quickly through stages established by post-Freudian developmentalists such as Jean Piaget. Gifted individuals also experience the world differently, resulting in certain social and emotional issues.

Francoy Gagne's (2000) Differentiated Model of Giftedness and Talent (DMGT) is a developmental theory that distinguishes giftedness from talent, offering explanation on how outstanding natural abilities (gifts) develop into specific expert skills (talents). According to DMGT theory, "one cannot become talented without first being gifted, or almost so". There are six components that can interact in countless and unique ways that foster the process of moving from having natural abilities (giftedness) to systematically developed skills.

These components consist of the gift (G) itself, chance (C), environmental catalyst (EC), intrapersonal catalyst (IC), learning/practice (LP) and the outcome of talent (T). It is important to know that (C), (IC), and (EC) can facilitate but can also hinder the learning and training of becoming talented. The learning/practice is the moderator. It is through the interactions, both environmental and intrapersonal that influence the process of learning and practice along with/without chance that natural abilities are transformed into talents.

Multiple intelligences theory

Main article: Theory of multiple intelligences

Multiple intelligences has been associated with giftedness or overachievement of some developmental areas (Colangelo, 2003). Multiple intelligences has been described as an attitude towards learning, instead of techniques or strategies (Cason, 2001).

Howard Gardner proposed in Frames of Mind (Gardner 1983/1994) that intellectual giftedness may be present in areas other than the typical intellectual realm. The concept of multiple intelligences (MI) makes the field aware of additional potential strengths and proposes a variety of curricular methods. Gardner argued that there are eight intelligences, or different areas in which people assimilate or learn about the world around them: interpersonal, intrapersonal, bodily-kinesthetic, linguistic, logical-mathematical, musical, naturalistic, and spatial-visual.

The most common criticism of Gardner's MI theory is "the belief by scholars that each of the seven multiple intelligences is in fact a cognitive style rather than a stand-alone construct". Others consider the theory not to be sufficiently empirical. This perspective has also been criticized on the grounds that it is ad hoc: that Gardner is not expanding the definition of the word "intelligence", but rather denies the existence of intelligence as traditionally understood, and instead uses the word "intelligence" where other people have traditionally used words like "ability" and "aptitude".

Identification of gifted students with MI is a challenge since there is no simple test to give to determine giftedness of MI. Assessing by observation is potentially most accurate, but potentially highly subjective. MI theory can be applied to not only gifted students, but it can be a lens through which all students can be assessed. This more global perspective may lead to more child-centered instruction and meet the needs of a greater number of children (Colangelo, 2003).

Characteristics

Generally, gifted or advanced students learn more quickly, deeply, and broadly than their peers. They may talk early, learn to read early, and progress at the same level as normal children who are significantly older. Gifted students also tend to demonstrate high reasoning ability, creativity, curiosity, a large vocabulary, and an excellent memory. They can often master concepts with few repetitions. They may also be perfectionistic, and frequently question authority. Some have trouble relating to or communicating with their peers because of disparities in vocabulary size (especially in the early years), personality, interests, and motivation. As children, they may prefer the company of older children or adults. Teachers may notice that gifted students tend to hover around them more than the other students. This is because gifted students sometimes think that they cannot relate to the students their own age, so they try to communicate with the teacher.

Giftedness is frequently not evenly distributed throughout all intellectual spheres. One gifted student may excel in solving logic problems yet be a poor speller. Another may be able to read and write at a far above-average level yet have trouble with mathematics.

It is possible that there are different types of giftedness with their own unique features, just as there are different types of developmental delay.

Giftedness may become noticeable in individuals at different points of development. While early development (i.e. speaking or reading at a very young age) usually comes with giftedness, it is not a determinant factor of giftedness.

Savantism

Savants are individuals who perform exceptionally in a single field of learning. More often, the terms savant and savantism describe people with a competence level in a single field of learning well beyond what is considered normal, even among the gifted community. Such individuals are alternatively termed idiot savants ─ a term that has been mentioned as early as the eighteenth century. Autistic savantism refers to the exceptional abilities occasionally exhibited by people with autism or other pervasive developmental disorders. These abilities often come with below-age-level functioning in most, if not all areas of skilled performance. The term was introduced in a 1978 article in Psychology Today describing this condition. It is also proposed that there are savants with normal or superior IQ such as those with Asperger syndrome, who demonstrate special abilities involving numbers, mathematics, mechanical, and spatial skills.

Gifted minority students in the United States

The majority of students enrolled in gifted programs are White; Black and Hispanic students constitute a smaller proportion than their enrollment in school. For example, statistics from 1993 indicate that in the U.S., Black students represented 16.2% of public school students, but only constituted 8.4% of students enrolled in gifted education programs. Similarly, while Hispanic students represented 9% of public school students, these students only represented 4.7% of those identified as gifted. However, Asian students make up only 3.6% of the student body, yet constitute 14% in the gifted programs. Poor students are also underrepresented in gifted programs, even more than Black and Hispanic students are.

Lack of equity and access in programs for the gifted has been acknowledged since the early twentieth century. In the 1920s, research by Lillian Steele Proctor pointed to systemic racism as a contributor to the relative invisibility of gifted African American youth. In their 2004 study, "Addressing the Achievement Gap Between Minority and Nonminority Children by Increasing Access to Gifted Programs" Olszewski-Kubilius et al. write that minority students are "less likely to be nominated by teachers as potential candidates for gifted programs and, if nominated, are less likely to be selected for the program, particularly when such traditional measures as I.Q. and achievement tests are used for identification."

This underrepresentation of such students in gifted programs is attributed to a multiplicity of factors including cultural bias of testing procedures, selective referrals and educator bias, and reliance on deficit-based paradigms. To address the inequities in assessment procedures, researchers suggest the use of multiple tests and alternative methods of testing, such as performance-based assessment measures, oral-expressiveness measures as well as non-verbal ability assessments (such as Naglieri Nonverbal Abilities Tests (NNAT) or Raven's Matrix Analogies Tests).

According to 2013-2014 data collected by the Office of Civil Rights of the Department of Education, White students have more opportunities and exposure to attending schools that offer gifted and talented education programs (GATE) than racial and ethnic minority students, specifically Black and Latino students. Data collected by the Office of Civil Rights department of the Department of Education also reveal that racial/ethnic minority students are underrepresented in gifted and talented education programs. Forty-nine percent of all students enrolled in schools that offer GATE programs are White. Whereas 42% of all students enrolled in schools that offer GATE programs are Latino and Black. Thus revealing that white people have more opportunities to be a part of a school that offers GATE programs. The issue is within these GATE programs 29% of the students are Latino and Black and 57% are White (U.S. Department of Education, 2016).

Weinstein's (2002) suggests that some teachers recommend racial minority students – with the exception of Asian students – to special education and remedial classes more often than gifted and talented classes due to teacher expectancy biases placed on racial minority students. Teachers' expectations of their students' academic performance influence how students perceive themselves. If a teacher expects more success academically from specific students, those students are prone to displaying behavior and work ethic that will set them apart from others in a positive light. Whereas if a teacher only expects the bare minimum from his or her students, those students will merely do what is expected of them (Weinstein, 2002).

Racial minority students who are perceived as being disadvantaged from their peers in regards to socioeconomic status tend to have less supportive relations with their teachers (Fitzpatrick, 2015). Due to this lack of support, teachers do not expect these disadvantaged students to go above and beyond, therefore they are often overlooked when it's time for gifted and talented education program nominations. Research suggests that teacher expectancy bias can also be diminish by matching the racial demographics of students to that of teachers. Gershenson and colleagues (2016) found that non-Black teachers held low expectations of their black students specifically in relation to black male students and math. Whereas, Black teachers held high expectations to black male students in regards to math. This finding suggests that racial diversity in our educators is a positive step toward diminishing teacher expectancy bias.

Weinstein and colleagues (1991) aimed to change the low expectations attached to racial minority students of an urban high school that placed many Black and Latino students in remedial programs rather than college preparatory or honor classes. The study aimed to prepare these racial minority students for college-level academic work while attending high school. With positive teacher attitudes toward students and greater teacher self-efficacy, the students who were once on track to being recommended for remedial classes were performing at advanced academic levels after 2 years of intervention. They were also more heavily involved in leadership roles at their high school. This study supports the claim that teacher expectancy contributes to how a student sees him or herself in regards to achievements (Weinstein et al., 1991).

Gifted students of color experience success when multicultural content is incorporated in the curriculum and furthermore when the curriculum itself is designed to be culturally and linguistically compatible. A culturally diverse curriculum and instruction encourages gifted minority students to experience a sense of belonging and validation as scholars. Furthermore, the educator's role in this process is significant as Lee et al. argue that "[t]eacher awareness and understanding of students' racial and cultural differences and their ability to incorporate multicultural perspectives into curricular content and instructional techniques may counter gifted minority students' discomfort in being one of the few minority students in gifted programs."

Twice-exceptional

The term twice-exceptional was coined by James J. Gallagher to denote students who are both gifted and have disabilities. In other words, twice-exceptional students are those who have two special needs. For instance, they might have gifted learning needs and a learning disability. Or, they may be a gifted learner and have a developmental disability, such as autism spectrum disorder.

People have known about twice-exceptional students for thirty years; however, identification and program strategies remain ambiguous. These students represent a unique challenge for the educational system. Teachers and educators will need to make special accommodations for their learning deficits (such as remediation), yet adapt the curriculum to meet their advanced learning needs (for instance, through acceleration or enrichment). Twice-exceptional students are considered to be at risk because they are hidden within the general population of their educational environment, and often viewed as either underachievers or average learners.

Early identification and intervention is critical; however, giftedness in the twice-exceptional population is often identified later than in the average population as it is masked by the disability. The disabilities may include auditory processing weaknesses, sensory-motor integration issues, visual perceptual difficulties, spatial disorientation, dyslexia, and attention deficits. Recognition of learning difficulties among the gifted is made extremely difficult by virtue of their ability to compensate. Among the signs that the student may be twice-exceptional are apparent inconsistencies between abilities and results, deficits in short-term memory and attention, and negative behaviors such as being sarcastic, negative, or aggressive.

A child prodigy who demonstrates qualities to be twice-exceptional may encounter additional difficulties. With insight at a young age, it is possible for them to be constantly aware of the risk of failure. This can be detrimental to their emotional state and academic achievement. If a child comprehends a subject well, but due to a developmental disorder receives poor grades in a subject, the child may have difficulty understanding why there is little success in that subject.

Social and emotional issues

Isolation

Social isolation is a common trait in gifted individuals, especially those with no social network of gifted peers. In order to gain popularity, gifted children will often try to hide their abilities to win social approval. Strategies include underachievement (discussed below) and the use of less sophisticated vocabulary when among same-age peers than when among family members or other trusted individuals.

Some believe that the isolation experienced by gifted individuals is not caused by giftedness itself, but by society's response to giftedness and to the rarity of peers. Plucker and Levy have noted that, "in this culture, there appears to be a great pressure for people to be 'normal' with a considerable stigma associated with giftedness or talent." To counteract this problem, gifted education professionals recommend creating a peer group based on common interests and abilities. The earlier this occurs, the more effective it is likely to be in preventing isolation. Since the mid-1940s, several high-IQ societies of varying levels of selectivity have been established to help gifted individuals find intellectual peers, the oldest ones being Mensa and Intertel, established in 1946 and 1966 respectively.

Research suggests that mathematically gifted adolescents might have deficiencies in social valuation & mentalization, while gifted adolescents in general may struggle with social adaptive learning.

Perfectionism

Perfectionism, while considered to have many positive aspects, can be another issue for gifted individuals. It is encouraged by the fact that gifted individuals tend to be easily successful in much of what they do.

Healthy perfectionism refers to having high standards, a desire to achieve, conscientiousness, or high levels of responsibility. It is likely to be a virtue rather than a problem, even if gifted children may have difficulty with healthy perfectionism because they set standards that would be appropriate to their mental age (the level at which they think), but they cannot always meet them because they are bound to a younger body, or the social environment is restrictive. In such cases, outsiders may call some behavior perfectionism, while for the gifted this may be their standard. It has been said that perfectionism "becomes desirable when it stimulates the healthy pursuit of excellence."

Some believe that perfectionism can be unhealthy. Unhealthy perfectionism stems from equating one's worth as a human being to one's achievements, and the simultaneous belief that any work less than perfect is unacceptable and will lead to criticism. Because perfection in the majority of human activities is neither desirable, nor possible, this cognitive distortion creates self-doubt, performance anxiety, and ultimately procrastination.

Unhealthy perfectionism can be triggered or further exacerbated by parents, siblings, or classmates with good or ill intentions. Parents are usually proud and will extensively praise the gifted child. On the other hand, siblings, comrades, and school bullies may generally become jealous or envious of the intellectual ease of the gifted child and tease him or her about any minor imperfection in his or her work, strength, clothes, appearance, or behavior. Either approach—positive reinforcement from parents or negative reactions from siblings and comrades for minor flaws—may push gifted children into equating their worth amongst their peers to their own abilities; thus, any imperfection could be viewed as a serious defect in themselves. This unhealthy perfectionism can be further exaggerated when the child counters bullying with the same tactics (i.e., insulting the less exceptional abilities of others), thus creating further disdain in himself for low or even average performance.

There are many theories that try to explain the correlation between perfectionism and giftedness. Perfectionism can become a problem as it frustrates and inhibits achievements.

D. E. Hamachek identified six specific, overlapping types of behavior associated with perfectionism. They are:

• Depression
• A nagging "I should" feeling
• Shame and guilt feelings
• Face-saving behavior
• Shyness and procrastination
• Self-deprecation

Underachievement

Underachievement is a significant issue for gifted learners. There is often a stark gap between the abilities of the gifted individual and their actual accomplishments. Many gifted students will perform extremely well on standardized or reasoning tests, only to fail a class exam. It is estimated that half of gifted children do not perform in school at a level that is up to their abilities. Studies of high school dropouts in the United States estimate that between 18% and 25% of the students who fail to graduate are gifted. This disparity can result from various factors, such as loss of interest in classes that are too easy or negative social consequences of being perceived as smart. Underachievement can also result from emotional or psychological factors, including depression, anxiety, perfectionism, low self esteem, or self-sabotage.

An often-overlooked contributor to underachievement is undiagnosed learning differences. A gifted individual is less likely to be diagnosed with a learning disorder than a non-gifted classmate, as the gifted child can more readily compensate for their paucities. This masking effect is dealt with by understanding that a difference of one standard deviation between scores constitutes a learning disability even if all of the scores are above average. Assessments may also fail to identify some gifted students entirely because their underachieving behaviours keep them from being recognized as exceptional.

Some gifted children may not be aware that they are gifted. One apparently effective way to attempt to reverse underachievement in gifted children includes educating teachers to provide enrichment projects based on students' strengths and interests without attracting negative attention from peers. Other methods include matching the underachiever with an achieving role model, correcting skill deficiencies and ensuring that proper assessments are in place to identify all learning issues with underachieving students.

Depression

It has been thought in the past that there is a correlation between giftedness and depression. This is not an established research finding. As Reis and Renzulli mention,

With the exception of creatively gifted adolescents who are talented in writing or the visual arts, studies do not confirm that gifted individuals manifest significantly higher or lower rates or severity of depression than those for the general population. Gifted children's advanced cognitive abilities, social isolation, sensitivity, and uneven development may cause them to face some challenging social and emotional issues, but their problem-solving abilities, advanced social skills, moral reasoning, out-of-school interests, and satisfaction in achievement may help them to be more resilient.

There is also no research that points to suicide attempt rates being higher in gifted adolescents than other adolescents.

Creativity and mental health

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creativity_and_mental_health 

 

Composer Ludwig van Beethoven may have had bipolar disorder.

Links between creativity and mental health have been extensively discussed and studied by psychologists and other researchers for centuries. Parallels can be drawn to connect creativity to major mental disorders including bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, major depressive disorder, anxiety disorder, OCD and ADHD. For example, studies have demonstrated correlations between creative occupations and people living with mental illness. There are cases that support the idea that mental illness can aid in creativity, but it is also generally agreed that mental illness does not have to be present for creativity to exist.

History

It has been proposed that there is a link between creativity and mental illness. Major depressive disorder appears among playwrights, novelists, biographers, and artists at a higher rate than the general population. Association between mental illness and creativity first appeared in academic literature in the 1970s, but speculation about a link between "madness" and "genius" dates back at least to the time of Aristotle. The word "genius" may refer to literary genius, creative genius, scholarly genius, "all around" genius, etc. The Ancient Greeks believed that creativity came from the gods, in particular the Muses (the mythical personifications of the arts and sciences, the nine daughters of Zeus). In the Aristotelian tradition, genius was viewed from a physiological standpoint, and it was believed that the same human quality was perhaps responsible for both extraordinary achievement and melancholy. Romantic writers had similar ideals, with Lord Byron having pleasantly expressed, "We of the craft are all crazy. Some are affected by gaiety, others by melancholy, but all are more or less touched".

Individuals with mental illness are said to display a capacity to see the world in a novel and original way; literally, to see things that others cannot. However, people do not require a mental illness to do so.

Studies

For many years, the creative arts, from visual arts and writing to music and drama, have been used in therapy for those recovering from mental illness or addiction.

Another study found creativity to be greater in schizotypal than in either normal or schizophrenic individuals. While divergent thinking was associated with bilateral activation of the prefrontal cortex, schizotypal individuals were found to have much greater activation of their right prefrontal cortex. This study hypothesized that such individuals are better at accessing both hemispheres, allowing them to make novel associations at a faster rate. In agreement with this hypothesis, ambidexterity is also associated with schizotypal and schizophrenic individuals.

Three recent studies by Mark Batey and Adrian Furnham have demonstrated the relationships between schizotypal and hypomanic personality and several different measures of creativity. Specifically, Divergent Thinking Fluency, the Biographical Inventory of Creative Behaviors, as well as Self-rated Creativity.

Particularly strong links have been identified between creativity and mood disorders, particularly manic-depressive disorder (a.k.a. bipolar disorder) and depressive disorder (a.k.a. unipolar disorder). In Touched with Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament, Kay Redfield Jamison summarizes studies of mood-disorder rates in writers, poets and artists. She also explores research that identifies mood disorders in such famous writers and artists as Ernest Hemingway (who shot himself after electroconvulsive treatment), Virginia Woolf (who drowned herself when she felt a depressive episode coming on), composer Robert Schumann (who died in a mental institution), and even the famed visual artist Michelangelo.

A study by Simon Kyaga and others looked at 300,000 people with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or unipolar depression, and their relatives, found overrepresentation in creative professions for those with bipolar disorder as well as for undiagnosed siblings of those with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. There was no overall overrepresentation, but overrepresentation for artistic occupations, among those diagnosed with schizophrenia. There was no association for those with unipolar depression or their relatives.

A study involving more than one million people, conducted by Swedish researchers at the Karolinska Institute, reported a number of correlations between creative occupations and mental illnesses. Writers had a higher risk of anxiety and bipolar disorders, schizophrenia, unipolar depression, and substance abuse, and were almost twice as likely as the general population to kill themselves. Dancers and photographers were also more likely to have bipolar disorder.

However, as a broader group, those in the creative professions (defined as "scientific and artistic occupations") were no more likely to experience psychiatric disorders than other people, although they were more likely to have a close relative with a disorder, including anorexia and, to some extent, autism, the Journal of Psychiatric Research reports.

Research in this area is usually constrained to cross-section data-sets. One of the few exceptions is an economic study of the well-being and creative output of three famous music composers over their entire lifetime. The emotional indicators are obtained from letters written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Liszt, and the results indicate that negative emotions had a causal impact on the creative production of the artists studied.

Psychological stress has also been found to impede spontaneous creativity. In fact, Dr. Robert Epstein describes it as a creativity killer. Instead, people must work to cultivate creativity like any other skill. He found that capturing your ideas, seeking out challenges, increasing your knowledge, and surrounding yourself with others who do the same help creativity grow rather than focusing on your stress.

A 2005 study at the Stanford University School of Medicine measured creativity by showing children figures of varying complexity and symmetry and asking whether they like or dislike them. The study showed for the first time that a sample of children who either have or are at high risk for bipolar disorder tend to dislike simple or symmetric symbols more. Children with bipolar parents who were not bipolar themselves also scored higher dislike scores.

A study by Sally Anne Gross and George Musgrave suggested that high levels of self-reported anxiety and depression amongst musicians might be explained, at least in part, by the nature of their working conditions.

Mood and creativity

There have been many studies on the correlation between mood and creativity with very different results. Some studies seem to show a positive correlation between negative mood and heightened creativity. Other studies show that negative moods seem to be correlated with heightened creativity. One such research paper concludes, "Negative moods signal that the status quo is problematic and that additional effort needs to be exerted to come up with new and useful ideas". The debate is not binary with some studies saying that both positive and negative emotions play a role in creativity "the data support a positive-mood-enhances creativity generalization. Although other components of the creative process suggest a role for negative mood…". What is clear is that the connection between mood and creativity is rarely direct; rather, it's that being in certain moods forces or fosters people into certain actions that make them more creative at the moment. For instance, negative emotions have been shown to increase the amount a person will reflect and ruminate which then can cause a person to be more creative.

Studying creativity has its challenges because creativity doesn't necessarily involve action, which is a necessary component for proper research. What is actually being studied is, more appropriately called, "creative drive" which would be people's motivation to do things such as speaking, writing, problem-solving, etc. Ultimately, this topic requires more research to make any definitive statement on how much negative or positive emotion affects one's creative drive. This reflects a statement made in a 2008 meta-analysis on mood creativity research that said "Herein lie important avenues for future research, which eventually will tell us when and why angry young men, happy campers, and sad loners create and innovate."

Bipolar disorder

Main article: Bipolar disorder

Bipolar disorder may stimulate creativity, as manic episodes can include prolonged periods of elevated energy. The first empirical study about this topic was done by Nancy Andreasen in the 1970s. She expected for the correlation to be between Creativity and Schizophrenia. She instead discovered that the correlation was actually between creativity and those with mood disorders. Specifically, that 80% of her sample had experienced at least one major episode. In her follow-up study 15 years later, she found that 43% had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and 2 had committed suicide. In her book Touched with Fire, American clinical psychologist Kay Redfield Jamison wrote that 38% of writers and poets had been treated for a type of mood disorder, and 89% of creative writers and artists had experienced "intense, highly productive, and creative episodes". These were characterized by "pronounced increases in enthusiasm, energy, self-confidence, speed of mental association, fluency of thought and elevated mood". Although mania is characterized by reckless and possibly self-destructive behavior, in milder forms, the energy and free-flowing thinking of mania can fuel creativity.

There is a range of types of bipolar disorder. Individuals with Bipolar I Disorder experience severe episodes of mania and depression with periods of wellness between episodes. The severity of the manic episodes can mean that the person is seriously disabled and unable to express the heightened perceptions and flight of thoughts and ideas in a practical way. Individuals with Bipolar II Disorder experience milder periods of hypomania during which the flight of ideas, faster thought processes and ability to take in more information can be converted to art, poetry or design. In a study done by Shapiro and Weisberg, they found that it was not the depressive episodes, but rather coming out of them that sparked the creativity. Specifically, the self-image that one has during hypomania causing them to be more self-confident and allows them to have the confidence to create.

Dutch artist Vincent Van Gogh is widely theorised to have had bipolar disorder. Other notable creative people with bipolar disorder include Carrie Fisher, Demi Lovato, Kanye West, Stephen Fry (who has cyclothymia, a milder and more chronic form of bipolar disorder), Mariah Carey, Jaco Pastorius, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Ronald Braunstein, and Patty Duke.

Schizophrenia

Main article: Schizophrenia

People with schizophrenia live with positive, negative, and cognitive symptoms. Positive symptoms (psychotic behaviors that are not present in healthy people) include hallucinations, delusions, thought and movement disorders. Negative symptoms (abnormal functioning of emotions and behavior) include flat affect, anhedonia, others. Cognitive symptoms include problems with executive functioning, attention, and memory. One artist known for his schizophrenia was the Frenchman Antonin Artaud, founder of the Theatre of Cruelty movement. In Madness and Modernism (1992), clinical psychologist Louis A. Sass noted that many common traits of schizophrenia – especially fragmentation, defiance of authority, and multiple viewpoints – happen to also be defining features of modern art. However, it has been found that those who have it are the most creative either before or after active periods, not during them.

Multiple research studies study a link between reduced latent inhibition, and the psychopathology of acute-phase schizophrenia. This is suggestive of a correlation between psychopathology and creativity, but should not be interpreted as a causal relationship.

Arguments that support link

In a 2002 conversation with Christopher Langan, educational psychologist Arthur Jensen stated that the relationship between creativity and mental disorder "has been well researched and is proven to be a fact", writing that schizothymic characteristics are somewhat more frequent in philosophers, mathematicians, and scientists than in the general population. In a 2015 study, Iceland scientists found that people in creative professions are 25% more likely to have gene variants that increase the risk of bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, with deCODE Genetics co-founder Kári Stefánsson saying, "Often, when people are creating something new, they end up straddling between sanity and insanity. I think these results support the concept of the mad genius."

Bipolar disorder

Many famous historical figures gifted with creative talents may have been affected by bipolar disorder. Ludwig van Beethoven, Virginia Woolf, Ernest Hemingway, Isaac Newton, Judy Garland, Jaco Pastorius and Robert Schumann are some people whose lives have been researched to discover signs of mood disorder. In many instances, creativity and mania - the overwhelming highs that bipolar individuals often experience - share some common traits, such as a tendency for "thinking outside the box," flights of ideas, the speeding up of thoughts and heightened perception of visual, auditory and somatic stimuli.

It has been found that the brains of creative people are more open to environmental stimuli due to smaller amounts of latent inhibition, an individual's unconscious capacity to ignore unimportant stimuli. While the absence of this ability is associated with psychosis, it has also been found to contribute to original thinking.

Emotions

Many people with bipolar disorder may feel powerful emotions during both depressive and manic phases, potentially aiding in creativity. Because mania and hypomania may decrease social inhibition, performers who have bipolar disorder may become more daring and bold during an episode. Other creators may exhibit characteristics often associated with mental illness that are not necessarily equivalent to a full-blown manic episode.

Posthumous diagnosis

Some creative people have been posthumously diagnosed as experiencing bipolar or unipolar disorder based on biographies, letters, correspondence, contemporaneous accounts, or other anecdotal material, most notably in Kay Redfield Jamison's book Touched with Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament. Touched with Fire presents the argument that bipolar disorder, and affective disorders more generally, may be found in a disproportionate number of people in creative professions such as actors, artists, comedians, musicians, authors, performers and poets.

Scholars have also speculated that the visual artist Michelangelo lived with depression. In the book Famous Depressives: Ten Historical Sketches, MJ Van Lieburg argues that elements of depression are prominent in some of Michelangelo's sculptures and poetry. Van Lieburg also draws additional support from Michelangelo's letters to his father in which he states:

"I lead a miserable existence and reck not of life nor honour - that is of this world; I live wearied by stupendous labours and beset by a thousand anxieties. And thus I lived for some fifteen years now and never an hour's happiness have I had."

Positive correlation

Several recent clinical studies have also suggested that there is a positive correlation between creativity and bipolar disorder, although the relationship between the two is unclear. Temperament may be an intervening variable. Ambition has also been identified as being linked to creative output in people across the bipolar spectrum. Can Music Make You Sick? Measuring the Price of Musical Ambition  by Sally Anne Gross and George Musgrave suggests that high levels of self-reported anxiety and depression amongst musicians can be explained, at least in part, by the nature of musicians' working conditions.

Mental illness and divergent thinking

In 2017, associate professor of psychiatry Gail Saltz stated that the increased production of divergent thoughts in people with mild-to-moderate mental illnesses leads to greater creative capacities. Saltz argued that the "wavering attention and day-dreamy state" of ADHD, for example, "is also a source of highly original thinking. [...] CEOs of companies such as Ikea and Jetblue have ADHD. Their creativity, out-of-the-box thinking, high energy levels, and disinhibited manner could all be a positive result of their negative affliction." Mania risk has also been credited with aiding in creative accomplishments because "when speed of thinking increases, word associations form more freely, as do flight of ideas, because the manic mind is less inclined to filtering details that, in a normal state, would be dismissed as irrelevant."

Brain imaging and genetic links

Brain imaging studies have consistently reported that low-latent inhibition is associated with originality, creative personalities, and high levels of creative achievement. There have also been genetic studies conducted to consider genetic links between creativity and psychopathology. Several genes that have been flagged as linking to some forms of psychopathology have also been linked to creativity. These include polymorphisms of the DRD2 and DRD4 genes, the 5HT2a gene, and the NRG1 gene.

Correlation but not causation

Several studies suggest a consistent link between creativity and those with either mild forms of bipolar disorder or family histories of bipolar disorder, but not full-blown Bipolar I Disorder. These findings reiterate that creative individuals are more likely on the mild end of psychosis spectrums, but not repeatedly beyond that point. One study wrote that "only elevated levels of schizotypy and psychosis-proneness found in divergent thinkers or possessing some indicators of schizotypy promotes creative achievement but not full-blown schizophrenia". Another article writes that "it is likely that psychopathology and creativity are closely related; sharing many traits and antecedents but outright psychopathology may be negatively associated with creativity".

These correlations could be due, in part, to shared vulnerability factors between creativity and psychopathology, including neural hyper-connectivity, novelty salience, cognitive disinhibition, and emotional lability. There are also shared environmental factors that can simultaneously increase potential for creativity and vulnerability to psychopathology. These factors continue to drive further research, like the study Anxiety and Adverse Life Events in Professional Creative and Early Psychosis Populations (Crabtree et al).

Creativity and mental well-being

There is a popular Indian cultural belief that 'deep pain enhances creativity and creative acts may actually help in healing the wounds'. The healing powers of creativity are seen frequently in everyday life, as artistic outlets are often encouraged as a way to improve well-being. Creativity can have an incredible impact on mental health and well-being by not only helping people find meaning and significance, but providing an increased sense of purpose.

Notable individuals

See also: List of people with schizophrenia and List of people with bipolar disorder

This is a list of individuals whose creative sensibilities have been linked to their mental health.

• John Nash (1928–2015) was an American economist, noted for his contributions to Game Theory, which earned him a Nobel Prize in Economics.
• Joanne Greenberg (born 1932) is an American author who wrote I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (1964), an autobiographical account of her teenage years in Chestnut Lodge working with Dr. Frieda Fromm-Reichmann. At the time she was diagnosed with schizophrenia, although two psychiatrists who examined Greenberg's self-description in the book in 1981 concluded that she did not have schizophrenia, but had extreme depression and somatization disorder. The narrative constantly puts difference between the protagonist's mental illness and her artistic ability. Greenberg is adamant that her creative skills flourished in spite of, not because of, her condition:

I wrote [I Never Promised You a Rose Garden] as a way of describing mental illness without the romanticisation [sic] that it underwent in the sixties and seventies when people were taking LSD to simulate what they thought was a liberating experience. During those days, people often confused creativity with insanity. There is no creativity in madness; madness is the opposite of creativity, although people may be creative in spite of being mentally ill.

This statement from Greenberg originally appeared on the page for Rose Garden at amazon.com and has been quoted in many places including Asylum: A Mid-Century Madhouse and Its Lessons About Our Mentally Ill Today, by Enoch Callaway, M.D. (Praeger, 2007), p. 82.

• Brian Wilson (born 1942), founder of the American rock band the Beach Boys, has bipolar and schizoaffective disorder. In 2002, after undergoing treatment, he spoke of how medication affects his creativity, explaining: "I haven't been able to write anything for three years. I think I need the demons in order to write, but the demons have gone. It bothers me a lot. I've tried and tried, but I just can't seem to find a melody."
• Daniel Johnston (1961–2019) was an American singer-songwriter whose music was often attributed to his psychological issues. In a press release issued by his manager, it was requested that reporters refrain from describing Johnston as a "genius" due to the musician's emotional instabilities. The Guardian's David McNamee argued that "it's almost taboo to say anything critical about Johnston. This is incredibly patronising. For one thing, it makes any honest evaluation of his work impossible."
• Terry A. Davis (1969–2018) was an American computer programmer who singlehandedly created and designed an entire operating system, TempleOS, alongside full 2D and 3D graphics libraries, a programming language (HolyC) and a compiler. Although his remarks were often incomprehensible or abrasive, he was known to be exceptionally lucid if the topic of discussion was computers. He refused medication for his schizophrenia because he believed it limited his creativity. In 2017, the OS was shown as a part of an outsider art exhibition in Bourgogne, France.
• Kanye West (born 1977) is an American record producer, rapper, singer, and fashion designer who has bipolar disorder. The creativity in his art and his outspoken views on different topics are sometimes attributed in part to him having bipolar disorder. West has said this on his bipolar disorder, "I can just tell you what I'm feeling at the time, and I feel a heightened connection with the universe when I'm ramping up. It is a health issue. This — it's like a sprained brain, like having a sprained ankle. And if someone has a sprained ankle, you're not going to push on him more. With us, once our brain gets to a point of spraining, people do everything to make it worse."

Mood (psychology)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mood_(psychology)

In psychology, a mood is an affective state. In contrast to emotions or feelings, moods are less specific, less intense and less likely to be provoked or instantiated by a particular stimulus or event. Moods are typically described as having either a positive or negative valence. In other words, people usually talk about being in a good mood or a bad mood. There are many different factors that influence mood, and these can lead to positive or negative effects on mood.

Mood also differs from temperament or personality traits which are even longer-lasting. Nevertheless, personality traits such as optimism and neuroticism predispose certain types of moods. Long term disturbances of mood such as clinical depression and bipolar disorder are considered mood disorders. Mood is an internal, subjective state but it often can be inferred from posture and other behaviors. "We can be sent into a mood by an unexpected event, from the happiness of seeing an old friend to the anger of discovering betrayal by a partner. We may also just fall into a mood."

Etymology

Etymologically, the word mood derives from the Old English mōd which denoted military courage, but could also refer to a person's humor, temper, or disposition at a particular time. The cognate Gothic mōds translates both θυμός "mood, spiritedness" and ὀργή "anger".

The English word "mood" which means emotional condition or state of mind was originally derived from the Proto-Germanic root "moda-".

Types of mood

Positive mood

Positive mood can be caused by many different aspects of life as well as have certain effects on people as a whole. Good mood is usually considered a state without an identified cause; people cannot pinpoint exactly why they are in a good mood. People seem to experience a positive mood when they have a clean slate, have had a good night sleep, and feel no sense of stress in their life.

There have been many studies done on the effect of positive emotion on the cognitive mind and there is speculation that positive mood can affect our minds in good or bad ways. Generally, positive mood has been found to enhance creative problem solving and flexible yet careful thinking. Some studies have stated that positive moods let people think creatively, freely, and be more imaginative. Positive mood can also help individuals in situations in which heavy thinking and brainstorming is involved. In one experiment, individuals who were induced with a positive mood enhanced performance on the Remote Associates Task (RAT), a cognitive task that requires creative problem solving. Moreover, the study also suggests that being in a positive mood broadens or expands the breadth of attentional selection such that information that may be useful to the task at hand becomes more accessible for use. Consequently, greater accessibility of relevant information facilitates successful problem solving. Positive mood also facilitates resistance to temptations, especially with regards to unhealthy food choices. Interpersonal relationships have also been shown to have an effect on maintaining a positive mood. Social activities correlate with positive mood as well indicating that social interactions with people may increase an individual's positive mood. Therefore, people that are isolated from society or in the out-group may have a more negative mood than individuals that have a strong social circle.

Positive mood has also been proven to show negative effects on cognition as well. According to the article "Positive mood is associated with implicit use of distraction", "There is also evidence that individuals in positive moods show disrupted performance, at least when distracting information is present". The article states that other things in their peripheral views can easily distract people who are in good moods; an example of this would be if you were trying to study in the library (considering you are in a positive mood) you see people constantly walking around or making small noises. The study is basically stating that it would be harder for positive moods to focus on the task at hand. In particular, happy people may be more sensitive to the hedonic consequences of message processing than sad people. Thus, positive moods are predicted to lead to decreased processing only when thinking about the message is mood threatening. In comparison, if message processing allows a person to maintain or enhance a pleasant state then positive moods need not lead to lower levels of message scrutiny than negative moods. It is assumed that initial information regarding the source either confirms or disconfirms mood-congruent expectations. Specifically, a positive mood may lead to more positive expectations concerning source trustworthiness or likability than a negative mood. As a consequence, people in a positive mood should be more surprised when they encounter an untrustworthy or dislikable source rather than a trustworthy or likable source.

Visual Representation of Commonly Experienced Moods

Negative mood

Like positive moods, negative moods have important implications for human mental and physical wellbeing. Moods are basic psychological states that can occur as a reaction to an event or can surface for no apparent external cause. Since there is no intentional object that causes the negative mood, it has no specific start and stop date. It can last for hours, days, weeks, or longer. Negative moods can manipulate how individuals interpret and translate the world around them, and can also direct their behavior.

Negative moods can affect an individual's judgment and perception of objects and events. In a study done by Niedenthal and Setterland (1994), research showed that individuals are tuned to perceive things that are congruent with their current mood. Negative moods, mostly low-intense, can control how humans perceive emotion-congruent objects and events. For example, Niedenthal and Setterland used music to induce positive and negative moods. Sad music was used as a stimulus to induce negative moods, and participants labeled other things as negative. This proves that people's current moods tend to affect their judgments and perceptions. These negative moods may lead to problems in social relationships. For example, one maladaptive negative mood regulation is an overactive strategy in which individuals over dramatize their negative feelings in order to provoke support and feedback from others and to guarantee their availability. A second type of maladaptive negative mood regulation is a disabling strategy in which individuals suppress their negative feelings and distance themselves from others in order to avoid frustrations and anxiety caused by others' unavailability.

Negative moods have been connected with depression, anxiety, aggression, poor self-esteem, physiological stress and decrease in sexual arousal. In some individuals, there is evidence that depressed or anxious mood may increase sexual interest or arousal. In general, men were more likely than women to report increased sexual drive during negative mood states. Negative moods are labeled as nonconstructive because it can affect a person's ability to process information; making them focus solely on the sender of a message, while people in positive moods will pay more attention to both the sender and the context of a message. This can lead to problems in social relationships with others.

Negative moods, such as anxiety, often lead individuals to misinterpret physical symptoms. According to Jerry Suls, a professor at the University of Iowa, people who are depressed and anxious tend to be in rumination. However, although an individual's affective states can influence the somatic changes, these individuals are not hypochondriacs.

Although negative moods are generally characterized as bad, not all negative moods are necessarily damaging. The Negative State Relief Model states that human beings have an innate drive to reduce negative moods. People can reduce their negative moods by engaging in any mood-elevating behavior (called Mood repair strategies), such as helping behavior, as it is paired with positive value such as smiles and thank you. Thus negative mood increases helpfulness because helping others can reduce one's own bad feelings.

Factors which affect mood

See also: Homeostasis

Lack of sleep

Sleep has a complex, and as yet not fully elucidated, relationship with mood. Most commonly if a person is sleep deprived he/she will become more irritable, angry, more prone to stress, and less energized throughout the day. "Studies have shown that even partial sleep deprivation has a significant effect on mood. University of Pennsylvania researchers found that subjects who were limited to only 4.5 hours of sleep a night for one week reported feeling more stressed, angry, sad, and mentally exhausted. When the subjects resumed normal sleep, they reported a dramatic improvement in mood." Generally, evening oriented people, as compared to morning ones, show decreased energy and pleasantness and heightened tension.

However, in a subset of cases sleep deprivation can, paradoxically, lead to increased energy and alertness and enhanced mood. This effect is most marked in persons with an eveningness type (so called night-owls) and people suffering from depression. For this reason it has sometimes been used as a treatment for major depressive disorder.

Environment

Nature can also have a positive effect on mood. Studies have shown that exposure to natural environments increases positive affect and decreases negative affect, meaning that your mood is often better when in a nature setting. An example of this is how direct exposure to sunlight has been proven to improve mood and has been used to treat symptoms of depression. Further, walking outdoors as opposed to walking indoors made individuals much happier, which additionally illustrates that nature has a positive effect on our mood. While nature often improves our mood, it can worsen it as well. There is a common mood disorder called Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) that often occurs during the winter months when there is less daylight and it is colder outside. SAD is characterized by depressed mood, increased appetite, and increased sleep. This displays how an individual's mood can be negatively effected by nature as well. Studies have also shown that depending on the season, temperature can regulate mood.

Nutrition

Traditional dietary patterns characterized by vegetables, fruit, meat, fish, and whole grains, as opposed to a western pattern diet characterized by processed foods, refined grains, sugary products, and beer were associated with lower odds for major depression or dysthymia (mood disorder) and for anxiety disorders in women. Red meat is found to be protective against mood and anxiety disorders. Fruits and vegetables are associated with positive mood, independent of demographic or lifestyle factors. Research indicates that alcohol and energy drinks are associated with mood changes.

Facial expression

Research studies indicate that voluntary facial expressions, such as smiling, can produce effects on the body that are similar to those that result from the actual emotion, such as happiness. Paul Ekman and his colleagues studied facial expressions of emotions and linked specific emotions to the movement of corresponding facial muscles. Each basic emotion is associated with a distinctive facial expression, due to feedback from the expression that contributes to the emotional feeling. Ekman found that these expressions of emotion are universal and recognizable across widely divergent cultures.

Hormones

Hormones, which change with age, can also determine what type of mood someone is and how well they are able to regulate their moods.

Mood disorders

Main article: Mood disorder

Depression, chronic stress, bipolar disorder, etc. are considered mood disorders. It has been suggested that such disorders result from chemical imbalances in the brain's neurotransmitters, however some research challenges this hypothesis.

Social mood

The idea of social mood as a "collectively shared state of mind" (Nofsinger 2005; Olson 2006) is attributed to Robert Prechter and his socionomics. The notion is used primarily in the field of economics (investments).

In sociology, philosophy, and psychology, crowd behavior is the formation of a common mood directed toward an object of attention.