Essentials of Organizational Behavior, 14/e

Sources of Emotions and Moods

Have you ever said, “I got up on the wrong side of the bed today.” Have you ever snapped at a coworker or family member for no reason? If you have, you probably wonder where those emotions and moods originated. Here we discuss some of the most commonly accepted influences.

Personality

Moods and emotions have a personality trait component, meaning that some people have built-in, natural tendencies to experience certain moods and emotions more frequently than others do. People also experience the same emotions with different intensities; the degree to which they experience them is called their affect intensity.25 Affectively intense people experience both positive and negative emotions deeply: when they’re sad, they’re ...