Weather is widely believed to influence people’s mood. For
example, the majority of people think they feel happier on days
with a lot of sunshine as compared to dark and rainy days.
Although this association seems to be common sense (Watson,
2000), it is striking to see that the number of studies on the
association between daily weather and mood is relatively small
(Keller et al., 2005). In studying such an association, seasonal
influences of weather must be distinguished from day-to-day influences.
This distinction becomes clearest when studying the
effect of the amount of sunlight (i.e., hours per day were a shadow
can be detected) on mood: This variable both fluctuates between
days within a single season (e.g., a sunny vs. a cloudy summer
day), but also between seasons (in the northern hemisphere, photoperiods
are longest during summer and shortest during winter,
leading to more hours/day for potential unobstructed sunlight
accumulation in summer than in winter). This distinction is important
since mood reactions to day-to-day weather fluctuations
may not generalize to reactions to seasonal weather fluctuations,
and vice versa. In studying the effects of weather on mood, several
studies have focused exclusively on individuals with seasonal
affective disorder (SAD), a condition that involves recurrent fall/
winter major depressive episodes that remit in the spring (e.g.,
Molin, Mellerup, Bolwig, Scheike, & Dam, 1996; Oren et al.,
1994; Young, Meaden, Fogg, Cherin, & Eastman, 1997). Such a
clinical condition may be an extreme manifestation of normal
variations in seasonality (defined as an individual’s degree of
seasonal variation in mood, energy level, sleep length, weight,
appetite, and social activities; Kasper, Wehr, Bartko, Garst, &
Rosenthal, 1989).
Previous studies on weather and its relation with psychological
constructs took only one or two weather parameters into account (e.g.,
Bushman, Wang, & Anderson, 2005; Keller et al., 2005). However,
it is important to examine a wide variety of weather parameters, to
be able to differentiate the effect of each parameter. For example,
temperature is often associated with sunlight. After controlling for
the parameter sunlight, the unique effect of temperature on mood
might decrease or even reverse in sign. The present study includes
a broad range of weather parameters simultaneously to study the
effects of daily weather changes. Specifically, we studied the
effect of temperature, wind power, sunlight, precipitation, air pressure,
and photoperiod on mood. Multivariate and univariate analyses
enable a distinction between unique and shared effects of
these parameters.
Mood has often been conceptualized within a circumplex structure
of affect (Feldman Barrett, 1995). In this structure, the dimensions
of valence (unpleasantness vs. pleasantness) and arousal (low
vs. high) can be distinguished. In studying people’s mood, the
PANAS mood scale (Watson, Clark & Tellegen, 1988) is frequently
used, which provides a clear and reliable measurement of
positive and negative affect. However, the PANAS general dimension
scales combine the dimension of valence with a high arousal
focus. To consider the low end of the arousal dimension, this study
also focused on tiredness as a dependent variable.
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