In the Mood

What is the purpose of In the Mood?

Mood has been shown to be an important variable in a variety of performance environments. Indeed, mood management is increasingly being recognised as fundamental to many of our common daily activities. Whether you're preparing for an important sales pitch, a presentation, an important examination, a sporting competition, or any other type of performance, mood plays an important role in these situations. As such, getting in the right mood may be seen as a crucial part of mental preparation before an important performance.

The purpose of this website is to provide a platform for an online mood assessment that is capable of interpreting mood responses. This assessment is based on the Brunel Mood Scale (BRUMS) that was developed to provide a quick assessment of mood states among adolescent and adult populations. For more information about the BRUMS, please click on the about the measure tab. More importantly, this website provides effective mood regulation strategies based on the pattern of completed responses in the BRUMS. These mood regulation strategies are designed to get you in the right mood to facilitate performance as you prepare for that important task ahead.

About The Brunel Mood Scale (BRUMS)

The Brunel Mood Scale (BRUMS; Terry et al., 1999, 2003) was developed to provide a quick assessment of mood states for adolescents and adults. The BRUMS is derived from the Profile of Mood States.
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Reference:

McNair, D. M., Lorr, M., & Droppelman, L. F. (1971). Manual for the Profile of Mood States. San Diego: Educational and Industrial Testing Services.
It is a 24-item questionnaire of simple mood descriptors such as angry, nervous, unhappy, and energetic. The BRUMS has six subscales, with each of the subscales containing four mood descriptors. The subscales are anger, confusion, depression, fatigue, tension, and vigour.

Respondents indicate the extent to which they have experienced the feelings described by the 24 mood descriptors. Responses are recorded using a 5-point Likert scale, where ‘0’ = ‘Not at all’, ‘1’ = ‘A little’, ‘2’ = ‘Moderately’, 3 = ‘Quite a bit’, and ‘4’ = ‘Extremely’. The standard reference timeframe used is “How you feel right now”, although a variety of other reference time periods can be used. The BRUMS has been shown to be a valid and reliable measure of mood in several scientific studies. The average completion time of the BRUMS is 1 to 2 minutes.


References:

Terry, P. C., Lane, A. M., & Fogarty, G. J. (2003). Construct validity of the POMS-A for use with adults. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 4, 125-139.

Terry, P. C., Lane, A. M., Lane, H. J., & Keohane, L. (1999). Development and validation of a mood measure for adolescents. Journal of Sports Sciences, 17, 861-872.


About the Authors

Dr Peter Terry, PhD FAPS FASMF FBASES, is Professor of Psychology, Dean of the Graduate Research School, and Acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research & Innovation) at the University of Southern Queensland in Australia. He is a registered psychologist and formerly Psychology Coordinator at the Queensland Academy of Sport. Over the past 35 years he has provided psychological support to more than 1,000 international and professional performers, including a host of Olympic medallists. He has worked as a sport psychologist at nine Olympic Games and more than 100 other international events.

Peter is author of over 250 publications, including six books, 24 book chapters, and 70 peer-reviewed journal articles. His free e-book, Secrets of Asian Sport Psychology, was the world’s first text on sport psychology published under an Open Access licence. He is a former President of the Asian-South Pacific Association of Sport Psychology (ASPASP), a Fellow of the Australian Psychological Society (APS), the Australian Sport Medicine Federation (ASMF), the British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences (BASES), and an Overseas Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine. He served as President of the APS College of Sport Psychologists from 2002-2006, and was the 2011 recipient of the APS Colleges Award of Distinction.

In the distant past, Peter played sport at representative level in rugby, soccer and track and field, competed in the national bobsled championships, and ran a three-hour marathon. He has now migrated to golf and tennis, both of which he admits to playing badly.

Dr Julian Lim, DPsych MAPS, completed postgraduate studies in Clinical Psychology at the University of Southern Queensland and is currently in private practice. His sole passion in life (outside of psychology) is soccer, a sport that he plays on a regular basis (both competitively and socially). Unlike Peter, Julian shamelessly admits to playing soccer relatively well, razzling and dazzling his opponents on the field (or so he likes to believe!). He is an avid and lifelong supporter of Liverpool Football Club, and it gives him great pleasure to see them challenging for major trophies once again.

Dr Renée Parsons-Smith, PhD MAPS, is currently completing a Bachelor of Science with a major in Human Physiology at the University of Southern Queensland to increase her knowledge in her area of interest, Biopsychology. In terms of academic roles, Renee teaches various undergraduate psychology courses according to diverse teaching models (i.e., online and face-to-face modalities) at different universities. She is also a published researcher in the area of mood, with her research predominately focusing on online mood profiling and potential positive and negative impacts on performance. In terms of sport-related hobbies, Renée enjoys more solitary activities such as jogging and scuba diving.

Further Reading

Augustine, A. A., & Hemenover, S. H. (2009). On the relative effectiveness of affect regulation strategies: A meta-analysis. Cognition and Emotion, 23(6), 1181-1220. download copy of this article in PDF


Chan, M. (2011). Fatigue: The most critical accident risk in oil and gas construction. Construction Management and Economics, 29, 341-353. download copy of this article in PDF


McNair, D. M., Lorr, M., & Droppelman, L. F. (1971). Manual for the Profile of Mood States. San Diego: Educational and Industrial Testing Services.


Neal, A., & Griffin, M. A. (2006). A study of the lagged relationships among safety climate, safety motivation, safety behavior, and accidents at the individual and group levels. Journal of Applied Psychology, 91, 946-953. download copy of this article in PDF


Parkinson, B., & Totterdell, P. (1999). Classifying affect regulation strategies. Cognition and Emotion, 13(3), 277-303. download copy of this article in PDF


Terry, P. C., Dinsdale, S. L., Karageorghis, C. I., & Lane, A. M. (2006). Use and perceived effectiveness of pre-competition mood regulation strategies among athletes. In Katsikitis, M. (Ed.), Proceedings of the 2006 Joint Conference of the Australian Psychological Society and the New Zealand Psychological Society: Psychology Bridging the Tasman: Science, Culture and Practice (pp. 420-424). Melbourne, Australia: Australian Psychological Society. download copy of this article in PDF


Terry, P. C., Lane, A. M., & Fogarty, G. J. (2003). Construct Validity of the POMS-A for use with adults. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 4, 125-139. download copy of this article in PDF


Terry, P. C., Lane, A. M., Lane, H. J., & Keohane, L. (1999). Development and validation of a mood measure for adolescents. Journal of Sports Sciences, 17, 861-872. Download copy of this article in PDF