For a long time, the weather has been regarded to affect the daily moods of individuals. There is a general belief among many people that individual moods are enhanced by warm and sunny weather seasons, which is always regarded as nice days. On the other hand, people do believe that moods are lowered by cold and cloudy days. Therefore, according to many studies, there is a relationship between human moods and weather and the relationship affects their daily activities, behaviors, and action. Variation in weather affects people emotionally and physically. Therefore, the paper is mainly about the relationship between weather and individual moods, and it includes a survey that was conducted among 30 participants.
Effects of Weather on Individual Moods
Past studies have proved that weather significantly affect individual moods. According to the study that was carried out by Howarth and Hoffman in 1984, humidity is associated with sleepiness, as elevated humidity cause increases the rate of sleepiness (Scott, 2014). The findings were supported by studies that were carried out by researchers such as Goldstein (1972) and Sander (1982) who found that human activities and humidity are inversely related (Scott, 2014). Humidity is also the main predictor of potency, which is a measure of self-confidence and self-assurance (Denissen et al., 2008). Human concentration is also negatively affected by high level of humidity while it is elevated by high levels of sunshine and temperature. Humidity has been found to make an individual more tired and irritated. Studies have also found that humidity makes people more forgetful. Humidity impairs short term memory of individuals.
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In addition, high humidity makes people more lethargic, as research has found that the higher the humidity, the lower the energy level of individuals. Cold temperatures lower sensory feedbacks, blood flow, and muscles strength, which affect the performance of complex physical tasks. Consequently, cold temperature leads to physical lethargy (Park et al., 2013). Besides, high level of humidity makes people less anxious because it weakens the alertness. Humidity also leads to a decrease in negative sentiments. Therefore, humidity is always associated with bad weather and it negatively affects moods of various people.
Sunny and high temperature also affect individual moods. According to the analysis that was done by Schwarz and Clore in 1983, sunny season increases momentary happiness and it also enhances individual life satisfaction (Scott, 2014). The same study found that clear weather leads to happiness and more life satisfaction. Sunshine also significantly increases optimism among people. An increase in the hour of sunshine increases optimism among many people (Bassi, 2013). High level of sunshine is also associated with high moods, enhanced memory, and increased cognitive style.
Biologically, the sunshine makes the human body produce Vitamin D, which increases the production of serotonin, the hormone that affects human moods, sleep, and sexual desires in the brain (Li, Wang & Hovy, 2014). An increase in serotonin in the brain helps in lifting mood and it makes people feel better. This explains why people who are affected with seasonal affective disorder (SAD) during winter are exposed to sunlight to boost their moods. When the body is exposed to less sunlight, it produces more melatonin, the hormone that makes people feel sleepy. In order to reduce the negative effects of SAD, people should keep on their bedroom light, especially in morning hours before they wake up to give the brain the illusion of a sunrise.
Nevertheless, excess exposure to the sunshine leads to discomfort because it affects the ability of the body to thermoragulate. Consequently, excess sunshine causes irritability and high level of aggression. As the body strives to thermoregulate, it uses a lot of glucose. Since glucose is required for mental processes, excessive heat reduces the cognitive functioning of the brain, which ends up affecting the decision making. Recent research found that even small variance in temperature impairs the cognitive ability of individuals and the ability to make good decisions (Allahverdijev et al., 2001). Therefore, high temperature negatively affects the alertness and concentration of human beings, including decision-making. In contrary, cold weather increases the cognitive ability of the brain. Since one of the primary functions of the brain is to regulate body temperature, the brain uses less glucose and energy in cold weather, which enhanced the cognitive ability of the brain (Lee, Gino & Staats, 2014).
However, the relationship between sunshine and mood can also be psychologically and socially explained. For instance, the reason why high temperature is associated with increased aggression is because it increases the interaction between people. In addition, the study that was carried out by Matthew Keller and his colleagues found that the positive effects of sunny and warm weather that elevate mood is only possible when a person has spent at least 30 minutes outdoors on a day (Spasova, 2012). At the same time, spending more time outdoors improves memory and enhances creativity. According to the study that was carried out by the University of Michigan in 2004, people who spend more time during pleasant weather experience improved moods, memory, and creativity thought (Kööts, Realo & Allik, 2011). Spending time outside also increases openness and access to new information that also leads to creativity.
Additionally, change in weather can affect behaviors of individuals due to changes in moods. Interestingly, some studies have found that sunlight makes people spend more money because they feel more positive (Murray et al., 2010). On the other hand, rain can make people eat more. Rainy days make serotonin level in the body to dip, leading to increased craving for carbohydrates. People eat more during rainy seasons because carbohydrates make depressed persons feel better because it increases the production of serotonin in the brain. However, the positive feeling is short-lived.
Survey
In order to get primary data, a survey was conducted among 30 participants in order to determine the connection between weather and moods. The participants were students and 18 of them were boys and 12 girls. Questionnaires were used to collect data from the participants. The following ten questions were contained in the questionnaire and each participant was required to answer them based on their experience.
How do you feel during the rainy season?
How do you feel during the sunny season?
What is your level of concentration during the sunny season?
What is your level of concentration during the sunny season?
Do you feel sleepy or tired during the humid season:
How do you feel when you are indoors and outdoors?
Are you able to make good decisions during high temperature or cold temperature?
Do you feel aggressive during cold or hot weather?
How do you rate your level of self-esteem during cold weather?
How do you rate your level of self-esteem in a high temperature day?
The results of the survey were almost similar to those contained in the secondary data in the paper. According to the feeling of participants during the rainy and sunny season, 92% of the participants stated that they feel bored during the rainy and humid season while another 87% agreed that they feel that they feel elevated and happy during the sunshine. At the same time, 64% of the participants stated they feel irritated during the extreme sunny season. The majority of the participants, 58%, stated that they concentrate more on their studies during the cold season. However, 30% of respondents were indifferent on whether they concentrate more during cold weather or in high temperature weather. The survey also found that 72% of participants feel sleepier during cold season than during hot seasons. 68% of the participants agreed that they feel happier and more elevated when they spend their time outdoor than when they are indoors. In terms of decision-making, the majority of the participants stated they make better decisions when the weather is humid. In addition, 51% of the participants stated that they experience high self-esteem in hot weather than in cold weather.
Changes in weather seasons affect moods. Sunshine and temperature are mainly associated with good moods because they activate the human body, making it to function better. However, the excess temperature can affect the cognitive function of the brain, leading to poor decision-making. In the contrary, humidity and cold negatively affect moods of many people and they hamper human activities. There are biological, social, and psychological explanations of the relationship between weather and moods. People should be aware of the effects of weather on moods in order to adjust accordingly.
References
Allahverdijev, A. R., Babayev, E. S., Khalilov, E. N., & Gahramanova, N. N. (2001, November). Possible space weather influences on the functional activity of the human brain. Proc. Space Weather Workshop: Looking towards a European Space Weather Programme , 17-19.
Bassi, A. (2013). Weather, Mood, and Voting: An Experimental Analysis of the Effect of Weather beyond Turnout . Retrieved from http://www.unc.edu/~abassi/Research/weather-mood-voting.pdf
Denissen, J. J., Butalid, L., Penke, L., & Van Aken, M. A. (2008). The effects of weather on daily mood: A multilevel approach. Emotion , 8 (5), 662-668
Kööts, L., Realo, A., & Allik, J. (2011). The influence of the weather on affective experience. Journal of individual difference, 32(2), 74-84.
Lee, J. J., Gino, F., & Staats, B. R. (2014). Rainmakers: Why bad weather means good productivity. Journal of Applied Psychology , 99 (3), 1-34.
Li, J., Wang, X., & Hovy, E. (2014, November). What a nasty day: Exploring mood-weather relationship from twitter. In Proceedings of the 23rd ACM International Conference on Conference on Information and Knowledge Management . ACM, 1309-1318.
Murray, K. B., Di Muro, F., Finn, A., & Leszczyc, P. P. (2010). The effect of weather on consumer spending. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services , 17 (6), 512-520.
Park, K., Lee, S., Kim, E., Park, M., Park, J., & Cha, M. (2013, June). Mood and Weather: Feeling the Heat? South Korea, Graduate School of Culture Technology.
Scott, J. M. (2014). The Impact of Weather Conditions on Mood Variability in Geographically Relocated Versus Non-Relocated Individuals. Journal of Undergraduate Research. Mankat, Minnesota State University , 7 (1), 1-32.
Spasova, Z. (2012). The effect of weather and its changes on emotional state–individual characteristics that make us vulnerable. Advances in Science and Research , 6 (1), 281- 290.
