Tag Archives: psychology

Can Weather Affect Our Moods?

Posted on March 26, 2019 by | 3 comments

You wake up in the morning and get dressed for the day. But the sky’s overcast and you can’t even get a glimpse of the sun. It’s already pouring outside and you utter to yourself, “This day’s off to a great start.”

Picture of a Rainy Day; Source: Max Pixel

Living in a city like Vancouver, where it rains for nearly half the year, you may start to wonder whether the weather actually has an effect on your mood. Is this merely a myth? Or does the idea have some merit to it?

From this paper published in 2011, the researchers came to the conclusion that it depends. Their results show that some people’s state of mind can be influenced by the weather. While for others, there was little to no effect.

They quantified this influence by focusing on three distinct mood indicators: happiness, anxiety, and anger. To measure this, the Internet version of the Electronic Mood Device, the Daily Mood Scale was used. Klimstra, et al. defined four groups of people – each affected differently by weather. They labelled these groups as: Summer Lovers (SL), Unaffected (UA), Summer Haters (SH), and Rain Haters (RH).

Graph Showing percentage of each type of individual; adapted from Klimstra, et al.

From their results, they found that nearly half of the individuals tested were in the UA group – meaning that the weather’s influence was minimal. As suggested by the writers of the paper, this could explain why previous studies concluded that the weather had an insignificant effect. However, the rest of the participants displayed changes in happiness, anxiety, and anger in the weather conditions that were tested – weather did have an effect on them.

Correlation results from their study. Source: Klimstra, et al.

The table above shows the correlation between sunshine, temperature, and precipitation and their effects on the mood indicators. Positive numbers indicate a positive correlation, whereas negative numbers indicate the opposite. The correlation ranges from -1 to +1; a number closer to the extremities (±1) indicates a stronger link. The number of people (of each group) is indicated by n. The probability value (p) represents how statistically significant the results are – the smaller the p-value, the higher the level of significance.

Summer day in Biei, Hokkaido, Japan. Source: Reginald Pentinio

You can see why they decided on these labels for each group. For example, individuals of the Summer Lover group were characterized as being happier, being less anxious, and being less angry on higher temperature and sunny days. However, precipitation caused reduced levels of happiness and increased levels of anxiety and anger.

It’s safe to say that the weather does have an effect on at least half of us.

This blog post’s focus was mainly on the study by Dr. Klimstra. The following video mentions some other ways the weather can affect us.

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The Link Between Stress and Technology

Posted on March 6, 2019 by | 3 comments
Whether it is stress over a failed exam, or feeling stress when put in a new environment, we have all experienced stress before and know that being stressed is not a good feeling.

Figure 1. Participants rate their stress level on a scale of 1-10, where 1 equals “little or no stress” and 10 means you have “a great deal of stress”. Photo source: American Psychological Association

Although stress usually has a bad connotation associated with it, there is also positive stress. For example, positive stress can motivate you and help you complete tasks more efficiently. However, high levels of stress can lead to anxiety, depression, high blood pressure, and other chronic illnesses. Stress levels found in humans have increased drastically over the years and may be a concern to a high percentage of the human population. There are many factors that can explain the increase in stress over the generations, but let’s focus on one that we are all familiar with: technology.

Could the increase in stress over the years be linked to technology use?

Let’s first look at smartphone ownership over the recent years.  In 1992, the first smartphone, the Simon Personal Communicator by IBM, was introduced and 15 years later, the first iphone was produced. The popularity did not start immediately and only began increasing around 2011, where approximately 35% of U.S. adults owned a smartphone. The percentage quickly ascended over the next 6 years to 77%. With more advances in technology, people are now overly dependent on their smartphones. But, who can blame us for being overly dependent on our smartphones? Not only can it take high quality videos/photos, but you can even pay with smartphones nowadays – it’s all just one tap away.

                             Figure 1. Smartphone Ownership                                Adapted from: Pew Research Center – Internet & Technology

So, what evidence is there that proves that technology adds stress to our lives? Well, sleeping patterns can be easily affected by technology, one second you’re getting ready for bed, and the next second you are asking your friends whether the dress is black and blue, or white and gold and then you realize it’s way past your bedtime. The constant distractions our smartphones present make us less efficient when completing tasks as simple as going to bed at an appropriate time.

Image result for blue light screens

Photo source: Lifewire

Furthermore, the blue light emitted from our phone screens can reduce melatonin production, which reduces your sleep quality. When sleep quality is reduced, one then becomes less resilient and stress levels and anxiety increase.

In conclusion, it is evident that the accessibility and convenience of technology can negatively affect our living qualities by causing stress levels to rise. As stated above, sleep is easily affected by technology use and sleep is crucial for out bodies to function properly. Therefore, although technology can be very handy, one should be aware of the effects of technology on your stress levels.

Watch the following video for more information on the effects of technology:

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