Green Lab

Psychology Department

Affect and the Self

My research on affect includes work on the how different affective states increase or decrease self-focused attention. More recently, I have looked at the links between self-focus and the states of gratitude and indebtedness (Mathews & Green, 2010). More broadly, I have looked at some of the more unexpected (e.g., mood incongruent) ways in which affective states affect self-judgments, employing the mood as input theory (Martin et al., 1997). Most recently, I have investigated how individuals use righteous anger for self-enhancement purposes, and how individuals may prefer to stay in negative affective states rather than take advantages of opportunities to get into a positive affective state.

Martin, L. L., Abend, T. A., Sedikides, C., & Green, J. D. (1997). How would I feel if...? Mood as input to a role fulfillment process. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72, 242-253. 

Green, J. D., & Sedikides, C. (1999). Affect and self-focused attention revisited: The role of affect orientation. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 25, 104-119. 

Sedikides, C., & Green, J. D. (2000). The rocky road from affect to attentional focus. In H. Bless & J. P. Forgas (Eds.), The message within: The role of subjective experience in social cognition and behavior. Philadelphia, PA: Psychology Press. 

Sedikides, C., & Green, J. D. (2001). Affective influences on the self-concept: Qualifying the mood congruency principle. In J. P. Forgas (Ed.), The handbook of affect and social cognition (pp. 145-160). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. 

Green, J. D., Sedikides, C., Saltzberg, J. A., Wood, J. V., & Forzano, L. (2003). Happy mood decreases self-focused attention. British Journal of Social Psychology, 42, 147-157. 

Mathews, M., & Green, J. D. (2010). Looking at me, appreciating you: Self-focused attention distinguishes between gratitude and indebtedness. Cognition and Emotion, 24, 710-718. 

Green, J. D., Sedikides, C., Barber, J., Van Tongeren, D. R., Takahashi, M., & Nguyen, U. (under review). Anger and moral grandiosity.