The Effect of Induced Mood on Children’ s Social Information Processing: Goal Clarification and Response Decision Bridgette D. Harper & Elizabeth A. Lemerise & Sarah L. Caverly Published online: 10 September 2009 # Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2009 Abstract We investigated whether induced mood influ- enced the social information processing steps of goal clarification and response decision in 480 1st–3rd graders, and in more selected groups of low accepted-aggressive (n =39), average accepted-nonaggressive (n =103), and high accepted-nonaggressive children (n =68). Children partici- pated in two sessions; in the first session peer assessments were administered. In the second session children were randomly assigned to receive either a happy, angry, or neutral mood induction prior to participating in a social cognitive interview assessing goals, outcome expectancies, and self efficacy for competent, hostile, and passive responses in the context of ambiguous provocations. Results revealed that an angry mood increased focus on instrumental goals. Low accepted-aggressive children were more susceptible to the effects of mood than were high accepted- and average-nonaggressive children. In addition, children’ s predominant goal orientation was related to children’ s response decisions; children with predominantly instrumental goals evaluated nonhostile responses to prov- ocation more negatively and had higher self efficacy for hostile responses. Implications and future research direc- tions are discussed. Keywords Social information processing . Emotions . Social goals . Outcome expectancies Three decades of research on social information processing (SIP) models of aggression and social competence have yielded reliable individual differences in children’ s social cognitive patterns that are associated with both aggression and socially competent behavior (see e.g., Crick and Dodge 1994; Mize and Pettit 2008; Pettit and Mize 2007 for reviews). However, very few studies within this tradition have examined the contributions of emotion processes to SIP, despite theoretical and empirical work which links individual differences in social competence and/or aggres- sion to aspects of emotionality, arousal, and emotion regulation (e.g., Berkowitz 1962, 1989; DiLiberto et al. 2002; Dodge 1985, 1991; Eisenberg and Fabes 1992; Eisenberg et al. 1996; Graham et al. 1992). Indeed, the SIP approach has been criticized for this omission (Gottman 1986; Lemerise and Arsenio 2000). Although anger does not inevitably lead to aggression, it has been argued that anger arousal heightens readiness to act aggressively (Averill 1982; Berkowitz 1989, 1990). Whether anger leads to aggression may depend, in part, on the individual’ s level of emotionality and his/her emotion regulation skills (Eisenberg and Fabes 1992). Individual differences in emotionality (which is considered to be an aspect of temperament) are related to how easily emotions are aroused, their intensity, and their duration and “fade time” (Rothbart and Bates 1998). Individuals also differ greatly in their capacity to regulate emotions. Emotion regulation involves modulation of the intensity, duration, and “fade-time” as well as the expression of emotions so as to maintain an adaptive level of engagement with the environment (Eisenberg and Fabes 1992). Longitudinal research has shown that preschoolers with high levels of B. D. Harper (*) Department of Psychology, Auburn University Montgomery, P.O. Box 244023, Montgomery, AL 36124, USA e-mail: bharper3@aum.edu E. A. Lemerise Western Kentucky University, Kentucky, USA e-mail: elizabeth.lemerise@wku.edu S. L. Caverly Southwest Educational Development Laboratory, Austin, USA J Abnorm Child Psychol (2010) 38:575–586 DOI 10.1007/s10802-009-9356-7