‘’How does weather affect one’s mood?’’From a very old age weather was a factor affecting not only one’s mood but most importantly one’s survival. Weather affected the food available to eat, if there was any food, the water available to drink, the shelter and warmth one needed in order to not freeze to death, and pretty much all else affecting one’s survival. Now with electricity things have become much easier and weather is no longer a matter of life and death, but still, the extent to which it affects one’s mood (if it actually does) remains unclear to most people.
As psychology is the science of why people behave as they do, it would be a natural assumption to think that many psychologists have studied weather and how it affects one’s behavior, but the truth is only a very few have and even those few studies that do exist are conflicting with one another. Some claim that weather has an impact on one’s mood, others that it is other factors affecting one’s mood and behavior, and the weather has nothing to do with it, and thirds believe it does affect each person differently, meaning that some might be affected and others may not. Of course, there is also the biological perspective, observing how different weather aspects like sunshine or cold temperatures affect one’s body and thus one’s mind, emotions, behavior, and mood.
A reason for the very small number of studies that have been conducted is that weather is very difficult to operationalize and it is impossible to control it in order to mark out other variables thus having controlled experiments. Correlations might be found but causation is almost impossible. Another huge limiting factor is that one weather factor, for example, sunshine always comes together with multiple others, for example, hot or cold temperature, dry or wet climate, etc. When it rains there are also clouds meaning there is no sunshine. If a study concludes that rainy weather increases the probability of becoming depressed, is it really the rain that causes that or is it the lack of sunshine, the humidity, or the time one spends inside his house and thus feeling more alone and isolated? Using the help of multiple university studies and articles including Jaap Denissen et al (2008), Klimstra et al and more, and the books: The Psychology of Weather,.... this essay will try to examine the relationship between weather and mood, contributing to a greater understanding of how the two variables affect each other and finally reaching a solid, balanced conclusion.
Correlation
The first view on the subject is that there is a correlation between weather and mood no matter if that means that one is happy, sad or angry in winter, summer, autumn or any other emotions induced by the season of the year. The season of the year affects one’s mood whether there is a positive or negative change.
Most people believe that when the sun is shining and the sky is blue happiness is only natural to happen and as a consequence when it is dull and damp it is also natural to be miserable and sad. This is also seen in all kinds of art as symbolism. It can be found in the Johnny Cash song ‘’you Are My Sunshine’’ making a metaphor of a woman who he loves and who makes him as happy and joyful as sunshine and not rain for example or Edvard Munch who in order to express the grief and loss he felt in his paintings he always used threatening skies.
The largest recent study was conducted by Jaap Denissen and his colleagues in Berlin in 2008. This study was important because it used a very large sample of participants (over 1,200) linked to local weather station data and used a sophisticated statistical analysis.
The study looked at the effects of the weather on affect – mood – and levels of tiredness. Participants kept a diary tracking these variables. The results showed that the principal meteorological variables that affect us are the amount of sunlight, wind and temperature. Low mood was related to temperature, the amount of sunshine, and the strength of the wind; tiredness was related to sunshine. There were also effects of whether it was raining and of atmospheric pressure, but the sophisticated statistical analysis showed that these were primarily due to the amount of sunshine (it’s not sunny when it’s raining and tends to be sunny when pressure is high). Although findings showed an existing correlation it was a really small one consistent with the findings of Keller et al. (2005) and Watson (2000)
Strengths: The study lasted for an 18-month period, spanning all seasons leading to increased validity of the results.
It also had a very large population (over 1,200) making it easier to generalize the results.
Limitations: Selection bias (e.g., unequal gender distribution) was a result of the voluntary participation of the study. Furthermore, the relationship between weather and mood was only tested in the country that the study took place in (Germany) making it difficult to generalize for all climates. In addition, the time that participants spent outside was not taken into consideration which is known to be an important moderator of the effect of weather on mood.
Several other studies have found broadly consistent results, and it should be said that in line with the small effect sizes some studies failed to find any relationship at all. Similar effects are found on cognitive skills; digit span, a measure of memory, increases on nice sunny days when the pressure is climbing, particularly among people who work outdoors. The variables that appear to have the greatest effect on mood are humidity, temperature, and the hours of sunshine, but again their effects are rather specific and not always predictable.Ηigh levels of humidity seem to have a positive correlation with lower scores on measures of concentration and an increase in sleepiness. Rising temperatures seem to lower anxiety and make people less sceptical, of all things.
Keller and his colleagues (2005) examined 605 participants responses in three separate studies to examine the connection between mood states, a person’s thinking and the weather. They found that:
Pleasant weather (higher temperature or barometric pressure) was related to higher mood, better memory, and a ‘‘broadened’’ cognitive style during the spring as time spent outside increased. The same relationships between mood and weather were not observed during other times of year, and indeed hotter weather was associated with lower mood in the summer. The overall conclusion is that there are effects of weather on mood and cognition, but they’re weak and variable. What has been overlooked in all these studies is the susceptibility of human beings to biases (their own biases) and the power of the placebo effect. Many people have strong beliefs about how weather affects them when it may actually be their own mind and predisposition (which is most probably culturally transmitted) about the weather and their mood that created everything.
No correlation
Other studies show no correlation whatsoever between my two variables weather and mood. They show that there are other things affecting one’s mood and weather plays no role at all. Hardt & Gerbershagen (1999) looked at 3,000 chronic pain patients who came to a hospital over a 5-year period. The researchers had patients fill out a depression questionnaire and then analyzed the results. They found no correlation between depression and the time of the year, or the amount of daily hours of sunshine. But the researchers only examined depression, and didn’t measure how much time subjects spent outside (a factor that some have suggested might influence how much the weather impacts us).
Klimstra
Maybe the largest and most reliable study done on how weather affects mood is Klimstra’s ‘’Come Rain or Come, Shine’’
‘’There is a widespread belief that weather affects mood. However, few studies have investigated this link, and even less is known about individual differences in people's responses to the weather. In the current study, we sought to identify weather reactivity types by linking self-reported daily mood across 30 days with objective weather data. We identified four distinct types among 497 adolescents and replicated these types among their mothers. The types were labeled Summer Lovers (better mood with warmer and sunnier weather), Unaffected (weak associations between weather and mood), Summer Haters (worse mood with warmer and sunnier weather), and Rain Haters (particularly bad mood on rainy days). In addition, intergenerational concordance effects were found for two of these types, suggesting that weather reactivity may run in the family. Overall, the large individual differences in how people's moods were affected by weather reconcile the discrepancy between the generally held beliefs that weather has a substantive effect on mood and findings from previous research indicating that effects of weather on mood are limited or absent.’’
The procedure of the experiment was the following according to the original report by Klimstra et al.
‘’Participants were 497 adolescents and their mothers, enrolled in an ongoing longitudinal project in The Netherlands, entitled Research on Adolescent Development And Relationships (RADAR). They participated in six Internet measurement weeks (in June 2006, September 2006, November 2006, June 2007, September 2007, and November 2007), in which they filled out questions about their mood for five consecutive days. As such, there were 30 days of data on weather and mood. The 415 adolescents (55.7% boys) and 418 mothers who completed at least 12 days (40%) of measurements were included in the final sample. All adolescents and mothers were of Dutch Caucasian origin. Little’s Missing Completely At Random test (Little, 1988; Bollen, 1989) indicated that data was missing at random (2 (24) 39.07; p .025), suggesting that our results were not biased as a result of missing values. We focused on three distinct indicators of mood: happiness, anxiety, and anger. These were measured with the Daily Mood Scale, an Internet version of the Electronic Mood Device (Hoeksma et al., 2000), with scales for happiness (means ranging from 6.79 to 7.69), anxiety (means ranging from 1.79 to 2.37), and anger (means ranging from 1.93 to 2.42). These scales all consist of three items each. During daily Internet sessions, participants rated the intensity of happiness, anxiety, and anger on a nine-point Likert scale, ranging from “not at all” to “very much.” Reliability across measurements was satisfactory, as Cronbach’s alphas ranged from .86 to .94 for Happiness, from .72 to .92 for Anxiety, and from .87 to .95 for Anger.’’
This procedure resulted in nine q-correlations per person. Mean q-correlations across the whole sample were only small, meaning that both the mother’s and the adolescent's moods were majorly, or even minorly, affected by the weather, results similar to studies like Denissen et al., 2008 and Keller et al., 2005 mentioned above, Watson, 1988 and more. However Klimstra’s typological approach found that in actuality the ‘average individual’ who is very little or not at all affected by the weather, was only present in half of the participants of the study. The other half of the participants were affected by the weather and were thus classified into three additional weather reactivity types: Summer Lovers (better mood with more sun, higher temperatures, and less precipitation), Summer Haters (worse mood with more sun, higher temperatures, and less precipitation), and Rain Haters (particular worse mood with more hours of precipitation). The way the weather affected the summer lovers and the summer haters was exactly the opposite, leading to the conclusion that most previous studies conducted on how weather affects mood overlooked personal differences, and as summer lovers and summer haters nullify each other, the results showed a small or nonexistent correlation.
Good stuff:
The study is very reliable and valid as it is highly replicable. It had a very large number of participants consisting not only of teenagers but also of teenagers who had similar attitudes towards the weather. The difference in age and the use of both genders makes the results easier to generalize. The 3 weather reactivity types were consistent with their emotions as the summer lovers were indeed happier, more relaxed during the summer and less happy and angry during the winter. The same consistency was also found with the other 2 types.
Bad stuff:
A limitation of the study is that the data was self-reported but that is also the factor that differed this study from all of the other weather and mood studies conducted, giving more emphasis to personal differences and thus discovering how weather can affect everyone differently.
Hormones
Looking into the biological perspective of psychology weather also influences hormones and neurotransmitters. Hormones influence mood and behaviour so there is much to learn from research based on how weather influences human biology. Αs hormones have the same triggers for most of people and affect all people in the same way, they are much easier to research in relation to mood and the approach is also much more scientific and thus much more reliable.
The circadian rhythms are natural rhythms the body has to get entrained to the cycle of day and night, in order for it to know when to stay awake and when to ’switch off’ and get ready to sleep. The way these rhythms are programmed by the absence or the exposure of bright light falling on the eye. The suprachiasmatic nuclei is a part of the brain located in the front part of the hypothalamus that functions as a biological clock. It governs the timing of the switching on of the pineal gland, a pea-shaped gland hanging from the brain that produces the hormone melatonin. The increase of melatonin makes one feel less alert and more tired. As summer ends and the days get smaller and smaller, with more rain and gray clouds more and more melatonin is produced much earlier than most people would like, in working or school hours, and it is thus natural to feel more tired and sleepy much more often.
The lack of sunlight also affects the neurotransmitter serotonin, which acts as a messenger for the system that regulates mood and is secreted when feeling happy, energised and many more positive emotions, while its absence is many times the reason one is feeling sad or down. It is the neurotransmitter that is secreted in most party drugs like Mdma and ecstasy. In the beginning, creating a feeling of extreme happiness, energy and bliss, as too much serotonin is produced. When the drug wears off so much serotonin has been used in such a short time, that in order for the body to regenerate the original serotonin levels it might take weeks causing a person to feel down and out for days after. The same goes for the seasons. As summertime starts to fade out so does the excess secretion of serotonin, which might be another reason why summer is symbolized as happiness and winter as a bit more dim and sad. Lastly, as serotonin decreases, carbohydrate cravings increase. Excessive carbohydrate consumption promotes production of the amino acid tryptophan, which increases tiredness, thereby lowering concentration.
The human body is designed to get the vitamin D it needs by producing it when bare skin is exposed to sunlight. Having enough vitamin D is important for maintaining healthy teeth and bones. However, Vitamin D has also been found to change serotonin levels in the brain, thus with less sunlight there is also less Vitamin D produced, lower levels of serotonin leading to ‘’negative’’ mood and tiredness.