Planning, mood, and place-liking

Abstract

A person's response to an environment cannot be completely understood within a strict stimulus-response framework. The response sometimes depends, for example, on the person's plans and expectations, often partially or wholly formed before encountering that environment. This article reports three studies designed to explore just such influences on affective responses. Having to plan is itself shown to alter mood. Carrying out one's own plan is shown to be more pleasant than doing the same thing dictated by someone else's plan. A more subtle relationship among plans, expectations, and affect is also shown: liking for a place and positiveness of mood experienced there can, in certain circumstances, be enhanced by a previous violation of expectations and by an environment that had, temporarily, prevented execution of a plan.