Effects of Mood and School Related Stress on Academic Performance: A Mood Induction Investigation

Abstract

This experimental research has been designed to explore the impact of visual cues (visual clips) of school stress on student’s mood and academic performance. It was aimed at investigating the relation between positive guided imagery and negative mood. Participants in the study included 90 boys and 95 girls (N = 185) with the age range of 10-14 years. The sample was randomly selected from different public and private schools of Multan and Bahawalpur. They were randomly assigned to two groups: Group 1 had negative Mood Induction Procedure (MIP) only; group 2 was treated with negative mood induction procedure which was followed by a Positive Guided Imagery (PGI). Students completed demographic sheet and School Situation Survey (Helms & Gablem, 1989) prior to experimentation. The results revealed that academic performance decreases after negative mood induction but not after positive guided imagery. Both groups showed insignificant difference at pre and post-induction 1 level, while a significant difference was found between both groups at post induction phase 2.