Mood is two-dimensional, driven by distinct enthusiasm and anxiety systems in the brain.

Evidence

It is now widely understood that the human brain’s limbic system has two subsystems, each of which generates distinctive emotional responses (Eccles, 1989; Fonberg, 1986; Gray, 1981, 1987a, 1987b). One subsystem generates emotions that fall in the class of excitement, elation, and enthusiasm; the other subsystem generates emotions that fall in the class of anxiety, stress, and fear. The combined outputs of these systems generate the mood state (forming what is most often described as a circumplex). It is important to emphasize that this model describes mood—and changes in mood—as two-dimensional. Mood states are an amalgam formed by two distinct physiologically based systems of arousal, each of which influences specific gradations of mood that we readily recognize and to which we assign everyday labels (Storm & Storm, 1987). — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 1664

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the two-dimensional circumplex model of mood — useful framing for anyone working on emotion or affect.
• XREF: connects to: Anxiety drives careful attention while enthusiasm drives emotional involvement. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology: Key Readings, 1741; Anxiety and enthusiasm are structurally separate emotional dimensions, not opposites. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology: Key Readings, 1687; The goal is understanding mood, psychiatry’s main point. — Alain Ehrenberg, The Weariness of the Self: Diagnosing…, 268