(2018-01-31) Koester An Exploration Of Mood Tracking Can We Measure How We Feel

Mark Koester: An Exploration of Mood Tracking: Can We Measure How We Feel? I’m not depressed and not particularly prone to the “blues” either. I do have waxing and waning motivation and drive though. In fact, I tend to be a good mood most of the time and quite productive too

What is Mood Tracking?

Mood tracking or mood monitoring has existing in therapeutic psychology since the 1960s. It’s typically used as a form of self-help, self-awareness and self-tracking for people suffering from mood disorders like anxiety, clinical depression, and bipolar disorder.

I’ve included a table of the Mood Scale used with Bipolar disorder. This is a fairly typical method of measuring moods in psychology

The simplest method for mood tracking is through a diary or chart where you record your mood on a scale and optionally provide additional notes

What is a Mood? Binary and Linear Scale Moods

According to Wikipedia, “In psychology, a mood is an emotional state. In contrast to emotions, feelings, or affects, moods are less specific, less intense and less likely to be provoked or instantiated by a particular stimulus or event. Moods are typically described as having either a positive or negative valence. In other words, people usually talk about being in a good mood or a bad mood.”

The binary scale of a “good mood” vs. “bad mood” remains the most common approach to mood tracking. Many apps and surveys still use it.

A variation would be put this on a linear scale from extremely good mood to extremely bad mood

Unfortunately, like much of what goes on in our emotional and mental lives, the reality might not be so simple. Mood tracking as states (especially binary states!) isn’t a real thing; it’s an abstraction.

Complexity of Our Moods and Emotions

Our moods exist in a convergence of dimensions rather than as discrete states.

One example of moods in terms of dimensionality scale is Circumplex Model, which can visualize this way

There is also the Brief Mood Introspection Scale (BMIS):

Personally I find this approach to an interesting one, but I find it adds a lot of dimensions that it can be harder to use. For example, you get a lot more data points and connecting it to effectively reflect on your mood becomes harder.

Mood Tracking Apps on iOS: A Review of Apps for Logging Your Emotional Life - Mark Koester

Varying Focuses among Mood Tracking Apps

How do you want to measure your moods?

Do you want a journal too?

Do you want to explore correlation and insights?

Need Public Support?

My Favorite Mood Tracking Apps: MoodNotes and iMoodJournal

In terms of data accessibility, MoodNotes and iMoodJournal provide a CSV export of your data.

How I Track My Mood on My iPhone and Apple Watch: An Experiment in Mood Tracking