The effects of personality and situational variables on mood states during outward bound wilderness courses: An exploration

This study examined intra-individual mood variation across situations and attempted to distinguish whether the effect of personality on mood is direct, or whether personality and situational conditions interact to cause mood states. It was hypothesised that extraversion/positive emotionality and neuroticism/negative emotionality represent inherent susceptibilities to experience positive and negative mood states, respectively. By investigating particular stages of 26-day Australian Outward Bound courses this field study captured a real life manipulation of social and physical activity, two of the major situational correlates of positive mood states. The results supported a temperamental interpretation of the relationship between extraversion/positive emotionality and positive affect and showed a reduction in negative affect during Outward Bound courses. Methodological difficulties are discussed to further the study of personality and mood under extreme conditions.