The influence of personality factors on short-term mood repair with drawing production

Previous research shows conflicting results on whether positive distraction, neutral distraction, or venting is most effective on short-term mood repair. This study addressed whether personality differences (the Big Five) influenced the effectiveness of these different short-term mood-repairing strategies using drawing production. Eighty seven undergraduate students were induced with sadness and engaged in positive distraction, neutral distraction, or venting drawing behaviour. Their mood was measured several times throughout the study, in addition to collecting personality information at the end of the session. At a group level, positive distraction led to significantly higher short-term mood repair than neutral distraction and venting. Personality differences did not significantly influence the effectiveness of any mood-repairing drawing strategies but the strongest personality candidates for impacting on the success of drawing-production intervention were high levels of extraversion and agreeableness during positive distraction, and, low levels of openness to experience during venting.