The Use of Painting for Short-Term Mood and Arousal Improvement

The present study examined the use of painting for short-term mood and arousal improvement following an angry mood. Participants' changes in mood and arousal were measured after viewing 2 short film clips and again after participating in 1 of 4 conditions: painting their current mood (venting), painting something that makes them feel happy (positive distraction), painting a still life (neutral distraction), or completing a word search puzzle (nonart-making control). Results revealed a significant improvement in mood in the positive and neutral distraction conditions as compared with the venting and nonart control conditions, which did not differ from 1 another. There was also a reduction in arousal across conditions. As predicted by broaden-and-build theory (Fredrickson, 2001), participants in the positive distraction condition used a greater number of colors and more positive mood-tone colors than those in the venting condition. These results are the first to experimentally investigate strategies for short-term mood improvement using painting following an angry mood.