From a very high level perspective the behavior of a person is determined by

• who he is;
• how he is at the moment;
• what he wants, and
• what he thinks will happen.

How he is at the moment

If you ask someone the question “How are you doing?” you are inquiring about their current state, how they are feeling at this moment. How you are feeling has a big impact on the behavior you express. If you are feeling mellow, you will probably easy-going, where as you are stressed you probably react more intense then you normally would.

In Syed-Abdullah et al (2006) the researchers use a list of emotions and feelings to assess the current well-being of developers. By assigning a value to each of every entry in this list (e.g. 0=nothing, 10=maximal) we are able to describe the current state of well-being of a person.

The list they use is:

• Tense
• Miserable
• Depressed
• Optimistic
• Calm
• Relaxed
• Worried
• Enthusiastic
• Anxious
• Comfortable
• Gloomy
• Motivated

Bas de Baar helps people find ways to enjoy the diversity of human interaction in their organizations so that they can get out of their own way and achieve their goals. - Individual Behavior – How Am I Doing? is a post from: Project Shrink.