APA Dictionary of Psychology

relating to a consistency or agreement between a particular expressed feeling and the general emotional context within which it occurs. Thus, crying at a time of sadness or personal distress is viewed as mood congruent. Similarly, in psychiatric diagnosis, the term relates to a consistency between the expression of a particular symptom or behavior with those characteristics or patterns of ideation or action used to classify a particular mental disorder. In both instances, inconsistencies are described as mood incongruent.