| 1. |
- Barradas, Gonçalo
(författare)
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A Cross-Cultural Approach to Psychological Mechanisms Underlying Emotional Reactions to Music
- 2017
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Music plays a crucial role in everyday life by enabling listeners to seek individual emotional experiences. To explain why such emotions occur, we must understand the underlying process that mediates between surface-level features of the music and aroused emotions. This thesis aimed to investigate how musical emotions are mediated by psychological mechanisms from a cross-cultural perspective.Study I manipulated four mechanisms by selecting ecologically valid pieces of music that featured information relevant for each mechanism. The results suggested that listeners’ emotions could be successfully predicted based on theoretically based manipulations of target mechanisms. However, Study I featured only listeners from a single culture, neglecting the possible role of contextual and individual factors.Study II investigated the prevalence of emotions, mechanisms, and listening motives in a web survey featuring listeners from both individualist and collectivist countries. Results indicated that patterns of prevalence of emotions and mechanisms were quite similar across cultures. Still, Study II found that certain emotions such as nostalgia and the mechanism episodic memory were more frequent in collectivist cultures. In contrast, sadness and the mechanism musical expectancy were more frequent in individualist cultures. Study II also suggested that listening motives were country-specific, rather than subject to the individualism-collectivism dimension.Study III explored how particular mechanisms are manifested within a collectivist cultural setting with great potential for deeply felt emotions: fado music in Portugal. Interviews with listeners provided in-depth information on how the cultural context might shape listening motives and emotions. The results revealed that listeners strived for musical experiences that would arouse culturally valued emotions. Music-evoked nostalgia and contextual factors were regarded as important and contributed to an enhanced sense of wellbeing.Study IV tested the influence of lyrics on the emotions induced by Swedish and Portuguese pieces of music. The results revealed cross-cultural differences in how lyrics influenced emotions. The differences were not related to the music’s origin, but to the listener’s origin, suggesting that the impact of lyrics depends on the cultural background of the listener.In conclusion, the thesis suggests that cultural factors serve as moderators of effects of biologically based mechanisms for emotion induction.
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| 2. |
- Saarikallio, Suvi, et al.
(författare)
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Adolescents musical relaxation: understanding related affective processing
- 2017
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Ingår i: Nordisk tidskrift for musikkterapi - Nordic Journal of Music Therapy. - : GRIEG ACADEMY. - 0809-8131 .- 1944-8260. ; 26:4, s. 376-389
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Music listening promotes adolescents well-being and relaxation in daily life. Relaxation is linked to affective self-regulation, but little is known about the specific affective processes of musical relaxation. The current study aimed to elaborate the affective dimension of adolescents musical relaxation, through detailed exploration of the related affect regulation goals, strategies, and induction mechanisms. A qualitative study with 55 adolescents (42 girls, 13 boys), aged 15, was conducted. Participants listened to self-selected relaxation music for 20min, once in a laboratory and once at home, and provided written descriptions of their experience. A total of 110 episode descriptions were analyzed using summative, directed, content analysis for identifying typical patterns and interactions between the underlying concepts. Three major strategies (processing, distraction, induction) and two mechanisms (musical and mental) were identified. Processing was supported by both mechanisms, while distraction and induction predominantly by the musical mechanism. Change from negative to positive mood was particularly realized through musical distraction, while pure positive emotion induction was equally supported by all strategies and mechanisms. The analysis revealed clear patterns of how affect regulation strategies and induction mechanisms interrelate and serve different outcomes as part of adolescents relaxation. The findings provide conceptual clarification and theoretical grounds for understanding how affective processes function in musical relaxation. The discussion is performed in light of prior research and broader understanding of music as part of adolescents affective processing and self-regulation.
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| 3. |
- Saarikallio, Suvi, et al.
(författare)
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Music as a resource for psychological health for music professionals: A Nordic survey
- 2020
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Ingår i: Nordic Journal of Arts, Culture and Health. ; 2:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Purpose: Interest in the health relevance of music has been growing rapidly, yet few studies have addressed the protective role of music for music professionals themselves. In the current study, we investigated music professionals’ (music teachers, music therapists, musicians and academics) health, particularly their uses of music as a resource for their psychological health.Design: An online survey (N = 504) for music professionals was conducted across four Nordic countries. Participants responded to questions on music as a resource for psychological health and assessed their general levels of health and health behaviors. Their self-reported health was compared to similar prior data from the general Danish population (N = 14,022).Findings: Music professionals demonstrated high levels of self-reported health and health behaviors and approved of the idea of music as a resource for their psychological health. The most important psychological function of music for them was that music provided affective experiences. Music also provided feelings of belonging and supported mood regulation, but did not really offer relaxation or help to concentrate. Music teachers and therapists reported significantly higher use of music as a personal resource for psychological health than musicians and academics.Value: The results provide new insights into music playing a dual role – professional and personal resource – for different types of music professionals. The findings have relevance for how to address music in the training of musicians and create grounds for dialogue about the role of music for music professionals in comparison to laymen.
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| 4. |
- Sakka, Laura, et al.
(författare)
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Spontaneous Music-Evoked Autobiographical Memories in Individuals Experiencing Depression
- 2020
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Ingår i: Music & Science. - : SAGE Publications. - 2059-2043. ; 3
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Listening to music often triggers strong memories of events from our past, which influence how we affectively experience music listening and can therefore contribute to music’s therapeutic capacity. The aim of this study was to examine the valence and content of spontaneous music-evoked autobiographical memories (MEAMs) in listeners with self-reported depression, who typically demonstrate negatively biased autobiographical memory. Eighteen depressed and 21 controls participated in a music-listening experiment where they listened to a personalized music stimulus, described their memories, and thereafter rated the valence of these memories and of their induced affect. Participants’ ratings were statistically analysed, while the memory content was analysed with the use of a computerized text-analysis method and with a qualitative thematic analysis. Quantitative ratings of valence revealed a significant difference between groups: half of the depressed, compared to none of the controls, recalled a negative memory, and these were experienced with negative induced affect. The qualitative thematic analysis of the memory descriptions revealed that both depressed and control participants’ memories could be categorized into three first-level themes: (1) personal, (2) relationships, and (3) activities. Depressed participants’ negative memories were mainly located in the ‘relationships’ theme and included memories about loss and dysfunctional relationships, such as bullying, and in the ‘personal’ theme, including memories of mental health struggles and coping with music. Approximately a third of depressed participants recalled positive memories, and these were either related to loving family relationships or to activities. Limitations concerning the small sample size and implications regarding the function of music listening for depressed individuals are discussed.
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