Music as a trigger for peak experiences among a college staff population

Peak experiences, as described by Maslow (1962) and others, can be triggered by a variety of activities. This study surveyed 102 college staff members, 93% of whom had previously admitted to one or more peak experiences, with the most frequently cited antecedent being music. Significant and positive correlations were obtained between scores on a measure of musical involvement and the reported trigger of either playing an instrument (rs = .2462, p = .013) or listening to music (rs = .2880, p = .003). Participants measuring high on musical involvement tended to select items from a list of 41 possible reactions to music that combined strong (actualized) emotions as well as cognitive (distanced) evaluation. This suggested a dual-hemisphere involvement in musical processing, which might not be the case with naïve listening. The demographic variables of age, gender, and educational level were not shown to have significant relationships with musical involvement. Brief comments are offered to explain why music should have such profound effects on some listener

Emotional responses to music listening

The paper firstly reviews four studies on the power of music to generate emotional responses in the listener. Using scientific methodology, the research comprised experiments with sacred versus secular music, the effect of different modes and rhythms in hymn tunes, music and task performance, and the respective influences of nature and nurture on musical ability. Secondly, the paper describes the five phases of a research programme to assess the frequency and nature of peak emotional experiences generated through listening to music. This study made use of surveys, laboratory experiments and EEG measurements in its investigation. Whilst the combined outcomes add to the knowledge and understanding of the role of music, many opportunities for further work remain

Attitudes to mysticism: relationship with personality in Western and Eastern mystical traditions

Conceptually, attitudes to mysticism, is related to, but distinguishable from, mystical experience. Empirical data that attitudes to mysticism and mystical experience bear different relationships with personality traits such as psychoticism will provide good grounds for distinguishing these variables. Personality correlates of these two variables were assessed in this study; the latter was more directly linked with psychoticism. Comparisons were also made of how Christians, Jews, Buddhists and Pagans scored on measures of attitudes to mysticism and of mystical experience. Buddhists and Pagans scored significantly higher on the attitudes scale than did Christians or Jews, whereas scores on the mystical experience measure produced significantly different findings between Pagans and all other groups, and between Buddhists and Jews, but not between Buddhists and Christians. Between-groups differences therefore suggested further grounds for distinguishing between mystical experience and attitudes to mysticism

Construction and validation of a scale to assess attitudes to mysticism: the need for a new scale for research in the psychology of religion

This paper argues that two concepts, attitudes to mysticism and mystical experience, need to be distinguished carefully. This implies that a new questionnaire is needed toassess the former, and the paper reports on construction of a new scale to assessAttitudes to Mysticism. This scale was found to have good internal consistency, criterion-related validity and construct validity, and evidence is also given that this concept is related to but conceptually distinct from mystical experienc

Psychosocial development in the elderly: an investigation into Erikson's ninth stage

This study investigated Joan Erikson's suggestion [Erikson, E.H. (1998). The life cycle completed. Extended version with new chapters on the ninth stage by Joan M. Erikson. New York: Norton] that there is a ninth stage to Erik Erikson's [Erikson, E.H. (1963). Childhood and society (2nd ed.). New York: Norton] Theory of Psychosocial Development to address the challenges of extreme later life. Questionnaires to measure resolution of Stages 8 and 9, compiled from original descriptions, were completed by 32 women aged in their 80s or 90s, and 32 women aged in their 60s. Results showed there to be a significant correlation between age and resolution of Stage 9 (P=.01), but not for Stage 8, and a significant difference between the mean scores of the two age groups for Stage 9 (P=.03), but not for Stage 8. Recognition that there could be a stage of psycho-social development applicable to people aged in their 80s and 90s, would be a source of comfort to aging individuals themselves, as well as invaluable to friends, relatives, and carer

The role of rhythm and mode in emotional responses to hymn tunes

Music has been described as the language of feelings, and it is found in virtually every culture and historical period. It has also often been cited as a trigger for powerful emotional or numinous experiences, including those occurring in a religious setting. This study investigated the differential emotional-spiritual impact of hymns in major and minor modes, and triple and quadruple time, during regular Anglican church services. Significantly higher scores were obtained for hymns in triple time than in quadruple, but there was only a non-significant trend for the superiority of minor over major modes. There were no significant gender differences in scores. Specific aspects of music are difficult to partial out from the holistic composition. Rhythm has been cited as a particularly important element in excitement generation and tune recognition, but research reports are sparse. The fact that triple rhythm frees the listener from the regular beats associated with biorhythms may be a relevant factor in its emotional impact