Ambivalent Emotional Experiences of Everyday Visual and Musical Objects

Art brings rich, pleasurable experiences to our daily lives. However, many theories of art and aesthetics focus on specific strong experiences—in the contexts of museums, galleries, and concert halls and the aesthetic perception of canonized arts—disregarding the impact of daily experiences. Furthermore, pleasure is often treated as a simplistic concept of merely positive affective character, yet recent psychological research has revealed the experience of pleasure is far more complicated. This study explored the nature of pleasure evoked by everyday aesthetic objects. A mixture of statistical and qualitative methods was applied in the analysis of the data collected through a semi-structured online survey (N = 464). The result asserts the experience of emotional ambivalence occurred and was composed of a variety of nuanced emotions and related association, rather than just a combination of contradicting emotions. Such paradoxical pleasure is defined as a self-conscious hedonic exposure to negative emotions in art reception. The study also depicted four types of attitudinal ambivalence: loss, diversity, socio-ideology, and distance, reflecting contextual elements intertwined into experience, and the connection between ambivalence and intense emotional experienc

Maladaptive and adaptive emotion regulation through music : a behavioral and neuroimaging study of males and females

Music therapists use guided affect regulation in the treatment of mood disorders. However, self-directed uses of music in affect regulation are not fully understood. Some uses of music may have negative effects on mental health, as can non music regulation strategies, such as rumination. Psychological testing and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) were used explore music listening strategies in relation to mental health. Participants (n = 123) were assessed for depression, anxiety and Neuroticism, and uses of Music in Mood Regulation (MMR). Neural responses to music were measured in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) in a subset of participants (n = 56). Discharge, using music to express negative emotions, related to increased anxiety and Neuroticism in all participants and particularly in males. Males high in Discharge showed decreased activity of mPFC during music listening compared with those using less Discharge. Females high in Diversion, using music to distract from negative emotions, showed more mPFC activity than females using less Diversion. These results suggest that the use of Discharge strategy can be associated with maladaptive patterns of emotional regulation, and may even have long-term negative effects on mental health. This finding has real-world applications in psychotherapy and particularly in clinical music therapy.Peer reviewe

Love songs and serenades: a theoretical review of music and romantic relationships

In this theoretical review, we examine how the roles of music in mate choice and social bonding are expressed in romantic relationships. Darwin’s Descent of Man originally proposed the idea that musicality might have evolved as a sexually selected trait. This proposition, coupled with the portrayal of popular musicians as sex symbols and the prevalence of love-themed lyrics in music, suggests a possible link between music and attraction. However, recent scientific exploration of the evolutionary functions of music has predominantly focused on theories of social bonding and group signaling, with limited research addressing the sexual selection hypothesis. We identify two distinct types of music-making for these different functions: music for attraction, which would be virtuosic in nature to display physical and cognitive fitness to potential mates; and music for connection, which would facilitate synchrony between partners and likely engage the same reward mechanisms seen in the general synchrony-bonding effect, enhancing perceived interpersonal intimacy as a facet of love. Linking these two musical functions to social psychological theories of relationship development and the components of love, we present a model that outlines the potential roles of music in romantic relationships, from initial attraction to ongoing relationship maintenance. In addition to synthesizing the existing literature, our model serves as a roadmap for empirical research aimed at rigorously investigating the possible functions of music for romantic relationships

Emotional self-regulation through music in 3-8-year-old children

The current study explored the role of music in children’s emotional self-regulation. Music is shown to be a common and effective way of self-regulating emotions in adolescence and adulthood. It is also widely known that parents use music to regulate the emotions of their babies, for instance in calming them down by lullabies. However, very little is known about how children themselves use music for emotional needs, and how the self-regulatory emotional engagement develops. A survey study was conducted with parents of 63 children including 37 boys and 26 girls, aged between 2.9 to 8.1 years. The parents answered questions about their child’s musical activities, preferences, and emotion-regulatory uses of music. Open-ended questions had a significant role due to the exploratory nature of the study, and the answers were analyzed through qualitative content analysis. Four emotion-regulatory uses of music were identified: music helped the children to calm down, to keep concentrated and interested, to express and enhance happiness and energy level, and to fantasize through mental imagery. The emotional use of music developed from parent-directed regulation to the child’s self-directed regulation through family examples, learning, and self-development. The study provided preliminary information about the main functions and characteristics of emotional self-regulation through music in childhood, strengthening our understanding of how the foundations for the music-related emotional self-regulation are built

Music and health: Physical, mental, and emotional

Music can heal, recover, and empower. This chapter elaborates on the mechanisms that explain how music serves as a means for promoting physical, mental, and emotional health, across different individuals and the multitude of everyday life situations. Music holds major potential for impacting healthrelevant aspects of human behavior such as the reward system activation, emotion regulation, stress reduction, activation of cognitive-motor behavior, and social interaction. Yet, effective utilization of the health-promoting affordances of music is also strongly dependent on the individual and contextual factors, and the chapter stresses the relevance of understanding the health-impact of music as an interactive engagement with consideration for individual differences. The chapter will present examples from recent research that is rapidly uncovering the mechanisms that link musical engagement to everyday life health and wellbeing and discuss the relevance of this knowledge for personal healthpromotion and preventive interventions.peerReviewe

Musiikki ja nuoren psykososiaalinen kehitys

Artikkeli käsittelee musiikin psykologista merkityksellisyyttä nuoruudessa. Siinä tarkastellaan niitä psykologisia tarpeita ja päämääriä, joiden toteutumista musiikillinen toiminta voi nuorten elämässä edistää. Tavoitteena on selventää, millaisia mahdollisuuksia musiikilla voi olla nuoren psykososiaalisen kehityksen tukemisessa.nonPeerReviewe

Music as mood regulation in adolescence

Suvi Saarikallio selvitti tutkimuksessaan musiikin psykologisia merkityksiä ja musiikin käyttöä tunteiden säätelynä nuorten arkielämässä. Musiikki on nykypäivänä olennainen osa nuoruutta. Saarikallio halusi lisätä ymmärrystä musiikin roolista osana nuorten kehitystä, psyykkistä itsesäätelyä ja tunteiden hallintaa.Musiikki on nuorille monipuolinen tunteiden säätelyn keino. Saarikallio määritteli seitsemän musiikin avulla tehtävän tunteiden säätelyn strategiaa: viihdyke, elpyminen, elämykset, irtautuminen, purkaminen, mielikuvatyöskentely ja lohtu.Tunteiden säätelyn näkökulmasta merkittävimmäksi musiikilliseksi toiminnaksi osoittautui musiikin kuuntelu. Musiikin käyttö tunteiden säätelyssä oli yhteydessä aktiiviseen musiikkiharrastukseen, mutta myös aktiivisille musiikinharrastajille juuri yksin kuuntelu oli tärkein mielialaan vaikuttamisen tapa. Musiikkia käyttivät tunteiden säätelyyn erityisesti rockmusiikista ja hevimetallimusiikista pitävät nuoret. Musiikin avulla tehtävä tunteiden säätely oli yhteydessä myös nuorten yleisiin tunteidensäätelytaitoihin.Musiikin mahdollisuudet edistää nuorten itsesäätelypyrkimyksiä ja tunteiden hallintaa selittävät osaltaan musiikin merkityksellisyyttä nuorten elämässä.- Nuorten musiikillisen toiminnan taustalla vaikuttavien psykologisten prosessien ymmärtäminen tarjoaa näkökulmia niin psykologian tutkimukselle, musiikkikasvattajille kuin musiikkiterapeuteillekin, Saarikallio kertoo.The present work explored music’s meaning from the perspective of adolescents’ psychosocial development and mood regulation. The aim was to increase understanding of psychological goals and processes related to affective experiences of music in everyday life. The research consisted of three sub-studies proceeding from a broad exploration of music’s psychological functions toward a specific understanding of mood-regulatory processes. The first study was a meta-analytical review of previous research. It resulted in a theoretical categorization of four areas in which music supports adolescent psychosocial development: identity, agency, interpersonal relationships, and emotions. The study provided a theoretical framework for studying music’s psychological functionality, and demonstrated the centrality of mood-related meanings. The second study focused on defining the concept of music-related mood regulation. The data were gathered by means of group interviews and follow-up forms, and then analyzed using grounded theory methods. As a result, a theoretical model of adolescents’ use of music for mood regulation was constructed. Mood regulatory goals were divided into two main goals, mood improvement and mood control, and seven regulatory strategies, entertainment, revival, strong sensation, diversion, discharge, mental work, and solace. The model discusses issues that affect the selection of strategies, musical activities that are used to realize them, and associated mood changes. The third study was a cross-sectional survey in which a scale for assessing the use of music for mood regulation was developed based on the regulatory strategies. Confirmatory factor analyses of the data supported the measurement model, and a pioneering scale Music in Mood Regulation (MMR) was established. The scale was used to study differences in the use of music for mood regulation, and the results showed that girls use music for mood regulation more than boys, and older adolescents more than younger ones. The use of music for mood regulation was also related to musical background, musical preferences, and general mood regulation abilities. In sum, the current work was a systematic exploration of psychological processes related to the use of music for mood regulation. It promoted understanding of the functionality of music in the context of adolescent development, affective experiences, and self-regulation

Access-Awareness-Agency (AAA) Model of Music-Based Social-Emotional Competence (MuSEC)

Social–emotional competence (SEC) is a set of psychological resources, highly relevant for adaptive growth and wellbeing. Music has been argued to support social–emotional skills, yet there is little theoretical consensus about the underlying impact mechanisms and the special nature of music as a medium for SEC. This article presents a theoretical model of music-based SEC that combines research from general SEC models with music-specific literature from music psychology, music education, music therapy, and music for health and wellbeing. The proposed access-awareness-agency (AAA) model defines music-based social–emotional competence (MuSEC) as interplay of embodied access, reflective awareness, and sense of agency. These three components are defined as the core competencies that music in particular facilitates; competencies that underlie and explain further competence in behaviors ranging from affective self-regulation to social interaction. The article elaborates these MuSEC components and their potential connections to particular equivalents in general SEC and proposes hypotheses for empirically testing the model. The model offers a novel, integrative SEC-based perspective for advancing theoretical coherence in the growing field of music as social–emotional wellbeing and growth.peerReviewe

Development and Validation of the Brief Music in Mood Regulation Scale (B-MMR)

mood regulation has been shown to be among of the most important reasons for musical engagement, but there has been a lack of a concise measurement instrument for this behavior. The current study focused on developing and testing the Brief Music in Mood Regulation scale (BMMR), a 21-item self-report instrument for assessing the use of seven different music-related mood-regulation strategies. Two survey studies (N = 1515 and N = 526) were conducted to first develop and then test and validate the instrument. The newly constructed scale showed adequate internal consistency reliabilities and correlated expectedly with measures of general emotion regulation and musical engagement. As a concise and theoretically coherent measure, the B-MMR may prove to be highly applicable for future surveys and comparative studies.peerReviewe