How to Improve Mood, Raise Energy and Reduce Tension
[Photo by eschipul]
What strategies do you use to make yourself feel better, increase your energy levels and reduce your tension? That's the question Robert Thayer and colleagues at California State University were motivated by in looking for the strategies people use and find effective (Thayer, Newman & McClain, 1994). There's no revelations in the results but the fact that the same three main strategies were useful in changing mood and reducing tension and raising energy speaks volumes:- Exercise: rated as the most effective for changing a bad mood, also good for raising energy and reducing tension.
- Music: rated the second most successful way to change a bad mood, and raising energy and reducing tension. This may be a surprising finding for some people.
- Social interaction: good for changing a bad mood and reducing tension although not necessarily so good for raising energy.
Apart from these main categories that were good across the board, there were other strategies that worked in a more selective fashion:
- Pep talk: this was rated as most successful for energy enhancement - above both exercise and music.
- Distractions (like shopping, reading, chores and hobbies): seen as useful for changing a bad mood.
At the other end of the scale, the things people rated as relatively less successful were:
- TV: less effective for reducing tension
- Eating: also less effective for reducing tension.
- Coffee: not that good for raising energy, relative to the other categories.
Gender differences were also seen. Men are more likely to try and distract themselves or seek pleasure, while women are more likely to seek social support.
One surprising finding from this study is how successful music is in all three categories of mood regulation, energy raising and tension reduction. In fact I've written before about the seven ways music influences mood.
I know the findings from this study are mostly pretty obvious but intellectually knowing what is good for us can be a world away from actually doing it.
» Read more from PsyBlog on the power of positive psychology.
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Reference
Thayer, R. E., Newman, J. R., & McClain, T. M. (1994). Self-regulation of mood: Strategies for changing a bad mood, raising energy, and reducing tension. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67(5), 910-925.
Labels: Emotion, Music, Positive Psychology
Music + Body Language = More Excitement
[Photo by elstonndanger]
Seeing a band live is a much more engaging experience than listening to a recording at home. But it's not just the atmosphere of a live event, it's also the singer's facial expressions and gestures which enhances our emotional experience. It's a rare singer whose face remains impassive as they sing. Think of jazz greats like Ella Fitzgerald, blues artists like B. B. King or pop acts like Michael Jackson. As they sing, their faces are conveying the emotion in the music, sometimes it seems, even struggling with the emotions. Part of the beauty of a live performance is seeing singers' faces as they interact with both the music, the other musicians and the audience. Their facial expressions often seem part of the music itself.
Facial expressions affect perception of music
In what way, then, do facial expressions while singing affect the perception of the music? There is a well-known phenomenon in psychology called the McGurk effect. This demonstrates that what listeners hear is profoundly affected by what they see. This suggests that singers' facial movements may have large effects on how we perceive music.
In a series of simple experiments, Thompson, Graham and Russo (2005) showed just how important the McGurk effect is when we are looking at singers, compared to when we only have the sound to go on.
Experiment 1: Some participants listened to blues legend B. B. King audio only, while others listened and watched him. Those who had both video and audio channels rated the level of 'dissonance' (when the music was negative or discordant) higher at points in which B. B. King winced his eyes, rolled his head back and shook his upper body.
Experiment 2: When trying to judge the pitch changes between notes, participants watching only the video almost did as well as those only listening to the audio. This is pretty impressive.
Experiment 3: Here some participants saw facial expressions relating to pitch changes that matched the audio, while others saw facial expressions that didn't. When the video didn't match the audio people were less accurate at judging pitch.
This is like an auditory McGurk effect. Because the video is suggesting the pitch goes down, people's average ratings of the pitch is lower despite the fact they can hear exactly how much the pitch is going up.
Experiment 4: This experiment used the fact that sung major intervals (series of notes) sound 'happy' and minor intervals sound 'sad'. In some conditions participants heard a 'happy' series of notes but saw a seemingly unhappy singer. In other conditions intervals were consistent with facial expressions. Participants rated the emotional component of the intervals more highly if audio and video were congruent.
Experiment 5: This time participants heard real musical performances, some while watching the accompanying video, some without. Here it was found that sometimes the visual channel added to the performance, and sometimes it reduced it.
These experiments are showing a variety of basic ways in which the facial expression of a performer can have a great influence over our perception of music. Facial expressions and body movements can change the pitch we hear, how much emotion we experience and can interact with the music in surprising ways.
That said, it's clear that not all the visual aspects of musical performance are good. Some body language that performers use may actively reduce our enjoyment of the music.
Culture and music
Modern technological innovations like the iPOD have further reinforced that separation. The coming of pop videos has created another layer of visual meaning to music. This layer, however, often has little to do with the facial expressions and hand gestures of the artist and more to do with the vision of video producers and directors. It's not often that a music video is a straight film of the band performing the track.
Not just listening, but also watching music
But perhaps we are turning the corner? With the iPOD video singers' visual performance has the potential to be reunited with the aural experience of music. Will people return to not just listening to music, but also watching it?
Certainly nowadays many musicians make the majority of their money from live performances of their music rather than from sales of their albums. Indeed some of them are even giving their albums away for free.
This may be part of a cultural recognition that music is more than just sound, it is an interaction between singer and audience, a big bit part of which is the artist's facial expressions and gestures. It's this interaction on which we are beginning to place a higher value.
» Read more from PsyBlog on the psychology of music, on the ways music influences mood and the personality secrets hidden in your MP3 player.
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Reference
Thompson, W.F., Graham, P., & Russo, F.A. (2005). Seeing music performance: Visual influences on perception and experience. Semiotica, 156, 203-227. [PDF of full article]
Older and Musically Wiser?
[Photo by ariz]
Back in March I asked for your help with some research on music and personality I was carrying out with my colleagues. Although it was restricted to people living in the UK, there was a healthy response to the online questionnaire. Joy of joys, there were also some interesting results, so I thought I would update you with how it turned out.Music preferences and personality
Perhaps you'll remember this research was based on the relationships found between the music people like and their personalities (Rentfrow & Gosling, 2003). More specifically, correlations have been found between the general attributes of musical genres that people like and responses to the 'Big Five' personality questionnaires (these Big Five factors are extraversion, openness to experience, neuroticism, agreeableness and conscientiousness).
There was a suggestion in the previous research that age might play a role in this relationship. This makes some intuitive sense - it's possible that with age comes musical wisdom. As a result your musical taste better reflects your personality; or perhaps your personality better reflects your musical taste!
Results
Either way, the research tested this idea using a personality questionnaire and the Short Test of Musical Preferences (with the fantastic acronym 'STOMP' ). When the data was analysed, it did indeed support the idea that the musical genre preferences of those over 30 were more strongly asssociated with their personalities than those aged between 18 and 30 (Dean, Yu & Epps (2007).
The correlations found for those aged 18 to 30 were between openness to experience and two categories of musical genres: music that is 'reflective & complex' and 'intense & rebellious' (r = .4 & .19 respectively). For those over 30, along with these associations, two more correlations emerged, these were between genres that were 'upbeat & conventional' and each of the two personality factors conscientiousness and agreeableness (r = .29 & .31 respectively).
How can this be explained? I speculate the age difference results from identity development. Young people are generally more engaged in the stressful work of developing and forming their identities. Part of this process might be about 'trying on' different types of music for size. For the more mature, however, their identity has usually settled down, so connections between music genre preferences and personality are stronger.
Thank you
So, thanks again to everyone who took part and watch this space for some new research I'll be conducting online.
→ Encephalon #21 is live at Ouroboros
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References - Click here to toggle visibilityLabels: Music, Personality
Seven Ways Music Influences Mood
Good music has direct access to the emotions. As such it's a fantastic tool for tweaking our moods. Saarikallio and Erkkila (2007) investigated the ways people use music to control and improve their mood by interviewing eight adolescents from Finland. The participants may be a small, very specific group, but they actually present a really useful list:
- Entertainment - At the most fundamental level music provides stimulation. It lifts the mood before going out, it passes the time while doing the washing up, it accompanies travelling, reading and surfing the web.
- Revival - Music revitalises in the morning and calms in the evening.
- Strong sensation - Music can provide deep, thrilling emotional experiences, particularly while performing.
- Diversion - Music distracts the mind from unpleasant thoughts which can easily fill the silence.
- Discharge - Music matching deep moods can release emotions: purging and cleansing.
- Mental work - Music encourages daydreaming, sliding into old memories, exploring the past.
- Solace - Shared emotion, shared experience, a connection to someone lost.
Many of Saarikallio and Erkkila's findings chime with previous research. For example, distraction is considered one of the most effective strategies for regulating mood. Music has also been strongly connected with reflective states. These tend to allow us greater understanding of our emotions.
One of the few negative connections Saarikallio and Erkkila consider is that sad music might promote rumination. Rumination is the constant examination of emotional state which, ironically, can lead to less clarity. On the contrary, however, Saarikallio and Erkkila found that music increased the understanding of feelings, an effect not associated with rumination.
Over to you...
Perhaps the way we use music varies with factors like age and culture. Do these adolescent's experiences ring true for you? If not, what would you add to the list?
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References - Click here to toggle visibility Discover the Perfect Musical Performance
As the oboe's 'tuning A' fades, the lights go down, a hush spreads across the audience, the conductor raises his baton, bringing it down with a flourish. So the orchestra starts, you settle back in your seat to listen, letting your mind drift away with the music.
Casting your eye across the faces of the musicians you begin to wonder if this is just another performance for them, just one more run-through of a well-rehearsed piece. Or is tonight special? Are they ready to invest the performance with something new, something magical that will send shivers down your spine?
As the music fills your mind, your eye is drawn to the conductor. His whole body is filled with meaning, vigorously communicating to his orchestra. The players themselves are focussed, as one, reacting precisely to this wildly gesticulating man. You start to get the feeling this is going to be good. A night to remember. If only it was always like this...
Leadership and group mood
In newly published research, Boerner and von Streit (2007) make progress towards this impossible end by suggesting two vital ingredients of the perfect performance. First they argue the orchestra's individual players must be emotionally 'in tune' with each other. The finest quality of performance is not just about timing, it is about a harmony of mood.
The second vital component is the leadership style of the conductor. Recent research in psychology suggests that group success is inspired by people with 'transformational' leadership styles. Boerner and von Streit argue that transformational conductors are:
- Charismatic - the orchestra is proud to work with them.
- Inspirational - motivate the orchestra by making it clear what is required.
- Intellectually stimulating - often suggest new interpretations
Conductor and orchestra interact
As the researchers expected, the highest quality orchestras were those with transformational conductors and high group mood. But the surprising result was the interaction that occurred between these two factors.
When the group mood of the orchestra was low, a transformational conductor was actually associated with a lower quality of orchestra. Similarly when the mood of the orchestra was high, a less transformational conductor was associated with a higher quality orchestra.
From this emerged the idea that orchestras with high group mood may actually ignore a poor conductor and still go on to produce a reasonable level of performance. According to Boerner and von Streit this is a well-known phenomenon in orchestras.
So the next time you go to the symphony, hoping to be transported, take a good look at the orchestra. Do they seem in a good mood? And when the conductor strides out, is it difficult for you, and the whole orchestra, to keep your eyes off him? If so, you could be in for a treat.
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ReferencesBoerner, S., & von Streit, C. (2007). Promoting orchestral performance: the interplay between musicians' mood and a conductor's leadership style. Psychology of Music, 35(1), 132.
Labels: Music
Personality Secrets in Your Mp3 Player
Once past saying 'hello' and 'how are you?' to someone you've just met, what is next? How do we make friends and get to know other people? Psychologists have talked about the importance of body language, physical appearance and clothing but they've not been so keen on what we actually talk about. A recent study put participants in same-sex and opposite-sex pairings and told them to get to know each other over 6 weeks (Rentfrow & Gosling, 2006). Analysing the results, they found the most popular topic of conversation was music. What is it about music that's so useful when we first meet someone and what kind of information can we extract from the music another person likes?
"how good is music as a measure of personality?"
The number of people who talked about music was surprisingly high. In the first week on average 58% of the pairs discussed music compared to 37% of all the other categories of conversation combined. Other categories included books, movies, TV, football and clothes. Why then do we use music as a first port of call in getting to know another person? We probably think that music is indirectly telling us something about the other person's personality. For this reason, the second question this study tried to answer was: how good is music as a measure of personality?
Top 10 personalities
To measure this, participants were asked to judge people's personality solely on their top 10 list of songs.
"...a person's openness to experience was best communicated by their top 10 list of songs."
This was compared to participants results on a standard type of personality test measuring the big five personality traits: openness to experience, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness and emotional stability. Overall the results showed that music preferences were reasonably accurate in conveying aspects of personality. Of the five traits, it was a person's openness to experience that was best communicated by their top 10 list of songs, followed by extraversion and emotional stability. On the other hand, music preferences didn't say much about whether a person was conscientious or not.What some music preferences mean for personality:
- Likes vocals: extraverted
- Likes country: emotionally stable. On the face of it, this is bizarre really because country music is all about heartache. Either the emotionally stable are attracted to country music or it has a calming effect on the unstable!
- Likes jazz: intellectual
"...this finding might not hold in different age-groups."
One really important caveat for this study was that the average age of the participants was around 18 so this finding might not hold in different age-groups. My experience is young people talk about music much more than older people. This raises the question of what, for example, might be the most common topic of conversations for other age-groups getting acquainted. Any suggestions?Despite this limitation it seems that talking about music might be a very powerful way to make a connection with another person.
» This post is part of a series on the psychology of relationships.
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ReferencesRentfrow, P.J., & Gosling, S.D. (2006). Message in a Ballad. The Role of Music Preferences in Interpersonal Perception. Psychological Science, 17(3), 236-242.
Labels: Music, Relationships
Powerful Music
[Photo by Nite773]
Last night at the Barbican I was privileged to hear the world premiere of a new piece by Jonathan Dove called Hojoki. The work is based on an autobiographical story by Kamo no Chomei, a Buddhist monk who lived in the 13th century. Written in 1212, Hojoki tells of his move from Kyoto to escape the constant threat of natural and man-made disasters in the city. In this composition, the story was narrated by a countertenor soloist with the orchestra providing dramatic colour. For me it was extremely moving and the rest of audience seemed to think so as well. But, why does music have the power to access deeper parts of ourselves, to strike at the heart of what it means to be human?The power of music is a theme taken up by Oliver Sacks, writing a commentary in the neurology journal 'Brain'. Sacks (2006) explains how Parkinsonian patients, normally subject to a startling range of involuntary movements, can sometimes be stilled by music. Similarly, sufferers from Tourette's syndrome, through music, can be temporarily relieved from their tics. Even those with advanced dementia, whose ability to experience strong emotions appears to have been eroded, are sometimes transported by familiar songs.
Not only can music release some patients from their motor or cognitive dysfunction, but, for others, music is almost too powerful. Those with 'Williams Syndrome' appear hypersensitive to the emotional impact of music. Sacks (2006) describes witnessing a group of young people with the syndrome crying uncontrollably to sad music.
The reactions of those with Williams Syndrome hints at the darker side of our special sensitivity to music. Sacks (2006) describes how musical hallucinations affect at least 2% of the population with some reporting songs looping in their heads. A few seem to be having the real experience of hearing music, which can initiate a fruitless search for the hidden source. At the most extreme, for some with epilepsy, music can even cause seizures, especially when its content has particularly rich emotional connections for the hearer.
To Sacks these findings suggest a special role for music in the brain:
"Our auditory systems, our nervous systems, are tuned for music. Perhaps we are a musical species no less than a linguistic one. But there seems to be in us a peculiar sensitivity to music, a sensitivity that can all too easily slip out of control, become excessive, become a susceptibility or a vulnerability. Too-muchness lies continually in wait, whether this takes the form of 'earworms', musical hallucinations, swoons and trances, or music-induced seizures. This is the other side of the otherwise wonderful power of music." (Sacks, 2006:2532)Music has been a hot topic in the psyblog-o-sphere over the last few weeks. I found Sack's article through Brainethics. Mixing Memory tells us that monkeys are not fans of Mozart. Cognitive Daily has a couple of posts on human musical preferences and whether it's affected by expertise (first, second). Also, music cognition now also has its own blog called Sound and Mind.
Sacks, O. (2006) The power of music. Brain, 129, 2528-2532. (Abstract) Labels: Music
Tone Deaf
It seems that 'congenital amusics' have no problems in hearing music or other environmental sounds. They generally have no perceptual problems and can, paradoxically, detect pitch changes in speech that they cannot detect in music. Music seems to require a much more fine-grained differentiation of tones than any other form of auditory perception.
Amusia may be similar developmentally to dyslexia. In populations that speak tonal languages like Vietnamese and Cantonese, amusia is almost unknown - perhaps practice at a young age makes perfect. Recent research suggests that children can be trained to discriminate tones but adults are normally stuck with their disability.
However much practice you get at a young age, the skill can be affected by brain damage. Neurologists at the University of Tokyo report the case of a 62 year old professional tango singer who lost her singing ability after a stroke that affected a tiny part of her brain. After a period of recuperation from the stroke she experienced no other deficits in cognitive functions, other than amusia - a cruel fate for a professional singer.
Scientists listen to brain patterns of tone-deafnessLabels: Music
Music lessons enhance IQ
Here is a longer post than normal which highlights the importance of reading the actual study rather than just the news report.
First a quote from the report: "The idea that studying music improves the intellect is not a new one, but at last there is incontrovertible evidence from a study conducted out of the University of Toronto."
And here is what the study says in it's conclusion: "The findings indicate that music lessons cause small increases in IQ, but comparable nonmusical activities do not have similar consequences." and continues: "It is well established that simple attendance at school raises IQ (Ceci & Williams, 1997), and that school instruction is particularly effective when classes are small (Ehrenberg, Brewer, Gamoran, & Wilms, 2001). Music lessons, taught individually or in small groups, may provide additional boosts in IQ because they are like school but still enjoyable. Moreover, music lessons involve a multiplicity of experiences that could generate improvement in a wide range of abilities. From this perspective, extracurricular activities (other than drama lessons) with similar properties (e.g., chess lessons, programs in science or reading) may confer similar benefits."
[From Medical News Today]
[From The American Psychological Society (PDF file)]
First a quote from the report: "The idea that studying music improves the intellect is not a new one, but at last there is incontrovertible evidence from a study conducted out of the University of Toronto."
And here is what the study says in it's conclusion: "The findings indicate that music lessons cause small increases in IQ, but comparable nonmusical activities do not have similar consequences." and continues: "It is well established that simple attendance at school raises IQ (Ceci & Williams, 1997), and that school instruction is particularly effective when classes are small (Ehrenberg, Brewer, Gamoran, & Wilms, 2001). Music lessons, taught individually or in small groups, may provide additional boosts in IQ because they are like school but still enjoyable. Moreover, music lessons involve a multiplicity of experiences that could generate improvement in a wide range of abilities. From this perspective, extracurricular activities (other than drama lessons) with similar properties (e.g., chess lessons, programs in science or reading) may confer similar benefits."
[From Medical News Today]
[From The American Psychological Society (PDF file)]
Labels: Music