Sensation Seeking and Music Listening: Effects on the Use of Music in Everyday Life

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joao P. Oliveira
2021 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 205920432110225
Author(s):  
Amanda E Krause ◽  
Solange Glasser ◽  
Margaret Osborne

Investigations of music in everyday life are dominated by a functional perspective, drawn from work using the theory of Uses and Gratifications. In so doing, we may have neglected to fully appreciate the value people place on music listening. Therefore, the present study considered if, and why, people value music listening and probed instances when they may not want to listen to music in everyday life. A sample of 319 university students residing in Australia (76.50% female, M age = 20.64) completed an online questionnaire, on which they were asked to provide short responses to open-ended questions directly addressing two research questions. Inductive thematic analysis yielded 13 themes synthesizing how participants valued listening to music, such as appreciation, emotion, time and engagement, cognitive factors, and mood regulation. Reasons for not listening to music were summarized by eight themes dominated by interference with activities that required focus or concentration, followed by environmental context, affective responses, music engagement and inversely, a preference for silence or other auditory stimuli. Fifteen percent of participants stated there was never a time they did not want to listen to music. The findings provide a novel perspective on the value of music listening beyond that considered by uses and gratifications with regard to the function of listening to music in everyday life.


2021 ◽  
pp. 240-264
Author(s):  
Robert H. Woody

Practically speaking, listening is the primary reason music exists at all. Providing a meaningful sonic experience for others is largely the reason that composers work so hard on their creations and performers enter the stage or recording studio. Human beings’ love of music can be seen in common music listening is in everyday life today. In this respect, it may seem strange to consider “the listener” as a musical role, let alone to regard music listening as a skill that people develop, even to specialized expert levels. Be that as it may, listening is an extremely important topic in the psychology of music. Many people would never consider themselves “musicians” still enthusiastically fill the role of serious listeners. This chapter offers in depth consideration of music listening, beginning with an examination of the processes of human hearing. It addresses the multiple types of listening in which people engage, from hearing music in the background while doing other things to focused listening for the purpose analyzing or evaluating the music heard. Special emphasis is given to music’s capacity to evoke strong emotions in music, sometimes to the point of physiological responses such as tears, shivers, and a racing heart.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Carlson ◽  
Johanna Wilson ◽  
Margarida Baltazar ◽  
Deniz Duman ◽  
Henna-Riikka Peltola ◽  
...  

Although music is known to be a part of everyday life and a resource for mood and emotion management, everyday life has changed significantly for many due to the global coronavirus pandemic, making the role of music in everyday life less certain. An online survey in which participants responded to Likert scale questions as well as providing free text responses was used to explore how participants were engaging with music during the first wave of the pandemic, whether and how they were using music for mood regulation, and how their engagement with music related to their experiences of worry and anxiety resulting from the pandemic. Results indicated that, for the majority of participants, while many felt their use of music had changed since the beginning of the pandemic, the amount of their music listening behaviors were either unaffected by the pandemic or increased. This was especially true of listening to self-selected music and watching live streamed concerts. Analysis revealed correlations between participants’ use of mood for music regulation, their musical engagement, and their levels of anxiety and worry. A small number of participants described having negative emotional responses to music, the majority of whom also reported severe levels of anxiety.


2011 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 208-228 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annelies van Goethem ◽  
John Sloboda

Musical experiences are often reported to influence emotions ( Juslin & Västfjäll, 2008 ; Sloboda, O’Neill, & Ivaldi, 2001 ): people consciously and unconsciously use music to change, create, maintain or enhance their emotions and moods (affect) on a daily basis for their personal benefit ( DeNora, 1999 ; Schramm, 2005 ). This is known as affect regulation. However, existing research has not yet answered questions of how music regulates affect, especially beyond the expressive properties of music ( Meyer, 1956 ). The aims of the studies presented here were to investigate (a) how music functions to regulate affect, (b) which affects it regulates, and (c) whether music listening can be considered a successful affect regulation device. A one-week diary study with interviews and a three-week diary study were conducted. The main findings were: (1) music helps through broader affect regulation strategies like distraction, introspection, and active coping; music can for example distract someone from the affect or situation, or help to think about the affect or situation in a rational way; (2) music plays a major role in creating happiness and relaxation; (3) music overall is a successful regulation device with a range of underlying mechanisms helping different strategies. The current paper is a valuable addition to the existing literature and provides several new insights into the function of music for affect regulation in everyday life. The insight gained into which strategies and underlying mechanisms are involved when music is used for affect regulation might be used for the benefit of people’s emotional wellbeing.


2011 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 208-228 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annelies van Goethem ◽  
John Sloboda

Musical experiences are often reported to influence emotions (Juslin & Västfjäll, 2008; Sloboda, O'Neill, & Ivaldi, 2001): people consciously and unconsciously use music to change, create, maintain or enhance their emotions and moods (affect) on a daily basis for their personal benefit (DeNora, 1999; Schramm, 2005). This is known as affect regulation. However, existing research has not yet answered questions of how music regulates affect, especially beyond the expressive properties of music (Meyer, 1956). The aims of the studies presented here were to investigate (a) how music functions to regulate affect, (b) which affects it regulates, and (c) whether music listening can be considered a successful affect regulation device. A one-week diary study with interviews and a three-week diary study were conducted. The main findings were: (1) music helps through broader affect regulation strategies like distraction, introspection, and active coping; music can for example distract someone from the affect or situation, or help to think about the affect or situation in a rational way; (2) music plays a major role in creating happiness and relaxation; (3) music overall is a successful regulation device with a range of underlying mechanisms helping different strategies. The current paper is a valuable addition to the existing literature and provides several new insights into the function of music for affect regulation in everyday life. The insight gained into which strategies and underlying mechanisms are involved when music is used for affect regulation might be used for the benefit of people's emotional wellbeing.


2019 ◽  
pp. 030573561988060 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda E Krause ◽  
Steven Caldwell Brown

With many ways for consumers to access and consume music, little is known about why people choose to listen to music via one format over another. Using a uses and gratifications approach, the present research used an online questionnaire ( N = 396) to examine people’s format use, concerning six particular formats. The results suggest that eight dimensions, namely, usability and intention to use, discovery, functional utility, flexibility, connection, social norms, value for money, and playback diversity, define the uses and gratifications that particular formats serve. When considering whether format use was related to broader music engagement behaviors, results indicated different associations between music engagement variables and format use suggesting that different formats allow listeners to engage with music in unique ways. Findings have implications for future research that examines how and why people engage with music listening in everyday life, elaborating further our understanding of how selection of particular formats can lead to different listening experiences.


2021 ◽  
pp. 102986492110303
Author(s):  
Amanda E. Krause ◽  
William G. Scott ◽  
Sarah Flynn ◽  
Beatrice Foong ◽  
Kitye Goh ◽  
...  

Everyday stressors—the irritating and disturbing events that happen in the context of everyday life—are common. The present research examined the relationship between everyday stressors and the use of music listening as a coping mechanism. In particular, it examined the use of music listening to cope with different types of everyday stressor and examined the relationship between this usage and listener characteristics, including demographics and music engagement style. Participants in the USA, Australia, and Malaysia ( N =553) completed an online survey. A factor analysis was used to identify five types of everyday stressor: Social, Financial, Performance Responsibilities, Work-related, and Daily Displeasures. Individuals listened to music significantly more often to cope with social and work-related stressors than performance responsibilities and daily displeasures. Moreover, individuals who demonstrated a stronger affective listening style and those who reported listening to music for emotion/problem-orientated and avoidance/disengagement reasons were found to listen to music most often to cope with everyday stressors. These findings have implications, for both listeners and health professionals, when considering how music listening can be used as a self-administered tool for coping with everyday stressors.


Author(s):  
Liila Taruffi

Research has shown that mind-wandering, negative mood, and poor wellbeing are closely related, stressing the importance of exploring contexts or tools that can stimulate positive thoughts and images. While music represents a promising option, work on this topic is still scarce with only a few studies published, mainly featuring laboratory or online music listening tasks. Here, I used the experience sampling method for the first time to capture mind-wandering during personal music listening in everyday life, aiming to test for the capacity of music to facilitate beneficial styles of mind-wandering and to explore its experiential characteristics. Twenty-six participants used a smart-phone application that collected reports of thought, mood, and emotion during music listening or other daily-life activities over 10 days. The application was linked to a music playlist, specifically assembled to induce positive and relaxing emotions. Results showed that mind-wandering evoked during music and non-music contexts had overall similar characteristics, although some minor differences were also observed. Most importantly, music-evoked emotions predicted thought valence, thereby indicating music as an effective tool to regulate thoughts via emotion. These findings have important applications for music listening in daily life as well as for the use of music in health interventions.


2021 ◽  
pp. 030573562110618
Author(s):  
Katrin Starcke ◽  
Sina Zimmermann ◽  
Richard von Georgi

Recent findings suggest that music listening plays an important role in affect and arousal modulation. Individuals use music to enhance their well-being and counteract negative affect in numerous everyday situations. We investigated whether listening to preferred, non-preferred, or no music altered affect, arousal, psychological and physical health, and stress. Thirty police officers participated in the study. After a baseline assessment, participants were divided into three experimental groups: Group 1 listened to their preferred music; Group 2 listened to their non-preferred music; and Group 3 did not listen to any music. The manipulation was maintained over a period of 7 days. At the end of each day, participants filled out questionnaires concerning their current affect, arousal, psychological and physical health, and stress. Results indicate that the no music group showed significant decreases in affect and psychological and physical health, and significant increases in stress levels compared with the other groups. In contrast, no statistical differences were observed between the non-preferred music group and the preferred music group. We conclude that not listening to any music might be followed by discomfort. We recommend music listening in everyday life for supporting health.


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