Emotion Modulation through Music after Sadness Induction—The Iso Principle in a Controlled Experimental Study

Music therapy intervention manuals suggest that individuals who suffer from affective disorders benefit from listening to music according to the iso principle. The iso principle comprises listening to music that matches the current mood of patients at first, and then to gradually shift to music that represents a desired mood. Within the current study, we investigate whether the sequence of music with different emotional valence can modulate the emotional state. All participants were healthy adults who underwent a sadness induction via a movie clip. They were subsequently divided into four experimental groups. Each was asked to listen to two pieces of music according to a specific sequence: sad-sad; sad-happy; happy-happy; happy-sad. Participants were prompt to rate their current emotional state at different stages of the experiment: prior to and after the movie clip, as well as after each of the two pieces of music. The frame used for the assessment was the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule and the Self-Assessment Manikin. The results indicate that the movie clip induced sadness. The group of participants who listened to the sad music first and the happy music afterwards ultimately reported a higher positive affect, a higher emotional valence, and a lower negative affect compared with the other groups. However, not all the between-group differences reached significance. We conclude that the sequence of music with different emotional valence affects the current emotional state. The results are generally in line with the iso principle. Directions for future research are presented.

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Hooked on a Feeling: Influence of Brief Exposure to Familiar Music on Feelings of Emotion in Individuals with Alzheimer’s Disease

Journal of Alzheimer s Disease ◽

10.3233/jad-200889 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 78 (3) ◽

pp. 1019-1031

Author(s):

Alaine E. Reschke-Hernández ◽

Amy M. Belfi ◽

Edmarie Guzmán-Vélez ◽

Daniel Tranel

Keyword(s):

Negative Affect ◽

Positive Affect ◽

Positive Emotions ◽

Emotional State ◽

Declarative Memory ◽

Music Listening ◽

Therapeutic Tool ◽

Impaired Memory ◽

Post Induction ◽

Sad Music

Background: Research has indicated that individuals with Alzheimer’s-type dementia (AD) can experience prolonged emotions, even when they cannot recall the eliciting event. Less is known about whether music can modify the emotional state of individuals with AD and whether emotions evoked by music linger in the absence of a declarative memory for the eliciting event. Objective: We examined the effects of participant-selected recorded music on self-reported feelings of emotion in individuals with AD, and whether these feelings persisted irrespective of declarative memory for the emotion-inducing stimuli. Methods: Twenty participants with AD and 19 healthy comparisons (HCs) listened to two 4.5-minute blocks of self-selected music that aimed to induce either sadness or happiness. Participants reported their feelings at baseline and three times post-induction and completed recall and recognition tests for the music selections after each induction. Results: Participants with AD had impaired memory for music selections compared to HCs. Both groups reported elevated sadness and negative affect after listening to sad music and increased happiness and positive affect after listening to happy music, relative to baseline. Sad/negative and happy/positive emotions endured up to 20 minutes post-induction. Conclusion: Brief exposure to music can induce strong and lingering emotions in individuals with AD. These findings extend the intriguing phenomenon whereby lasting emotions can be prompted by stimuli that are not remembered declaratively. Our results underscore the utility of familiar music for inducing emotions in individuals with AD and may ultimately inform strategies for using music listening as a therapeutic tool with this population.

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The Psychological Impact of Coronavirus Pandemic Restrictions in Italy. The Mediating Role of the Fear of COVID-19 in the Relationship between Positive and Negative Affect with Positive and Negative Outcomes

European Journal of Investigation in Health, Psychology and Education ◽

10.3390/ejihpe11030050 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (3) ◽

pp. 697-710

Author(s):

Andrea Zammitti ◽

Chiara Imbrogliera ◽

Angela Russo ◽

Rita Zarbo ◽

Paola Magnano

Keyword(s):

Negative Affect ◽

Psychological Health ◽

Well Being ◽

Future Research ◽

Positive And Negative Affect ◽

Ptsd Symptoms ◽

Negative Outcomes ◽

Event Scale ◽

Spiritual Well Being ◽

The Relationship

Italy was quickly hit hard by the coronavirus. ‘Lockdown’ has significantly impacted the psychological health, personal wellbeing and quality of life of the people. The study aims to explore the relationship between positive and negative affect, as well as positive (spiritual well-being and flourishing) and negative outcomes (psychological distress caused by a traumatic life event in terms of perception of PTSD symptoms) on Italian adults during the lockdown period. Data was collected between April and May 2020. The participants were 281 Italian adults aged between 18 and 73 years. The survey was composed of the following measures: Flourishing Scale, Jarel Spiritual Well-Being scale, Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, Impact of Event Scale—Revised, Fear of COVID-19. The mediational analysis shows that fear of COVID-19 fully mediates the relationship between negative affect and spiritual well-being and flourishing; fear of COVID-19 partially mediates the relationship between negative affect and PTSD symptoms; the positive affect shows only direct effects on positive outcomes. Therefore, fear of COVID-19 does not play any mediation role. Implications for psychological interventions and future research will be discussed.

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Relationship between pre-operative anxiety and post-operative state

Psychological Medicine ◽

10.1017/s0033291700044135 ◽

1980 ◽

Vol 10 (2) ◽

pp. 361-367 ◽

Cited By ~ 63

Author(s):

Marie Johnston ◽

Lucy Carpenter

Keyword(s):

Negative Affect ◽

Linear Relationship ◽

Emotional State ◽

Surgical Patients ◽

Curvilinear Relationship ◽

High Anxiety ◽

Subsequent Research ◽

Poor Outcome ◽

Poor Predictor

SYNOPSISJanis (1958) has proposed a curvilinear relationship between pre-operative anxiety and post-operative emotional state. While other hypotheses share the prediction of a poor outcome for patients with pre-operative high anxiety, Janis' theory is unique in predicting a poor outcome for those with low anxiety. Subsequent research has failed to confirm Janis' hypotheses, perhaps because the designs have been insensitive to the predictions for low anxiety patients.The current study tests the hypothesis more directly and finds some support for a linear relationship between pre-operative anxiety and post-operative negative affect, with no support for Janis' curvilinear hypothesis. On the whole, pre-operative anxiety was a poor predictor of other measures of recovery but, on one measure, patients with low anxiety showed a slower recovery than those with moderate anxiety, i.e. supporting the prediction of a poor outcome for low anxiety patients.The implications of these results for pre-operative preparation of surgical patients and the development of theories of anxiety are discussed.

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Patients’ Perspectives about Lifestyle Behaviors and Health in the Context of Family Medicine: A Cross-Sectional Study in Portugal

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph18062981 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 18 (6) ◽

pp. 2981

Author(s):

Rosália Páscoa ◽

Andreia Teixeira ◽

Micaela Gregório ◽

Rosa Carvalho ◽

Carlos Martins

Keyword(s):

Family Medicine ◽

Family Doctor ◽

Cross Sectional Study ◽

Demographic Variables ◽

Future Research ◽

Lifestyle Behaviors ◽

Sectional Study ◽

Self Assessment ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

The Family

Lifestyle interventions are recognized as essential in the prevention and treatment of non-communicable diseases. Previous studies have shown that Portuguese patients tend to give more importance to diagnostic and laboratory tests than to lifestyle measures, and seem unaware that behavioral risks are the main modifiable risk factors. The study aimed to analyze patients’ perspectives about lifestyle behaviors and health in the context of family medicine in Portugal. A population-based cross-sectional study was carried out in Portugal (the mainland). A total of 900 Portuguese patients aged ≥20 years, representative of the population, were surveyed using face-to-face questionnaires. Participants were selected by the random route method. Descriptive statistics and non-parametric tests were performed to evaluate differences between the personal beliefs and the personal behavior self-assessment, as well as between the level of importance given to the family doctor to address health behaviors and the reported approach implemented by the family doctor, and its association with bio-demographic variables. The results indicate that the vast majority of this Portuguese cohort has informed beliefs regarding lifestyle behaviors, tends to overestimate their own behavior self-assessment, and strongly agrees that it is important that their family doctor asks/advises on these lifestyle behaviors, although the proportion of those who totally agree that their family doctor usually does this is significantly lower. Differences concerning bio-demographic variables were found. Future research directions should focus on the politics, economics, and policy aspects that may have an impact in this area. It will also be important to understand more broadly the relationships between lifestyle behaviors and clinical, physical, and sociodemographic variables.

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Presence Effects in Virtual Reality Based on User Characteristics: Attention, Enjoyment, and Memory

Electronics ◽

10.3390/electronics10091051 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (9) ◽

pp. 1051

Author(s):

Si Jung Kim ◽

Teemu H. Laine ◽

Hae Jung Suk

Keyword(s):

Virtual Reality ◽

Emotional State ◽

Eye Gaze ◽

Emotional Valence ◽

Media Content ◽

Eye Tracker ◽

User Characteristics ◽

Head Mounted Display ◽

Age Range ◽

Different Levels

Presence refers to the emotional state of users where their motivation for thinking and acting arises based on the perception of the entities in a virtual world. The immersion level of users can vary when they interact with different media content, which may result in different levels of presence especially in a virtual reality (VR) environment. This study investigates how user characteristics, such as gender, immersion level, and emotional valence on VR, are related to the three elements of presence effects (attention, enjoyment, and memory). A VR story was created and used as an immersive stimulus in an experiment, which was presented through a head-mounted display (HMD) equipped with an eye tracker that collected the participants’ eye gaze data during the experiment. A total of 53 university students (26 females, 27 males), with an age range from 20 to 29 years old (mean 23.8), participated in the experiment. A set of pre- and post-questionnaires were used as a subjective measure to support the evidence of relationships among the presence effects and user characteristics. The results showed that user characteristics, such as gender, immersion level, and emotional valence, affected their level of presence, however, there is no evidence that attention is associated with enjoyment or memory.

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Handedness affects Emotional Valence Asymmetry

Perceptual and Motor Skills ◽

10.2466/pms.1989.68.2.435 ◽

1989 ◽

Vol 68 (2) ◽

pp. 435-441 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Richard A. McFarland ◽

Robert Kennison

Keyword(s):

Negative Affect ◽

Hemispheric Asymmetry ◽

Emotional Responses ◽

Emotional Valence ◽

Left Handed ◽

Two Factors ◽

Left And Right ◽

The Asymmetry ◽

The Right ◽

Cerebral Processing

Music was played monaurally to 80 right-handed and 80 left-handed subjects. Right-handers reported more positive and less negative affect if the music was to the right ear. Left-handers reported experiencing more positive and less negative affect during music to the left ear. The hand × ear interaction was significant. The valence of emotional responses to the music seems influenced by a combination of at least two factors, (1) differences between left- and right-handers in the cerebral processing of emotional valence and (2) differences in the processing of emotional valence within each handedness group depending upon which hemisphere was initially most strongly engaged by the music. These results partially corroborate and extend the findings of previous studies in which briefer stimuli were presented tachistoscopically or dichotically. It is concluded that, while there is hemispheric asymmetry in the processing of emotional valence, the direction of the asymmetry may be associated with the handedness of the subjects.

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Specificity of Future Thinking in Depression: A Meta-Analysis

10.31234/osf.io/y84pu ◽

2018 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Beau Gamble ◽

David Moreau ◽

Lynette J. Tippett ◽

Donna Rose Addis

Keyword(s):

Random Effects ◽

Meta Analysis ◽

Emotional Valence ◽

Effect Sizes ◽

Current Evidence ◽

Future Research ◽

Future Thinking ◽

Moderator Variables ◽

Search Terms ◽

The Relationship

Reduced specificity of autobiographical memory has been well established in depression, but whether this ‘overgenerality’ extends to future thinking has not been the focus of a meta-analysis. Following a preregistered protocol, we searched six electronic databases, Google Scholar, personal libraries, and contacted authors in the field for studies matching search terms related to depression, future thinking, and specificity. We reduced an initial 7,332 results to 46 included studies, with 89 effect sizes and 4,813 total participants. Random effects meta-analytic modelling revealed a small but robust correlation between reduced future specificity and higher levels of depression (r = .13, p < .001). Of the 11 moderator variables examined, the most striking effects related to the emotional valence of future thinking (p < .001) and the sex of participants (p = .025). Namely, depression was linked to reduced specificity for positive (but not negative or neutral) future thinking, and the relationship was stronger in samples with a higher proportion of males. This meta-analysis contributes to our understanding of how prospection is altered in depression and dysphoria and, by revealing areas where current evidence is inconclusive, highlights key avenues for future research.

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I Get Knocked Down but I Get Up Again: The Effects of Listening to Music When Sad on Young Adults

10.31234/osf.io/hkqcs ◽

2018 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Joel L Larwood ◽

Genevieve Dingle

Keyword(s):

Young Adults ◽

Emotion Regulation ◽

Research Finding ◽

Emotional State ◽

Music Listening ◽

Random Assignment ◽

Regulation Process ◽

Baseline Levels ◽

The Impact ◽

Sad Music

*THIS PAPER HAS NOT YET BEEN PEER REVIEWED* Listening to music is a strategy many people use to regulate their emotions, especially sadness. However, there is disagreement about whether listening to music is a healthy way to regulate emotions, with some research finding that sad music worsens a sad state, especially for people high in rumination. To further explore the immediate consequences of music listening when sad 128 young adults (41% male, aged 18 to 25 years) were induced into a sad emotional state prior to random assignment to listening of either self-selected music, experimenter-selected sad music, or no music. Results revealed that listening to either self-selectedor experimenter-selected music led to a decrease in sadness. No difference was found between groups at post-listening. However, participants who listened to self-selected music reported a return to baseline levels of sadness, while this did not occur for participants who listened to experimenter-selected or were in the no music control. Rumination was also measured but did not moderate the impact of music listening on sadness for either musiccondition. Furthermore, there was no impact of rumination on participants’ perceptions of sadness in music. These results support the notion that listening to sad music does not worsen a sad state—even for those high in rumination—although it does appear to slow the emotion regulation process in cases where sad music is not self-selected.

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Support of Workplace Diversity Policies: The Role of Race, Gender, and Beliefs about Inequality

10.31235/osf.io/yfznx ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

William Scarborough ◽

Danny Lambouths ◽

Allyson Holbrook

Keyword(s):

Direct Evidence ◽

Group Differences ◽

Future Research ◽

Workplace Diversity ◽

Survey Experiment ◽

Representation Of Women ◽

Workplace Policies ◽

Levels Of Support ◽

Analyze Data

Workplace diversity policies are more effective when they are supported by managers and workers, but there is little direct evidence on how people feel about these policies or why they hold certain opinions. In this study, we analyze data from a survey experiment designed to assess public opinion about a range of workplace diversity policies. We examine how support for these policies among employed respondents varies by race, gender, and by the targeted population (i.e. whether the policies aim to improve the workplace representation of women or racial minorities). Using OLS regression models to analyze a diverse sample of employed persons participating in the survey, we find that women, blacks, and Latina/os are more supportive of diversity policies than men and whites, and a substantial portion of these gender/race differences can be explained by group-differences in the belief that discrimination causes inequality. In addition, we find that respondents report lower levels of support for workplace policies when these policies are framed as a mechanism to increase diversity than when they are framed as being needed to address discrimination or if no justification is given for the policy. Our findings highlight the role of inequality beliefs in shaping worker support for diversity policies, suggesting directions for future research on how such beliefs are developed.

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Effect of COVID-19 Disruptions on Young Adults' Affect and Substance Use in Daily Life

10.31219/osf.io/tj7e2 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Lauren Papp ◽

Chrystyna D Kouros

Keyword(s):

Risk Factors ◽

Young Adults ◽

Negative Affect ◽

Repeated Measures ◽

Daily Life ◽

Baseline Period ◽

Drug Misuse ◽

Future Research ◽

Group Status ◽

Prescription Drug Misuse

Objective: Guided by accounts of adjustment in daily life as a key indicator of health, the current study examined prospective changes in young adults’ emotions and substance behaviors assessed during a normative baseline period and during the acute COVID-19 disruption period in late March/early April 2020. The COVID-19 assessment also collected psychosocial risk factors expected to moderate changes in adjustment across time. Method: Participants included 295 young adults (70.8% female; ages 18-21 at baseline), drawn from an ongoing study of daily behaviors and health in college life that oversampled for recent substance behaviors, who completed both the baseline and COVID-19 assessments. Hypotheses were tested using analyses of repeated-measures data that included covariates of length of time between assessments and sampling group status. Results: Direct tests in support of hypotheses indicated an increase in negative affect (d = .67, p < .001), and greater alcohol use (d = .75, p < .001) and marijuana use (d = .58, p < .001), in daily life across time. Levels of positive affect (d = .08, p > .05), nicotine use (d = .01, p > .05), and prescription drug misuse (d = .003, p > .05) did not reliably change in tests of direct models. Moderation tests indicated several risk factors for experiencing steeper increases in negative affect, and increased likelihood of marijuana and nicotine use, in daily life across time. Conclusions: Findings offer implications for future research and clinical efforts to improve young adult adjustment in response to the pandemic.

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