Measuring music-induced emotion: A comparison of emotion models, personality biases, and intensity of experiences (original) (raw)

Emotions represented and induced by music: The role of individual differences

Yksilöllisten erojen merkitys musiikillisten emootioiden …, 2012

The primary aim of this work was to investigate how listener attributes such as personality, empathy, and mood contribute to different emotional phenomena in the context of music. Predictions arising from personality and emotion theories were applied to music-related emotional phenomena, and tested using methods of experimental psychology. The emotional phenomena under investigation were perceived emotions, felt emotions, and preference for music expressing different emotions. A related aim was to systematically compare the applicability of different emotion models in the measurement of emotions expressed and induced by music. The work comprises five publications, each investigating a different aspect of the main aims. The findings suggest that personality, mood, and empathy contribute notably to individual differences in music-related emotional phenomena. Temporary mood was reliably associated with mood-congruent biases in ratings of perceived emotions, while personality traits correlated with preference ratings for music excerpts expressing different emotions. In the case of music-induced emotions, both mood and personality were associated with the intensity of emotional responses evoked by different types of excerpts, whereas trait empathy contributed to the susceptibility to music-induced sadness. Regarding the results of the emotion model comparisons, it is concluded that the dimensional model of affect may provide the most coherent and reliable ratings in studies where varied musical stimuli are used. Implications for future studies are raised concerning the significance of individual differences in musical contexts, as well as the selection of an appropriate emotion model for the study of emotions represented and induced by music.

The role of mood and personality in the perception of emotions represented by music

Neuroimaging studies investigating the processing of emotions have traditionally considered variance between subjects as statistical noise. However, according to behavioural studies, individual differences in emotional processing appear to be an inherent part of the process itself. Temporary mood states as well as stable personality traits have been shown to influence the processing of emotions, causing trait- and mood-congruent biases. The primary aim of this study was to explore how listeners’ personality and mood are reflected in their evaluations of discrete emotions represented by music. A related aim was to investigate the role of personality in music preferences. An experiment was carried out where 67 participants evaluated 50 music excerpts in terms of perceived emotions (anger, fear, happiness, sadness, and tenderness) and preference. Current mood was associated with mood-congruent biases in the evaluation of emotions represented by music, but extraversion moderated the degree of mood-congruence. Personality traits were strongly connected with preference ratings, and the correlations reflected the trait-congruent patterns obtained in prior studies investigating self-referential emotional processing. Implications for future behavioural and neuroimaging studies on music and emotions are raised.

Perceived and Induced Emotion Responses to Popular Music

Music Perception, 2016

Music both conveys and evokes emotions, and although both phenomena are widely studied, the difference between them is often neglected. The purpose of this study is to examine the difference between perceived and induced emotion for Western popular music using both categorical and dimensional models of emotion, and to examine the influence of individual listener differences on their emotion judgment. A total of 80 musical excerpts were randomly selected from an established dataset of 2,904 popular songs tagged with one of the four words “happy,” “sad,” “angry,” or “relaxed” on the Last.FM web site. Participants listened to the excerpts and rated perceived and induced emotion on the categorical model and dimensional model, and the reliability of emotion tags was evaluated according to participants’ agreement with corresponding labels. In addition, the Goldsmiths Musical Sophistication Index (Gold-MSI) was used to assess participants’ musical expertise and engagement. As expected, reg...

A Review of Music and Emotion studies: Approaches, Emotion models

2013

grown rapidly and diversified during the last decade. This has led to a certain degree of confusion and incon-sistency between competing notions of emotions, data, and results. The present review of 251 studies describes the focus of prevalent research approaches, methods, and models of emotion, and documents the types of musical stimuli used over the past twenty years. Although self-report approaches to emotions are the most common way of dealing with music and emotions, using multiple approaches is becoming increasingly popular. A large majority (70%) of the studies employed variants of the discrete or the dimensional emotion models. A large proportion of stimuli rely on a relatively modest amount of familiar classical examples. The evi-dent shortcomings of these prevalent patterns in music and emotion studies are highlighted, and concrete plans of action for future studies are suggested.

A review of music and emotion studies: Approaches, emotion models and stimuli

The field of music and emotion research has grown rapidly and diversified during the last decade. This has led to a certain degree of confusion and inconsistency between competing notions of emotions, data, and results. The present review of 251 studies describes the focus of prevalent research approaches, methods, and models of emotion, and documents the types of musical stimuli used over the past twenty years. Although self-report approaches to emotions are the most common way of dealing with music and emotions, using multiple approaches is becoming increasingly popular. A large majority (70%) of the studies employed variants of the discrete or the dimensional emotion models. A large proportion of stimuli rely on a relatively modest amount of familiar classical examples. The evident shortcomings of these prevalent patterns in music and emotion studies are highlighted, and concrete plans of action for future studies are suggested.