I guess I always knew this, but I love having the reference – Merry Melodies
If you really want to get out of a foul mood, try listening to a little music.
A new study out of Penn State finds that music really can sooth the savage breast, up to a point, and it really doesn’t matter what kind of music you listen to. As long as you like it.
“If you like music and choose to listen to it, it’s probably going to make you feel better regardless of what type it is,” says associate professor of psychology Valerie N. Stratton.
Stratton and associate music professor Annette H. Zalanowski, of Penn State’s Altoona campus, teamed up to take music research out of the laboratory and put it in the real world in which we live. They wanted to see when people listen to music, what types of music they prefer, and what types of moods that music induces.
It turns out that most of us listen to it a lot, but usually when we’re doing something else.
“We’ve been looking at music and behavior for quite a few years, and it finally struck us that most of the things we were doing, and most of the things that other people were doing, were within lab settings,” says Stratton. “There was really very little out there that looked at how people listened to music in their daily lives.”
And their findings:
The results of the study suggest that music is terrific when it comes to reinforcing, or elevating our positive moods, and can chase away some of our negative feelings, with one peculiar finding.
Among the non-music majors, sad, hateful and aggressive moods eased up a bit. But that didn’t work for the music majors. For them, those feelings remained either unchanged, or rose slightly.
As a non-music major, I do find that music helps me relax and work. Perhaps it has a major positive effect on my mood. Regardless, I do enjoy listening to music – and believe it rewarding for its own sake.
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2 Responses to Grooving while listening to my music
LibraryGryffon
October 30th, 2003 at 1:09 pm
As a former music major (BFA in music) I suspect that the music majors associated at least some sorts of music with their course work, which was probably at least part of the cause of their bad moods in the first place, hence the reinforcement. Also, as a (partially) trained musician, I find that listening to music, classical in particular, while very enjoyable, is not something I usually can do passively anymore.
JohnHays.net
October 31st, 2003 at 1:51 am
Medical Rants has me convinced
DB’s Medical Rants: Grooving while listening to my music. Well, DB has explained why I like to relax to the soothing music of ZZ Top. Man, I wish I could learn to how to play three chords….