Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Retrospective Theses and Dissertations Dissertations 1992 Music as a mood modulator Patricia Edwards Bleyle Iowa State University Follow this and additional works at: https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd Part of the Mental Disorders Commons, Music Therapy Commons, and the Psychology Commons Recommended Citation Bleyle, Patricia Edwards, "Music as a mood modulator" (1992). Retrospective Theses and Dissertations. 17311. https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd/17311 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Dissertations at Iowa State University Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Retrospective Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Iowa State University Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Music as a mood modulator by Patricia Edwards Bleyle A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE Department: Psychology Major: Psychology Signatures have been redacted for privacy IUYVa .... 'e.. ., Jniversity Ames, Iowa 1992 ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT iii INTRODUCTION 1 LITERATURE REVIEW 3 Music 3 Mood 6 Music and Mood 9 Theories of Mood Modulation Through Music Stimuli 1 5 M~D 31 Design 31 Subjects 31 Procedure 3 2 Experimental Sessions 33 Stimuli 34 Dependent Measures 3 5 RESULTS 38 Rating Scales 4 1 DISCUSSION 43 RetR~S 47 APPENDIX A. Depression Adjective Checklist 5 3 APPENDIX B. Activation-Deactivation Adjective Checklist 55 APPENDIX C. Preference in Music 59 APPENDIX D. Music Segments 6 1 APPENDIX E. Modified Informed Consent and Debriefing Statements 64 iii ABSTRACT Mood induction in normal subjects has been reported in numerous journal articles. A question exists as to whether these induced moods are identical with or the same as naturally occurring moods. This study was in part an attempt to compare music induced depressed mood and naturally occurring subclinically depressed mood based on mood and arousal patterns as measured by the Depression Adjective Check List and the Activation-Deactivation Adjective Check List. Thus it was a study of the differential response of normal and depressed subjects to two levels of music stimuli. Further, the study was designed to investigate the efficacy of music for modifying subclinically depressed mood states in young adults within a self-management framework. The efficacy of music to induce depressive mood states has been demonstrated in studies where mood­ contingent cognition and behavior are in question. The purpose of this study was to further this line of research by exploring the efficacy of music stimuli to modify (reduce rather than induce) naturally occurring negative mood states (operationally defined as reduced DACL scores and increased AD ACL energetic arousal states). The music stimuli for this research were designed by a registered music therapist and had been used to establish significant mood effects in other research. The results of the study showed that the two levels of selected music stimuli induced measurably significant differences in affect in depressed and nondepressed subjects. The predicted relationship of decreased subjective negative affect and increased subjective arousal held only for nondepressed subjects, suggesting differential response in terms of reactivity. 1 INTRODUCTION Music is present in all cultures, providing a construct through which mood can be expressed. The efficacy of music for altering mood states has been noted from earliest times, from antiquity by Greek physicians and philosophers, (e. g., Aristotle, Politics VIII, 7), through old testament (biblical) scriptures (e. g., Samuel, 16: 14-23), .. renaissance humanists (e.g., Burton, 162111927), the early experimental psychologists and continuing to the present. A recently published memoir or autobiographical case study (Styron, 1990) described the part played by music in the author's recovery from a severe depressive disorder. In 1944, the Music Research Foundation was organized to study the application of music to emotional and mental disorders. It was perhaps the first scientific study of the effect of music on emotion (Gutheil, 1952). Research projects were undertaken by psychologists and musicians with patients at Walter Reed General Hospital, Washington, DC, and authorized by the Surgeon General's Office (Gilman and Paperte, 1952). As Raymond B. Cattell (1954) studied musical preference and personality, Alexander Capurso (1952) studied moods associated with music through this research organization. After World War II music began to be applied specifically as therapy and evaluated systematically and scientifically. In 1950 the National Association for Music Therapy was organized for standardizing clinical practice and research. This line of research has focused on the institutional and therapeutic use of music in medicine, dentistry and learning disability in education. More recently there have been mood manipulation studies successfully using music stimuli to induce depressed or elated mood states as a basis for studying the effect of mood on perception, cognition, memory, and helping behavior in normal subjects (Clark, 1983; Goodwin and Williams, 1982; May and Hamilton, 1980; Mathews and 2 Bradley, 1983; Pignatiello, Camp and Rasar, 1986, 1989; Stratton and Zalanowski, 1989). The purpose of this study is to explore whether or not naturally occurring subclinically depressed mood states might be modified by selective music stimuli. That is, if acute mood states can be induced through music stimuli, might naturally occurring depressed mood states be reduced or modified through the same process? The modification of depressed mood through music stimuli is the focus of this study with the major application within a self-management framework. The ability of music to evoke mood makes it is a potentially powerful resource for mood modulation. 3 UTERATURE REVIEW Music Research in the psychology of music includes the psychoacoustic perspective and the psychomusic perspective. The psychoacoustic (synthetic, atomistic) perspective involves a laboratory approach in which particular variables (separate auditory stimuli) are isolated for the study of sensory responses to physical stimuli. Problems of perceptual organization of acoustical elements are studied from the psychoacoustic perspective. The psychomusic (holistic, meaningful or significant) perspective examines reactions to music and perceived aesthetic stimuli taken from real life. For the purpose of this study of music and mood, that is, research questions that deal with relationships between music and some type of human affective behavior, the focus on the psychomusic approach is appropriate (McMullen, 1980). Another basic distinction in music stimuli is made along absolutist and referential dimensions (Meyer, 1956; Radocy and Boyle, 1979). Absolutist theories view music's value or meaning as the result of the musical sounds themselves; that is, there is no musical meaning beyond that in the structure of the stimuli. Essentially any meaning or value derived from the music must be in terms of the intrinsic characteristics of the musical sound and structure and nothing else. Some absolutist theorists (expressionists) consider these embodied structural musical elements and patterns capable of exciting feelings and emotions in the listener; others (formalists) do not. The referentialist position holds that the meaning of music involves more than the sounds themselves, that it includes extra-musical associations such as the images, memories, designated moods and consensual connotations evoked by music stimuli. A third position is a relativist position which allows for some personally derived meaning. 4 For the relativist, musical association, imagery or analogy, is a psychological product of experience and cultural orientation. Radocy and Boyle (1979) and Kivy (1990) view classifications of music in terms of sensory, cognitive, and affective properties of music. On one level music can be a purely sensory experience. Responding to sound stimuli in a physical, primitive way seems genetically pre-patterned into our nervous system. We are particularly sensitive to the rhythm of drums, especially rhythm with a primitive and pronounced beat. At another level music listening may become a cognitive experience, primarily analytical, where the structure of the stimuli becomes most salient. Listening at this level may require training for such critical and comparative analysis. On yet another level music may be an analogic experience. Here the patterns of the sound (aural) stimuli may evoke feelings and images through association or by cuing, essentially the type of learning process of the classical conditioning paradigm. These three levels or classes of stimulus properties have been isolated in theory and research of the arousal potential of music. Psychophysical properties (McMullen, 1980), produce experience in activation behavior (energy, excitement, stimulation, intensity, motivation) with responses in terms of increased motor activity and positive mood change through arousal and neurophysiological and biochemical concomitants of arousal. This is thought to result from physical characteristics (frequency [pitch], amplitude [intensity] and its psychological correlate loudness, waveform [timbre]) and duration contained in the stimuli (soundwaves) generating activation which is integral to an affective