The Psychology of Music (well, a small portion of it)

The Psychology of Music

Sorry that it’s been a long time since my first entry, but have been having all the drama of moving house, and of course; not having the internet.
My second blog post is inspired from quite an old issue of ‘The Psychologist’ (December 2009). It was a special issue run based on the psychology of music. I love music and love psychology and therefore why not combine the two in a blog post?
Basically the whole issue was a tonne of different articles about different aspects of this topic, so I’m just going to pick out a few bits that I found interesting for discussion.

The first article reflected very much on mood and how we use it, knowingly or unknowingly, to affect our thoughts and behaviour.
The article shone light on a correlation between rock music and self-depressing activities such as self-harming and suicidal thoughts. However, saying this, it was found that neither each of the variables (the music, or the self-depressing behaviour/thoughts) causes the other. In other words, listening to rock music doesn’t make one more likely to have suicidal thoughts or someone with suicidal thoughts may not create rock music. Therefore there must be something about the content of rock music which draws in said people. So are there a lot more factors influencing our choice in music?

Personally, I do tend to listen to music that reflects my mood- such as when feeling down and low- but I also find that I listen to music that will give me what I need psychologically at that time. Therefore I might listen to more upbeat music when wanting to feel motivated and happier and a lot of the time I find that I choose these songs by accident. I’ll be flipping through my iPod and then find that a tune appeals to me at that certain time- even if am unsure of my mood or what I want my mood to be at that time.

Or from the other scale of things; instead of picking music to compliment your mood, does listening to music sometimes completely change your frame of mind? The sound of classical music has been shown to influence more calming behaviour in not only human but also in animals. An experiment on dogs showed that when classic music was played into kennels, the dogs were more subdued, however when heavy rock music was played the dogs were more restless and barked much more often and loudly (Wells et al 2002, as cited North and Hargreaves 2009). So next time when feeling frustrated and stressed out, don’t pop on some hard hitting rock music as it’s bound to fuel your frustration further, but lay down and listen to some cool tune with a steady and slow beat.

However do you think it could be argued that by listening to rock music while in an unpleasant mood, could help the individual transfer their anger or work through it by listening to a hard tune? Or do you think that it could be too difficult to separate and leave your anger behind due to the rock music possibly prolonging it?
Who knows.

Any opinions? Comments? Do you listen to music a lot? Do you find it helpful? Frustrating? Maybe you’re amusic or tone deaf?

Take Care x

North, A.C. Hargreaves, D.J. 2009. The Power of Music. The Psychologist. UK.