0000000000144480
AUTHOR
Margarida Baltazar
The Role of Music in Everyday Life During the First Wave of the Coronavirus Pandemic : A Mixed-Methods Exploratory Study
Although music is known to be a part of everyday life and a resource for mood and emotion management, everyday life has changed significantly for many due to the global coronavirus pandemic, making the role of music in everyday life less certain. An online survey in which participants responded to Likert scale questions as well as providing free text responses was used to explore how participants were engaging with music during the first wave of the pandemic, whether and how they were using music for mood regulation, and how their engagement with music related to their experiences of worry and anxiety resulting from the pandemic. Results indicated that, for the majority of participants, whi…
Success in reaching affect self-regulation goals through everyday music listening
While music listening on mobile phones can serve many affect-regulatory goals, success in reaching these goals is yet to be empirically assessed. This study aimed to determine how frequently listeners successfully reach their affect-regulatory goals, and the predictors of this success. Data were collected using the experience sampling app MuPsych, from 293 Finnish participants. Goals were successfully reached in less than half of cases, with adults more successful than adolescents. Success was determined largely within contexts, and strongly predicted by an initial low-valenced emotional state of the listener, suggesting that music listening is particularly useful for those in negative stat…
Is it me or the music? : Stress reduction and the role of regulation strategies and music
Music is a common resource for the regulation of emotions, moods, and stress. This study aimed at determining the individual and relative impact on stress reduction of two of the main factors involved in musical affect regulation: regulation strategies and music itself. The current study took place in an experimental setting and followed a factorial within-subjects design. First, the participants ( n = 34) filled in an online survey where they identified their self-perceived “adequate”/“inadequate” music examples for the purpose of reducing stress and self-perceived “adequate”/“inadequate” strategies for the same purpose. In the lab they went through a stress induction procedure and then w…
Toward a better understanding and conceptualization of affect self-regulation through music : A critical, integrative literature review
Research on the affective phenomena involved in music has grown exponentially over the last 20 years. One particular topic is the use of music for affect self-regulation (i.e., the process of creating, changing, or maintaining affective states). Being a recent field of research, knowledge remains scattered and heterogeneous. An integrative literature review was conducted to present the results from recent research and critically analyse its overall conceptual state. A systematic search of online databases focusing on publications from January 1994 to June 2014 was completed. An extensive screening resulted in the selection of 34 publications, which were analysed with regard to their focus,…
Strategies and mechanisms in musical affect self-regulation: A new model
This study aimed at investigating the associations between regulation strategies and musical mechanisms involved in musical affect self-regulation. A sample of 571 participants was collected and the data regarding the reported strategies and mechanisms were analysed using correspondence analysis (CA). Three bipolar dimensions – cognition, feelings, and body – were retained for interpretation, thus revealing six contrasting strategic uses of music: cognitive work, entertainment, affective work, distraction, revival, and focus on situation. Clear associations between strategies and mechanisms emerged from the CA, connecting cognitive, feelings-focused, and situational processing with individ…
Music Listening for Supporting Adolescents’ Sense of Agency in Daily Life
Sense of agency refers to the ability to influence one’s functioning and environment, relating to self-efficacy and wellbeing. In youth, agency may be challenged by external demands or redefinition of self-image. Music, having heightened relevance for the young, has been argued to provide feelings of self-agency for them. Yet, there is little empirical research on how music impacts adolescents’ daily sense of agency. The current study investigated whether music listening influences adolescents’ perceived agency in everyday life and which individual and contextual determinants would explain such an influence. Participants were 44 adolescents (48% female, 36% with training in music, mean age …
Supplemental Material, Appendices_(1) - Is it me or the music? Stress reduction and the role of regulation strategies and music
Supplemental Material, Appendices_(1) for Is it me or the music? Stress reduction and the role of regulation strategies and music by Margarida Baltazar, Daniel Västfjäll, Erkin Asutay, Lina Koppel and Suvi Saarikallio in Music & Science
Musical affect regulation in adolescents: A conceptual model
Adolescents actively use music for affect regulation. In this chapter, affect is considered as a broad umbrella term containing moods, emotions, motivational impulses, and energy levels. Theoretical and empirical research has recently been unveiling the components involved in affect self-regulation, such as the psychological functions of music listening, affective goals, regulation strategies, and musical mechanisms. The study of these components and of their interactions has resulted in a better understanding of the dynamics between music engagement, wellbeing, and psychological development among adolescents. The purpose of this chapter is to present a conceptual model of musical affect se…
Adolescents’ musical relaxation: understanding related affective processing
Music listening promotes adolescents’ well-being and relaxation in daily life. Relaxation is linked to affective self-regulation, but little is known about the specific affective processes of musical relaxation. The current study aimed to elaborate the affective dimension of adolescents’ musical relaxation, through detailed exploration of the related affect regulation goals, strategies, and induction mechanisms. A qualitative study with 55 adolescents (42 girls, 13 boys), aged 15, was conducted. Participants listened to self-selected relaxation music for 20 min, once in a laboratory and once at home, and provided written descriptions of their experience. A total of 110 episode descriptions …
Songs Perceived as Relaxing : Musical Features, Lyrics, and Contributing Mechanisms
How we listen to music has been changing rapidly in the last years, with online streaming becoming more predominant. Besides the gain in accessibility for the listeners, the growth of online services also affords easier access to data for musical analyses. A growing body of research has been showing that daily life music listening serves varied functions, from affect regulation to social bonding. More specifically, the reduction of stress responses is quite pertinent in the contemporary world, and recent studies have high-lighted the importance of adequate musical choices. This study aimed to identify the characteristics of music that individuals perceive as favorable to relax and to compar…
Music as a Forum for Social-Emotional Health
This chapter discusses social-emotional competence (SEC) as a psychological resource that can be supported by music engagement and that can explain music’s positive impact on mental health. Social-emotional competence is a set of psychological resources including social and emotional awareness, adaptive emotion regulation and coping, self-determination, resilience, and prosocial communication and interaction. This set of skills is fundamental for the healthy adaptation of an individual to the environment and highly impacts well-being. Thanks to its deep connections to emotion and social bonding, music can be seen as a forum for training, learning, and fostering such skills. In this chapter,…
Affect self-regulation through music
The present dissertation focused on musical affect regulation, i.e. on the use of music to self-regulate affective states such as emotions, moods, and energy levels. In publication I, relevant findings from previous research were extracted and the field’s conceptual clarity and precision was assessed. Besides identifying weaknesses in conceptualization and providing recommendations for future studies, publication I found that not all the elements of affect regulation through music have been equally explored by research. Given the gap observed on the study of musical mechanisms underlying affect regulation, publication II placed a special focus on this component and its association with regu…