Adaptive and maladaptive attraction to negative emotions in music

Abstract

Individual differences were investigated in an attempt to explain why some people are attracted to negative emotion (grief, sadness) in music. A 10-item Like Sad Music Scale (LSMS) was developed (Cronbach's a = .802) and compared against subscales measuring absorption, music empathy, rumination, reflectiveness and nostalgia-proneness. This was tested via an online survey, completed by 137 participants. It was hypothesized that absorption and reflectiveness would be correlated with the enjoyment of sad music and rumination would be correlated with an attraction to sad music although not necessarily an enjoyment of it. Consistent with previous findings, absorption was a good predictor of the LSMS and was particularly correlated with the enjoyment of strong emotions in connection with sad music. Rumination correlated with LSMS items 'helps release sadness' and 'can relate to sadness' while reflectiveness correlated with the item 'I often find myself grieving as a result of listening to sad music'. These correlations suggest both adaptive and maladaptive uses of sad music for mood manipulation. The results were presented with respect to the dissociation theory of aesthetic enjoyment, where participants with the capacity to enter states of absorption are able to deactivate displeasure circuits and hence enjoy negative emotion in music.

Examining the relationship between self-reported mood management and music preferences of Australian teenagers

“…These results suggest that those who are struggling with depression (sadness) and anxiety (stressed) may be less successful in moderating their mood in a positive direction. This is in keeping with other research where participants have reported mental health status separately to reporting on musical engagement (Garrido & Schubert, 2013;Miranda & Claes, 2009). The distinction between studies using different methodologies for soliciting information about mood and mental health was identified as highly influential in a critical synthesis of the literature on young people, music and depression (McFerran, Garrido, & Saarikallio, 2013).…”

“…Section 1 comprised questions to gather the socioeconomic data including a question on religiosity inspired by Stack and Gundlach's finding (1992). Section 2 addressed musical attributes such as estimated hours spent listening to music each week, information that has been collected in most studies of this topic (Garrido & Schubert, 2013;North, Hargreaves, & O'Neill, 2000;Schwartz & Fouts, 2003). Section 3 sought general information regarding music preferences, including how changeable these preferences were and whether this was influenced by peer's preferences, as suggested by Tarrant (2002).…”

Group Rumination: Social Interactions Around Music in People with Depression

“…These items included 3 items relating to some of the reasons that people frequently give for listening to sad music (Garrido and Schubert, 2013), and 3 items relating to the emotional reactions people may be seeking with their preferred music listening choices. A further 13 items were designed to explore how people interact with music when with friends, and the effects of listening to music both alone and with others, while an additional item specifically focused on the mood effects achieved when listening to self-selected music when sad (Appendix: “Mood Effect”).…”

Attitudes toward sad music are related to both preferential and contextual strategies.

“…Moreover, sadness induced by music has been suggested to be comparable to genuine sadness elicited by autobiographical memories , and that certain personality traits -dispositional 3 empathy among others -are connected with liking for sad music (Garrido & Schubert, 2011;Garrido & Schubert, 2013;. Interestingly, those who tend to experience more empathic sadness in response to sad music also tend to enjoy sad music more , suggesting a link between empathic engagement and the potentially positive effects of sad music.…”