The relative utility of the ‘pleasantness’ and ‘liking’ dimensions in predicting emotions expressed by music was investigated. The sample of 121 undergraduates (79 female, 42 male) listened to four songs representing each of the four quadrants of the circumplex model of emotion and rated each song on pleasantness, liking, arousal, familiarity, and the expression of eight emotions. The findings indicated that the emotions expressed in these diverse pieces of music were quite reliably predicted by a combination of the arousal, pleasantness, and familiarity variables, although the amount of variance accounted for by these equations was moderate at best. Pleasantness also represented a more useful predictor of emotions expressed than did liking when the circumplex model of emotion was applied to the musical domain.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Almagor, M. and Ben-Porath, Y. (1989) ‘The Two-factor Model of Self-reported Mood: A Cross-cultural Replication’ , Journal of Personality Assessment53: 10–21 .
2.
Alpert, J.I. and Alpert, M.I. (1990) ‘Music Influences on Mood and Purchase Intentions’ , Psychology and Marketing7: 109–133 .
3.
American Psychological Association (2002) ‘Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct’ , American Psychologist57(12): 1060–1073 . Available: http://www.apa.org/ethics/code2002.html
4.
Areni, C.S. and Kim, D. (1993) ‘The Influence of Background Music on Shopping Behavior: Classical Versus Top-forty Music in a Wine Store’ , Advances in Consumer Research20: 336–340 .
5.
Berlyne, D.E. (1971) Aesthetics and Psychobiology. New York: Appleton-Century Crofts .
6.
Berlyne, D.E. (1974) Studies in the New Experimental Aesthetics: Steps Towards an Objective Psychology of Aesthetic Appreciation. London: Halstead Press .
Bruner, G. C. (1990) ‘Music, Mood, and Marketing’ , Journal of Marketing54(4): 94–104 .
9.
Bunt, L. (1997) ‘Clinical and Therapeutic Uses of Music’, in D.J. Hargreaves and A.C. North (eds) The Social Psychology of Music, pp. 249–267. Oxford: Oxford University Press .
10.
Cannon, W.B. (1927) ‘The James-Lange Theory of Emotions: A Critical Examination and an Alternative Theory’ , American Journal of Psychology39: 106–124 .
11.
Enya (1988) ‘Orinoco Flow’. On Watermark [CD]. Dublin: WEA Records .
12.
Feldman Barrett, L. and Russell, J.A. (1999) ‘The Structure of Current Affect: Controversies and Emerging Consensus’ , Current Directions in Psychological Science8(1): 10–14 .
13.
Gfeller, K.E. (1990) ‘The Function of Aesthetic Stimuli in the Therapeutic Process’, in R.F. Unkefer (ed.) Music Therapy in the Treatment of Adults with Mental Disorders, pp. 70–81. New York: Schirmer Books .
14.
Greene, W.H. (1995) LIMDEP Version 7.0: Reference guide. Bellport, NY: Econometric Software, Inc.
15.
Hansen, C.H. and Hansen, R.D. (1991) ‘Schematic Information Processing of Heavy Metal Lyrics’ , Communication Research18: 373–411 .
16.
Iwanaga, M., Ikeda, M. and Iwaki, T. (1996) ‘The effects of repetitive exposure to music on subjective and physiological responses to music’ , Journal of Music Therapy33: 219–230 .
17.
James, W. (1950[1890]) The Principles of Psychology. New York: Dover .
18.
Kivy, P. (1980) The Corded Shell. Princeton: Princeton University Press .
19.
Larsen, R.J. and Diener, E. (1992) ‘Promises and Problems with the Circumplex Theory of Emotion’, in M.S. Clark (ed.) Review of Personality and Social Psychology: Emotion (Vol. 13), pp. 25–29. London: Sage .
20.
Levinson, J. (1982) ‘Music and Negative Emotion’ , Pacific Philosophical Quarterly63: 327–346 .
21.
Litle, P. and Zuckerman, M. (1986) Personality and Individual Differences7(4): 575–577 .
22.
Mandler, G. (1984) Mind and Body. New York: Norton .
23.
Martin, R. (1998) ‘La Copa De La Vida/The Cup Of Life’ (Remix – Spanglish Radio Edit). On Vuelve [CD]. New York: Sony Music .
24.
Mehrabian, A. and Russell, J.A. (1974) An Approach to Environmental Psychology Cambridge, MA: MIT Press .
25.
Meyer, L. (1956) Emotion and Meaning in Music. Chicago: University of Chicago Press .
26.
Morrisette, A. (1995) ‘Head Over Feet’. On The Jagged Little Pill [CD]. Los Angeles: Maverick .
27.
Murry, J.P. and Dacin, P.A. (1996) ‘Cognitive Moderators of Negative-emotion Effects: Implications for Understanding Media Context’ , Journal of Consumer Research22: 439–447 .
28.
Newman, J., Rosenbach, J.H., Burns, K.L., Latimer, B.C., Matocha, H.R. and Vogt, E.R. (1995) ‘An Experimental Test of “the Mozart Effect”: Does Listening to his Music Improve Spatial Ability?’ , Perceptual and Motor Skills81: 1379–1387 .
29.
North, A.C. and Hargreaves, D.J. (1995) ‘Subjective Complexity, Familiarity, and Liking for Popular Music’ , Psychomusicology14: 77–93 .
30.
North, A.C. and Hargreaves, D.J. (1997) ‘Liking, Arousal Potential,and the Emotions Expressed by Music’ , Scandinavian Journal of Psychology38: 45–53 .
31.
Pearl Jam (1994) ‘Bugs’. On Vitalogy [CD]. New York: Epic Records .
32.
Plutchik, R. (1994) The Psychology and Biology of Emotion (1st ed.). New York: HarperCollins .
33.
Purcell, A. T. (1982) ‘The Structure of Activation and Emotion’ , Multivariate Behavioural Research17: 221–251 .
34.
Rage Against The Machine (1992) ‘Killing In The Name’. On Rage Against The Machine [CD]. New York: Epic Records .
35.
Rawlings, D., Hodge, M., Sherr, D. and Dempsey, A. (1995) ‘Toughmindedness and Preference for Musical Excerpts, Categories and Triads’ , Psychology of Music23: 63–80 .
36.
Russell, J.A. (1979) ‘Affective Space is Bipolar’ , Journal of Personality and Social Psychology37: 345–356 .
37.
Russell, J.A. (1980) ‘A Circumplex Model of Affect’ , Journal of Personality and Social Psychology39: 1161–1178 .
38.
Russell, J.A. (1983) ‘Pancultural Aspects of the Human Conceptual Organisation of Emotions’ , Journal of Personality and Social Psychology45: 1281–1288 .
39.
Russell, J.A. and Bullock, M. (1985) ‘Multidimensional Scaling of Emotional Facial Expressions: Similarity of Preschoolers to Adults’ , Journal of Personality and Social Psychology48: 1290–1298 .
40.
Russell, J.A., Lewicka, M. and Niit, T. (1989) ‘A Cross-cultural Study of a Circumplex Model of Affect’ , Journal of Personality and Social Psychology57: 848–856 .
41.
Russell, J.A., Ward, L.M. and Pratt, G. (1981) ‘Affective QualitiesAttributed to Environments: A Factor Analytic Study’ , Environment and Behaviour13: 259–288 .
42.
Schachter, S. (1971) Emotion, Obesity and Crime. New York: Academic Press .
43.
Schubert, E. (1996) ‘Enjoyment of Negative Emotions in Music: An Associative Network Explanation’ , Psychology of Music24: 18–28 .
44.
Seidman, S.A. (1981) ‘On the Contributions of Music to Media Productions’ , Educational Communication and Technology Journal29: 49–61 .
45.
Sjberg, L., Svensson, E. and Perrson, L. (1979) ‘The Measurement of Mood’ , Scandinavian Journal of Psychology20: 1–18 .
46.
Sloboda, J.A. and Juslin, P.N. (2001) ‘Psychological Perspectives on Music and Emotion’, in P.N. Juslin and J.A. Sloboda (eds) Music and Emotion: Theory and Research, pp. 77–104. Oxford: Oxford University Press .
47.
Storr, A. (1992) Music and the Mind. New York: Ballantine Books .
48.
Stratton, V.N. and Zalanowski, A.H. (1984) ‘The Relationship between Music, Degree of Liking, and Self-reported Relaxation’ , Journal of Music Therapy21(4): 184–192 .
49.
Thayer, R.E. (1989) The Biopsychology of Mood and Activation. New York: Oxford University Press .
50.
Wadsworth, H.M. (1990) Handbook of Statistical Methods for Engineers and Scientists. New York: McGraw-Hill .
51.
Watson, D. and Tellegen, A. (1985) ‘Toward a Consensual Structure of Mood’ ,Psychological Bulletin98: 219–235 .
