Resolving Existential Sentiments with Music: Evidence for a “Mental Chemistry” of Emotions

Abstract

In three of the between-subjects conditions in this research, 76 subjects perceived one of three musical stimuli and rated their emotional reactions to the stimulus. In three more between-subjects conditions, 84 subjects initially perceived existential film footage and rated their emotional reactions to the footage, then subsequently perceived one of the three musical stimuli and rated their emotional reactions to the stimulus. The results indicate that film-induced “fear” transforms “interesting” instrumental music into “mysterious” music. In addition, they indicate that film-induced “distress” transforms “energetic” and “confident” vocal music into “inspiring” music. These results provide support for an hypothesized “mental chemistry” of emotions, wherein certain negative and positive emotions combine to form compound emotions.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

May

, The Courage to Create, W. W. Norton, New York, 1975.

Levenson

R. W.

, The Search for Autonomic Specificity, in The Nature of Emotion: Fundamental Questions, Ekman

and Davidson

R. J.

(eds.), Oxford University Press, New York, pp. 252–257, 1994.

Matson

W. I.

, Sentience, University of California Press, Berkeley, California, 1976.

Klinger

, The Search for Meaning in Evolutionary Perspective and Its Clinical Implications, in The Human Quest for Meaning, Wong

P. T. P.

and Fry

P. S.

(eds.), Erlbaum, Mahwah, New Jersey, pp. 27–50, 1998.

Kunzendorf

R. G.

and Wallace

, Individual Differences in Subjective Experience: First-Person Constraints on Theories of Consciousness, Subconsciousness, and Self-Consciousness, in Individual Differences in Conscious Experience, Kunzendorf

R. G.

and Wallace

(eds.), John Benjamins, Amsterdam, pp. 1–14, 2000.

Ekman

and Friesen

W. V.

, Unmasking the Face, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1975.

Bergman

, Fanny and Alexander [videotape in Swedish with English subtitles], Svenska Film Institute, Sweden, 1982.

Yanni (composer and musician), The Mermaid, in Out of Silence [audiotape], Private Music, New York, 1987.

Webber

A. L.

(Composer) Hart

(Lyricist) , and Brightman

(Soprano) , Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again, in The Phantom of the Opera [CD and libretto]. The Really Useful Group P.L.C., London, 1987.

10.

Lambert

M. J.

, Psychotherapy Outcome Research: Implications for Integrative and Eclectical Therapists, in Handbook of Psychotherapy Integration, Norcross

J. C.

and Goldfried

M. R.

(eds.), Basic Books, New York, pp. 94–129, 1992.