Developing individual in society Lecture 17: 26/04/2021 Music Psychology I Lecturer: Annemieke van Den Tol Why is it important? - North & Hargreaves (2004) sent a text to pps (346) each day for 14 days, results revealed music was played 37% to 39% of the time by pps. - Music is such an important part of human life; musicians brain waves have been found to synchronise when making music. - Music is also observed in other species, such as birds, and monkeys and bonobos are naturally inclined to dance to the beat of music like humans. There is a distinct overlap between brain-areas which process music, and those that process language. - Music has been observed in parent-infant bonding. - It is one of the most salient topics that people talk of when forming new friendships. - People evaluate others of the same musical group as more attractive and intelligent. - Musical preference has been related to personality, intelligence and more. Some examples of social groups and music: Music is heavily related to personal identity. People who listen to certain types of music can have certain personality traits, similar to those who share similar musical tastes. - National groups : Traditional music, the national anthem. - Religious groups : Church music and gospels. - Music sub-cultures : Self-categorization as belonging to a certain sub-culture of music, such as metal, jazz, classical, rock or pop. Some areas of music, like hip-hop, have their own dance and art alongside their music. Many music preferences are established during a persons adolescence, characterized by a need for a sense of competence, social acceptance and autonomy. It is when a person's identity is constructed. - Popularity of music and the formation of music subcultures in adolescents are explained by the possibility of peer affiliation through music preferences. - Identification with sub-cultures of music provides a sense of social belonging, identity and connectedness. It in some cases creates a lifestyle for the person. 13 to 14 year olds listened to music on average for 2.45 hours per day. Listening to music is preferred to other indoor activities. The most important reason given for this was to create an external impression.
Most important predictor: - Expressing identity and values and the ability of certain music being able to bring people together. - Mood and arousal functions were less related to the taste in music. Tekman (2009) conducted a study on identity and stereotypes. - PPs rated stereotypical characteristics of fans of certain music. - Had to rate their own characteristics and what their fav. Music was. - Found a correspondence between the characteristics of stereotypes and the personality characteristics of the actual fans. - Respondents often described self as being closer to the ideal value on the three dimensions of the listeners of music styles they liked the most. However, there were differences found between an expressed liking and then actual listening to the music.