Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences - Theses

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    Tough-mindedness and the enjoyment of negative emotions in music: a psychophysiological investigation
    Bednall, Timothy Colin ( 2001)
    A fundamental question in musical literature is: how it is possible to enjoy music that expresses negative emotions? Three explanations for this problem have been postulated: 1) listeners experience an inherently pleasant ‘musical’ emotion that is unrelated to music’s emotional content (the aestheticist position), 2) listeners perceive emotions in music but do not experience them (the cognitivist position), 3) listeners experience emotions that match the emotional content of music (the emotivist position). To address this issue, this study examined the relationship between participants’ reported emotional reactions to presentations of emotional music and sounds, and their physiological responses (including facial EMG, startle reflex, heart rate and GSR). Physiological responses were found to vary with the emotional pleasantness and intensity of sounds, but not music, thereby supporting the cognitivist account. In addition, the relationship between Eysenck’s Tough-mindedness or Psychoticism (P) dimension, and reported enjoyment was examined. Compared with tender-minded individuals, high P participants reported significantly greater liking for highly arousing, emotionally unpleasant music, and a marked disliking for emotionally unstimulating music. It is concluded that this result is reflective of the sensation-seeking component of P.