Music in everyday life: the effects of everyday music listening on emotions, stress, and health

Abstract: Degree of licentiate in psychology Abstract Helsing, M. (2010). Music in everyday life: the effects oj everyday music listening on emotions, stress, and health. Department of Psychology, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. Previous studies have shown that music primarily evokes positive emotions in listeners, and that people use music for a variety of reasons in their daily lives. The main aim with the two research papers in this thesis was to explore the effects of everyday music listening on emotions, stress, and health. By using the time use/experience sampling methodology - the Day Reconstruction Method (DRM), a new approach was taken to study the prevalence of musical emotions in everyday life. In the DRM the previous day is divided into episodes, in terms of activity, experienced emotions, and time of day. Results from study I showed that music occurred in a third of all the episodes, which indicates that music is a big part of the people's everyday lives. The majority of the emotions experienced to music were positive, and positive emotions were more of ten experienced in musical episodes than in non musical episodes. Music was related to lower stress leveis, and higher general and social health scores. In study II, the relationship between self-reported stress and music listening was examined. The results showed that if music occurred af ter the stress episode, the stress level was lower in both that episode and in the next one, compared to if music did not occur. A mediation analysis suggested that the positive emotions induced by the music were mediating the effect of music on stress. The implications of this research is that music primarily induces positive emotions in listeners, which in tum decrease stress leveis, and thus lead to better health. Keywords: Day Reconstruction Method, emotion, everyday life, health, music listening, stress. ISSN llOl-718X ISRN GUIPSYKlAVH--242--SE Marie Helsing, Dept. of Psychology, University of Gothenburg, Haraldsgatan 1, SE-40530, Gothenburg, Sweden. Tel: 0046 31 786 5975. Email: [email protected]