Musical Valence
Location
Guzman 110, Dominican University of California
Start Date
4-20-2017 5:40 PM
End Date
4-20-2017 5:55 PM
Student Type
Undergraduate
Faculty Mentor(s)
Veronica Fruiht, Ph.D.
Presentation Format
Oral Presentation
Abstract/Description
Musical chords serve as the standalone summaries of the harmonic relationships of key signatures composer use to induce certain emotions in pieces. (Patel, 2003) Recent research supports ideas first defined by Helmholtz (1950) that acoustic sensory congruence contains causal links to emotion. Specifically, that major chords are constructed from aligned and balanced harmonies and thus, evokes positive emotional perception. Whereas minor chords are imbalanced and result in harmonic dissonance, evoking negative connotations of perceived emotions. (Juslin & Västfjäll, 2008). To test this relationship, this study attempted to analyze the responses recorded from a positive and negative affect survey immediately after listening to two songs, one composed of major chords and the other of minor chords, and observing whether the chord structure of a song can induce “happy” or “sad” emotions based on the answers given on the affect survey. To address this connection, this study enlisted the aid of 60 participants from Psychology courses at Dominican University of California and willing participants from social media to participate in the study. Participants will be sent an email detailing the instructions of the entire procedure. The email will include a link to the two songs and a link to the survey to be completed after listening to the music. The results revealed that participants were more likely to score on the appropriate side of the affect survey upon listening to music that was intended to evoke specific emotions. Furthermore, when prompted to feel a certain emotion, participants were more likely to score on the affect survey reflecting that the intended emotion was felt. The implications of this research allow for a better understanding of emotional affect in regards to music and how it can effect a person's emotional state.
Musical Valence
Guzman 110, Dominican University of California
Musical chords serve as the standalone summaries of the harmonic relationships of key signatures composer use to induce certain emotions in pieces. (Patel, 2003) Recent research supports ideas first defined by Helmholtz (1950) that acoustic sensory congruence contains causal links to emotion. Specifically, that major chords are constructed from aligned and balanced harmonies and thus, evokes positive emotional perception. Whereas minor chords are imbalanced and result in harmonic dissonance, evoking negative connotations of perceived emotions. (Juslin & Västfjäll, 2008). To test this relationship, this study attempted to analyze the responses recorded from a positive and negative affect survey immediately after listening to two songs, one composed of major chords and the other of minor chords, and observing whether the chord structure of a song can induce “happy” or “sad” emotions based on the answers given on the affect survey. To address this connection, this study enlisted the aid of 60 participants from Psychology courses at Dominican University of California and willing participants from social media to participate in the study. Participants will be sent an email detailing the instructions of the entire procedure. The email will include a link to the two songs and a link to the survey to be completed after listening to the music. The results revealed that participants were more likely to score on the appropriate side of the affect survey upon listening to music that was intended to evoke specific emotions. Furthermore, when prompted to feel a certain emotion, participants were more likely to score on the affect survey reflecting that the intended emotion was felt. The implications of this research allow for a better understanding of emotional affect in regards to music and how it can effect a person's emotional state.