A means of listening to music for people who prefer diverse strategies in regulating emotions and the eff ectiveness of modifying one's own aff ection

Abstract

Aim of the study: The main aim of the study was to examine how use of music
is related to achieving positive aff ect among people who prefer diff erent strategies of
emotion regulation.
Research method. 256 participants were examined in correlation study. The Way
of Listening to Music Questionnaire was created for research purposes. Previous
questionnaires used in studies on music listening consisted most oft en of following
scales: cognitive, emotional, in background or physical. In our questionnaire, we
assumed that relationship between music listening and emotion regulation could be
divided into two components: induction of strong emotional experience and listening
to music in order to enhance positive mood.

Results. We made Exploratory Factor Analysis, which explained 47% of variation.
The analysis resulted in extraction of three components consistent with the theoretical
assumptions. In the next step we examined relationship between positive aff ect, music
questionnaire scales and emotion regulation strategies. The study shows relationship
between positive aff ect and emotion regulation strategies – with suppression (r= -0,31,
p<0,01) and cognitive reappraisal (r=0,25, p<0.01) and with listening to music to enhance
positive mood (r= 0,27, p<0,01). Moreover, the regression analysis confi rmed that adding
listening to music to enhance positive mood to model consisting of two emotion regulation
strategies, signifi cantly improves prediction of subjects’ positive mood.
Conclusion. The research is an important step in understanding how people use
music for emotion regulation. The analysis has shown that music can be an additional
way to achieve positive aff ect, independent from emotion regulation strategies, but
only if it is used in order to enhance positive mood.