There are many factors in life that affect personality, but perhaps one of the most significant is the genre of music you listen to. I chose to focus specifically on how music may affect an individual’s personality. I used two resources to support this topic. The first is a peer-reviewed article from the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology titled, “Exposure to Violent Media: The Effects of Songs with Violent Lyrics on Aggressive Thoughts and Feelings”. The other is a popular press article published in Psychology Today, titled as “What Your Stuff Reveals about You.” These two articles will make you question the genre of music you listen to. My peer-reviewed article emphasizes violent types of music. It aims to find how songs with violent lyrics may affect your personality by inducing aggressive thoughts and hostile feelings. Exposure to violent music is found to be directly related to the expression of aggressive behavior seen in both youth and adulthood. Each study I will discuss are included in the article. I am reporting only on a subset of the studies. In the first study there were twenty-nine females and thirty male participants from a large Midwestern University. Half were chosen from a senior class for a project while the other half was selected from a participant pool in a Psychology class as extra credit. For the experiment, they had two people of opposite sex from each group listen to two different songs: one explicit, the other with little to no violent content. The participants were to listen to the two songs and describe how it made them feel. There were thirty-five sentences that described different feelings of being either pleasant or hostile, from which the participants had to choose which answers best fit how they felt. The results supported the hypothesis by showing the positive correlation between music and mood. The violent song
It cannot be denied that there is an excess of violence in today's music. Eminem raps about spousal abuse and murder sprees, Marilyn Manson sings of anarchy, drugs, and atheism, and Limp Bizkit urges fans to "break stuff." Some critics argue that fans will take these words seriously, and act out on the urging of their beloved artists. However, if listeners aren't mature enough to know the difference between the fictional world these lyrics invoke, and the reality that they personally live in, perhaps they aren't mature enough to listen to it. If a young person seriously believes in the message he or she hears, perhaps it is because the parents have not done a sound job of teaching the difference between fiction and reality, between right and wrong. Too man...
The study carried out by The New York University conveyed that, “Contrary to the movie trope epitomised by Alex in A Clockwork Orange and Hannibal Lecter in the Silence of the Lambs, psychopaths are no fonder of classical music than anyone else, though they do appear to have other musical preferences.” Researchers have stated that the results of this study are not yet absolute as it needs to be carried out on an even larger scale, however, the results that they did obtain concluded that psychopaths may have more of a fondness for rap music rather than classical music: ‘No Diggity’ by Blackstreet and Eminem’s ‘Lose Yourself’ proving most popular among individuals with high psychopathy scores. Although this research suggests more of a correlation between rap music and psychopaths, the persona of Hannibal Lecter that has been created and we have all grown to fear would simply not be as terrifying with a love of rap music. Perhaps, the serious element which classical music carries allows us to take the character more seriously and, thereby, evokes a natural response of fear towards Lecter – an obvious intention of his
The event in Littleton, Colorado, 5 years ago was a shocking wake up call to our society. Because of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold’s fanaticism with artists such as Marilyn Manson, music was labeled as the culprit for negatively influencing the youth of America. Music is a tool of expression that an artist uses to vent their frustrations and to reveal their emotions. However, these artists do not see the moral boundary that they have crossed with their emotionally disturbing lyrics and dark melodies. To grab the attention of teenagers, musicians often produce music videos with a vivid portrayal of the song’s message. The heavy influence it has on kids today is in direct relation to the murders and shootings that are happening. The use of CD walkmans and the carelessness of parents are making it easier for children to get their hands on the “satanic music.” The anger expressed by these musicians shows the youth that violence is culturally acceptable. Due to the strong emotion that is portrayed in music, the youth responds to music more so than they do to video games, movies and TV. There are many components in music structure that influence violent behavior such as music videos, lyrics, style, and role model images.
Music effect on stress relief is due in part to it’s effect on mood. This may seem like a sentence within a sentence, but it is much more than that. When listening to classical music, one is brought into a state of calm. When listening to rap or faster tempo music, one is brought into a state of action. These effects all have to do with the power of music on our mood. Classical music, is the most effective at calming someone down. In terms of numbers, listening to classical music, as used in this study, was associated with a significant (5-5.6%, p<0.05) lowering of the resting heart rate and a consistent improvement of oxygen saturation (by 1-1.4%).(V K Paul1 #4.) These may seem like strange numbers, but they have a great deal to do with the topic at hand. Later on in the paper, it discusses more vividly into the terms of oxygen saturation and heart rate...
Prevention Research Center, Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, Meng-Jinn Chen Ph.D, Brenda A. Miller Ph.D, Joel W. Grube Ph.D, & Elizabeth D. Waiters Ph.D (2006). Music, Substance Use, and Aggression. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 67(3), 373-381 .
Also children as young as 3 or 4 years of age are able to recognize basic emotions in music (Cunningham & Sterling 1988). Emotional contagion it has been argued, facilitates the mother-infant bond (Darwin 1872), as well as social interaction in general terms (Preston & de Waal 2002). In support of this, this emotional contagion seems to create liking and affiliation (e.g. Lakin et al. 2003) which is perhaps beneficial for social interaction (Juslin, P.N. and Vastfjall D., 2008, p.565).
Is music powerful enough to incite antisocial and violent behavior? According Johnson, Jackson and Gatto’s study on the deleterious effects of exposure to rap music, subjects in the violent exposure conditions (rap music) expressed greater acceptance of violence. Subjects in the violent exposure condition also reported a higher probability that they would engage in violence (Johnson). Music plays an i...
Studies have demonstrated that certain sorts of rock music can heighten feelings. This means youth and adolescents who are inclined to negative, fierce, or depressive contemplations are more prone to have these sentiments (and follow up on them). By the same accord, youngsters who are characteristically content and happy are more averse to have the negative verses in specific tunes influence them in any capacity. To them, it’s simply entertainment (Kwan,
Often times throughout history and in today’s world, music along with lyrics of songs and musical artists are blamed for deviant behavior in adolescents and teenagers. Some argue that subcultures are created because of artists and their music which leads to groups of young adults taking part in deviant behavior, while others argue the opposite; that the behavior leads the person to listen to the music. There is also concern about the effect that music videos have on the behaviors of the listeners of music throughout all genres. Although there is not much extended research on music and the effect it has on its listeners there is plenty of speculation, theories, and minor studies.
Music is one of the few things that has remained constant through the centuries this world has existed. Not only does music provide entertainment, it also has several effects linked to it. Music allows emotions of happiness and sadness to arise. From those emotions, physical effects, negative or positive, can occur. Music has a profound effect on the emotional, social, intellectual, and physical aspects of a person.
subjects were found to experience an increase in aggressive thoughts after listening to songs with violent lyrics. Those subjected to the mean music were more apt to connect hostile meanings to words deemed to be violence neutral by the researchers” (Morrison). In time, words that aren’t intended to cause malicious thoughts, suddenly take on new meanings. Travis L. Dixon, who studies Communication at the University of ... ... middle of paper ... ...
Although some may say that music doesn’t directly affect the way a person acts, there has been evidence to prove that it does in fact change emotions and the way people act. Music heavily influences a person’s mindset by shaping what they place value on in the world or what they might hold dear. Music also tends to affect people’s persona and how they portray themselves to the world. Certain types of music are associated with certain demographics of people. For example, hip hop music is usually associated with the black community, and black men and women have strong connections with its songs and lyrics. Objectifying hip hop music
...al of Pesonalities“Adolescents' music preferences and personality characteristics” Mar2008, Vol. 22 Issue 2, p109-130. 22p
Music, a popular outlet amongst the teen community for exploring emotions and blowing off steam. Times have changed, and the way music and lyrics are perceived has developed in a violent fashion. According to new studies, that have occurred, violent music lyrics increase aggressive thoughts and feelings. I chose this topic because music is such an influential part of our lives that it often dictates the mood we seize to exist in. If violent thoughts occur, what can come of it?
Music has incredible effects on the brain and body! Ever since the beginning of time, music has been around. It can influence the way a person thinks and behaves, and also social interactions. Teens are more susceptible to this (Revatto 1). Music can be used in therapy by helping people with depression, and can even be a more natural way to heal the body (“How Music...” 1). In some cases, songs and melodies can help or make diseases worse. Music is a powerful thing and can affect your brain and many other things in your body in numerous ways.