Psychology of Music- article summary - Essay Example

Psychology of Music Psychology of Music Rentfrow, P. J., & Gosling, S. D. (2003). The do re mis of everyday life: The structure and personality correlates of music preferences. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84(6), 1236-1256. This research’s objective was to examine differences in individual preferences and lay beliefs of music. By conducting six studies involving 3,500 individuals, the fundamental principles of music preferences and how they are linked to personality, which were the main objects of the test, were investigated.

From the findings, the researchers were able to establish that music is considered by most people as a significant feature in life and they frequently listen to it. Classical, heavy metal, jazz, punk and rock music were used independently as variables and were seen to be linked to the participants’ personalities, psychological arousal and social identities. They filled questionnaires fashioned to evaluate their beliefs and attitudes on leisure activities and lifestyles. On a scale of 0-100, they agreed of disagreed that music is important to them, 0 and 100 denoting strong disagreement and strong agreement respectively.

On the same scale, they answered whether music is an accurate communication of their personalities or not. The test showed fans of country music to experience lower resting arousal than fans of heavy metal. Similarly, fans of pop and rap music use it as a badge to pass a message about their personal views, attitudes and values. The key question the researchers had set out to answer was why people listen to music. Their choice of method of answering the question entailed the study of music preference.

This was an effective and efficient way of answering the question because they were able to establish not only why, but also how and where people listen to music. Therefore, it can be concluded that music contributes towards understanding psychological phenomena and should be embedded the personality psychology research. Reference North, A. C., Hargreaves, D. J., & O’Neill, S. A. (2000). The importance of music to adolescents. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 70, 255–272.