MUSIC and PSYCHOLOGY: how does it influence us?

  • Jul 26, 2021
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Music and psychology: how does it influence us?

The relationship between psychology and music goes back to the close intertwining between the constitution of psychology as a scientific discipline and the consideration of musical facts. The first studies, in the 1950s of the 900s, referred to acoustic perception and the ability of individuals to discriminate the height of the sounds evaluating if there were people endowed with "absolute pitch" capable of recognizing the shades; in this sense, they were the works of the Hungarian Géza Révész, a true pioneer of the psychology of music. But how has music psychology research helped us? How does music influence us? In this Psychology-Online article we will try to answer these questions, deepen the link between music and psychology, that is to say, musical psychology.

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Index

  1. What is the psychology of music?
  2. Musical development
  3. Relationship between music and emotions
  4. What is music therapy?

What is the psychology of music?

Starting from the most recent definition of Gjerdingen (2002), the psychology of music or musical psychology is a

specialization of psychology that targets the mind's responses to musical stimuli, to the modalities in which it elaborates them, controls the benefits and evaluates them.

The understanding of a piece of music, in general, activates a complex network of cognitive abilities that invert skills such as memorization, attention or analysis of structures. The study of cognitive processes applied to the musical field is the fruit of a long gestation that has its roots in the first experiments in scientific psychology.

The musical development.

Much psychomusicology research has investigated at what age and how the child's ability to understand music develops: 8 months, the child, completing auditory development, spontaneously produces babbling songs (babbling song), has fun doing it and repeats such vocalizations with a certain frequency, as well as vocalizes simple syllables. Not only that, but by four months he can move his eyes properly vertically when hearing a high or low sound.

Naturally, the child's responses in the first few 3 years are motor or vocal: he achieves recognize short melodies and at 3 years old he knows how to sing musical tracks with a tonal extension of a descending minor third (for example, sol-mi) that corresponds to the sound of a siren or chants; then he discriminates the rhythmic structures and reproduces them with the beating of the hands already at the age of five.

From the 7 years, musical skills are further developed, being able to discriminate different melodic intervals, distinguishing individual notes of chords. All this happens both due to greater cognitive abilities and due to a process of "tonal learning", according to which, from the 6 years our hearing becomes sensitive to sounds who listens.

Finally, towards the 12 years, he completes musical development, thus becoming capable of perceive modulations between tones, or the dissociative harmonizations, of recognizing the rhythm of a melody and the aesthetic judgment of the music begins to appear.

In this article you will find more information about music and children's brain development.

Relationship between music and emotions.

How does music influence psychology? Rivers of words have been written on the psychology of music and theories have been developed that today are considered practically always valid. For example, the intervals between notes are known to be responsible for fairly reproducible reactions between different individuals; the compositions for semitones generate tension ("The shark", precisely) while an interval of fifth (do-sol) is so perfect and pleasant that it is the musical equivalent of a circle in the arts figurative.

Why can music affect our emotions so deeply? Music is often seen as the "language of emotions": its ability to evoke and express emotions is its fundamental and primary characteristic. Music expresses emotions that listeners perceive, acknowledge, or are emotionally touched. Additionally, several studies have suggested that the most common reason music is listened to is for being able to influence emotions, to modify them, to release them, to tune in to their emotional state, to rejoice or comfort themselves, or to reduce stress.

A 2003 study by Adrian North North of the University of Leicester, England, showed that clients of a luxury restaurant choose the most expensive dishes on the menu if sophisticated music is played in the room and classical. According to North, this happens because clients, listening to classical music, perceive themselves as more refined people; thus, to stay in tune with their image of themselves, they spared no expense in front of the wine list. It is a mechanism called the Château Lafite effect and, although unconsciously, it confirms how much we are able to realize the emotional value of music and the kind of influence it has on our sensations.

Here you can see how music influences us in clothing stores.

What is music therapy?

The term "music therapy" was born in the 21st century, but the effects of sound and music on man have been used since ancient times: there is no population in today's world and in the history of humanity that has not expressed their emotions, their social and religious rites through rhythms, sounds, songs, dances.

Sounds are the expression of life in the world, they are our breath, the transformation of inspired breath into a modulated voice, into words; it is impossible to separate the word from the song. Every time our voice becomes a word, through the intonation and inflection of the voice, it manifests the emotions that are in us. Music therapy is the arte to capture these emotions, to transform them, to give life to new emotions that reassure, encourage, help where there are difficulties.

Music therapy is based on "making music", even for those who are unable to read a score or play; He is the music therapist who knows how to transform, make music, the game of someone who spontaneously plays a musical instrument. Thus was born a way of speaking, of direct and immediate dialogue called "sound dialogue".

In music therapy, the first requirement is to address the needs and problems of the user through music; the objective is not to propose music as an artistic form, but as medium that involves all the senses producing a series of visual, tactile and kinesthetic stimulations. The multisensory aspect of music makes it ideal for therapeutic use, especially considering that many disabilities are specifically sensory or motor in nature.

Music therapy can be used at various levels, such as teaching, rehabilitation or therapy; With regard to the latter two, the areas of intervention preferably refer to neurology and psychiatry:

  • Autism
  • Intellectual disability
  • Motor disability
  • Alzheimer's disease and other dementias
  • Psychosis
  • Depressive disorders
  • Somatoform disorders, especially chronic pain syndromes
  • Eating behavior disorders (anorexia nervosa)

Other applications of music therapy have been studied in the anesthesiological and surgical field, such as pre-operative use.

In this article you will find more information about what is music therapy and its benefits.

This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

If you want to read more articles similar to Music and psychology: how does it influence us?, we recommend that you enter our category of Emotions.

Bibliography

  • Cremaschi Trovesi, G., Scardovelli, M. (2005). Il suono della vita. Music therapy fra famiglia, suola, società. Rome: Armando Editore.
  • Demichelis, O., Manfredi, C. (2003). Radio psychology. Cantalupa, TO: Effatò Editrice.
  • Mannara, F. (2015). In what way does music condiziona il nostro cervello? Recovered from: https://www.fondazioneveronesi.it/magazine/i-blog-della-fondazione/un-cervello-fuga/che-modo-la-musica-condiziona-il-nostro-cervello
  • Monacis, L., Toto, G. TO. (2017). The music nelle principali scuole di psychologia. Tricase, LE: Youcanprint Self-Publishing.
  • Russo, V. (2013). Pillole di neuromarketing. The dopamine in the cervello and l’effetto Château Lafite. Tre bicchieri, 9:7.
  • Strazzeri, D. (2011). Compendium of music therapy. Collana Studi Musicali.
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