Music for Emotional Self-Regulation

Impressive capability of music for promoting emotional self-regulation: an interesting study describing the results of an evaluative research about music as mood regulation modalities in adolescents.

Adolescents need effective ways to regulate mood

Engagement in music is a goal-oriented activity of the psyche, whether or not individuals are consciously aware of it. The use of music in emotional management is acknowledged in much empirical research. However, there is little research that has tried to theorize these findings and specifically identify all the different regulatory processes. Also, general theories of mood regulation have received little attention in music research.

This interesting study aims at understanding the role of music as a part of the psychological functioning of the individual. This perspective reflects the ideas of John Blacking (1973), who stressed that music must always be understood in relation to the individual and the social environment. Similarly, Sloboda and Juslin (2001) have argued that there is an urgent need in the field of music and emotion to focus on the interaction between the person, the music and the context. Considering music as a resource for satisfying personal needs in everyday life is also one of the current interests of music sociology (DeNora, 2001), and this perspective is comparable to the ‘uses and gratifications’ approach, which studies individuals as active agents who use media for their personal needs (Arnett, 1995; Arnett et al., 1995; DeNora, 2001).

It would be reasonable to presume the main goals of mood regulation are quite similar regardless of factors like age or gender. However, the model is based on the experiences of adolescents, and some regulatory strategies, such as strong mood sensations and discharge, seem to fit especially well with the strong intensity and unrest of emotional experience in adolescence. Furthermore, in general, there may be a stronger need for an additional medium for mood regulation in adolescence due to the incomplete acquisition of sophisticated regulatory strategies. The music itself, as a typical feature of adolescent life, may be an easily approachable medium especially for the young. It seems important to be cautious in generalizing the findings too far beyond Finnish adolescents.

Music proved to be a versatile means for mood regulation. It offered the adolescents resources for increasing and restoring well-being, and made their emotional life more varied and colorful. The underlying motivation for the study was to clarify one piece of the puzzle in exploring the meaning of music. The study succeeded in demonstrating the impressive capability of music for promoting emotional self-regulation. The constructed model specified the different regulatory processes and provided a useful theoretical framework for the psychological inquiry of our musical behavior.