The correlation between the ideational - emotional message of the music and the psychological and situational particularities of the listener subjects

University of Medicine and Pharmacology

"Carol Davila", Bucharest

Medical Psychology and Psychiatrics Department

The correlation between the ideational - emotional message of the music and the psychological and situational particularities of the listener subjects

Theoretical premises

1. A person listens, in these days, a great "quantity" of music which effects on the organism, exertated along the decades would deserve a closer analysis and to more levels of the psychic and organs, like it proceed with the alimentation.

2. Music is the most important part of "spiritual food"(excepting religion?).Its effects, presented in table 1, realize a complex impact on the psychic and soma of listener.

TABLE 1

They can be exploited by the therapist ( especially by the psychologist or psychiatrist ) for diagnosis and therapy.These music effects utilised for the patient or for the one with psychological problems represents only a part of what music can offer to the healthy or ailing man.

This is the reason why we systematized in table 2 the most important music functions.

TABLE 2

3. The relations between people and music are often spontaneous and are based on listening to different musical excerpts but can have also an active character when a person reproduces voluntarily a musical study (from a simple hum to its playing at an instrument).

When listening to music or its interpretation is controlled by the therapist that means Music therapy : receptive (passive) and active.

4. The psychological and psychosomatic impact of the music is used in therapeutic (music therapy) purpose - with some exceptions relating to some types of music too much listened (rock music) or one which have a structure who generates perturbation of the Nervous System (New Age music) - based on some qualities of the musical excerpts's parameters and also depending on psychic and somatic particularities (including the pathological ones) of the listener.In these relation, music-listener, are developing complex interactions.

5. Knowing these complex interrelation, we can consider that they can be in a good manner (even if not totaly) the base of the auditor's preferences for a type of music.These "preferences" can offer the possibility of the chosen music to have an positive emotional effect on the auditors, effect which is utilised especially in music therapy for relaxation and it is realized with the help of some various musical acts: from pop music to symphonic and chamber music.Music can be also an instrument with a big diagnose value ,, in psychological cadre" , it offers the psychologist or psychiatrist ,, direct " informations - at observation and dialogue level - about the interior world of the analysed listener and also "deduced" informations from the extraordinary chance (offered to the listener) to project some ideational and emotional moods subconsciously until the moment of discussion with the therapist about the given answers relating to the subjects interpretation of the musical message.

An important moment in the evolution of the music therapy is the study elaborated in 1983 : "Le bilan psycho-musical" which relieves the feature of the diagnostical moment (of the listener's personality) as preceding and concomitant phase of the therapy institution by music.From this point of view (the importance of the "musical diagnosis") we consider in a number of anterior studies as being necesary a careful excerpts selection for the music therapy, starting from the symphonic and chamber music's value, a music with maximum possibilities in activating the brain cortex (see the anterior studies relating to Mozart's Effect or to "Supermemory" produced by baroque music, etc).

This study tries to realize a first step of the music diagnosis through the analysis of the number and type of answers given by the persons who listened a number of musical excerpts carefully chosen and with a big power of sugestion.Relating to the types of answer, they had expressed the relation of isomorphism between the music's qualities and the nature of the psychological processes (from the sphere of ideas, represantations and emotions) determined by music's listening.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

1. The subjects typology

2. The answers' s analysis of the 5 musical excerpts

3. The correlation between the answers and personality types

4. The projection of some particular and biographical situations in the responses after the music audition

METHOD

The group was formed by 64 subjects with ages between 20 and 24 years

from which 36 women and 28 men ( medicine students ).

It have been used 5 classical excerpts and 2 questionnaires ( a musical one

and Schmiescheck's psychological test). The excerpts are :

1. R. Wagner - " Siegriefd's Rheinfahrt " - 4:25 min
2. R. Wagner - "Tristan and Isolde" - the prelude of the first act - 4:45 min
3. P.I. Tchaikovsky - " Romeo and Juliet " - the excerpt which suggest the love story between two of them - 2 : 00 min
4. P.I. Tchaikovsky - "Romeo and Juliet" - the excerpt which suggest the fight between Romeo and Thibalt - 2 : 25 min
5. Haydn - "The symphony no. 82 Oxford " - 5 : 00 min

THE SCALES OF SCHMISECHECK PSYCHOLOGICAL TEST :

n      Demonstrativitaty   

n      Hyperexactity

n      Hyperperseverance

n      Impulsivity

n      Disthimie

n      Exaltation Emotionality

n      Hyperthimia

n      Ciclothymia

The results are given by the tables and figures coresponding with the following parameters:

DISCUSSIONS

1. The biggest number of representations was generated by "Siegriefd's Rheinfahrt" ( altough it wasn't the longest ).

This result is probably based on a complex psychological stymulation of the subjects by a music with a great complexity ( like wagnerian style )

able to provoke a large cognitive activation.

2. Apparently the reduced number of representations generated by the excerpts of the Tchaikovsky's opera, can be explained by the short time of audition and also by the fact that the subjects have easy recognized the musical excerpts.

3. The great number of answers rised from the concrete type of isomorphism is justified in relation with the music chosen by us for the stimulation of listener's imagination ( the chosen excerpts give easier concrete elements).

Conclusively ,the rapport of the answering types (concrete/abstract) doesn't depend only on the persons type of thinking but also on the nature of the musical stimulation.

4. The concrete isomorphism type of answers ,the most diversified implicated images ,were most associated with those persons who had hyperpersevering and hyperthimic type of pronounced personalities.

The correlation between the great amount of information of the concrete type of answer and the specific psychic energy of the persons which have the two types of personality mentioned above.

The abstract isomorphism responses were most evoked by those which have the following types of pronounced personality : exalted, impulsive and hyperpersevering.

6. The subjects who wrote poetry had given answers most from mixed and concrete types of isomorphism.

Conclusively the persons with aptitude for art (in this case, poetry) were capable to give detailed and ample answers (some answers were short stories similar with a movie scene).

7. The subjects who went through special events (good/bad) during last weeks of the experiment gave concrete and mixed types of answers.Some of these answers given by them had an biographical hue refer to love -with amenity and worry- and to some major events from their recent period of life.We can say that in some ways, these special events influenced the answers.

8. The fact that 89.06% of the subjects ( only graduated persons ) are capable to imagine life scene when they listen to a music without words, relieve a natural availability and an education which permit the understanding of the ideational-affective type of message.This fact brings the big amount of information obtained from their answers.