Listener Perceptions of Selected Emotions Portrayed by Singing

• Other Authors: Braden, Alexander H. (authoraut)
• Format: Others
• Language: English; English
• Published: Florida State University
• Subjects: Music
• Online Access: http://purl.flvc.org/fsu/fd/FSU_2015fall_Braden_fsu_0071N_12976

The purpose of this study was to observe people's perception of portrayed emotion in singing, and if emotion intensity influences perception of emotion. Participants, who were undergraduate non-music majors (N = 39), took part in in a music listening study to choose which emotion they heard, and the perceived intensity of the emotion. The participants listened to original music compositions created by the author, referencing previously researched original melodies and using a meaningless, fabricated language used in speech research for the lyrics, recorded by undergraduate music majors. Results indicate that certain emotions, primarily sadness and contempt, are more accurately and readily perceived than other emotions. Other portrayed emotions, joy and love, had a moderately high percent of responses, but were not significantly different than other responses for those portrayals. The intensity of the emotion appears to have a small correlation to the accurate perception of emotion. While further research into emotion portrayal and perception through singing is still needed, the findings suggest that certain modalities of emotion are more easily identified than others. Music therapists working in fields which focus on emotion regulation and perception could use this research to further improve interventions to help patients and clients better to portray their emotions, understand how people interpret emotions differently, and more effective ways to portray emotion. === A Thesis submitted to the College of Music in partial fulfillment of the Master of Music. === Fall Semester 2015. === November 11, 2015. === Includes bibliographical references. === John M. Geringer, Professor Directing Thesis; Clifford K. Madsen, Committee Member; Dianne Gregory, Committee Member.