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Music

How does it define


us?

Contents:
-

Research question

Hypothesis

Methodology

Findings

Conclusion

Sources

Research question:
The research question is: How does ones music preference define and
affect one
What is meant with this question is whether certain types of music belong
to certain types of people, to what length people can be predicted when
knowing only their music list, and how music can affect a person.
I have chosen this research question because it intrigues me. I am a big
fan of music, I love listening to music and I often wonder whether the
music I do listen is typical for me and whether it is a negative thing to
listen to certain music, or whether it is a positive thing.
I believe it does affect me but I have always longed to have a little more
certainty in this thought. As for the personality aspect, I do think, when
looking through the music I like to listen, that my music defines me, which
can be quite confronting sometimes,

Hypothesis:
I do believe people can to a certain extent be defined through their music,
not entirely for sure, but some aspects of their character can be predicted
through their favourite music. When looking through my own frequent
played songs, I am shocked by how defining this music is for me. So I
expect to find that music is very defining for ones character. Exactly to
what extent and in which manner I cannot predict, however, I expect
certain genres to stroke with certain personality traits.
As to how much music can affect someone I cannot predict what I will find.
I know for certain that I myself can sometimes learn or focus better while
listening to music, but I know that for others, this is not the case. Is there a
connection between these examples, or is this just a coincidence?

Methodology:
To conduct an experiment or to research myself I do not have the means
nor the time. Therefore, research which others conducted will do fine for
this research report. Numerous studies have been conducted into this
topic and I shall guide you through a summarised version of these studies
to then conclude with my own conclusion.

Results:
According to Professor Adrian North of Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh,
UK, people are affected through their music preferences. In a study done
by him over the course of three years he found that certain music
preferences belong to certain character types. He took a survey of more
than 36.000 people in 60 countries in which they had to list different music
styles in order of interest, after which they would have to take a
questionnaire which would highlight their personal characteristics. An
overview is shown below: 1 & 4
Blues fans have high self-esteem, are creative, outgoing, gentle and at
ease
Jazz fans have high self-esteem, are creative, outgoing and at ease
Classical music fans have high self-esteem, are creative, introvert and at
ease
Rap fans have high self-esteem and are outgoing
Opera fans have high self-esteem, are creative and gentle
Country and western fans are hardworking and outgoing
Reggae fans have high self-esteem, are creative, not hardworking,
outgoing, gentle and at ease
Dance fans are creative and outgoing but not gentle
Indie fans have low self-esteem, are creative, not hard working, and not
gentle
Bollywood fans are creative and outgoing
Rock/heavy metal fans have low self-esteem, are creative, not hardworking, not outgoing, gentle, and at ease
Chart pop fans have high self-esteem, are hardworking, outgoing and
gentle, but are not creative and not at ease
Soul fans have high self-esteem, are creative, outgoing, gentle, and at
ease
These are generally confirmed by another research published in 2006, by
psychologists Jason Rentfrow of the University of Cambridge in the U.K.,
and Sam Gosling at the University of Texas at Austin. The research
compares a look into ones music playlist with a look into ones room, it is
just as defining for their character. 5

Not only can music preferences be used to predict a persons


characteristics, music can also help in other tasks, according to Belle Beth
Cooper2, a frequent blogger and thereby a person with an eye on society,
a reliable source by not being a distant well educated professor. She listed
numerous effects of music on the person:
Not only is ones character likely typical for the music they listen, music
can also affect one more directly. Numerous studies have been done to the
additional effects which music may have on a person.
Firstly, according to a study performed in 2009, music can affect ones
perception of emotion and ones own emotion. Sad music hereby invoking
sad emotions and vice versa. 2
Secondly, music can improve ones auditory discrimination (the skill to
discriminate sounds), fine motor skills (movement guiding), vocabulary
and non-verbal reasoning. In the research done into this subject in 2008,
one group had had more than three years of experience in making music
and they showed significant better results than the other group, which had
not had any experience in making music.3

Conclusion:
The research question was: How does ones music preference define and
affect one
Concluded may be that one can be defined through their music preference
as shown through the studies of professor Adrian North, and psychologists
Jason Rentfrow and Sam Gosling. An overview of this to be found on page
4. This strokes with my hypothesis of this.
Furthermore, I have found two certain types in which music can affect a
person. Music can affect emotion, and music can affect the operation of
the brains, improving its working.

Sources:
All sources are superscripted in the text, the numbers hereby referring to
these numbered sources.
1 - http://psychcentral.com/lib/preferred-music-style-is-tied-to-personality/

https://blog.bufferapp.com/music-and-the-brain - sources 2 & 3 can be


found here
2http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304394009003279
3 - http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?
id=10.1371/journal.pone.0003566
4 - http://psychology.about.com/od/personalitydevelopment/a/music-andpersonality.htm

5 - https://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200906/your-music-yourpersonality

Mike van Vliet, 4Ve


1-6-2015

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