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Can someone help me think of a research question for my music thesis/experiment?
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| DJ Robby Rox |
This is my last semester and I've known more generally for a while that I'd be doing my senior thesis on music and emotion, but the problem I'm having is narrowing it down to a specific question.
Its for psychology, and will be a true peer reviewed research study. I'll be working on it for the next 3 months but just need a specific research question to base my entire study on.
The one I was contemplating doing (that I scrapped) was:
What genre of music is the most effective in a relationship for ameliorating symptoms of depression post break up?
I chose not to do it, because for the resources our university has, its not exactly testable. For each genre I would need at least 30 participants who just got out of a relationship, and its not happening. If the population is random, I most likely won't get an affect.
There are other ways to attempt a study based on this question, but I've went through the logistics and had to scrap the topic all together after a conversation with my professor who said it would wind up being too much bs if I stuck with it.
What I'm generally concerned about is what style of music has the most powerful influence on mood. So naturally I'll be taking participants and running tests in our uni's lab, exposing them to different musical conditions/manipulations, taking more tests, then seeing if I get an affect.
But I need a specific question, and I'm going to also formulate 3 hypotheses that address the question.
ie. I hypothesize that trance will have the largest influence, and country music the least influence (just an example of a hypothesis lol not a true prediction).
I'm thinking a possible question could be:
What genre of music increases mood the most?
But its not that specific (ie. what is "mood"? how is it operationally defined etc). But once I pick a question THATS what I'm bound to and theres no changing it.
And whats MOST IMPORTANT is that I get a real affect and that my manipulations work.
So the goal is to mask a specific question about music and mood, and to actually have my hypothesis supported by the results. The goal however is to pick a research question that is specific, yet somewhat contraversial. The more contraversial naturally the better, but then it becomes harder to predict as well. So its a matter of striking that balance I suppose.
Because my foundation is more psychology, I figured I'd come here to get ideas from some more musically minded people. The topic has must be music and mood, I just need a solid research question so I can start working on the design. I'm sure I'll figure one out at some point, but I came here with the hopes I might find a question related to music & mood and that hasn't crossed my mind yet.
Any help at all would greatly be appreciated. Thanks gents! |
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| Beatflux |
I thought there were already a bunch of studies on music and mood...
How about these:
How many milligrams of X does it take before people start to like Goa?
How long can a person stand terrorcore?
Do you faster to happy hardcore?
Can really bad country music clear out a space? |
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| kitphillips |
Ahahahahaha you fail. using tranceaddict to help formulate psychology hypotheses. is pretty lame.
And for the record, you'll find that any effect you get will have no external validity due to the use of a school population. Of course a bunch of <25 year olds will find pop, rock or dance music the most emotionally infuencing, its what they're familiar with and may be associated with memories.
Aside from which, are you going to put the people in an MRI to measure the effect on mood? That seems unlikely. So you'll be basing it on self report? Mood is notoriously difficult to manipulate in a lab environment, and even harder to get accurate self reports on. |
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| DJ Robby Rox |
| quote: | Originally posted by kitphillips
Ahahahahaha you fail. using tranceaddict to help formulate psychology hypotheses. is pretty lame.
And for the record, you'll find that any effect you get will have no external validity due to the use of a school population. Of course a bunch of <25 year olds will find pop, rock or dance music the most emotionally infuencing, its what they're familiar with and may be associated with memories.
Aside from which, are you going to put the people in an MRI to measure the effect on mood? That seems unlikely. So you'll be basing it on self report? Mood is notoriously difficult to manipulate in a lab environment, and even harder to get accurate self reports on. |
Gee thanks professor kit.
You just about provided a bunch of bs answers to questions I never even ing asked. Who are you even having a conversation with? But since you want to try to sound smart, when obviously not knowing a single gdamn thing, try this.
A study is not externally valid or invalid because it was done in a university number one. It is generalizable based on the mean age and standard deviations from the mean age.
You have no idea what you're talking about.
Next, mood is measured by its operational definition in the study not by your subjective perception of mood. It is measured very specifically by how it is manipulated. And all measures are done behavoirally wtf are you talking about?
I go to Monmouth University which is known to do more psychology research then any other institution in the state, which is quite ing impressive for a school. And you want a behavoiral measure of "mood"?
ANY N BEHAVOIR IN THE WORLD, it depends how it was manipulated, and that YOU PASS A MANIPULATION CHECK. I don't know what ty community college you got your psych degree from, but ask them for a refund.:haha: You don't really seem to be good at psychology or music. Also if you're going to respond to my comment just to instigate me like a little punk internet tough guy, what kind of miserable n life must you really have? You know I geniunely do not like you as a person, so why bother even talking to me? Forums don't have answering machines, so please do me this one favor, stop talking to me. Your like that creepy weird guy that never goes away. |
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| Nightshift |
Robby, I honestly have to say, this place would not be the same without you.
p.s. LOL! |
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| Sonic_c |
how about relating it to key?
Like whether songs in minor keys make people feel more contemplative than songs in a major key. Then maybe you could find out why a sad minor trance song can bring you down, while at the same time make you happy yet contemplative and hopeful?
Always wondered that. |
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| kitphillips |
This is going to be brilliant. The most poorly designed study in the history of psychology.
Basically, I think what your going to be investigating, is "what is the college student's favourite type of music?" Good work champ, I'm sure that'll really enhance our study of human cognition.
It would be more interesting to do a study like "how many minutes of robby rox's music can the average college student withstand before developing severe PTSD".
As for why I keep talking to you? I'm afraid I can't tell you. It might bias the study.
PS
I'm not going to respond to your personal attacks on me. I'm self confident enough in my own academic credibility that I don't have to. |
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| Morvan |
| quote: | Originally posted by Sonic_c
how about relating it to key?
Like whether songs in minor keys make people feel more contemplative than songs in a major key. Then maybe you could find out why a sad minor trance song can bring you down, while at the same time make you happy yet contemplative and hopeful?
Always wondered that. |
a major scale has as many minor chords as a minor scale. |
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| RichieV |
technically it has more if you include the dominant in minor. Not really sure why you mentioned it. The number chords of a particular quality does not say anything. It is the succession of chords that matter.
As for an experiment. Maybe play a well known song for a really short period of time. And increase the time until people know what it is. Maybe find an average that we nead to hear to figure out the song. Then make a correlation between whether it is the drum beat , a chord or particular sound. If you know how to program, you can make an app and have it on the net for a wider response. As your brother as he is apparently a computer wiz no?.
Any way you do it, the research will be rather weak and purely correlations. |
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| Morvan |
| quote: | Originally posted by RichieV
technically it has more if you include the dominant in minor. |
Minor scales have a relative major and should thus provide equal numbers of scale specified chords. The other scale's tonic can be used as well, so I don't see any difference between the usage of major and minor if not for starting on a different tonic for example.
| quote: | Originally posted by RichieV
Not really sure why you mentioned it. The number chords of a particular quality does not say anything. It is the succession of chords that matter. |
Of course, which is why I pretty much said that a difference in starting point of a progression cannot qualify the entire progression to be of one specific emotion. |
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| RichieV |
what most people would say defines a minor key is the dominant chord. Otherwise you can just represent it with a major key. That is why you would typically alter the minor V to make it a dominant chord making it a major and not minor chord.
Studies do show that minor keys, that being keys with dominant push to minor chord, are typically considered sad. The study in question was pretty small. 500 or so people. I am trying to find it but can't. |
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| Sonic_c |
i been listening to a show, its investigating what specific keys do for the emotion of a piece of music. Last weeks was c major saying its optimistic, happy, has a sense of finality about it.
If a song is in a minor key surely when it resolves to the tonic will it not be inevitably 'sadder'?
Ok i'll rephrase why not investigate what emotional response people have to music in certain keys maybe see if people have a general reaction or an individual subjective one? |
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