On a Blue Note: Depressed Peoples’ Reasons for Listening to Music

Authors

  • Kay Wilhelm MBBS, MD, FRANZCP
  • Inika Gillis BPsych (Hons), MPsych
  • Emery Schubert PhD, BA, BE, Dip Ed
  • Erin Louise Whittle BA (Hons)

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.47513/mmd.v5i2.213

Abstract

Research suggests that negative moods may be associated with attraction to negative emotion in music, a finding that runs counter to mood management theory. Despite such evidence, no study has examined how and why people who have clinical depression listen to music. Qualitative thematic analysis was conducted with textual responses from 294 online survey respondents (148 with depression and 146 without depression). Findings revealed that people with depression were more likely to use music to match or reflect mood or to express emotion, while those without depression were more likely to use music for energy and inspiration. Negative emotion in music enabled some to attend to negative emotion, with subsequent dissipation of negative mood. For others, it was connected with negative cognition and a worsening of negative mood.

Author Biographies

Kay Wilhelm, MBBS, MD, FRANZCP

School of Psychiatry at the Black Dog Institute, Faculty of Medicine, UNSW, Sydney, Australia.

Faces in the Street, St Vincent’s Health Urban Mental Health Research Insti- tute, Sydney, Australia.

Kay Wilhelm, MBBS, MD, FRANZCP, is a research director of Faces in the Street, Urban Mental Health and Wellbeing Research Institute at St Vincent’s Hospital and Conjoint Professor in the School of Psychia- try, University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia.

Inika Gillis, BPsych (Hons), MPsych

School of Psychiatry at the Black Dog Institute, Faculty of Medicine, UNSW, Sydney, Australia.

Inika Gillis, BPsych (Hons), MPsych, is a research psychologist in the School of Psychiatry, at the Black Dog Institute, University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia.

Emery Schubert, PhD, BA, BE, Dip Ed

Empirical Musicology Group, School of English, Media and Performing Arts, UNSW, Sydney, Australia.

Emery Schubert, PhD, BA, BE, Dip Ed, is an ARC future fellow and associate professor in the School of the Arts and Media at the Univer- sity of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia.

Erin Louise Whittle, BA (Hons)

Faces in the Street, St Vincent’s Health Urban Mental Health Research Insti- tute, Sydney, Australia.

Erin Louise Whittle, BA (Hons), is a research assistant at Faces in the Street, Urban Mental Health and Wellbeing Research Institute, St Vin- cent’s Hospital Wales in Sydney, Australia.

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Issue

Vol. 5 No. 2 (2013)

Section

Full Length Articles