Individual differences in response to a musical mood induction procedure

Abstract

The present study sought to extend the findings of Cash, Rimm and MacKinnon (1986) who found that subjects responded to positive and negative mood induced by the Velten mood induction procedure (VMIP) as a function of their rationality-irrationality. Extreme groups of male and female subjects were selected using the Survey of Personal Beliefs (SPB), a measure of subjects' endorsement of 4 core irrational beliefs proposed by Ellis (1962). A musical mood induction procedure (MMIP) was used with 27 rational and 27 irrational subjects who were exposed to musical pieces pretested as being either positive, neutral or negative. Subjects' mood states were assessed by their performance on a pre- and post-induction MAACL-R 'today' form and a Visual Analogue Scale (VAS). The results support Cash et al.'s interactive hypothesis, with rationals showing stronger susceptibility to the positive MMIP but not to the negative MMIP, while the converse was true for irrationals. Neither sex differences nor use of a musical induction procedure were found to influence results. Implications for theory, research, and practice are discussed.