Music and feelings of well-being : an analytic study of the role of gender on response to music
Authors
Elegbede, Ayobola
Issue Date
2014
Degree
BA (Hons) in Social Science
Publisher
Dublin Business School
Rights holder
Rights
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Abstract
Music has been a significant part of human experience and even when it is not the main focus of attention; it is difficult to imaging some occasions such as weddings without it (Rentfrow and Gosling, 2012). In effect, many researches (Ramsay, 2011) have been carried out to investigate the effects of music on people and these have attested to the numerous benefits of music on well-being. Further researches have shown that not only is music beneficial to well-being as a means of physical and psychological therapy, but also as a means of self-help in daily life to regulate and manage emotions as well as moods (Skanland, 2013). The present research is therefore interested in how gender affects responses to music and how these responses impact on individual’s feelings of wellbeing. 200 men and women, ranging from 18-58 years of age took part in the present research. Results showed that gender was not primarily influential in how people responded to music and as such could not necessarily determine people’s feelings of well being. However cultural background and age group (generation) seem to play a vital role in determining how people respond to music and what genre of music they responded to. Key to the present research is the finding that personality and not gender plays an important role in how people respond to music. Though gender may not be primary in determining people’s response to music, further research in this field is required to really determine that gender does not affect response to music and as such the feelings of well-being for both men and women. Author keywords: Well-being, music, gender, cultural background, ethnicity.