Summary articles ‘Youth culture in a digital world’
Week 2: Music
➢ Rentfrow, P. J. (2012). The role of music in everyday life: Current directions in the social psychology of
music. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 6, 402-416.
➢ Miranda, D. (2013). The role of music in adolescent development: Much more than the same old song.
International Journal of Adolescence and Youth, 18(1), 5-22.
Week 3: Music
➢ Ter Bogt, T.F., Keijsers, L., & Meeus, W.H. (2013). Early Adolescent Music Preferences and Minor
Delinquency. Pediatrics, 131, e380-e389.
➢ Krause, A. E., Davidson, J. W., & North, A. C. (2018). Musical activity and well-being: a new quantitative
measurement instrument. Music Perception: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 35(4), 454-474.
➢ Lonsdale, A. J., & North, A. C. (2011). Why do we listen to music? A uses and gratifications analysis.
British Journal of Psychology, 102(1), 108-134.
Week 4: Social Media
➢ Hanna, E., Ward, L. M., Seabrook, R. C., Jerald, M., Reed, L., Giaccardi, S., & Lippman, J.R. (2017).
Contributions of social comparison and self-objectification in mediating associations between
Facebook use and emergent adults' psychological well-being. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social
Networking, 20(3), 172-179.
Week 4: Media Multitasking
➢ Van Der Schuur, W. A., Baumgartner, S. E., Sumter, S. R., & Valkenburg, P. M. (2015). The
consequences of media multitasking for youth: A review. Computers in Human Behavior, 53, 204-215.
➢ Allen, K. A., Ryan, T., Gray, D. L., McInerney, D. M., & Waters, L. (2014). Social media use and social
connectedness in adolescents: The positives and the potential pitfalls. The Educational and
Developmental Psychologist, 31(1), 18-31.
Week 5: Gaming
➢ Peeters, M., Koning, I., Lemmens, J., & Eijnden, R. V. D. (2019). Normative, passionate, or problematic?
Identification of adolescent gamer subtypes over time. Journal of Behavioral Addictions, 1-12.
➢ Rafla, M., Carson, N. J., & DeJong, S. M. (2014). Adolescents and the internet: what mental health
clinicians need to know. Current psychiatry reports, 16(9), 472.
Week 6: Gaming
➢ Ferguson, C. J., & Olson, C. K. (2013). Friends, fun, frustration and fantasy: Child motivations for video
game play. Motivation and Emotion, 37(1), 154-164.
➢ Sailer, M., Hense, J. U., Mayr, S. K., & Mandl, H. (2017). How gamification motivates: An experimental
study of the effects of specific game design elements on psychological need satisfaction. Computers in
Human Behavior, 69, 371-380.
Week 7: Parenting and digital media
➢ Koning, I. M., Peeters, M., Finkenauer, C., & van den Eijnden, R. J. (2018). Bidirectional effects of
Internet-specific parenting practices and compulsive social media and Internet game use. Journal of
Behavioral Addictions, 7(3), 624-632.
➢ Glatz, T., Crowe, E., & Buchanan, C. M. (2018). Internet-specific parental self-efficacy: developmental
differences and links to Internet-specific mediation. Computers in human behavior, 84, 8-17.
,WEEK 2: MUSIC
RENTFROW, P. J. (2012). THE ROLE OF MUSIC IN EVERYDAY LIFE: CURRENT DIRECTIONS IN THE
SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY OF MUSIC.
This article reviews research in fields outside mainstream psychology concerned with the social and
psychological factors that influence how people experience and use music in their daily lives.
Introduction
Why study music?
Despite the neglect of music in mainstream social psychology, the past decade has witnessed a growth of
research along the fringes that is concerned with the various ways in which people experience and use music in
their daily lives. Findings from these studies suggest, for example, that people use music to regulate their
moods and emotions, that situations can influence the styles of music people choose, which can then affect
behaviour in those situations, that individual differences in music preferences are linked to personality traits
and values and that similarity in music preferences is associated with attraction, closeness, and relationship
satisfaction. Taken together, such findings make it abundantly clear that social psychology can inform our
understanding of the role music plays in everyday life.
Frameworks for studying music in everyday life
Although there is no overarching theory guiding work in the social psychology of music, the research
questions and hypotheses examined can generally be seen as representations of two schools of thought: the
media effects model and the uses and gratifications model. Research from these two perspectives has
revealed the impact music can have on individuals and sheds light on some of the reasons why people listen
to music.
Media effects
The media effects model is based on the belief that media have a direct impact on how people think, feel,
and behave. The assumption underlying research in this area about music is that exposure to music
automatically primes individuals to think and feel in ways that are congruent with the message of the music.
For example, a study examined the effects of listening to violent music on aggression. The results revealed that
participants exposed to tense sounding music with violent, as compared to non-violent, lyrics reported
having more hostile feelings and aggressive thoughts. The findings indicated that it was the violent content of
the lyrics, not the tense or distorted sound of the music that triggered aggressive thoughts and feelings.
Also, the effects of listening to music can also have positive effects; increasing prosocial behaviour to reducing
prejudice. For instance, researchers conducted a series of studies showing that participants exposed to music
with prosocial themes displayed more interpersonal empathy and a greater willingness to help someone in
need compared to participants exposed to neutral music.
The approach of the media effects model also has serious limitations. A key assumption is that individuals are
passive recipients of music, listening idly to whatever music they encounter. Although people frequently hear
music chosen by others (e.g., marketing firm, film producer, store clerk), more than two-thirds of the music
people hear throughout the day is self-selected. Furthermore, very little attention is given to individual
differences in preferences or to interactions between preferences and exposure (not everyone chooses to
listen to violent music and can respond differently).
Uses and gratifications
Whereas the media effects model views individuals as passive consumers of media content, the uses and
gratifications model regards individuals as active agents who seek out or avoid particular content. The basic
assumptions underlying this paradigm are that there are individual differences in media preferences and that
people consume media to fulfill basic needs. The uses and gratifications model is essentially an individual
,differences approach in that it seeks to identify the motives and traits that underlie people’s reasons for
listening to music. Results from studies of adolescents and college students have revealed a variety of reasons
why young people listen to music. The most common self-reported reasons for listening to music are to pass
the time, regulate emotions, connect with peers, create an atmosphere, concentrate, increase physiological
arousal, and to convey an image to others.
Although the uses and gratifications model informs our understanding of why people choose to listen to certain
styles of music, research based on the model assumes that people are equally engaged with music and are
consciously aware of all the reasons why they listen to it. There is evidence for individual differences in
engagement with music and individuals are very likely unaware of all the reasons why they listen to or prefer
particular styles of music. Furthermore, research in this area focuses mainly on the motives people have for
listening to their preferred music without examining whether the music effectively satisfies those motives.
Current directions in the social psychology of music
Current research in the social psychology of music continues to build on the foundations established by the
classical theoretical perspectives and has begun to branch out to provide a more nuanced understanding of
how people experience and engage with music. These new research streams draw heavily on theories and
concepts in mainstream social-personality psychology, from emotion regulation to social identity theory and
to stereotyping and prejudice.
Mood and emotion
Empirical research on music-induced emotions provides convincing evidence that music does indeed elicit
certain emotions and moods in listeners. However, one of the limitations of this research is that it
decontextualizes the music listening experience. In everyday life, people choose to listen to music for one
reason or another depending on the situation and their surroundings. But, how does music affect emotion in
everyday life? On the whole, people appear to experience music-induced emotions quite frequently and
most of the emotions are positive. And how does music evoke emotional reactions in listeners? Researchers
developed a conceptual framework that identifies seven psychological mechanisms responsible for evoking
emotion from music: cognitive appraisal, brain stem reflexes, evaluative conditioning, emotional contagion,
visual imagery, episodic memory, and musical expectancy.
Personality and individual differences
Current work on individual differences in music preferences aims to identify their links with explicit traits,
values, and abilities. Like the uses and gratifications approach, the assumption underlying much of this work is
that individuals seek musical environments that reinforce and reflect aspects of their personalities, attitudes,
and emotions. Analyses of the psychological correlates of music preferences have revealed distinct
associations with personality, political ideology, values, sexual attitudes and cognitive abilities. For example,
individuals with preferences for sophisticated musical styles, like classical, opera, and jazz, are high in
Openness, creativity, imagination, and score high on measures of verbal ability. Some findings leave also room
for the hypothesis that the psychological variables influencing music preferences are also responsible for
problem behaviour; in other words, music preferences and problem behaviour may both be manifestations
of the same underlying dispositions.
But, are preferences stable throughout life, or do the change? Mostly, music is used during this critical period
(adolescent) for self-discovery, social bonding, and emotion regulation, the music that people listen to at this
stage of life becomes psychologically and physiologically significant. As individuals reach maturity, this
critical period ends and the music that people listened to in adolescence is remembered across the lifespan
and becomes a strong source of nostalgia.
Mood and emotion
How does music affect one’s sense of self? Music provides a medium for self-exploration, where individuals
,are able to reflect on who they are, where they came from, and who they aspire to become. According
studies, individuals engage in a reflexive process of remembering and constructing their identities while
listening to music, which can serve as a form of self-affirmation and discovery. Several studies have also
examined the impact of music preferences on individuals’ sense of self-worth. Drawing from social identity
theory, which posits that the social groups to which individuals belong are represented psychologically as
part of the self-concept, a number of researchers have begun to examine how affiliation with music-based
social groups (e.g., punks, rockabilly, emo, etc.) relates to self-esteem. Results from these investigations have
consistently shown that individuals assimilate the characteristics of their preferred music-based social group
– they adopt similar values and lifestyles. Also, a study showed that individuals with preferences for styles of
music with intermediate levels of popularity (and therefore optimally distinct) invested more resources and
commitment to their musical identities compared to people who preferred musical styles with limited or
broad popularity.
Social perception
Researchers argued that people use their favourite music as an identity badge to broadcast information
about themselves to others. For instance, on Spotify, which log and display users’ music listening habits on
their web pages so that others can see which bands and songs users enjoy or listen to most often. By using
music in this way, individuals are making public statements about who they are, who they want to be, and
how they want others to perceive them. However, research on music and self-expression has focused almost
entirely on young people and there is some evidence that working aged and older adults do not use music as
an identity badge.
There is also evidence that people can form accurate impressions of individuals on the basis of their music
preferences. A study found that observers were able to form accurate impressions of targets based on their
personal possessions (e.g., favourite clothing, favourite records).
Attraction and social bonding
Does music have any relevance in social relationships? Is similarity in music preferences associated attraction
or relationship satisfaction? Results showed that music had a significant effect on how attractive participants
rated the targets. Specifically, male and female targets with preferences for country music were perceived as
less attractive compared to targets with different musical preferences.
One of the assumptions underlying research on music and social bonding is that shared preferences reflect
similarities in values and dispositions – that people who enjoy the same music see and experience the world
in similar ways and therefore agree about more things than do people with different preferences. Such
reasoning suggests that it is not music per se that is important in social bonding, but that music acts as an
indicator of one’s values and traits, which mediate the link between shared preferences and attraction.
Conclusion
The research currently underway is tackling important questions about the ways in which people experience
and engage with music in everyday life. It is beginning to reveal how music is used for emotion regulation,
identity development, and social bonding, and it is also identifying some of the social and psychological factors
that shape preferences.
, ARTICLE MIRANDA, D. (2013). THE ROLE OF MUSIC IN ADOLESCENT DEVELOPMENT: MUCH
MORE THAN THE SAME OLD SONG.
This review aims at informing on current knowledge of how music listening can play a role in the
psychosocial development of adolescents. To this end, three arguments are discussed in light of recent
empirical research: music influences important aspects of adolescent development; music can represent a
protective and a risk factor; and music can serve as an adjunct component in prevention and intervention.
Introduction
At the outset, developmental psychologists may wonder whether music has any significant influence on some
of the biological, psychological, and social factors that compose human nature.
Music has biological effects. From a contemporary perspective, music is mediated by and impacts some of our
biological structures and processes: music activates neurotransmitters involved in pleasure and modulates
hormones involved in stress. Also music can have psychological effects, his area of research also contributes
to our understanding of how musical emotions interact with key psychological phenomena (e.g. cognitions,
aesthetics, motivation, performance, creativity, personality, social behaviours, health, and cross-cultural
similarities and difference. Besides, music can also have social effects. When individuals become acquainted,
they often use music preferences to manage social impressions, evaluate each other’s similarity, and subtly
acquire a social perception about the personality and values of the person they meet. Music tastes can
thereby be utilised as a ‘badge’ about one’s personality and social status.
Throughout history, the importance of music was noticed by many erudite thinkers. Charles Darwin (1871)
noted the emotional potency of music, its usefulness for courtship among animals, and he hypothesised that
music had probably been adaptive for sexual selection during human evolution. For a long time, there was a
lack of studies on music. Mursell (1937) explained that the problem was not the lack of studies on music, but
that they remained unfamiliar to mainstream psychologists. Nowadays, this lack of communication among
researchers seems to be lingering and may partially explain why developmental psychologists can often
underestimate – or simply take for granted – the role of music listening in adolescence.
The turning of the twenty-first century has witnessed the blossoming of sophisticated and diversified studies on
music, especially in cognitive/affective neuroscience, child/educational psychology, and social psychology.
Recently, there is a steady yet disappointedly modest increase of studies on music in journals specialised in
adolescence and development. It may be that music psychologists prefer to publish in their own specialist
journals instead of developmental journals.
A developmental psychology of music in adolescence investigates the influence that musical behaviours,
emotions, cognitions, and motives can have on normative and positive development, as well as
psychopathology. The overarching aim of this literature review is to build bridges between the psychology of
music and developmental psychology in adolescence
Music is important for the development of many adolescents
Adolescence is a period of transition and plasticity from childhood to adulthood. Music is their soundtrack
during this intense developmental period. This review is thus grounded in the assumption that adolescents’
self-initiated and ever more intense exposure to music occurs during a life period of plasticity in which they
experience (and need to resolve) numerous developmental tasks, transitions, and issues. This review’s
central theoretical implication is thereby that such developmental timing – the transaction between music and
adolescence – opens a critical window in which music can influence at least seven major areas of development:
aesthetics; identity; socialisation; emotion regulation and coping; personality and motivation; gender roles;
and positive youth development.
Music and aesthetics
Aesthetic development can pertain to how people develop their perception of beauty in great a many stimuli
