Dr. Vinoo Alluri and her student Azhagammal SC published a paper on Maladaptive music listening strategies are modulated by individual traits in Psychology of Music. The other authors of this paper are Mittal A, Vehant Technologies, Noida; Vuoskoski JK, University of Oslo, Oslo and Saarikallio Suvi, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland.

Research work as explained by the authors:

Music listening is a great resource for mental well-being, pleasure, and self-regulation, but it may also be maladaptive. Depression, for instance, has been shown to relate to music use that is characterized by rumination, avoidance, and mood worsening. However, we know little of the role of individual differences in such maladaptive music use. Hence, this study focused on examining the role of personality, empathic traits, emotional contagion, and the types of musical reward as predictors of maladaptive music listening. Participants (N = 318) answered an online survey comprising measures for the abovementioned traits in addition to the Healthy-Unhealthy Music Scale (HUMS) as a measure of maladaptive music use. Results demonstrated that Unhealthy musical engagement was predicted by a variety of traits representing general negative emotionality (e.g., Neuroticism, Personal Distress, contagion for negative emotions). Structural equation modeling highlighted the importance of the empathic trait Personal Distress in mediating Unhealthy musical engagement. Finally, we deliberate if maladaptive strategies are indeed “maladaptive” for such individuals or merely a coping mechanism, which is indeed adaptive for them, aiding to combat depressive and anxious states thereby preventing them from “tipping over” into depression.

Full paper: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/03057356211065061

Psychology of Music publishes peer reviewed papers directed at increasing the scientific understanding of any psychological aspect of music. These include studies on listening, performing, creating, memorising, analysing, describing, learning, and teaching, as well as applied social, developmental, attitudinal and therapeutic studies.

Website: https://journals.sagepub.com/description/pom