Strategies and mechanisms in musical affect self-regulation: A new model

Abstract

This study aimed at investigating the associations between regulation strategies and musical mechanisms involved in musical affect self-regulation. A sample of 571 participants was collected and the data regarding the reported strategies and mechanisms were analysed using correspondence analysis (CA). Three bipolar dimensions – cognition, feelings, and body – were retained for interpretation, thus revealing six contrasting strategic uses of music: cognitive work, entertainment, affective work, distraction, revival, and focus on situation. Clear associations between strategies and mechanisms emerged from the CA, connecting cognitive, feelings-focused, and situational processing with individual-dependent mechanisms and repairing, pleasure, and body-focused strategies with feature-dependent mechanisms. The novel observations about these associations renew the conceptual understanding of musical affect self-regulation and lay foundations for a new model that integrates regulatory strategies and mechanisms as intrinsic and interrelated components of this behaviour.