Using music to feel better: Are different emotion-regulation strategies truly distinct?

Abstract

People use music to regulate their emotions in a variety of ways. Whereas some of these strategies are conceptually and empirically distinct from one another, other strategies are not wholly distinguishable. We examined the distinctiveness among strategies used to regulate emotions via music listening. College students ( N = 274) completed an online questionnaire with closed-ended and open-ended items designed to measure their use of music to regulate emotions and other music- and emotion-related measures. Confirmatory factor analyses suggested that some of the strategies in Saarikallio’s taxonomy are not completely distinct from one another, yet correlations between these strategies and other functions of music listening and absorption in music suggested a fair amount of empirical similarity among most of these functions. Qualitative analysis suggested that, in addition to strategies described by Saarikallio, people use music to remember, to feel calm, and to match their mood. This mixed-methods research therefore suggests that both constricting and expanding prior taxonomies of strategies to regulate emotions via music could be warranted.