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From sound to synapses: How music impacts psychological states and emotional intelligence
Knight, Garett
Knight, Garett
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URCAF_2025_Knight.pdf
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2025-04-25
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Knight, Garett. 2025. From sound to synapses: How music impacts psychological states and emotional intelligence. -- In Proceedings: 24th Annual Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity Forum. Wichita, KS: Wichita State University, p. 23
Abstract
Music's capacity to influence psychological state, enhance emotional intelligence (EI), and induce mental imagery is bound up with subjective experience; yet the individual differences which underlie such effects are not well understood. This qualitative study examines music's interplay with emotion and cognition from three different perspectives: (1) music's capacity to modify psychological state by means of such mechanisms as arousal, recall of past personal experiences, and perceptual mental imagery; (2) music's role in promoting EI by means of auditory stimulation that allows for emotional reinterpretation; (3) music's ability to produce evocative imagery in the imagination, connecting perception with imagination. Whilst theoretical accounts, such as Wallin's (1991) scaffold model of music for emotional repair and Margulis's (2013) exploration of music's semantic transcendence, imply certain universality, this work highlights the diversity of responses that are influenced by cultural environment, personal history, and sensitivity to emotion. Employing qualitative methods of observational coding of facial expression, semi- structured interviews, and thematic analysis of reported imagery accounts, this research aims to explore to what extent psychological profiles and listeners shape their reaction to music. How, for example, do autobiographical associations modify emotional response to a particular piece of music? What role does facial feedback, a marker of underlying emotional resonance, play in interpreting mental imagery? By focusing on qualitative data, the analysis highlights interaction between music's structural properties (like rhythm and contour) and subjective meaning, thus illustrating how listeners together generate meaning through imaginative embodied practices. The results question the assumption of standardized models in relation to the impact of music, highlighting the urgency for context-specific and personalized interventions in educational and therapeutic settings. A model advanced by the research envisions music as a bidirectional dialogue involving sound and subjectivity, thus providing a platform for individualized musical interactions that facilitate emotional growth and cognitive enrichment.
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Third place winner of poster presentations for Social Sciences & Humanities at the 24th Annual Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity Forum (URCAF) held in the Woolsey Hall, Wichita State University, April 25, 2025.
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Wichita State University
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URCAF;v.24