Musical Mood Induction Procedure Research Articles

Inducing a Depressive Mood: A Comparison between Patients with Anxiety and Depression and Non-Patients in Emotional Reactivity, Avoidance and Mindfulness

Understanding how emotional reactivity (ER) works could help explain how mental disorders are developed and maintained. In this study, a musical mood induction procedure (MIP) was used to examine the relationship between ER and the fundamental components of avoidance (cognitive, behavioral and experiential). The study was conducted with a clinical sample of patients with anxiety disorders, depressive disorders and borderline personality disorder (N = 100), and general population sample (N = 100). A pilot study (N = 70) was first conducted to confirm the effectiveness of the selected MIP. The results indicated that the MIP used is an effective procedure for inducing a depressive mood. There was no relationship between ER induced by a depressive MIP and levels of cognitive-behavioral or experiential avoidance or mindfulness. Nor was a relationship found between ER and the symptomatology of anxiety and depression. Implications for understanding ER are discussed, as are recommendations for future studies.

Negative mood, implicit alcohol-related memory, and alcohol use in young adults: The moderating effect of alcohol expectancy

Objective Alcohol-related implicit (preconscious) cognitive processes are established and unique predictors of alcohol use, but most research in this area has focused on alcohol-related implicit cognition and anxiety. This study extends this work into the area of depressed mood by testing a cognitive model that combines traditional explicit (conscious and considered) beliefs, implicit alcohol-related memory associations (AMAs), and self-reported drinking behavior. Method Using a sample of 106 university students, depressed mood was manipulated using a musical mood induction procedure immediately prior to completion of implicit then explicit alcohol-related cognition measures. A bootstrapped two-group (weak/strong expectancies of negative affect and tension reduction) structural equation model was used to examine how mood changes and alcohol-related memory associations varied across groups. Results Expectancies of negative affect moderated the association of depressed mood and AMAs, but there was no such association for tension reduction expectancy. Conclusion Subtle mood changes may unconsciously trigger alcohol-related memories in vulnerable individuals. Results have implications for addressing subtle fluctuations in depressed mood among young adults at risk of alcohol problems.

Is manipulation of mood a critical component of cognitive bias modification procedures?

This paper investigates whether changes in mood state are an important component of cognitive bias modification (CBM) procedures. In a novel CBM procedure participants read either positive or negative statements relating to social issues for 5 min. Interpretation bias was measured by means of a scrambled sentence test, which was presented both before and after the CBM procedure. Participants who read the positive statements made more positive resolutions to the scrambled sentences, while participants who read the negative statements made more negative resolutions. Thus, the appropriate positive and negative interpretative biases were induced by the CBM procedure. However, significant mood changes also occurred following CBM. In Experiment 2, a musical mood induction procedure was presented with depressing or elating music. As before, a scrambled sentence test was presented both before and after the musical mood induction. Mood changed in accordance with the valence of the music to the same extent as with CBM. Critically however, performance on the scrambled sentence task did not change for both groups. This demonstrates that a change in mood state is not sufficient for a change in cognitive bias to occur.

Relationships Between Alcohol-Related Memory Association and Changes in Mood: Systematic Differences Between High- and Low-Risk Drinkers

Heavy alcohol use is common in undergraduates and is associated with health-risk behaviors, negative consequences, and increased risk for future alcohol dependence. Alcohol-related memory associations (AMAs) and mood changes are independently related to student drinking, but more research on how these variables interact is needed. To examine (i) how AMAs predict drinking behavior after accounting for depression, and (ii) how changes in negative and positive mood predict AMAs among low- and high-risk drinkers. Positive and negative moods were manipulated using a musical mood induction procedure immediately prior to completion of memory association measures. A bootstrapped structural equation model was tested, permitting a sampling distribution free of the requirement of normality. Negative mood changes predicted AMAs in high-risk drinkers but not in low-risk drinkers, and the opposite was found for positive mood changes. The negative mood-AMA association appeared related to risky drinking, and these subtle implicit cognitive processes may warrant a special focus in intervention programs for high-risk drinkers.

A Musical Mood Induction Alleviates Dysfunctional Attitudes in Needy and Self-Critical Individuals

The “mood-state hypothesis” (Miranda & Persons, 1988) suggests that dysfunctional beliefs are latent in individuals vulnerable to depression until activated by a negative mood. The purpose of the current study was twofold: (a) to validate a new musical mood induction procedure and (b) to test the cognitive reactivity (or changes in the endorsement of dysfunctional beliefs) in individuals hypothesized to be vulnerable to depression (Blatt, Zohar, Quinlan, Zuroff, & Mongrain, 1995). The mood induction procedure was found to be highly effective for both the positive and the negative conditions. Needy and self-critical participants reported increases in the endorsement of dysfunctional attitudes with the depressing music. With the elating music, needy and self-critical participants experiencing an increase in happiness reported lower levels of dysfunctional attitudes. The findings support state-trait models of depressive vulnerability (Zuroff, Blatt, Sanislow, & Bondi, 1999) and further illustrate how positive mood states can ameliorate the report of maladaptive thoughts.

The mood-induced activation of implicit alcohol cognition in enhancement and coping motivated drinkers

In two experiments, we investigated whether different mood states activate specific types of implicit alcohol cognition among undergraduates classified as enhancement (EM) or coping (CM) motivated drinkers. Participants completed a Stroop task in Experiment 1 ( n = 81), and an Extrinsic Affective Simon Task (EAST; [De Houwer, J. (2003). The Extrinsic Affective Simon Task. Experimental Psychology, 50, 77–85.]) in Experiment 2 ( n = 79) following random assignment to listen to positive or negative musical mood induction procedures (MMIP). Consistent with hypotheses, only EM, and not CM, drinkers displayed an activation of implicit attention to alcohol cues (Experiment 1) and reward-alcohol implicit associations (Experiment 2) following exposure to positive MMIP. Contrary to hypotheses for CM drinkers, none of the groups, in either experiment, showed an activation of implicit alcohol processing following exposure to negative MMIP. Confidence that positive mood activates implicit alcohol cognition among EM drinkers is increased since this result emerged across two studies involving quite different methodologies. This research has implications for experimental cognitive research and it highlights the potential utility of treatment matching according to drinking motives (e.g., EM) to improve clinical outcomes.

The Derived Transfer and Reversal of Mood Functions Through Equivalence Relations: II

Recent research has demonstrated the transfer of induced mood functions through equivalence relations by means of a musical mood-induction procedure. The research described in this article replicated and extended such work, primarily with the inclusion of a baseline and two types of reversal procedures. First, 16 adult participants were trained and tested for the formation of two three-member equivalence classes (A1-B1-C1 and A2-B2-C2). A musical mood-induction procedure was used to induce happy and sad mood states in the presence of the B stimuli, and a transfer of mood functions test was administered to determine whether the corresponding mood functions had transferred via equivalence to the C stimuli. Participants were then exposed to either Reversal 1, in which only the functions attached to the B stimuli were reversed, or to Reversal 2, in which the structure of the equivalence classes was altered. At all stages throughout the experiment, participants were asked to rate their current mood state by using mood and incentive rating scales. The findings of the current study replicated the results of previous research in demonstrating a clear transfer of mood functions via equivalence relations. This outcome is compared with the existing literature about mood induction and the transfer of mood functions.

Mood-congruent cognitions constitute mood experience.

Three studies tested the assumption of a dispositional theory of moods that mood-related cognitions constitute essential parts of the phenomenal mood experience. In Study 1, after a hot- versus a cold-, sad-, or angry-mood induction, participants reported their momentary moods and their momentary mood-related cognitions. Self-reported moods and mood-related cognitions changed in a strictly parallel fashion in all mood induction groups. A mediation analysis showed that the influences of distraction on moods were completely mediated by changes in mood-related cognitions. Study 2 replicated the central findings of Study 1 with a musical mood induction procedure. Study 3 showed that the findings do not depend on the explicit manipulation of moods. The results support the tested assumption.

Reproducibility of negative mood induction: a self-referent plus musical mood induction procedure and a controllable/uncontrollable stress paradigm.

Mood induction procedures (MIPs) have been used extensively as a means of inducing a variety of mood states in laboratory settings. Recently, MIPs have been employed in a repeated measures design in combination with such techniques as functional imaging and psychopharmacological investigations. This study attempted to assess the repeatability of two paradigms designed to induce a depressed/negative affect, a self-referent plus musical MIP and a controllable/uncontrollable stress paradigm, to assess the viability of using such procedures in a repeated design. Healthy volunteers were enrolled in to one of two studies. Study 1 administered a self-referent plus musical MIP on three separate occasions: neutral and depressive mood induction (MI) in a balanced order, followed by a further depressive MI. In study 2, volunteers were subjected to sessions of controllable and uncontrollable noise stress in a balanced order on two different occasions. Subjective ratings of mood were obtained prior to and following the interventions. Depressive MI successfully increased ratings of negative affect, although this effect tended to be greater on the first occasion than on the second. Correlation between mood change on the first and second occasions were low, both for the MIP and stress paradigm. As such, caution should be exercised in using these procedures in a repeated measures design. However, the results may vary depending on the type of MIP employed.

A Derived Transfer of Mood Functions Through Equivalence Relations

The present study investigated the transfer of induced happy and sad mood functions through equivalence relations. Sixteen subjects participated in a combined equivalence and mood induction procedure. In Phase 1, all subjects were trained in 2 conditional discriminations using a matching-to-sample format (i.e., A1-B1, A2-B2, A1-C1, A2-C2). In Phase 2, they were tested for the formation of symmetry (i.e., B1-A1, B2-A2, C1-A1, C2-A2), and equivalence relations (i.e., B1-C1, B2-C2, C1-B1, C2-B2). In Phase 3, a musical mood induction procedure was employed to induce happy and sad mood states in the presence of the B stimuli. Eight subjects were exposed to happy music in the presence of B1, and sad music in the presence of B2, and for the other 8 subjects, this mood induction was reversed. In Phase 4, subjects were exposed to a mood functions test to determine whether the appropriate mood functions had been established with the B stimuli. In Phase 5, they were exposed to a transfer of mood functions test to determine whether the appropriate happy and sad mood functions had transferred via equivalence from the B stimuli to the C stimuli. The mood measures showed that the specific mood functions established in the presence of the B stimuli successfully transferred to the C stimuli for the majority of subjects. This transfer of mood function effect is discussed in terms of its implications for a behavioral understanding of mood changes.

Self-report measures of defeat and entrapment during a brief depressive mood induction

Recent studies have reported that depression is strongly associated with perceptions of defeat and entrapment, and have proposed that such perceptions are central features of depression. This study used experimental mood induction procedures to investigate the putative causal relationship between perceptions of defeat/entrapment and depressed mood. Two groups of female undergraduate volunteers (n = 16) completed visual analogue mood scales, as well as Defeat and Entrapment scales, before and after either a negative or a positive musical mood induction procedure (MIP). Scores on the Defeat and Entrapment Scales were significantly correlated with scores on the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). The negative MIP caused a worsening of mood and significantly increased perceptions of defeat and entrapment, particularly internal entrapment. The positive MIP caused a small but significant improvement in mood, and significantly decreased defeat scores. Individuals with elevated BDI or internal entrapment scores prior to the negative MIP showed the greatest increases in internal entrapment after the negative mood induction. The results demonstrate that induction of a depressed mood increases perceptions of defeat and entrapment, and suggest that, in the case of internal entrapment, this effect increases with the initial level of depression or entrapment.

The effect of a musical mood induction procedure on mood state-dependent word retrieval.

The purpose of this experiment was to replicate and expand upon an earlier study by Thaut and de l'Etoile (1993) by examining the effect of a musical mood induction procedure on mood state-dependent word retrieval. Participants (N = 45) completed a 2-day testing procedure. On day one, participants read a list of adjectives and wrote down an antonym for each one. On day two, participants recalled as many of the antonyms as possible. During the testing procedure, participants were placed in 1 of 4 conditions: (a) mood induction at encoding, (b) mood induction at recall, (c) no mood induction, and (d) mood induction at both encoding and recall. The mood induction procedure included 3 steps. Participants first assessed their current mood state using a visual analog scale. They then listened to music for 5 minutes, determined the mood of the piece while listening, and tried to match their mood to the music. Finally, participants again used the visual analog scale to indicate their mood. Results indicated that participants who received mood induction prior to both encoding and recall were able to retrieve significantly more words than participants who did not undergo any mood induction. The results are discussed in light of the associative network theory of memory and emotions and the treatment of mood disorders.

Emotion induction through music: A review of the musical mood induction procedure

This article reviews research showing that music can alter peoples’ moods and emotions. The so called “musical mood induction procedure” (MMIP) relies on music to produce changes in experienced affective processes. The fact that music can have this effect on subjective experience has been utilized to study the effect of mood on cognitive processes and behavior by a large number of researchers in social, clinical, and personality psychology. This extensive body of literature, while little known among music psychologists, is likely to further help music psychologists understand affective responses to music. With this in mind, the present article aims at providing an extensive review of the methodology behind a number of studies using the MMIP. The effectiveness of music as a mood-inducing stimulus is discussed in terms of self-reports, physiological, and behavioral indices. The discussion focuses on how findings from the MMIP literature may extend into current research and debate on the complex interplay of music and emotional responses.

The influence of positive and negative mood states on risk taking, verbal fluency, and salivary cortisol

Background: Neuropsychological studies in depressed and manic patients have revealed significant frontal cortex dysfunction. It is hypothesised that performance on frontal lobe tasks may be sensitive to induced fluctuations in mood state in non-clinical samples. Methods: Subjects performed one of two neuropsychological tasks immediately subsequent to a musical mood induction procedure designed to induce either elation or depression. Mood was assessed using self-report measures. Salivary cortisol levels were also measured in an attempt to objectively validate mood induction effects. The tasks used were verbal fluency and Damasio’s Gambling Game. Two groups of subjects were recruited: a group with previous (subclinical) hypomanic experience ( n=23) and a control group without previous hypomanic experience ( n=23). Results: The positive and negative mood inductions produced robust and contrasting effects on self-reported mood, but had no significant differential effects on salivary cortisol levels and neuropsychological performance. Limitations: The findings are restricted by the absence of a neutral mood control condition. Conclusions: Salivary cortisol recording does not provide a simple and reliable method of validating psychological mood induction. Performance on frontal lobe tests appears to be insensitive to normal mood fluctuations, which supports the argument that the deficits in mood disorder patient groups may instead reflect core disturbances of neurobiological processes.

Trait anxiety and pessimistic appraisal of risk and chance

Previous research on anxiety and risk has primarily focused on the subjective probability of negative events. Prevalent definitions, however, regard risk as having two dimensions: (i) probability and (ii) utility. Furthermore, previous results remained ambivalent to whether inflated subjective risk was due to trait or to state anxiety. Finally, response-set explanations often could not be ruled out. This article presents two studies in which risk appraisal was investigated with a new text-completion method. Participants were given texts about various possible negative and positive events with omissions for the two risk dimensions. A musical mood-induction procedure was used to induce state anxiety. The participants then completed the texts by choosing the most plausible risk descriptions. Results of both studies show a global effect of trait anxiety on the appraisal of probability and utility for both positive and negative events whereas neither state anxiety nor control variables like social desirability or depression could explain any variance in the appraisal of risk and chance.

Effects of mood manipulation on subjective and behavioural measures of cigarette craving.

Cigarette cravings were evaluated in a sample of moderately heavy smokers, using the Questionnaire on Smoking Urges (QSU), and a progressive-ratio (PR) operant procedure in which responding on a computer keyboard was reinforced by puffs on a cigarette, under a progressively increasing work requirement. Subjects were also exposed to musical mood-induction procedures: the induction and maintenance of depressed and elated mood states was confirmed by visual analogue scales and a mood questionnaire. Smoking did not alter mood state. However, relative to the elated condition, induction of a depressed mood caused increases in both QSU scores and measures of PR performance. The results provide the first experimental confirmation of a causal relationship between depressed mood and cigarette craving.

Effect of mood and food cues on body image in women with bulimia and controls.

The present study evaluated body image assessment and cue reactivity in women with bulimia and controls in response to neutral, mood, and food cues in isolation, and mood and food cues in combination. Subjects were 7 women with bulimia nervosa and 8 control women. Food cues were individualized high-risk/favorite foods. Low mood was elicited using the Musical Mood Induction Procedure. Order of cue presentation was random across subjects. Body image and cue reactivity were assessed using a computer version of the silhouette method and self-report ratings, respectively. Women with bulimia consistently rated their current body as being larger and their body image satisfaction as being lower than control women. In addition, women with bulimia differentially rated their current body and a picture of a healthy weight woman as being larger following exposure to food and/or mood cues. Ratings of ideal body were differentially affected by mood cues for control women. Ratings of body satisfaction were not affected by cue presentation. Mere presentation of high-risk foods in the absence of eating was sufficient to elicit urges to binge in women with bulimia. Body size estimation is not only affected by enduring characteristics (i.e., bulimia nervosa), but also more transient factors such as short-term exposure to salient food and mood cues.

Evaluative decision latencies mediated by induced affective states

Recent priming studies (e.g. Hermans, De Houwer & Eelen, 1994, Cognition and Emotion, 8, 515–533) have demonstrated that response latencies to target stimuli are mediated by the affective relation between prime and target. The time needed to evaluate or pronounce targets is facilitated if preceded by similarly valenced primes, but is inhibited for trials on which prime and target have an opposite affective valence. These data suggest that information stored in memory is associatively linked with similarly evaluated information, through association with some general representation of goodness or badness. To investigate whether affective priming is merely one type of conventional semantic priming, or whether it is mediated by affective responses, the affective context provided by the primes was replaced in this study by the induction of an emotional state using a Musical Mood Induction procedure (Depression/Elation). Subjects had to evaluate target pictures as quickly as possible. The data revealed a significant Mood Change (More Depressed/Less Depressed/No Change) × Target Valence (Positive/Negative) interaction, indicating that emotional states can mediate evaluative response latencies to affectively valenced target stimuli. The results are interpreted in the context of a biphasic emotion theory, and are related to previous research on mood congruency effects on perceptual responses.

Mood Induction Procedure: Importance of Individualising Music

Studies examining the musical mood induction procedure (MMIP) currently typically involve the experimenter preselecting a piece of music for use with all subjects. This assumes that the same piece of music will be equally effective at eliciting low mood for all subjects. The validity of this assumption was evaluated among 12 bulimic and 12 control women. Subjects listened to seven preselected pieces of music and rated them according to how likely it would be that the piece of music would help them to lower their mood / feel sad. Analysis showed that subjects were highly individual in their responses, and that it could not be assumed that the same piece of music would be equally effective at eliciting low mood across subjects.

Mood and sexual arousal in women

The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of a positive ‘mood for sex’ on genital and subjective sexual arousal in functional women, using a musical mood induction procedure. Fifty-one female Ss were randomly assigned to one of four conditions: erotic film preceded by mood induction; erotic fantasy preceded by mood induction; erotic film without mood induction; and erotic fantasy without mood induction. Photoplethysmographic pulse amplitude was continuously recorded and self-report ratings of sexual arousal and affective reactions were collected before and after erotic conditions. Results showed that a positive sexual mood did not facilitate subsequent genital and subjective sexual arousal. Positive sexual mood did inhibit negative emotional experiences to erotic film.