Reflection on Theory
of Science
Looking a bit more deeply into my
field of research, there’s a few examples on how different methodologies can
give raise to different perspectives in the same field. Also, the framework
that is behind the researcher itself will influence his own procedures, directions
and methods. Although this can be considered strange to most lay people, it’s
because of these different approaches that science advances and makes its own
way. Looking at the music and emotion field, Kivy, a firm cognitivist, has
repeatedly denied that music really arouses what he has termed the "garden
varieties" or real-world instances of sadness, happiness, anger, and other
simple emotions in the listener, while the emotivists, which constitute the
major group, objectively believe music does arouse these emotions. In fact the
observation of a phenomenon’s is always different according to their mentors.
This section of the course made me
reflect also in the humanist ideal, in how science and humanism sometimes are
not working together. Looking for instance on how different corners of world
have different access to knowledge, information and technology, makes me think
that what we’re creating is more scientific than humanistic. Knowledge today is
also a transactional item, and unfortunately only some people in the world will
benefit from it.
After reflecting in some aspects of
theory of science and concealing it with music and emotion, and the affective
sciences in general, I think that more and more different perspectives need to
talk and reflect more together. Neuroscience, neurobiology, musicology,
sociology, philosophy and other perspectives should not be regarded with
distrust, but as other sources of knowledge that could be analyzed,
incorporated and even assimilated in some cases by psychology researchers. They
explain the connection between music and emotion in very distinct and sometimes
peculiar ways. These disciplines in the last few years started cooperating
between each other, in order to find better answers to difficult questions.
Although a common consensus is not easy to get. Philosophical investigations,
for instance, lead to suggestion of new empirical questions, and sciences like
psychology can take advantage of these new questions.
Most theorists accept that only
sentient creatures can express emotions, they defend that humans give
expressiveness to the music, and that listeners look for the composer or the
“persona” symbolized in the music. Expression theory and arousal theory and
counter theory are examples of expressiveness theories.
Musicologists like Meyer draws his
music emotion theory based in psychology sources, and the principles of
Gestalt. Music sets up expectations in the listener, frequently after
postponement. According to his theory, the longer resolution is delayed, the
more affect will be created. However, several philosophers see limitations in Meyer’s theory. First, it’s claimed that
the relationship between emotions as “normally understood” and Meyer’s
indistinct affect or feeling note is not acceptable. Second, they consider
Meyer’s approach too narrow and exclusive.
Basic emotions are today also the
main focus of neuropsychological studies. Young children can easily find
emotion meaning from music. By the age of 9 months, they can distinguish happy
and sad music, by the age of 3 years, they already have the ability to
recognize happiness in art of their culture and by the age of 6 years, children
show abilities to identify sadness, fear and anger in music, like adults do. By
the age of 6, western children understand of the rules under the happy-sad
character of the music of their culture, which is remarkable.
The current trend in music
sociology is to focus on how music may be used to construct self-identity and
to create and maintain a variety of feelings state and also the procedures and
practical activities in particular social contexts, with a focus on emotions in
terms of how they are experienced within social situations. In DeNora’s (2000)
study that deals with how American and British women use music, nearly all
women spoke explicitly about the role of music in their lives. According to
them it’s a mean to create, enhance, sustain and change cognitive, bodily and
self-conceptual states. Music is chosen not only because it calms them, but
because it restores in some cases its own identity, connected to memories and
associations. New sociologists of musical practice and emotional work recognize
the importance of music related to emotions.
Even though disciplines like
philosophy, musicology, anthropology and sociology lacked most times empirical
evidence, it’s also true that psychology found the bases of understanding the
relation between music and emotion in these fields. It’s important to stress
the close relation between psychology and neurobiology on the last decade. I
believe that these two different fields although with different scopes, will
support each other findings in the near future.
The need of revising the existing
methods and the need of new ones is one of the most frequent themes of
reflection among researchers. Techniques to distinguish answers related to
perceived and felt emotions are also essential. Despite the fact that some
interview guidelines have been used, there is still no universal for handling
this problem. In my next two studies I propose myself the use of methods that
are not so common in the field of emotions; however I believe that they can
shed some light in some of the problems discussed above. In the first study I propose the use of an
internet based methodology, in order to get data from different corners of the
world. It is known that today most studies only regard a particular sample of
western culture in order to explain music and emotion findings. I think that
even though this method can lower the internal validity of the study, it will
surely increase the external validity in its ecological validity for instance.
The other study concerns the connection of emotions and wellbeing, little work
has been done concerning wellbeing and emotional states while listening to
music.
I think that the more ecological
validity we get, the more close to a humanist position we are, and that is a
challenge that I’m willing to face.
