In this module, students will be introduced to the interdisciplinary study of music and emotion, focusing in particular on approaches from qualitative psychology. The classes may cover topics such as musical emotion and expectation, emotional expression in music, musical chills and negative emotions in response to music. The module may also include a practical workshop where students learn to design, conduct and analyse data from a qualitative interview study about music and emotion. The taught topics will be discussed in such a way as to provide students with the tools to critically assess psychological approaches to music, including their limitations and ethical considerations.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the module students should be able to:
Demonstrate a sophisticated and nuanced understanding of key mechanisms and concepts in musical emotions
Show a basic understanding of how qualitative studies of musical emotions are conducted and how empirical findings are interpreted.
Show a nuanced and sophisticated critical understanding of key contributions from qualitative psychological approaches to music emotion, and their ethical considerations.
write up simple interview study reports, describing study procedures, analysis and results.
Assessment: 20% Student Group Presentations (20 min presentation and 20 min discussion per group, marked as a group); 30% Interview Study Report (2000 words); 50% Independent Essay (2000 words). Alternative assessment if campus activity is restricted:Group presentations will be replaced with weekly reading responses (20%)
Reassessment: No resits are permitted in final year. If students miss the assessed task owing to extenuating circumstances, the failed task would be rescheduled at a later date. The group presentation would be re-assessed by a 10 minute individual presentation followed by a 5 minute discussion with the lecturer.