Jenica Heaton, Southern Utah University
Music has been shown to be a catalyst for emotion and that many people use music to help regulate their emotions when in aversive situations (Thoma et al., 2012). Many other studies have been done within the realm of music and emotion, but little research has been done to show whether the music itself, the lyrics, or a combination of both are the cause of emotional change. Around two-hundred participants volunteered to be exposed to one of six random conditions: an original score of music, the original score without lyrics, an altered version of the original score, the altered version without lyrics, the lyrics without music, and finally a control condition where they were not presented with any musical elements. After the presentation of the stimuli, participants were given a survey which assessed their emotion as well as the participant’s emotional-awareness skill-set. Data collection will be completed November 2017 and results/implications will be analyzed December/January 2017.