[Experimental induction of emotional states--does addition of music improve self disclosure?]

Abstract

Two procedures to experimentally induce negative and neutral emotional states are compared: self-referent emotional statements (Velten, 1968) presented alone vs. combined with music. For female subjects selected according to their baseline mood, it could be shown that negative statements alone induced anger whereas in combination with music they evoked sadness, i.e. dependent on the procedure applied, the quality of the induced negative emotion changed. For the induction of a neutral state the combined procedure proved to be superior, especially to reduce a positive baseline mood.