Background Music: Its Effect on the Emotional Responsiveness of

Psychology Students on ICI College at Santa Maria Bulacan

INTRODUCTION

An Emotional Response is the reaction of the body to a situation primarily given by an outer influence such as
other individuals, groups, things, or entities.It appears that music holds society together. Music has a remarkable
ability to strengthen our sense of connection and enable us to identify with others. Just think of how love songs
heighten our amorous sensations.

Emotional Response Theory (Mottet, Frymier, & Beebe, 2006) predicts that educators' communication fortifies
understudy enthusiastic reactions that coordinate their approach–avoidance behaviors. To test this hypothesis,
understudies detailed their recognition of educators' communication (control and equity), understudy passionate
reactions (joy, excitement, and dominance), and pointers of their approach–avoidance (cognitive learning,
emotional learning, and state inspiration). Enthusiastic reactions were prevalent indicators of cognitive learning
and state inspiration compared to educators' communication. Be that as it may, teachers' communication was far
better;a much better;a higher;a stronger;an improved"an improved indicator of emotional learning compared to
passionate reactions. To test the causal nature of this hypothesis, way examinations were utilized. The models
were not backed, supported bolstered, upheld backed. Collectively, the hypothesis was mostly upheld.
Suggestions, impediments, future bearings, and an evaluation of the hypothesis are examined.

Does background music make the emotional response? Does it influence our thoughts and feelings? Can a happy
music really make us feel happy or is it merely an external stimulus we filter out when we choose to?
(Drieberg,2013). Many academics have argued that music is one of the most effective ways to elicit emotions,
from Tolstoy's maxim that "music is the shorthand of emotion" to the exhaustively studied and widely used
reference works of Leonard Meyer ("Emotion and meaning in music"; Meyer, 1956) and Juslin and Sloboda
("The Handbook of Music and emotion"; Juslin and Sloboda, 2010).

Nowadays, Music is viewed as an important background feature in any movie because of its ability to enhance
viewer arousal and affect. Despite this, few studies have addressed whether the background music in a movie
influences the emotional responsiveness of the audience. Background music is a necessary component and a key
element in attracting viewers to the scenes. And as a result, music has come to be regarded as a universal
language or the language of emotion, serving as a window into other people's inner lives. In other words, there is
a link between musical experience and with the emotional responsiveness of every audience. Furthermore, when
the audience's feelings are heightened by the background music, it is now the ability of emotions to respond that
enables the audience to comprehend how other people feel. Music can do a lot more than just make an audience
happy or sad; it can further make their emotions respond, think, and feel about the characters and their dialogue
in a certain way. This is one of the many ways to prove that background music in a movie has a unique ability to
deepen our sense of connection with people, and that is the response of emotion. In line with this, the use of
background music in a film aids in the audience's ability to connect with the characters by responding with the
situation. Thus, most viewers frequently identify with what they see in films, especially when background music
is playing, just as love stories with romantic music in the background heighten the audience's arousal. Since our
brains are capable of establishing an emotional bond between a piece of music and something either positive,
sad, joyful, negative, etc., the fact that the vast majority audiovisual projects include music, original soundtrack
songs and other musical elements suggests that actually all these elements help make the storytelling more
enticing, digestible and memorable, as they tend to make our associated memory equal in strength the emotions
they cause. (Enhanced Media, 2019).

As stated above through the supported studies, the purpose of this study is to examine whether the presence of
background music in a movie can influence the emotional responsiveness of the audience.
Statement of the Problem

The study aimed to determine the effect of background music on the emotional responsiveness of psychology
students at ICI College in Santa Maria, Bulacan.

Particularly, the researchers sought to answer the following questions:

1. What is the demographic profile of respondents in terms of:

1.1 Age

1.2 Sex

2. Which treatment group shows a higher emotional responsiveness?

3. Is there a significant relationship between background music and students' emotional responsiveness?

Hypothesis of the Study

In placement with the statement of the problem, the researchers form a hypotheses as:

Null Hypotheses

The following null hypotheses were tested in the study:

H0: The emotional responsiveness of the students in the experimental group has no difference from the control
group.

H0: There is no significant relationship between background music and students' emotional responsiveness.

Alternative Hypotheses

The following alternative hypotheses was tested in the study:

H1: The emotional responsiveness of the students in the experimental group has no difference from that of the
control group.

H1: There is a significant relationship between background music and students' emotional responsiveness.

RRL

Understanding Emotional Response Theory: The Role of Instructor Power and Justice Messages:
Communication Quarterly: Vol 60, No 2 (tandfonline.com)
Emotional Response - Mike Schnoor

The effect of background music on emotional processing : evaluation using a dot probe paradigm (ecu.edu.au)