The Effect of Film Score on Emotion and Self-Talk

of a thesis at the University of Miami. Thesis supervised by Professor Shannon de l’Etoile. No. of pages in text. (109) The purpose of this study was to first assess the effect of film score on affect in healthy young adults. Second, the study examined the subsequent effect of mood change on self-talk in relation to a stressor. Participants were 131 University of Miami undergraduate students between the ages of 18 and 24 who were not musicians, recruited from all departments of study, excluding the Frost School of Music. Each participant completed a mood assessment, resulting in both a PASS (positive) and Dysphoria (negative) score, prior to one of three mood induction conditions: negative film score, positive film score, and control. Participants in the negative film score group listened to film score excerpts that portrayed feelings of sadness, loss and/or disappointment for 15 minutes. In the positive film score group, participants listened to film score excerpts that depicted feelings of happiness and/or encouragement for 15 minutes. Those participants who were assigned to the control group listened to a 15-minute recording of naturally-occurring sounds from a classroom. Following mood induction, participants completed the mood assessment a second time. Next, participants watched a stressor video, then completed the self-talk questionnaire and lecture assessment. To investigate two research questions, the researcher observed the effect of the auditory stimulus on positive and negative mood with a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), then assessed any correlations between change in mood and self-talk (i.e., informational and controlling). In regard to the first research question, the analysis showed a significant difference in dysphoria change scores between the control condition and positive mood induction condition (MD=3.1, SE=.91, p=.002). The analysis also revealed a significant difference in dysphoria change scores between negative and positive mood induction conditions (MD=2.59, SE=.87, p=.01). In regards to PASS change scores, tests revealed a significant difference (MD=8.32, SE=1.13, p<.001) between positive mood induction and the control condition. A significant difference also emerged between the positive and negative mood induction conditions for PASS change scores (MD=6.61, SE=1.08, p<.001). In regard to the second research question, PASS change scores and controlling selftalk scores had a significantly negative correlation (r = -.35, p < .05) during the negative film score condition. For positive film score, PASS change scores and informational selftalk scores also had a significantly negative correlation (r = -.31, p < .05). For the control group, dysphoria change scores and informational self-talk scores had a significantly positive correlation (r = .31, p < .05). Last, PASS change scores and controlling self-talk scores had a significantly negative correlation (r = -.27, p < .01). Film score was effective at shifting mood in the intended direction for most participants. Subsequently, participants appeared to use self-talk as a tool for selfregulation, as participants with a higher negative mood score tended to use more self-talk than those with lower negative mood scores.