Abstract

This thesis documents the results of a PhD research project which focuses on investigating the underlying psychological processes that can explain adults’ motivations for listening to self-identified sad music when feeling sad. Even though people do often listen to sad music when feelings sad, surprisingly little research has been conducted to investigate the psychological processes that can explain this behaviour or the effects of deciding to listen to sad music when feeling sad. The research presented in the current thesis sought to fill this void.

Following an introduction to the topic and methods (Chapter 1) and a review of relevant and recent literature (Chapter 2), three chapters (Chapter 3; Chapter 4; Chapter 5) detail the results of a systematic empirical study on people’s sad music listening behaviour, their rationally for engaging in this behaviour and the self-reported effects of this behaviour. Then a discussion chapter (Chapter 6) is included in which al the findings are summarized and discussed. In the discussion chapter, limitations of the empirical studies will additionally be discussed and recommendations will be made for future research.