This is Part 2 of Dr. Arthur W. Harvey's 5-part article, "Raise Your EQ With Music". The References are in Part 5.
by Dr. Arthur W. Harvey, B.S., M.M., D.M.A.
Another relevant and related area of research examined in the course was the relationship between music and Multiple Intelligences (MI), based upon the work of Howard Gardner [5], with an emphasis on musical intelligence. The seven intelligences are: Linguistic, Logical-Mathematical, Spatial, Bodily-Kinesthetic, Musical, Interpersonal, and Intrapersonal. An additional intelligence, Naturalistic, has been added by Gardner.
In a 1997 issue of the Leka Nu Hou I published an article, "An Intelligence View of Music Education" [6] that summarized the seven intelligences initially defined by Gardner, and cited studies that had been done showing the role of music and music education in developing each of them, not just musical intelligence.
In a recent book, Emotional Literacy. [7] a distinction is made between emotional intelligence and emotional literacy. According to Bocchino the word "intelligence" represents the potential of predisposition for emotional fluency, whereas emotional "literacy"' is maps, and tools that are learned to become emotionally fluent. Uniquely a quality music education offers the development of those skills, strategies and tools, translating emotional intelligence into emotional literacy.
While there certainly is sufficient evidence to show a direct connection between music education and cognitive and intelligence development, the main purpose of this article is to focus on Emotional Intelligence, (EQ), an intelligence not specifically included in Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligence Theory.
An understanding of Emotional Intelligence and the roles that music can play in developing emotional literacy may strengthen support for the inclusion of music education in the curriculum. According to Daniel Goleman's book, Emotional Intelligence [8] EQ can matter more than IQ, and maybe redefine what it means to be smart.
It is common knowledge that music touches the emotions. Beethoven described music as "The mediator between the life of the senses and the life of the spirit." Aldois Huxley believed that "after silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music." Goleman's work establishes the importance of emotion in everyday life and suggests that music is relevant to success. He focused on the limbic system and the importance of emotional communication skills in life.
The main thesis of EQ is that, as human brains developed and became more intellectual, emotional development concerns became secondary. He believes that people need the emotive limbic system skills; that being in touch with your own emotions, and those of others, leads to success; and that the more successful a person becomes, the less cognition matters, and the more emotional skills become critical. Music serves as a window to emotions.
According to Kohut, [9] music serves "...as an extra verbal mode of mental functioning, permits a specific, subtle regression to pre-verbal, i.e., to truly primitive forms of mental experience." This regression appears to occur regardless of human differences, age, gender, culture, or education. Music produces arousal of emotions and feeling states.
Aesthetician Susanne K. Langer [10] provided a strong rationale in her writings for the role of the arts in providing an education in feelings...and emotions. Music objectifies feelings and emotions that are ineffable, and an education in the arts educates receptively and expressively for emotional intelligence and subsequent emotional literacy.
According to Eric Jensen, [11} music may help activate brain processes in both the cerebral and limbic system involved mostly with mood, social skills, motivational development. cultural awareness, aesthetic appreciation, and self-discipline. The powerful medium of music can assist us in "...the creating, identifying, and using emotional states to regulate our lives, ... Music making forces us to create, reflect, bare our souls, ponder, and react in new ways. ... Music lets us get in touch with our feelings, out intuition, and our hopes and fears.
Eduard Hanslick [12], music critic and aesthetician, provided a description of the ineffable character of music in expressing and conveying emotions by two processes: (1) the symbolism of the sounds, and (2) the analogy of motion. With the recent explosion of neuroscience research, there has been a marked increase in approaches to understand human emotions, from theoretical, philosophical and psychological to neurophysiological, medical and therapeutic.
Music Therapist and researcher Mark Rider [13] suggests that techniques which stimulate a dynamic balance of all emotions will also promote healing processes. He has found that depression and chronic stress are characterized by imbalances of emotionality, neurotransmitters and electrical brain wave activity. In contrast to other researchers, Rider believes that there are really only four basic feeling states, "Bad (fear), Mad, Sad, and Glad", and a vehicle for working through them is music. He states that "...the consequences of repressing these emotions as opposed to expressing them can be disastrous"
Recent interest in the applications for Music Medicine, has produced research that helps clarify the processes involved in music as a stimulus for emotional development. The neuroaudiological pathways allow music to have an effect upon the hypothalamus and limbic system, structures in the brain most responsible for emotional behavior in humans. Through music, emotional states can be affected, influenced, experienced and modified.
According to Carlson [14] the biomedical basis for positive emotional effects of music is that "Endogenous opiods have been shown to play a role in reinforcement" of emotional development, and that they, the endorphins, have been shown to be activated by music. The pioneering researcher, Candace B. Pert provides a detailed neurochemical explanation for why we feel the way we feel, in her book Molecules of Emotion. [15] Another neurochemical, dopamine, is shown in studies to also be involved in reinforcement of emotions.
Although musically activated brain changes appear to affect a wide range of neurological structures, the overt behaviors, autonomic responses, and hormonal secretions that comprise emotion are controlled by separate systems. The amygdala appears to be the integrating mechanism for controlling these responses, according to Carlson. Taylor [16] describes the amygdala as "... a limbic system structure located in the temporal lobe and is responsible for behavioral reactions to objects or stimuli that are perceived to be of special biological significance. It serves as the focal point between sensory systems, such as the auditory reception system for music, and effector systems that are responsible for the three components of emotion: behavioral, autonomic, and hormonal." (P- 65)
English psychiatrist, Anthony Storr [17] makes a distinction similar to Langer between feelings and emotions, and writes that ...'The patterns of mathematics and the patterns of music both engage our feelings, but only music affects our emotions. Herein lies the difference in our response to each. Emotions involve the body; feelings do not... Music promotes order within ourselves in a way which mathematics cannot because of music's physical effects...Music is less abstract than mathematics because it causes physiological arousal and because the sounds from which it probably originated are emotional communications. It is both intellectual and emotional, restoring links between mind and body." (p. 183)
Raise Your EQ with Music - Part 1
Raise Your EQ with Music - Part 3
Raise Your EQ with Music - Part 4
Raise Your EQ with Music - Part 5 - References
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