Songs for the Ego: Theorizing Musical Self-Enhancement

Abstract

This paper outlines a theoretical account of musical self-enhancement. I claim that listening to music serves as a resource for actively manipulating affective states so that a positive self-view is maintained and a sense of optimism is provided. Self-enhancement—the process by which individuals modify their self-worth and gain self-esteem—typically takes place in social interactions. I argue that experiencing music may serve as a unique “esthetic surrogate” for interaction, which equally enables self-enhancement. This ability relies on three main characteristics of the musical experience, namely, its capacity to (a) evoke empathetic feelings, (b) elicit social cohesion and affiliation, and (c) elicit feelings of reward. I outline how these characteristics relate to theories of music cognition and empirical findings in psychology and neuroscience research. I also explain the specifics of musical self-enhancement and how it differs from music’s other regulatory functions such as mood- and emotion regulation. My aim in introducing the notion of musical self-enhancement is to broaden our understanding of how music functions as an environmental resource entailing access to unique affective states and how musical experiences are co-constituted by both the agent and the sonic environment. This specific use of music for self-enhancement can be regarded as a form of affective niche construction, providing the external conditions in which people can experience themselves more positively and maintain high self-esteem.

Music Listening for Supporting Adolescents’ Sense of Agency in Daily Life

“…Generally, experiences of mastery and accomplishment serve as a boost to the adolescents' perception of self-efficacy, which in turn inform the perception of agency in the short-term and foster the development of agency in the medium-and long-term (Bandura, 1982(Bandura, , 2005Zimmermann and Cleary, 2005). Music has been proposed as one resource that successfully leads to feeling empowerment (i.e., the reinforcement of efficacy beliefs; Wallace-DiGarbo and Hill, 2006) and self-enhancement (i.e., the tendency to evaluate oneself positively; Elvers, 2016). found that power-related emotions (self-determination, independence, daring, freedom, strength, empowerment, rebelliousness, and unconstrained feeling) were the second strongest factor out of six explaining music-related pleasure in the participants' everyday life.…”

“…In the conceptual model of health-relevant competencies in music, Saarikallio (2017Saarikallio ( , 2019a argues that engaging in musical behaviors can foster emotional health when the emotions expressed, evoked, and regulated through music are surrounded by (a) self-reflective awareness and (b) sense of self-control and agency. Concerning musical self-enhancement, Elvers (2016) proposed a framework according to which there are three main musical experiences bolstering positive self-evaluations: induction of empathy (through identification with the music, self/other merging, and self-confirmation), promotion of social cohesion (through rhythmic entrainment and reinforcement of a cultural worldview and sense of social belonging), and pleasure (through the induction of positive affect, default mode networkactivation, and self-referential emotions). According to Elvers, this framework encompasses "the kind of musical experiences that elicit positive affect related to the self, that induce feelings of power and control, that promote positive self-evaluations, and ultimately promote self-esteem" (Elvers, 2016, p. 3).…”

Extended emotions

“…Accordingly, it seems that, as with the musicians and their instrument, these cases are similar instances of emotional self-stimulation. Via iterative cycles of motor entrainment and synchronization that unfold in response to musical dynamics, auditory properties of the music directly modulate a cascade of emotion-specific neural and physiological responses, coaxing emotions out of us and regulating their dynamics in real time as they unfold over short-and long-term listening episodes (Elvers, 2016;Fritz et al, 2013;Lundqvist, Carlsson, Hilmersson, & Juslin, 2009;Witek, Clarke, Wallentin, Kringelbach, & Vuust, 2014). And these musical feedback loops seed functional gain.…”

Schizophrenia and the Scaffolded Self

“…And these manipulations loop back onto us, shaping our future manipulations and responsive behavior. Auditory properties of the music directly modulate a cascade of affect-driving neural and physiological responses, coaxing experiences out of us and regulating their embodied dynamics in real-time over short and long-term listening episodes (Elvers 2016;Witek et al 2014). When integrated with musical technologies this way, musical-affective feedback loops scaffold access to experiences and regulatory capacities that might otherwise be inaccessible-even from the earliest stages of life (Krueger 2013a).…”