The Effect of Singing on Subjective Emotional State and Psychophysiological Response in Singers

The present study is addressed to investigation of the emotional induction through singing, examining the emotional response in singer's during the vocal performance and the changes in affective disposition after singing. The emotional response was investigated considering its subjective and psychophysiological aspects, collecting the self-reported arousal and pleasantness of experienced emotion and skin conductance response during the singer's performance of happy and sad melodies. After the performance, subjects were asked to evaluate the arousal and pleasantness of emotional response to affective pictures, in order to assess variation related to singing. The results showed that singing produced a significant enhancement of emotional arousal in the subjective experience and an increase of the skin conductance response. Further effects on emotional response emerged as a result of the singer's judgment of the performance's quality and preference for a melody. Afterwards, the arousal reported in response to pictures resulted significantly higher after singing as respect to a reading task. This preliminary study supports empirically the thesis that the vocal performance of an emotional melody can influence the emotional state of singers, as well their emotional disposition producing durable effects on activation internal state.