7/27/2019 Five Factor Model

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INTRODUCTION Past research has shown a link between personality traits and

music preference:

Cattell and Anderson (1953) produced the IPAT music

 preference test, which linked personality to musical

 preferences.

McCown, Keiser, Mulhearn, and Williamson (1997)

found a connection between extraversion and a musical

 preference for songs with exaggerated bass.

Recent studies have shown a link between music and

social identity, such as, self-views and self-esteem (North,

Hargreaves, & O’neill, 2000).

Most recently, Rentfrow and Gosling (2003) have created a

way of categorizing musical preference with specific personality

traits:

They adapted a new measure of music preference called

The Short Test of Music Preference (STOMP).

Research examined the relationship between

individual’s preference for particular musical genres and

various individual difference measures, including:

1. The Big Five Inventory (Openness,

Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness,and Emotional Stability).

2. Self-Esteem.

3. Cognitive abilities (e.g. Verbal IQ).

They created several categories of music preference:

1. Reflective/complex including classical, blues, folk

and

 jazz.

2. Intense/rebellious including alternative, rock, and

heavy

metal music.

3. Upbeat/conventional including country, religious,

and

soundtracks/themes.

4. Energetic/rhythmic includes dance/electronica,

rap/hip-

hop, and soul/funk 

This research indicates how personality can lead to

 particular musical preferences. Other findings include the

 possibility that exposure to certain types of music maylead to changes in the development of certain personality

traits.

Music and personality: A Closer Look At The Relationship BetweenThe Five Factor Model, Self-Esteem, And Music Preference

Ransome Ennis, Chris Buchholz, Mitch Beavers, & Lauren MutispaughRoanoke College

REFERENCES

Cattell, R.B. & Anderson J. C. (1953a). The I.P.A.T. Music

 Preference Test of Personality. Champaign, IL: Institute for

Personality and Ability Testing.

Gosling, S.D., Rentfrow, P.J., & Swann, W.B., Jr. (2003). A very

 brief measure of the Big-Five personality domains. Journal of

 Research in Personality, 37 , 504 – 528.

McCown, W., Keiser, R., Mulhearn, S., & Williamson, D. (1997).

The role of personality and gender in preferences for

exaggerated bass in music. Personality and Individual

 Differences, 23, 543-547.

 North, A.C., Hargreaves, D.J., & O’neill, S.A. (2000). The

importance of music to adolescents. British Journal of

 Educational Psychology, 70, 255-272.

Rentfrow, P.J., & Gosling, S.D. (2003). The do re mi’s of

everyday life: The structure and personality correlates of

music preferences. Journal of Personality and Social

 Psychology, 84(6), 1236- 1256.

Rosenberg, M. (1965). Society and the Adolescent Self-Image.

Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

ABSTRACT

We tested the reliability and generalizability of Rentfrow and

Gosling’s (2003) measure of music preference (the Short Test of

Music Preference [STOMP]) and its relationship to various

individual difference measures with mixed results. The regional

differences between the two samples may partially explain the

failure to replicate some of these results. The implications and

future directions for this line of research, are discussed.

DISCUSSION

• The purpose of this research was to see if previous findings about

music preference and personality could be generalized and applied to

different regions.

• Some of the results correlated with Rentfrow and Gosling (2003)

while others did not. This may indicate that the relationship between

 particular genres of music and personality type may be dependent on

region and the current music standards.

• The differences between our research and Rentfrow and Gosling’s

demonstrates that the relationship between music preference (STOMP)

and personality may not be generalizable across samples. Styles of

music are at a constant state of flux dependent upon the current

standards. While a few factors may be relevant between generations

and regions, future researchers should be certain to account for thecurrent trends and how they may differ from the past styles.

METHODSParticipants:

125 research participants from Psychology 101 classes volunteered to

 participate and were given class credit.

Procedures:

Participants responded to multiple questions relating to various measures

of personality. These questions assessed characteristics of the

 participant’s personality in relation to the Big Five Inventory (Gosling,

Rentfrow, & Swan, 2003). This included several Likert-type statements

on a 5-point scale 1-  Not at all ; 5- Extremely).

Another measures indicated each participant’s level of self -esteem in

which we used the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1965). This

test consists of ten Likert-type statements on a 5-point scale (1- Not at

all ; 5- Extremely).

Participants then completed The Short Test of Music Preference

(Rentfrow &Gosling, 2003). The STOMP test contains questions which

indicate 14 genres of music: alternative, blue, classical, country,

electronica/dance, folk, heavy metal, rap/hip-hop, jazz, pop, religious,

rock, soul/funk, and soundtracks. Preferences were rated on a 7-point

Likert scale (1- Not at all; 7-A great deal ).

Data from these separate measures were then entered in the s tatistical

 program SPSS and correlated with one another.

RESULTS

We failed to replicate several of Rentfrow and Gosling’s (2003)

findings:

1. We found no correlation between extraversion and the music

 preference categories of Upbeat/Conventional and

Energetic/Rhythmic.

2. We did not find a correlation between Agreeableness and

Upbeat/Conventional.

3. We failed to replicate the negative correlation between openness and

Upbeat/Conventional.

We did replicate a few aspects of the previous study:

1. There was a positive correlation between conscientiousness and

Upbeat/Conventional (r= .217, p= .015).

2. We replicated the correlation between openness and

Reflective/Complex (r= .361, p= .000).

3. We found a correlation between openness and Intense/Rebellious

(r=.226, .012).

Also, we found a correlation between self-esteem andreflective/complex (r= .201, p= .025). This result contradicted

Rentfrow and Gosling (2003) in which they found positive

correlations between self-esteem and upbeat/conventional as well as

energetic/rhythmic.

Also, similar to Rentfrow & Gosling, we failed to find any significant

correlations between music preference and emotional stability.

CORRELATIONS TABLE

HYPOTHESIS

The goal of this research is to replicate the study conducted by Renfrow

& Gosling (2003). If the generalizability of their research is relevant

across samples, it is hypothesized that the results of this study will

 parallel their results in which specific personality traits were correlated

with particular genres of music.

  Reflective/Complex

Intense/Rebellious

Upbeat/Conventional

Energetic/Rhythmic

Extraversion r= .013

 p= .882

r= -.083

 p= .362

r=.057

 p= .525

r= .163

 p= .070

Agreeableness r= -.015 p= .867

r= -.163 p= .070

r= .119 p=.187

r= .095 p= .291

Conscientiousness r= -.044 p= . 625

r= -.094 p= .297

r= .217

p= .015  r= .013 p= .888

EmotionalStability

r= .027 p= .762

r= -.053 p= .559

r= -.051 p= .572

r= .072 p= .425

Openness r= .361

p= .000

r= .226

p= .012  r= -.128 p= .156

r= .093 p= .300

Self-Esteem r= .201

p= .025

r= -.027

 p= .765

r= -.035

 p= .701

r= .101

 p= .262

Factor Analysis

In order to attempt to make sense of these results, we ran a factor analysis to

see if we would find the s ame factors as Rentfrow & Gosling (2003).

Using varimax rotation, we found five factors. The first two factors were

identical to Rentfrow & Gosling’s categories of reflective/complex and

intense/rebellious, however, there were differences for the second two

factors.

The last two factors found by Rentfrow & Gosling were: 1) country, pop,

and religious; soundtracks/theme songs; and 2) rap/hip-hop, soul/funk, and

electronica/dance.

We, on the other hand, found the following three factors: 1) rap/hip-hop,

soul/funk, and pop; 2) country and religious; and 3) electronica/dance and

soundtracks/theme songs.

When we forced the factor analysis to put these into only 4 factors, the story

 becomes even more interesting. The first factor is still the same as Rentfrow

and Gosling, but the remaining 3 factors vary considerably:

Rock, heavy metal, alternative, and electronica/dance

Rap/hip-hop, soul/funk, and pop

Country, religious, and soundtracks/theme songs

Based on this last 4-factor model we created the following composite

variables: intense/rebellious2(rock, heavy metal, alternative,

electronica/dance),hip-hop/pop (rap/hip-hop, soul/funk, pop), and

conventional (country, religious, soundtracks/themes).

Intense/rebellious2 was positively correlated with openness,

Hip-hop/pop was positively correlated with extraversion, Conventional was correlated with conscientiousness.