What is arousal in psychology

It is a positive cognitive response to stress that is healthy, or gives one a feeling of positive fulfilment [2]. It is in this portion of the curve that we are more likely to perform effectively, making fewer errors, better decisions and reacting quickly to changes.

When arousal is too high, perhaps due to overload, then once again we start to make more errors, find it harder to be decisive and take longer to react if at all. One characteristic of over-arousal is our tendency to narrow attention and focus, such that other information is ignored or just not sensed.

It is not always the most critical element that we dedicate full attention to either, as we become incapable of assessing risk and allocating priorities. We may sub-consciously put full attention only onto a task that we know we can achieve easily!

Ultimately we can breakdown and fail to function all together. The factors that facilitate a person to perform at an optimal level are variable and peculiar to the individual, however, certain elements are often common, such as:. Organisations, teams and individuals can take positive actions to facilitate optimum performance, such as:. Psychological Stress and the Coping Process.

A lie detector test measures various physiological indicators or arousal such as heart rate, breathing rate, and perspiration. The assumption is that lying which is an inconsistency between what is true and what is reported to be true produces arousal that can be detected by the machine.

Unfortunately, as with the strength of attitudes, the machine can only assess the level of arousal, and not what may be causing it.

For example, a person may be aroused because they are lying, or they may experience arousal because they are worried that they are accused of committing a crime. Due to the energizing nature of arousal, it has a key role in helping us understand why people become aggressive. When people encounter any type of undesirable experience, arousal levels and aggression tend to increase.

Unfortunately, a number of things have been found to produce increased arousal. These include high temperatures, crowding, pain, loud noises, violent movies, bad odors, and cigarette smoke. In each case, these factors produce heightened levels of arousal and the likelihood of increased aggression.

One reason is that arousal produced from one experience e. A good example of this would be a person who gets stuck in traffic while driving home from work. Upon returning home after an hour of sitting in a hot car, listening to people honking their horns, a parent may yell at his or her child for no apparent reason. This link between arousal and aggression has important implications for how people deal with anger.

A common misconception is that acting aggressive in appropriate contexts e. However, because these activities also increase arousal, they tend to increase not decrease aggressive feelings.

Path of music listening on creative thinking mediated by arousal and valence in the conditions of A listening to positively arousing music and B listening to negatively arousing music.

However, the results of the mediation analysis suggest that valence was not a significant mediator, with the mean of the indirect effect across all bootstrap samples estimated at 0. In the condition of listening to negative music, the same statistical procedure was used to determine whether arousal and valence mediate the music-creativity relationship see Figure 5B for a summary of the results.

The results regarding the mediation effect were similar to those reported for the condition of listening to positive music. Again, arousal was shown to be a significant mediator, with the mean of the indirect effect across all bootstrap samples estimated at 3.

However, valence was not a significant mediator, with the mean of the indirect effect across all bootstrap samples estimated at The present study examined the effect of music listening on creative thinking through the lens of the arousal-and-mood hypothesis, which postulates that emotional reactions mediate the effect of music listening on the subsequent performance of cognitive functioning Husain et al.

Lending supports to Hypothesis 1, which states that music listening enhances creative thinking, the results of the repeated-measures ANOVA suggest that listening to both positively and negatively arousing music enhances creative thinking. Lending partial support to Hypothesis 2, which states that emotional reactions i. Overall, the findings of this study lend partial support to the arousal-and-mood hypothesis in the creativity domain. The findings enrich the discourse of the arousal-and-mood hypothesis and may shed light on the understanding of the effect of music listening on creative thinking.

Some important contributions and interesting findings of the present study are highlighted below. One significant contribution of the present study is its direct measure of the mediating roles of emotions i. Whereas many studies in the literature have aimed to provide empirical support to the arousal-and-mood hypothesis e. Specifically, these previous studies demonstrated that participants who scored higher on arousal and positive valence of emotional reactions after listening to music also demonstrated a parallel improvement in subsequent task performances; however, no effect of the music was shown for participants who scored low on arousal and valence of emotional reactions.

While showing the parallel relationships among the three variables of music exposure, emotional reaction, and task performance might suggest indirect empirical support for the arousal-and-mood hypothesis, the present study presented direct empirical evidence with respect to the hypothesis by 1 employing a standardized measure of emotional reactions i.

The contribution of direct evidence for the mediation effects of emotional reactions on the music-creativity relationship may also enrich the literature with respect to the relations among music, emotions, and creativity. There are three separate lines of research findings in the existing literature regarding the relations among music, emotions, and creativity, which suggest 1 a positive role of music exposure in creativity; 2 a positive effect of music exposure on emotion inductions, and 3 a positive effect of emotion inductions on creativity.

The finding of direct evidence for the mediation effect of emotional reactions on the music-creativity relationship supports a meaningful integration of these three separate lines of research. The finding also enriches the understanding of the underlying psychological mechanisms that explain the effect of music exposure on creativity. The second contribution of the study is its enrichment of the research regarding the arousal-and-mood hypothesis by including both positively and negatively arousing music.

These findings are important because they suggest that the generalizability of the arousal-and-mood hypothesis is not limited to positively aroused emotions; rather, it can be extended to negatively aroused emotions. These findings are also important to the mood-creativity literature, in which inconsistent findings are often documented with respect to the effect of negative emotions on creativity Kaufmann and Vosburg, ; George and Zhou, ; Gasper, ; Shalley et al.

The findings of the current study provide empirical support to the theories that argue that both positive and negative emotions can function on creativity but through different routes or processes Schwarz, ; Baas et al.

The third contribution of this study concerns the finding that only arousal, and not valence, was a significant mediator of the music-creativity link. This finding is not entirely consistent with the prediction of the arousal-and-mood hypothesis, which posits that both arousal and valence play a parallel and equally important role in mediating the relationship between music exposure and cognitive functioning.

However, our findings seem to accord with De Dreu et al. In this model, arousal is regarded as the necessary precondition or the critical entry point of the mediation path. Valence positive or negative , at the second step, determines the subsequent paths through which creativity is achieved.

In De Dreu et al. The critical role of arousal has also been supported by research demonstrating that emotional states high in arousal and valence i. The research findings further illustrate that although emotional states high in arousal but low in valence i. However, emotional states low in both arousal and valence e. These research findings underscore the important role of arousal, regardless of valence, in creativity. With respect to the role of arousal, the arousal-and-mood hypothesis highlights that a moderate level of arousal is critical Husain et al.

This theoretical notion is supported by the findings of the present study, which revealed that the arousal level on the post-test was 5. The scores of 5. This finding aligns with the view that that neither low levels of arousal nor extremely high levels of arousal contribute to effective cognitive functioning Yerkes and Dodson, ; Staw et al. It is suggested that low levels of arousal may lead to inactivity, avoidance, and neglect of information, which lower cognitive performance.

In contrast, extremely high levels of arousal may reduce the capacity to perceive, process, and evaluate information, which also hinder effective cognitive functioning. Only at moderate levels of arousal may individuals demonstrate an optimum level of performance by showing a high level of motivation to seek and integrate information and to consider multiple alternatives Baas et al.

Overall, the findings of the present study can be regarded as lending partial support to the arousal-and-mood hypothesis. Past studies regarding the arousal-and-mood hypothesis have been mainly conducted in the intelligence domain predominantly in the spatial intelligence domain. The current study extends this line of study and suggests that the hypothesis can be generalized to the creativity domain.

If listening to music benefits only a restricted set of tasks, as was shown in past studies i. However, if listening to music benefits creative thinking, such findings may shed light on creativity education. Most existing creativity-training programs are based on thinking techniques e.

However, music exposure has advantages over other thinking techniques in nurturing creativity. For example, listening to music is an activity that can be enjoyed by individuals of all ages and stages of development. Moreover, music listening requires little verbal skill, so it can be used as a creativity-training technique for individuals who have language difficulties.

We note several limitations. First, although the arousal-and-mood hypothesis generalizes that any pleasant or enjoyable stimulus, either musical or non-musical, that arouses positive mood can enhance a wide range of cognitive functions, we focused merely on musical stimuli. Specifically, our stimuli were only classical music. Future empirical scrutiny on the hypothesis should be generalized to other types of musical stimuli and also to non-musical stimuli. Second, creativity was assessed with only a single measure of creativity i.

It remains an open question as to whether the findings of this study can be replicated if other creativity tests are used. Third, a clear test of the prediction that any arousing music piece would enhance creativity may require a condition in which participants listen to music that lowers arousal levels e.

Future research should address this issue by including relaxing music. Fourth, participants in this study first listened to music and subsequently performed a creativity task. Future research should explore whether similar or different results will be found if participants work on a creativity task while simultaneously listening to music.

Future research should also explore whether similar or different results will be found in other cognitive domains. Fifth, it is notable that the effect sizes found in this study were only small to medium. This may be because the duration of music exposure was brief i.

It is worthwhile to further investigate whether a longer period of music exposure would increase the effect sizes. Despite the above-mentioned limitations, the present study enriches the current research on the arousal-and-mood hypothesis, which is helpful in explaining many phenomena regarding the effects of music, such as for whom and under what circumstances listening to music enhances cognitive functioning and what type of music is effective. Such findings imply that the pedagogical benefits of music depend more on the interactions between individual factors and the type or style of music.

Given that not all individuals benefit equally from all types of music, individuals might benefit from any piece of music that provides optimal arousal and evokes either a positive or a negative hedonic tone. Simplistic solutions such as the Mozart effect can give false impressions and unrealistic expectations. This study was carried out in accordance with the recommendations of the Operational Guidelines and Procedures of the Human Research Ethics Committee of the Hong Kong Institute of Education with written informed consent from all subjects.

All subjects gave written informed consent in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. W-JH contributed to the conception and design of the work as well as the acquisition, analysis, and interpretation of the data.

She also drafted, revised, and approved the final version of the manuscript. W-CW contributed to the conception and design of the work as well as the revisions and approvals of the final version of the manuscript. AH contributed to the conception of the work as well as the revisions and approvals of the final version of the manuscript. All authors agree to be accountable for the content of the work.

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. Adaman, J. The effects of musical mood induction on creativity. Ashby, F.

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