Understanding the Psychology of Music

Various psychological and psychosocial aspects of human musical behavior, including introductory musical acoustics, perception and cognition of music, music and the brain, music processing across world cultures, music and emotions, music and human health, music in social contexts, and principles of experimental design. 

Prerequisites: None.

Ability to read music/perform music is not required.

Course Syllabus [pdf] 

Download the course syllabus for full details about expectations, readings, assignments and more.

Learning Outcomes/Objectives

Upon the successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Identify major subdisciplines in the field of music psychology.
• Describe principles of experimental design.
• Define physical properties and perceptual properties of sound.
• Describe how humans acquire music skills from pre-birth through adulthood.
• Discuss how brain-imaging techniques are used to study music behavior.
• Evaluate recent empirical research related to human musical behavior.
• Critique various accounts of music’s origins in human evolution.
• Design an experiment focused on some psychological or psychosocial aspect of music behavior.