Emotion Equalization App: A First Study and Results

MPhil Thesis Defence


Title: "Emotion Equalization App: A First Study and Results"

By

Miss Man Hei LAW


Abstract

In recent years, there is an increasing trend of mental health issues in 
society. It is important to identify mental first aid strategies that can 
be applied at an early age, whether emotional issues have been diagnosed 
or have yet to be found. Music has tremendous potential impact on changing 
emotional states since it can distract listeners from rumination on 
negative thoughts and engage them in a moment of musical enjoyment.

This paper presents a new emotion equalization app that incorporates 
validated diagnosis tests (PHQ-9 and GAD-7) and an emotion measuring tool 
(SAM) for establishing a personalized therapy treatment using emotion 
rebalancing methods. By determining the emotional state of the user, songs 
are chosen and sequenced in a playlist using one of three proposed methods 
(consoling, relaxing, and uplifting) with a baseline method (random). With 
this systematic generation of playlists, the app can be used for 
personalized therapeutic treatment even for users without music 
background. In our experiments, the results showed positive changes in 
listeners’ valence levels while there was no significant change in 
arousal. Further, the relaxing and uplifting methods showed a significant 
effect on moving listeners from negative to more positive emotional 
states.


Date:  			Tuesday, 7 June 2022

Time:			10:00am - 12:00noon

Zoom Meeting:		https://hkust.zoom.us/j/9553054023

Committee Members:	Prof. Andrew Horner (Supervisor)
 			Prof. Raymond Wong (Chairperson)
 			Dr. Desmond Tsoi


**** ALL are Welcome ****