A construct-psychological approach to the measurement of chill-sensations

Abstract

Chills, meaning strong emotional responses to music, have to date been almost only examined within experimental settings. Within the pilot-study at hand the first psychometric inventory for the measurement of subjective chill-sensations (MRCQ) was developed using two successive samples. Here through is should be possible to assess intra- and interindividual differences reliably and in a standardized fashion outside of a laboratory situation. The first study descriptively examined open questions on chill-sensations on a sample of n=151. A second study (n=108) examined the existence of latent dimensions within the pool of items constructed in the first study. Factor analyses yielded five facettes of chill-sensations: positive, physiological, motor and social-cognitive reactivity as well as general disorientation. All five scales reached sufficient reliability for their individual item numbers. Correlations with other inventories (NEO-ffi, IAAM) show that chill-sensations are closely linked to high extraversion, openness to experience and
emotional stability. The results, however, appear to be indicative of differences between the sexes. On a whole the results support existing research and theoretical models, but there are also some important differences. The MRCQ offers a possibility of researching chills in non-experimental music-sciences.