Your Musical taste defines your Personality

Study finds that musical taste "defines personality": LONDON (Reuters Life! 9/5/08) – Fans of classical music and jazz are creative, pop lovers are hardworking and, despite the stereotypes, heavy metal listeners are gentle, creative types who are at ease with themselves.

So says Professor Adrian North of Scotland's Heriot-Watt University who has been studying the links between people's personalities and their choice of music. "People often define their sense of identity through their musical taste, wearing particular clothes, going to certain pubs, and using certain types of slang," North said.

"It's not surprising that personality should also be related to musical preference." In what North said was the largest study ever conducted into individuals' musical preference and character, researchers asked 36,518 people from around the world to rate how much they liked 104 different musical styles before taking a personality test.

"Researchers have been showing for decades that fans of rock and rap are rebellious, and that fans of opera are wealthy and well-educated," North said. "But this is the first time that research has shown that personality links to liking for a wide range of musical styles."

The study concluded that:

• Jazz and classical music fans are creative with good self-esteem, although the former are much more outgoing whereas the latter are shy.
• Country-Western fans were found to be hardworking and shy.
• Rap fans are outgoing.
• Indie lovers lack self-esteem and are not very gentle.
• Those who like soul music can take heart as the research concluded they are creative, outgoing, gentle, at ease with themselves, and have a high self-esteem.

And if you've ever wondered why people driving expensive sports cars often have music blaring from their vehicle, North could have an explanation. Those who choose to listen to exciting, punchy music are more likely to be in a higher earning bracket, he says, while those who go for relaxing sounds tend to be lower down the pay scale.

North is still looking for volunteers to take part in the research.

• Volunteer details at http://www.peopleintomusic.com/

(Reporting by Michael Holden; editing by Steve Addison)

Buddhist Personality or "Psychological Types" are based on three dominant mental inclinations – the causes of suffering – and their positive aspects.

NEGATIVE ASPECT - POSITIVE ASPECT

Greed...........................................Faith

Hate.............................................Wisdom

Delusion.......................................Speculation

Buddhist Psychology

Bhikkhu Ayu Kusala Ananda (formerly Professor Mirko Frýba, Ph.D.)

Buddhist psychology has to be a science of mind, which also studies the specific Buddhist approaches to mind. Therefore it has to hold good against all the criteria of science, such as the empirical validity, methodological reliability of procedures, consistency of theoretical statements, etc. Moreover it has to be useful for practical life coping according to the Dhamma in order to be called Buddhist.

The themes deemed to belong to Buddhist psychology became very fashionable towards the end of twentieth century. In collections of popular books, we find many opinions about the Buddhist psychology and, in particular, a lot of nonsense about the supposedly Buddhist psychotherapy which we shall deal with at the conclusion. However there are available also reliable scientific treatments of Buddhist psychology, an overview of which is given by Beatrice Vogt Frýba and Mirko Frýba in a monograph Sīlabbata – Virtuous Performance, the Empirical Basis for the Science of Buddhist Psychology... More>>

• Introduction to Buddhist Psychology
• Buddhist Psychology (Eric Pettifor)
• Psychology Today magazine
• Jung and the Four Elements (astro.com)