MUSIC, IMAGE AND EMOTION - A VYGOTSKIAN P ERSPECTIVE

This paper discuss the results of experimental research into the emoti onal impact of an artistic resource used in films (the sound track or musical accompaniment). Vygotski's ideas expressed in his book ''The P sychology of Art'' are taken as the theoretical framework and examined from the modern view point of psychosociological emotion studies. The se ideas include the possibility that an artistic (narrative) stimulus ' affective impact might depend on its capacity to provoke a simultane ous activation of positive and negative emotions. This research is one of the first attempts to operationalize the Russian psychologist's re flections on the influence of art, in its broadest sense, on cognitive and affective processes.