Music is an art widely appreciated for its effect on the human psyche. Researchers are increasingly drawn to study the effect of music in the day-to-day lives of people with a bias toward quantifying its scope of impact and understand it as they do science. Personality theorists, cognitive psychologists and applied psychologists alike are interested in how a musical distraction has varying effects on the cognitive task performance per individual. Uhrbrock (1961) noted that amongst other observations, the quality of work can be adversely affected by the use of music in the work situation and Instrumental, rather than vocal, music is preferred during working hours by the majority of workers (A. Furnham and A. Bradley, 1997).
Increasing the scope of study to include visual distraction and the age difference with regard to pain threshold and tolerance is a deliberate effort by researchers to have a better representation of society as we know it. The first of its kind (Greenstein, 1984) paved way for a more in-depth analysis of the aforementioned variables. A test study that sought to correlate the effect of music and videos on pain found that participants aged 35 and above reported less pain than those who listened to heavy metal. This group also reported that they were in the least pain when listening to classical music and watching a romantic video. The younger subsample had different results in comparison; they were much more agreeable to heavy metal music and action videos. Thus, the perception is that classical music and romantic videos and movies appear somewhat therapeutic, as one grows older. In essence, the study marries with the findings of Perlini & Viita (1996) but is significantly different from the Felbaum (2007). However, the validity of this study offers greater credibility since the subsample catered to include the older population and did not exclusively focus on college students.
Physical therapy is a means of rehabilitation to return the body to full or thereabout normal physical function to overcome injury or any other medical defect. Due to the intense strain and physical pain one endures during therapy the use of an individuals preferred stimuli is recognized to be a positive contribution to reducing the chronic pain thereby encouraging for a speedy rehabilitation thus ultimately reducing ones recovery time. Research therefore shows the importance of recognizing individuality and personal preference in pain management. It shows how these techniques can be used for pain management in their non-pharmacological aspect and offers hope to further exploring this avenue of musical stimuli in physical therapy and rehabilitation.
As part of the growing concern to include a variety that is representative of the general population, the Gate Control Theory (GCT) has proven useful in testing for musical distraction in the context of adolescents and pain. A study was approved by the National Bioethics Committee and the Data Protection Authority in Iceland, according to Reg. no. 286/2008 on scientific research within the health sector. Based on these approvals, consent for the study was granted by the Chief Nurse Executive at the health care centre responsible for school health services, as well as the central school authorities and the Educational Service Centre (O´. Kristja´nsdo´, G. Kristja´nsdo´, 2010). Immunizations are the most commonly administered health related procedures to help children fight off diseases. Given the phobia of needles may cause a negative perception to voluntary check-ups, thus the children involved volunteer of their own free will. The findings of this experiment support the theory that distractions are known to reduce the pain in line with the GCT. Musical distractions in the form of headphones were observed to have the most significant effect in reducing the immunization pain in the teenagers. However, the use of the headphones somewhat isolated the adolescents and required them to remove the headphones when engaging with the nurses during the immunization process.
Based on the premise that music can influence behaviour across a range of diverse domains (Miell, MacDonald, & Hargreaves 2005). One area of interest is the monitoring of ‘‘internal timing mechanism’’, with features such as tempo, liking, perceived affective nature and everyday listening contexts implicated as important (North & Hargreaves, 2008)research was carried out to test this theory using participants engaged in a driving game(G.G. Cassidy and R.A.R. MacDonald,2010). Drawing on the findings of Cassidy and MacDonald (2009) and the wider music and task performance literature (e.g., see for review Furnham & Bradley, 1997; North & Hargreaves, 2008), it is hypothesized that performance will be most efficient in self-selected music, and most inaccurate in experimenter-selected music. In terms of the tempo manipulation, it is hypothesized that the rate of performance would be influenced in the direction of the accompanying music, that is faster in the faster (130 bpm) than slower (70 bpm) version (e.g., Brodsky, 2002; North & Hargreaves,1999b). In terms of performance experience, it is predicted that self-selected music will result in highest levels of enjoyment, liking and appropriateness, and lowest levels of distraction (G.G. Cassidy and R.A.R. MacDonald, 2010). The performance and level of enjoyment by the participants in this experiment reflects that participants enjoy their activity more when they have a say in the type of stimuli they are exposed to in this case the music.
On another positive note, the correlation between sleep and music is a positive one. In a study conducted among college students showed an improvement in the quality and ease of falling asleep when exposed to their preferred genre of music at bedtime. Students who listened to sedative classical music for 45 minutes at bedtime for 3 weeks had better global sleep quality in the second and third week than those who did not Several factors may help to explain our findings. One group of explanatory factors is related to the psychophysiological effect of musical tempo and the type of music that participants prefer. Reinhardt (1999) investigated the influence of musical rhythm on the synchronisation and coordination of heart rate (2008, Harmat L., Takacs J. & Bodizs R.). Though there is need for more research to quantify the effect of music on the quality of sleep, music sleep therapy is viable medical option that can be used to treat patients suffering from acute and chronic insomnia, it is as safe and relatively easy to administer as it is cheap.
The causal effect music has on human emotions; its appeal to sentiment and cognitive ability as well as performance is both dependent on individual preference ad the type of music. While some of its observed effects are obvious even to the lay man, there is need for more research to quantify this effect in order to harness it for therapeutic purposes as well as production and service delivery and promoting the general well-being of society.
References
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