Abstract
The influence of music on our personality and moods has never been denied. We have always had music around us and like to listen to our favorites. Whether it is classical music, new age music or music of any genre, it is known to be a powerful mood lifter and melt those blues away. Different studies have been done on various aspects of music and how it can influence our moods. The purpose of the essay is to look at a study on the stress beating techniques followed by students and compare the results.
Introduction
Music has been around for hundreds of years, and no one can deny the soothing power of music. It is known to work as a stress management tool, connecting to our emotions. It can have an immensely relaxing effect on our minds, especially the soothing and quieter classical music. It is known to have a beneficial effect on our physiological health. Good music can absorb our attention and keep us engrossed for hours. It can also work as a great tool to keep our mind focused and in a meditative mood, thus preventing it from wandering. The choice of music will naturally vary between individuals, and one may prefer a particular music, depending on the preference or mood or company.
Today, people listen to all kinds of music, from old to new, it could be classical, Mozart or the new age music. Different music is known to affect people differently. The form and structure of music are known to reduce stress and can relieve depression. It improves self-esteem ratings in elderly people and can beneficially impact health via stress-reducing effects (Myriam et al., 2013).
In the recent times, several scientific studies have been done to measure the potential benefits of music. Classical music is known to reduce stress and leave a relaxing effect on our mind. It is known to improve autonomic, cognitive, and emotional responses. Listening to Classical music leaves us in a good mood as well as helps to understand the disorders like schizophrenia, syndrome, and depression.
The findings from different studies indicate that music listening is related to our psychobiological stress system and listening to favorite music acts as a great stress buster. There is no denying that the music has a beneficial effect on the human body.
There is a well-established health profession that makes use of new age music for the administration of physical, psychological and behavioral therapies. Patients get encouraged to open up during social and psychological therapies when they listen to a soothing and relaxing music. (Collingwood, 2007). The study was done on whether Classical Music increases a higher state of relaxation as compared to the New Age music. 63 students were selected randomly from the same college. The quantitative study required the students to list their relaxation techniques and whether they preferred reading magazines, listening to classical music or the new age music. The students were asked to choose their preferred way and were asked to perform the relaxation technique at the same time and place for three consecutive days. Pretest and post-tests were done to collect data.
Once the study was over, the results showed that those who listened to Mozart showed had higher relaxation levels. They carried lesser relaxation levels, and worried less as compared to the other two groups that listened to the new age music or read magazines. The Mozart listeners scored higher on mental peace, better sleep, rest, and thankfulness. New Age group scored higher than Mozart and Pleasure Reading on pretest Somatic Stress. New Age music is being used as ambient music therapy, and there are many ell-established health professions that use music in administering physical, psychological and behavioral therapies.
Study Method Proposal
Background
The results of an earlier study by Carol Joyce shows that listeners of the classical music carries a higher relaxed state of mind as compared to those who listened to New age music. Music seems to work for everyone, no matter what age, kind or group. Researchers have revealed a number of mood regulation strategies that are commonly used for mood regulation. Listening to music has proved to have a beneficial impact health as it reduces stress.
The benefits of the study are that college students are fond of reading books and more inclined to listen to all kinds of music, especially the new age music. Thus, once the study confirms as to what is a better stress buster- reading magazines or listening to music, it will help the students to know how to deal with their stress in a much better way. Understanding the research and results can give them a direction as to how to relax and unwind, especially on a stressful day. The results will also show whether students preferred to read books or listen to music on a stressful day.
Almost everyone likes music and always have some favorite music collection or band or singer. Whatever music one listens to, it affects them in the same manner and elevates their mood. Whether they are listening to simple classical songs or the complex new age music, it does not matter. Listening to your favorite music can dissolve away a bad mood.
Whatever your preference, a 2011 Canadian study has shown that plugging into your personal music could help melt away a bad mood, making you feel relaxed. Listening to favorite music releases the feel-good chemicals in our body. People listen to music to keep relaxed and out of boredom, during long journeys, work with focus on a tough day, or to purge a negative feeling.
Hypothesis
A new survey was done to measure as to how many people preferred to listen to the classical, new age music, or read magazines. The research questions were posed as to whether people still preferred to follow their usual mood regulation strategies even if they had had a stressful day and how effectively did they find their mood regulation strategy.
Methods
Participants
A survey was designed to evaluated how people preferred to relax themselves, either by listening to the classical, new age music, or reading magazines, especially when they are in a bad mood or had a bad day. 16 participants were chosen, and they were from the same class. This ensured that they were from the same working environment and age group.
Procedures
An online survey made of fifteen questions was posted at: at:https://qtrial2014.az1.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_d6I5jBLVoBocaBD&Q_JFE=0.
The students were asked to go online and fill in an online survey, which was easy to follow. Nearly all the students were able to follow the questions and submit their survey in time. They were directed to spend meaningful time before filling in their answers so as to give precise answers. In order to help them, they were given a month to study their reading habits and listening to music, especially on the days when they were feeling higher stress. On the said date, the students completed their survey and submitted. The results from the surveys were collected and compared. Charts were made to display and compute the data.
A composite variable was how likely is an individual to turn to classical or new age music to manage stress. Another composite variable was made for an individual turning to reading to handle stress. These two variable, when added together, would create a composite variable: How often do you turn to music/reading to manage stress, when tired, or having a bad day.
As there were issues with the correlations and there was felt a need to ask separate questions for music and reading, the participants were requested to undergo a pairwise t-test. The purpose was to deal with the issue of getting different results for those who lightened to music or read books.
Results
We found several significant correlations in the results. Positive correlations were found for participants believing that music and reading can bring down their negative emotions and make them feel elated. Moreover, as compared to reading, participants felt that music played a better role as compared to reading. Majority felt that reading magazines or books can help bring down stress and get rid of those negative emotions. Participants felt sure that reading books and listening to music certainly helped them feel better at the end of a stressful day. They felt calmer and free of their negative emotions.
The percentage of the participants was turning to music and reading books, and magazines were also higher. The students felt that reading books or listening to music did help them to become relaxed and calm. They felt better in control to manage stressful situations after reading a book or listening to music.
The pairwise t-test was compared the differences in means between each on those two variables. As the results show that there was a noteworthy difference turning to reading or turning to classical music. The participants either did one of the two or some of them both. This may point out that some individuals need more than just music to soothe their nerves and need more imaginative stimulation. They may find a better escape in reading books or magazines. It could be that these participants who read books along with music need more of the imaginative stimulation. One could even go further in the study and look at the kind of new age music or classical music the participants enjoy listening to. The information would have given a direction on the kind of studies and questions to be asked in the future.
Discussion
The purpose of the current study was to observe the effects of stress on the stress regulating techniques of the students. This use of music and reading books for relaxation, especially on stressful days confirm the positive relationship between the music and relaxation. Students are under daily stress in college or working environments. Hence, it is no surprise to see them relying on mood regulations strategies, and the most common are reading books and listening to music.
The information from the survey was collected, and the results computed in the tables. The findings were a main pointer on the relationship between music and relaxation and the behavior of the students under stress. Reading books and listening to new age or classical music was a source of relaxation to students under stress.
Strengths/Weaknesses
The flaws of the study are that the sample size consisted of just 16 students, and this is too small. Perhaps some of the students were not aware of what the new age music was. If asked for their favorite music, there would have been responses like jazz or pop. There is a consensus that students would prefer to read books over listening to classical music.
There was no precise measure of stress or anxiety in the study. The stress/anxiety measure has been generalized. The participants could be under a high stress or lower stress. Further study could be done on students with a higher level of stress and those with lesser and make comparisons on their habits. It would be interesting to see if people who had high stress in their life, relied on reading more as compared to music or vice versa. The study could be further divided into just for reading and classical music or reading and the new age music. The different data collected would shed more light on the role of music in relaxation techniques.
The most favorite music styles among college students is new age music that may comprise of jazz, rock, western popular songs, Mandarin popular songs as compared to classical music. The choices could differ based on gender. Female students prefer light and soft music while male students favor rock and metal music. It is also seen that students who study music enjoy classical music more as compared to other students (Christenson and Peterson, 1988).
Conclusion
Prolonged experience of stress can lead to poor individual health, which further leads to a higher burden on the society and substantial financial costs for the healthcare. This is why looking for cost effective stress management approaches are fast gaining importance in the current research efforts. As the music has always been known beneficially to affect the psychological health of an individual, it can help improve both cognitive and emotional aspects. Listening to music is looked upon as a very cost efficient and non-invasive tool to deal with stress-related health issues.
Previous research has established that music can facilitate cognitive task performance among students and lead to an improved performance. However, the impacts are related to the kind of music listened to (Cockerton, Moore, & Norman, 1997). When a test was done in children for relaxing music condition and a no-music condition, the children exposed to music performed better than the other group. The music that is soothing and calming led to an enhanced performance and facilitates cognitive process.
Listening to favorite and soothing music, whether it is classical or new age, can have a positive effect on various parts of the brain. In short, listening to music carries an inherent ability to lower the psychobiological stress response. The above studies are generalized ones and relate to the stress buster activities among the students. As reading and listening to music are common activities, it is easy to study these aspects among the participants. However, there are different levels, and kinds of stresses knows and these are depression, chronic stress, anxiety, nervousness, etc. To the best of our knowledge, the study of the influence of music on these different stress responses has not been attempted thus far. The level of stress among the participants can be measured in terms of cortisol, heart rate, anxiety, subjective perception of stress, etc.
References
Collingwood, J. (2007). The Power of Music To Reduce Stress. Psych Central. Retrieved on December 12, 2014, from http://psychcentral.com/lib/the-power-of-music-to-reduce- stress/00093Christenson, P. G., & Peterson, J. B. (1988). Genre and gender in the structure of music preferences. Communication Research, 15(3), 282-301. doi:10.1177/009365088015003004Cockerton, T., Moore, s., & Norman, D. (1997). Cognitive test performance and background music. Perceptual and Motor Skills [H.W. Wilson - SSA], 85(3), 1435.Myriam V Thoma, Roberto La Marca, Rebecca Brönnimann, Linda Finkel, Ulrike Ehlert, & Urs M Nater. (2013). The effect of music on the human stress response: E70156. PLoS One, 8(8) doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0070156
