Music Specific Stress Research

Music has been able to entertain the population for as long as it has been around. It is present in restaurants, clubs, and similar environments so that people can be entertained while enjoying time out with family and friends. Although music has a reputation of being a tool of entertainment, it also has the ability to benefit the health and mental state of the listener. Many studies have been conducted to shed light on the positive effects of music therapy and show that music is able to provide an even greater effect than the ordinary treatments alone.President of the Association for Music Therapy states that,“Active music engagement allowed the patients to reconnect with the healthy

The regulation of emotions is an extremely important skill to maintain good mental health. Music has a powerful ability to induce emotion which many people use to regulate emotions. People who have been diagnosed with depression use music as a coping mechanism. College students

“The American Music Therapy Association (AMTA) defines music therapy as ‘an established health profession in which music is used within a therapeutic relationship to address physical, emotional, cognitive, and social needs of individuals’” (Barnett & Shale, 2013, p.48). Music Therapy (MT) is shown to be able to help people with many different kinds of mental health problems such as anxiety, stress, and minor cases of depression. There have been many studies done showing that MT is an effective form of therapy that can improve someone’s overall Quality Of Life (QOL). MT is known as an alternative technique therapy. It is often used instead of, or along with, medication to produce a result in the patience who need it. MT involves all aspects of the music process, including listening to, writing, singing, and analyzing music. Overall MT addresses physical and emotional problems and is used to enhance the life and health of the patient. This review is simply to inform readers of the effects music and MT has on mental health, specifically:

There are many different ways that we benefit from music. Music can inspire better self-esteem, and confidence. It’s a great way to set the mood, and a wonderful tool. Music therapy is the clinical and evidence-based use of music interventions to accomplish individualized goals within a therapeutic relationship by a credentialed professional who has completed an approved music therapy program (Gram, 2005). Music therapy can reach out to anyone, age, race, gender it doesn’t matter. Children, adolescents, adults, and the elderly with mental health needs can benefit from music therapy. As well as, those who have developmental and learning disabilities, those who suffer from Alzheimer's

Active engagement in music has also been found to help people recover from depression and maintain a person’s wellbeing throughout the latter stages of life (Creech et al, ?????).

It is no secret that music has a strange way of reaching people who were previously thought to be too far gone. Music has the capability to connect to individuals and touch them in a way that causes them to have some strange reactions (Warner et al, 35-36). These reactions aren’t fully understood but have the possibility to lead to great medical advancements. While some psychologists, and parents are strong believers in the helpful effects of music on people’s mental health, others see the dangers that come with music’s great influence and think it could be used as a dangerous tool against individuals.

a. Music can be the best form of stress relief (if you actually enjoy listening to it)

Many might say that the arts are stereotyped as a pass time or an extracurricular activity; I envision it as a safe haven from stress and anxiety. Throughout the past 8 years, music has played an insurmountable role in my development into the individual I have become today. Through times of disappointment and dissatisfaction, I have always resorted to music as a way to relieve myself, whether it be playing or listening. Music thrives through me, and applies to every day of my life.

I have this theory that when it comes to music there is an unseen power which transforms. In in my life I have felt the influence of this power but it wasn't until the other day that I witnessed this power in action. It was through a procedure called Music Therapy where the method of treatment involves the patient listening to music. The element of music has a history of an intuitive connection that has psychologically been beneficial. Music therapy bands together the concept of music, mental health, psychological, and physiological benefits. With more examinations to estimate the advantages for this procedure more debate arises. Many are eager to

Some people think that music can positively influence the listener while others disagree and argue that it has a negative impact. Mark Edmundson, the author of “Can Music Save Your Life?,” asserts through his own experience and the research of others that music solely “preserves” the listener’s life as a “balm—cortisone spread” (paragraph 25). His use of a well-known medical supplement makes it more relatable and believable to the reader. The authors of “Feeling the Beat” support Edmundson by stating that they observed an increased sense of confidence in oneself and one’s beliefs in the people they interviewed(Iwamoto, Creswell, & Caldwell 346). Their main support is the quote from one of their interviewee’s who said, “We can identify what they are talking about” (Iwamoto, Creswell, & Caldwell 343). This not only explains why students listen to certain types of music, but also why it can have such an impact on them. Derek Iwamoto, John Creswell, and Leon Caldwell declare their statement that positive influence of music by stating that the majority of the students they observed used their music as a way to

Generalized effects of music on illnesses reportedly improved (1) emotions, (2) physical health, (3) cognitive health, (4) spiritual health, and (5) social health (Abdellah, 1988; Goddaer & Abraham, 1994; Karras, 1987; Schweinsberg, 1981; Spitzer & Coutinho, 2014). On the other hand, interdisciplinarians (i.e., educators, epidemiologists and other medical practitioners, demographers, and statisticians to name a few) have investigated NPMs living in communities and quantitatively measured the effects of music on them. Creech, Hallam, Varvarigou, McQueen, and Gaunt (2013) conducted a study with older adults to explore the relationship between singing, other activities, and well-being. The authors reported singing improved (1) mental health, (2) physical health, and (3) well-being compared to other activities such as learning a foreign language, reading books, yoga exercises, and forming social groups, which agrees with other studies (i.e., Bowers, 1998; Hays & Minichiello, 2005; Joseph & Southcott, 2014, and Skingley, Martin, & Clift,

According to the American Music Therapy Association (A.M.T.A.), music therapy is “the clinical and evidence-based use of music interventions to accomplish individualized goals within a therapeutic relationship by a credentialed professional who has completed an approved music therapy program.” As a generally new and upcoming industry, music therapy is often underestimated. By incorporating different areas of the brain, music can reduce stress, ease

Lee-Chen Chen and his colleagues conducted a study on how music intervention or therapy lessens pre-radiotherapy anxiety in oncology patients through a fifteen-minute procedure. The purpose of the research was to examine the impact of music therapy and intervention on lessening pre-radiotherapy anxiety in these patients. The researchers carried out their study because of the tendency by oncology patients to react to radiation treatment with anxiety that is expressed in different forms such as frustration, fear, depression, and stress. Based on its findings, the study provides necessary insights regarding interventions that could help in decreasing anxiety levels among these patients as they undergo the treatment procedure. However, the study also raises some critical questions and concerns that are helpful in critiquing it and informing future studies.

The impact of music on positive psychology and emotion is a well known fact. Music has an extraordinary ability to change people’s emotions. In humans, music has the ability to invoke emotions of sadness, happiness and even fear (Goycoolea, Levy & Ramirez, 2013). The ability of music to alter human mood makes it one of the greatest subjects of positive psychology. Seligman (2011) argued that even though a lot of effort has been spent on psychotherapy and pharmacology, such interventions are not

Music elicits an emotional and cognitive response in all who listen to it. It is powerful at the individual level because “it can induce multiple responses – physiological, movement, mood, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral” (Francis, 2008,