The Psychological Effects of Music

There has been a massive amount of research, trying to identify the psychological, physiological, and behavioral effect that music can have on an individual. Society stigmatizes different genres with common belief and misconceptions, such as listening to classical music makes someone smarter and heavy metal and hardcore rap evokes uncontrollable rage and hostility. Stereotypes, misconceptions, and the tendency to interpret observations and research too broadly have tainted the true essence of musical psychology, which is the analysis of how different musical aspects react with the behavioral and emotional aspects of individuals.

Music psychology is complex, delving not only into the mind of music listeners, but also observing using sociology techniques to observe music in different cultural settings. Psychologists investigate the varying characteristics of music and the response that humans have to a musical composition. There are several different topics in their research, including preference, musical ability, the structure of music, and the emotional response to music.

Despite the large amount of time and millions of dollars a year spent researching, data is awfully inconsistent with a group of researchers in California, saying one thing, researchers in Florida saying something different, and researchers in Japan claiming the both sets of data is wrong and they are right. Research over the psychological effects of music has been extremely hindered by inappropriate sample sizes, methodological problems, or just plain misinterpretation of data by the general public.

One of the biggest mistake is a small and biased sample size, which doesn't give the right quantity to allow researchers to see an accurate trend. The American Psychology Association claims that after testing 500 college students, having them listen to songs with violent and non-violent lyrics, that a large majority of the students felt hostile. Five hundred hand-picked students from the University of Iowa, who probably lived in the same small Iowan town their entire lives is basis for whether or not violent lyrics can aggravate violent tendencies in the millions of other people of all ages.

In the mid-90s the Mozart Effect was the focus of most musical psychology research. The Mozart Effect is the supposed phenomenon that after listening to ten minutes to Mozart that an individual will experience an increase in their spatial-temporal capabilities, which deal with reasoning, mathematical systems, and problem solving. Frances H. Rauscher, head of the psychology department at the University of Wisconsin Osh Kosh and Gordon Shaw of the University of California Irvine, both worked on the original testing of the Mozart Effect. Rauscher and Shaw's essay, The Key Components of the Mozart Effect tried to explain why other researchers had a troubling time trying to replicate the results of the original study. Rauscher claimed their varying results were due to the researcher's choice of different dependent variables, including what spatial-temporal tasks the test subjects were to perform after listening to music.

But Rauscher also revealed that misconceptions about the Mozart Effect also spoiled the data of the original data. Rauscher teamed up Sean Hinton, who was at the department of neurology at the University of Wisconsin Osh Kosh, to write The Mozart Effect: Music Listening is Not Music Instruction. In the essay written more than a decade after the original discovery divulged in the problems misunderstanding the data by the general public and researchers prevented further research. The article emphasizes the distinction between researching the listening to music and "research on the more cognitively complex and educationally significant phenomena of musical instruction". The original findings of the Mozart Effect lead popular perception of American society to believe that listening to classical music in general would make someone more intelligent, though it was clearly stated that researchers had only tested one of Mozart's compositions and that the effects temporarily enhanced spatial-temporal tasks. Rauscher states the data is only meant to be a "design experiment" and further investigation and experimentation must be done to validate the data as a solid theory.

Though data can be misperceived and other problems can occur during research is it obvious that music has some sort of psychological effect on listeners. In general, listening to music is very relaxing. Besides being easy on the ears or nice to dance to, music is beneficial with its ability to reduce stress, stimulate the production of serotonin, which makes you happier, alter brain waves, and inspire and motivate you to do something great. However many music genres have been stigmatized to make its listeners, primarily adolescents and young children, violent and even suicidal.

Because everyone has a different musical preference, no one type of music can induce one specific emotion across an entire group of people. In Psychology of Heavy Metal Music, Jennifer Copley explains the different emotional response people have to listening to heavy metal or grunge music. An avid listener to heavy metal, grunge, or screamo, can be contradictorily effected by listening, feeling more relaxed and calm while those who don't regularly listen to those genres begin to feel tense, hostile, and aggressive.

Some of the negative connotations that are connected with heavy metal and hardcore rap music comes from natural fear, much like that in the 50s says the department of psychology at Missouri Western University. With the introduction of rock and roll music in the 1950s many adults felt children would be negatively affected, feeling that the music promoted sex, drug use, and violence. This similar fear in modern times has gained speed, especially after 1985 when the Parents Music Resource Center pressured politicians, RIAA, and music industry to label albums with explicit lyrics with the parental advisory stickers.

Along with this negative connotation of adults towards certain music, the connection that certain musical artists and genres have had with different violent actions has also made the topic research worthy. The most notable instance, being the Columbine shootings where two teenage boys took the lives of several students at their high school, where in the duration of the investigation it was found that both boys where highly influenced by Marilyn Manson, whose explicit and violent lyrics were even blamed for the attack. However, most fail to realize that it is not the music, but the listener.

According to Media Awareness Network children and adolescents with a "healthy self-image and varied interests" have little to no influence by music on their values and lifestyle choices. Instead those who are most impressionable are those who are already depressed, lonely, or having feelings of hopelessness. These children, who are withdrawn and alienated, usually tend to listen to music that feeds into those feelings.

Music can also have a positive therapeutic effect on people. Musical therapy uses music and all aspects of music to improve and maintain physical, emotional, social, and spiritual health of an individual and is defined by the Music Therapy Association as an evidence based music intervention to accomplish individual goals within a therapeutic setting. People of all ages can reap the benefits of musical therapy, especially those who suffer mental health disorders, developmental disorders, Alzheimer's disease, substance abuse, brain injuries, physical disabilities, or chronic pain.

Dr. Oliver Sacks, M.D. Professor of Neurology at Albert Einstein Medical School in New York quotes, music therapy has "the unique capacity to organize and reorganize cerebral function when it has been damaged." The American Cancer Society also notes musical therapy as effective when used in addition to conventional treatments to reduce pain and chemotherapy-induced symptoms.

All in all, music can have a huge psychological effect on its listener.

Copley, Jennifer. "Psychology of Heavy Metal". .

"Music Therapy". American Cancer Society. .

"Negative Effects Of Music". Media Awareness Network. http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/parents/music/inappropriate/negative_effects_music.cfm.

Rauscher, Frances. "Key Components of the Mozart Effect". University of Wisconsin Osh Kosh. .

Rauscher, Frances. "The Mozart Effect: Music Listening is Not Music Instruction". University of Wisconsin Osh Kosh. .