“Music is particularly
known for its effectiveness in triggering moods” (Sweeney 1). Mei-Yueh Chang with “Effects of music therapy
on psychological health of women during pregnancy”, Anonymous with “Music and Emotions”, and Jillian C. Sweeney with
“The Role of Cognitions and Emotions in the Music-Approach-Avoidance Behavior
Relationship” all give positive
feedback on the theory of music therapy, or the influence music has on
emotions. Although all three articles
claim that music can influence your emotions, they conduct different
experiments and arrive at this conclusion differently. Chang tested the effectiveness of music on
pregnant Taiwanese women and had them listen to a soothing type of music for 30
minutes every day. For Anonymous’ experiment, students were split up into two equal
groups: Half percussion and the other half included students who did not learn
to play and instrument. The most
informative article by Sweeney tested the same theory of music therapy by
testing genre and tempo in retail stores and recording the reaction of the
subjects. These articles are similar
because they all arrive at the same conclusion, but it is hard to say they are
similar because they are testing different factors.
Chang’s “Effects of
music therapy…” and Anonymous’ “Music
and Emotions” are somewhat similar to each other while still having significant
differences. Both conduct a study on
random candidates and test levels of emotional, physical, and psychological
well being. Chang’s experiments were
more thorough than Anonymous’. Apart from his main experiment, where he had
121 Taiwanese women listen to classical music, nature sounds, a lullaby, or
crystal music performing Chinese children’s rhymes and songs for 30 minutes
every day, he also arranged a side experiment.
In this small study he chose 20 women in labor; 13 of the women listened
to music while in labor and delivery while the other 7 did not. The 13 women who listened to music while
giving birth “reported significant [reduced] anxiety and level of pain or
discomfort during childbirth” (Chang 2581).
This side experiment is an important support for his theory. Not only did Chang conduct one successful
study, but he arranged a second study to support his theory. Listening to music
while in delivery is a good test of stress because since labor is possibly one
of the most painful and stressful actions a woman can go through, you can
compare one woman’s pain and stress who is listening to music with another
woman going through labor who is not currently listening to music. The negative factor to take into
consideration is the fact that people have different tolerances for pain and
also there really is no efficient way to measure an individual’s pain without
taking their word for it. Anonymous’ experiment consisted of
splitting up a classroom of preschoolers teaching one half of the class some
notes on percussion instruments while the other half went without any musical
teaching. Both groups of preschoolers
took two skills tests, in which on both tests, the children who learned
percussion instruments scored higher on both skills tests than their
peers. “Music trains the brain for
higher levels of thinking and it helps people absorb, retain, and retrieve
information. Music, even in the form of
basic lessons to preschoolers, has the power to modify the brain and its
function for the better” (Anonymous
1). In Chang’s article, they also
introduce the limitations to the main experiment such as the subjects did not
maintain a diary, how they feel could depend on what they were doing while they
were listening to the music, and overall the study itself lacked control.
Sweeney’s “The Role of
Cognition and Emotions in the Music-Approach-Avoidance Behavior Relationship”
outshines both the Music and Emotions article and Chang’s article because of
how well this article argues the theory of music therapy. Unlike Music and Emotions which had
absolutely no graphs or charts at all, Sweeney’s article has more than enough
supporting information. In the
experiment conducted, Sweeney tested different types of music at retail stores
to see which type of music made the consumer more likely to buy the specified
retail stores’ merchandise. This article
is a reliable source because there are so many graphs and charts collected
together to support their thesis that tempo and genre do have an effect on the
consumers’ emotional states and cognitive pressing if they are listening to
music while shopping. I agree with their
theory because whatever music you are currently listening to will have an
effect on the emotions being felt. What
makes Sweeney’s article stronger than the others is the fact that refutation
paragraphs added. This gives Sweeney the
chance to introduce the opposing view, but more importantly a chance to fight
it which she does extremely well. She
states why she believes she is correct and proves why the opposing opinions are
incorrect and she does this by showing multiple graphs and charts for tempo and
genre. Even more impressive is how easy
to read her charts and graphs are. Out
of the three articles, this would be the best article to use to support your
argument that music therapy is an effective alternative treatment. This article really only has one main
drawback being that it has a handful of extraneous information.
All three articles
greatly support how music changes your emotions and the calming effects of a
certain tempo or genre. It is shown in
Chang’s article that even though depression is common in pregnant women,
listening to music can actually lower your levels of stress and anxiety. This conclusion was drawn after several tests
had been conducted to test this theory such as the Perceived Stress Scale
(PSS), the State Scale if the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (S-STAI) and the
EPDS test. The article “Music and
Emotions” proved that musical students actually perform better overall and that
it increases abilities to concentrate, learn, and understand in children with
Autism. This article also contained the
interesting fact that an NIU music professor was actually able to teach
students with Parkinson’s disease to play the harp leading them to feel more
confident. Listening to music and
playing an instrument can help maintain and improve emotional, physical, and
psychological well being while also improving coordination, memory, and the
ability to decrease stress. Sweeney’s
articles’ strongpoint was the fact of not what it proved, but how well it was
proven. Her article contained so much
detail and supports compared to the other paragraph which is why it is
unarguably the most credible article. By
addressing both sides of the argument, there really is not much more room for
question after she covered it all. She
explained that tempo and genre do affect your mood using four different types
of graphs so it could be easily understood by any type of audience reading the
article.
Mei-Yueh Chang’s “Effects
of Music Therapy on Psychological Health of Women during Pregnancy”, Anonymous’
“Music and Emotions” and Jillian C. Sweeney’s “The Role of Cognition and
Emotions in the Music-Approach-Avoidance Behavior Relationship” all are great
pieces of information that can be used to argue that music does have an effect
on a person’s well being and state of mind even though “Music and Emotions”,
especially, could have used more detail and supporting arguments. As stated before, Sweeney’s article would be
the best supporting article out of the three that argues that music does have
an effect on the individual’s well being.
Works
Cited
1.)
"Music and Emotions." My Own Little World. Web. 06
Feb. 2012.
2.) Chang,
Mei-Yueh, Chung-Hey Chen, and Kuo-Feng Huang. "Effects of Music Therapy on
Psyhcological Health of Women During Pregnancy." EBSCO Publishing Service Selection
Page. Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 2008. Web. 16 Feb. 2012.
3.) Jillian
C. Sweeney, Fiona Wyber, (2002) "The role of cognitions and emotions in
the music-approach-avoidance behavior relationship", Journal of Services
Marketing, Vol. 16 Iss: 1, pp.51 - 69
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