The Impact of Music Relaxation on Affect and Relaxation of Stressed Female College Students A

153 Pages·2017·4.59 MB·English

The Impact of Music Relaxation on Affect and Relaxation of Stressed Female College
Students

A thesis presented to
the faculty of
the College of Fine Arts of Ohio University

In partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the degree
Master of Music

Yinglan He
May 2018
© 2018 Yinglan He. All Rights Reserved.
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This thesis titled
The Impact of Music Relaxation on Affect and Relaxation of Stressed Female College
Students

by
YINGLAN HE

has been approved for
the School of Music
and the College of Fine Arts by

Kamile Geist
Associate Professor of Music

Matthew Shaftel
Dean, College of Fine Arts
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ABSTRACT
HE, YINGLAN, M.M., May, 2018, Music Therapy
The Impact of Music Relaxation on Affect and Relaxation of Stressed Female College
Students
Director of Thesis: Kamile Geist
Female college students have reported experiencing higher stress levels than their
male counterparts. Relaxation techniques that alleviate psychological stress by helping
them reach a better mental/emotional state may be more helpful for coping with stress.
Music relaxation intervention in audio recorded forms were found to be effective for
multi-faceted consequences of stress. However, effects of its live forms presented by a
music therapist for alleviating psychological stress among female college students remain
under-researched. This pilot study explored the impact of a live music relaxation
intervention on female college students who self-reported as stressed (N = 31). The
objectives of this study were to assess changes in five pre- and post-intervention states:
negative affect, positive affect, contentment, relaxation responses, and observable
relaxation responses. The focus of this study was to learn about qualitative differences in
participants’ subjective experience with the intervention. Thus, self-reports were chosen
to assess the aforementioned mental states. To provide insightful information for future
investigations, the researcher also collected information about participants’ satisfaction
levels and subjective experiences with the applied intervention. Results of the primary
research questions indicate that benefits of the applied intervention for stressed female
college students may be associated with decreasing states of negative affect, promoting
relaxation, and relaxing muscle tension. Although positive affect scores dropped post-
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intervention, the ten positive affect items contained higher arousal words, which might
not be appropriate descriptors for the participants’ subjective experience with the applied
intervention. Results of the secondary research questions indicate that all participants
were either somewhat satisfied (19.4%) or very satisfied (80.6%) with the experience,
and most participants (93.5%) expressed willingness to receive a comparable intervention
in the future. Content analysis of their review of the intervention reveals that, during or
after the intervention, the participants felt calm, relaxed, safe, and/or happy, free of
worries/emotions, and their breathing deepened and/or muscle tension relaxed gradually.
More than half of the participants (64.6%) noticed changes in at least one musical
element or in the music. Nearly half of the participants (45.2%) commented that the
auditory stimuli of the experience were positive for them. Of the 17 participants who
indicated the pros and cons of a present therapist, 88.2% suggested the therapist helped
with the process. Future studies that consider a complete treatment cycle with a larger
sample size are recommended to build a clinical foundation for the use of music
relaxation interventions/music therapy for female college students who self-report as
stressed.
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DEDICATION

I dedicate this thesis to my mother, (cid:3)(cid:1)(cid:2), who has been an inspiration in my life and
has encouraged me in all of my pursuits with her continuous love and support.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to use this opportunity to express my heart-felt gratitude to everyone
who has been generously supporting me intellectually and emotionally throughout the
course of this thesis project.
To my dear Dr. Kamile Geist for being very supportive and understanding
throughout the process: Thank you very much for your continuous guidance and timely
response to all my questions. You have been one of the best clinicians and professors I
admire. Your academic guidance has been a light to help me find my way to complete
this journey.
To Dr. Peggy Zoccola for supporting me to complete this thesis project and
providing me with the direction to see my way through the difficult issues of this topic
and helpful advice: Thank you very much for sharing your intelligence and resources!
To Professor Brent Beeson: Thank you for sharing your insights about this project
and sharing your clinical experience and knowledge with me to help me improve the
intervention and expand the conversation that kept me thinking about the issues that
impact how we handle such problems in the daily clinical work.
To Dr. Richard Wetzel: I appreciate your critical insights on the musical
components used for the intervention and the musical materials provided for the
participants.
Thanks to the all professors in the music therapy department, Dr. Kamile Geist,
Dr. Laura Brown, and Professor Brent Beeson, who provided excellent education,
supported me to complete the study, and granted me permission to use the music therapy
clinic for this study.
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To all clinical supervisors who I have had: Thank you for your generosity in
sharing your knowledge and helping me to become a music therapist. Especially, I would
like to thank my internship supervisors and the patients that I had the privilege to serve at
Park Nicollet Health Services. I gained more experience in practicing this type of music
relaxation intervention during my time being a music therapy intern there.
Special thanks to my extremely helpful, kind, and intelligent friends, particularly
Kai-Jung Chen, Kathy Devecka, Yining Liu, Jinling Zhao, and Robert Neff, who have
devoted their personal time to helping me with this project and offered great friendship in
my college life.
To my family: Thank you for encouraging me to be a kindhearted and helpful
person. I will always take your inspiring words with me.
Most importantly, I thank the female college students who spent time
participating in this study to provide us with insightful information about the potential of
using this music therapy intervention for this population.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

Abstract ............................................................................................................................... 3
Dedication ........................................................................................................................... 5
Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................. 6
List of Tables .................................................................................................................... 11
List of Figures ................................................................................................................... 12
Chapter 1: Introduction ..................................................................................................... 13
Female College Student Stress and Coping .................................................................. 14
Positive Emotions and Stress ........................................................................................ 15
Music Therapy .............................................................................................................. 16
Music Relaxation and Its Application ........................................................................... 17
Live music interventions. .......................................................................................... 17
Problem Statement ........................................................................................................ 18
Purpose of the Study ..................................................................................................... 19
Research Questions ....................................................................................................... 20
Limitations of the study. ........................................................................................... 20
Definition of Terms ....................................................................................................... 21
Music therapy. ........................................................................................................... 21
Music therapy intervention. ...................................................................................... 21
Music relaxation ........................................................................................................ 21
Emotion regulation .................................................................................................... 22
Chapter 2: Literature Review ............................................................................................ 23
Psychological Stress ...................................................................................................... 23
Stress in College Students ............................................................................................. 25
Female college students. ........................................................................................... 26
Alleviating Psychological Stress by Cultivating Positive Emotions (Contentment) .... 31
Relaxation-effective treatments for alleviating psychological stress. ....................... 33
Influences of Music on Psychological Stress Among College Students ...................... 35
Live music therapy interventions for emotion regulation. ........................................ 37
Music-based interventions for relaxation induction. ................................................ 39
Music Relaxation .......................................................................................................... 41
Live music relaxation. ............................................................................................... 44
Considerations of using live music in studies. .......................................................... 47
Therapeutic presence. ............................................................................................... 48
Summary ....................................................................................................................... 50
Chapter 3: Methods ........................................................................................................... 52
Participants .................................................................................................................... 52
Setting ........................................................................................................................... 54
Procedure ...................................................................................................................... 54
Instrumentation ............................................................................................................. 55
Subjective measures. ................................................................................................. 55
Objective measures. .................................................................................................. 58
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Equipment for implementing the intervention. ......................................................... 59
Intervention ................................................................................................................... 60
Preparation. ............................................................................................................... 61
An autogenic scan of body parts. .............................................................................. 63
Sedative music. ......................................................................................................... 64
Return to alert state. .................................................................................................. 65
Data Analysis Plan ........................................................................................................ 66
Data completion ........................................................................................................ 66
Data analysis ............................................................................................................. 67
Chapter 4: Results ............................................................................................................. 71
Research Question 1: Benefits of the Live Music Relaxation Intervention .................. 71
Research question 1a: Positive affect and negative affect. ....................................... 72
Research question 1b: Serenity items from PANAS. ............................................... 73
Research question 1c: Relaxation response .............................................................. 74
Research question 1d: Observable relaxation responses. ......................................... 75
Research Question 2: Satisfaction Level and Willingness to Revisit ........................... 78
Satisfaction level ....................................................................................................... 78
Willingness to revisit ................................................................................................ 79
Content Analysis of Experience Review ...................................................................... 80
Question 1: Impact on mind and body ...................................................................... 80
Question 2: Changes in mind, body, and auditory stimuli. ....................................... 82
Question 3: Positive and difficult parts of the experience ........................................ 85
The presence of the music therapist .......................................................................... 88
Chapter 5: Discussion ....................................................................................................... 90
Limitations of the Study ................................................................................................ 95
Recommendations ......................................................................................................... 99
Design of the study. .................................................................................................. 99
Measurements. .......................................................................................................... 99
Music selection ....................................................................................................... 100
Intervention implementation ................................................................................... 101
Reclining position ................................................................................................... 103
Future inquiries ....................................................................................................... 103
Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 104
References ....................................................................................................................... 106
Appendix A: Ohio University IRB Approval Notice ..................................................... 124
Appendix B: Flyer for Recruiting Participants ............................................................... 125
Appendix C: Study Description on the SONA System .................................................. 126
Appendix D: Ohio University Adult Consent Form with Signature ............................... 127
Appendix E: Debriefing Statement ................................................................................. 129
Appendix F: Experimenter Sheet .................................................................................... 130
Appendix G: Qualtrics Survey – Positive Affect Negative Affect Scale, VAS-Relaxation,
& Satisfaction Review .................................................................................................... 131
Appendix H: Behavioral Relaxation Scale Score Sheet ................................................. 138
Appendix I: Guidelines for Relaxing Music ................................................................... 139
Appendix J: Script for Autogenic Body Scan Relaxation .............................................. 142
Appendix K: Watermark ................................................................................................. 143
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Appendix L: Self-Care Strategies ................................................................................... 145
Appendix M: Experience Review—Mind, Body, and Other Thoughts .......................... 146
Appendix N: Experience Review—Changes in Mind, Body, and Auditory Stimuli ..... 148
Appendix O: Experience Review—Positive and Difficult Parts of the Experience ....... 150
Appendix P: Experience Review—The Presence of the Therapist ................................ 152