Implications of music psychology

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Implications of music psychology

• What is music psychology?
• Music in commerce
• Music in healthcare
• The problem music debate
• Careers in music psychology

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What is music psychology

• Application of psychology to music(!)
• Involves musicianship and listening
• Musicianship
• Composition, creativity, music performance
• Listening
• Musical preference and emotion, effects of music
  (e.g. music and commerce, music and healthcare,
  the problem music debate)

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Music in commerce

• Music in commerce is a multi-million pound
  industry
• Many effects of background music in retail and
  leisure
• Arousing music speeds up customer activity
• Milliman (1986)
• 1392 groups of customers over 8 weekends
• Time to eat slow music 56 minutes, fast music
  45 minutes
• Drink per group slow music 30.47, fast music
  21.62
• Gross profit per group slow music 55.82, fast
  music 48.62
• Over 52 weekends slow music would lead to extra
  gross profit of 65,145.60
• Musical fit increases purchasing
• North and Hargreaves (1997)
• Aisle-end wine display in a supermarket
• French and German wines matched for price and
  dryness
• French and German music on alternate days
• French music 51 German music 21
• Did the music influence the type of wine you
  bought?
• Only 6 out of 44 said yes

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• Relaxing music increases on-hold waiting time
• North, Hargreaves, and McKendrick (1999)
• Newspaper advert - 5 for questionnaire on
  attitudes
• Beatles originals, pan pipe covers, spoken
  message
• Phone not answered
• Beatles 229.50s, covers 257.28s, message
  197.76s
• Correlation between perception of music and image
  of phone service (upbeat, upmarket, aggressive,
  elegant, peaceful)

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Music in healthcare

• Current NHS budget of 90 billion If given an
  option, would most pregnant women elect to reduce
  the length of labor by an average of two hours?
  Would the patient in the surgical recovery room
  choose to awaken from the anaesthesia sooner,
  with fewer side effects and less pain? Would
  persons with chronic pain prefer to use less
  analgesic medication, thereby reducing possible
  side effects? Would those undergoing
  consequential medical treatment opt for reduced
  anxiety during its course? Research shows that
  music provides the above medical benefits and
  more, and that most people perceive their
  preferred music to be relaxing and beneficial to
  their recovery (Standley, 1995, p. 3)
• Two approaches to using music
• Conventional music therapy
• Treats chronic psychological and physical
  disorders (e.g. learning difficulties)
• Music and physical health
• Pain, stress, immunity but also anaesthetic use,
  length of labour, weight gain in premature babies
  etc.

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• Effects of music in physical health
• Less effective for males than it was for females
• Children and adults respond better than adults
  and infants
• Live music from a trained music therapist has a
  greater effect than recorded music
• Effects greatest for dental patients and those
  experiencing chronic pain, and smallest (although
  nonetheless still helpful) for obstetric, coma,
  and cancer patients
• Pain relief greatest when pain is temporary (e.g.
  as in dental treatment or headaches) rather than
  resulting from deep tissue injury (e.g. as in
  childbirth, surgery, or cancer)

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• Seven treatment models
• 1. Passive music listening
• Play the patients preferred music prior to the
  event that actually causes pain or anxiety, tell
  the patient that the music will help, and
  allowing the patient to control the music as much
  as possible
• Examples use of pre-operative music to reduce
  anxiety and the amount of anaesthesia required
  perioperative music to reduce anxiety and mask
  operating room sounds post-operative music to
  promote waking, reduce the use of analgesia, and
  to reduce the negative after-effects of
  anaesthesia during kidney dialysis to reduce
  discomfort and serve as a distraction to reduce
  pain and anxiety in burn victims undergoing
  treatment to reduce pain and enhance the effects
  of analgesics among cancer patients to decrease
  intracranial pressure in coma patients to reduce
  pain and stress and decrease the length of
  hospital stays among neonates and to reduce pain
  in so-called office treatments such as dental
  procedures, abortions, and podiatric treatments

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• 2. Active music participation
• Focus attention on exercise or structure
  exercise, with the aim of reducing pain from
  joint movement, increase a patients ability to
  move, or shorten childbirth labour
• Select appropriate exercises, select music that
  helps to promote the specific kind of movement in
  question (e.g. disco to promote forceful
  movements), and then continually refining the
  nature of the music played as the patients
  movements improve

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• 3. Music and counselling
• Reduce distress among patients (and their
  families) who are dying, seriously ill, or
  permanently disfigured or disabled
• Playing music to provide opportunities for
  pleasure, reminiscence, closure, or to initiate
  discussion to help patients and families
  identify and develop their abilities to help
  patients recognise and think about crucial
  decisions they need to take and to assist in
  interpersonal relationships

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• 4. Music and developmental / educational
  objectives
• Help children who are hospitalised for extended
  periods to meet educational goals as well as
  more general developmental milestones indicative
  of growing independence such as feeding
  themselves or walking rather than being carried
• Tell the child that music is to be used as a
  reinforcer for achieving pre-determined
  educational or developmental goals, determine
  whether those goals have been met, and if so
  provide music

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• 5. Music and stimulation
• Play the patients preferred music while
  simultaneously stimulating other senses by for
  example stroking, moving visual stimuli, and
  providing pleasant smells
• Uses to elicit responses from patients who are
  comatose or brain damaged, patients who have
  experienced strokes, or premature babies and
  also attempts to help patients such as burn
  victims, organ transplant patients, and patients
  with infectious diseases who are typically forced
  to endure sterile environments

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• 6. Music and biofeedback
• Use the patients preferred music as reward for
  achieving a desired physiological state
• Uses to help patients with epilepsy to reduce
  the frequency of seizures by relaxing and
  reacting calmly to stress lowering blood
  pressure, heart rate, and tension in coronary
  patients promoting relaxation among sufferers of
  migraines and improving blood flow in patients
  with poor circulation

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• 7. Music and group activity
• Promote positive interpersonal interactions which
  in turn reduce depression due to social isolation
  or long-term hospitalisation, and increase
  feelings of happiness
• Use a variety of activities involving a mixture
  of focussed listening and participation on the
  part of patients and medical staff alike

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Problem music

• PMRC founded in 1985 by Tipper Gore
• Apparently prompted by her daughter playing
  Darling Nikki from Princes Purple Rain album
• U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and
  Transportation (19 September 1985) led to
  parental advisory sticker
• On the agenda was the labelling of records so
  that at least the whole family knows what is in
  them, and not just the child who buys the
  record.
• Attached to 59 of rap CDs and 13 of heavy metal
  CDs
• By 2000 19 states of the USA had considered
  regulating distribution of stickered CDs
• Crime to sell to minors (Missouri, Pennsylvania,
  Louisiana)
• Punish juveniles who buy stickered albums (e.g.
  Pennsylvania wanted to send them on community
  service at a rape crisis centre)
• Allow individual towns to impose stricter
  standards of obscenity (Ohio)
• Ban completely the sale of all labelled albums
  (city of Leominster, Mass.)
• Allow local prosecutors and judges to ban the
  sale of erotic music to minors (Washington)
• e.g. court reports when the prosecution alleges
  an interest in rap indicates guilt
• http//news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/nottinghamshire
  /4287704.stm

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• Rebellious adolescents listen to rebellious music
  (Bleich et al, 1991)
• Heavy metal fans
• High on machismo and machiavellianism (Hansen and
  Hansen, 1991)
• Low on enjoyment of intellectual tasks (Hansen
  and Hansen, 1991)
• Positive attitudes to pre-marital sex, drug and
  alcohol use, and satanism(!) (Yee et al, 1988)
• Belief in witchcraft and the occult (Trostle,
  1986)
• Dangerous driving, shoplifting, vandalism
  (Arnett, 1991)
• All correlational evidence

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• But
• Experimental evidence is mixed
• People may not understand lyrics
• Only 36 correctly regarded Olivia Newton-Johns
  Physical as a song about sex a further 36 saw
  it as an encouragement to take part in physical
  exercise (Leming, 1987) how can bad lyrics
  cause bad behaviour?
• Could be a labelling effect (North and
  Hargreaves, 2005)
• Participants played an ambiguous pop song
  described as life-affirming or suicide-inducing
• Lucky by Radiohead, My friends by Red Hot
  Chili Peppers, My sundown by Jimmy Eat World,
  and Pleasure and pain by Ben Harper
• The head of state / Has called for me by name /
  But I dont have time for him (Lucky by
  Radiohead)
• Imagine me taught by tragedy / Release is peace /
  I heard a little girl / And what she said / Was
  something beautiful / To give your love / No
  matter what (My friends by Red Hot Chili
  Peppers)
• Former group perceive song positively Latter
  group perceive it as having negative effects

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Careers in music psychology

• Very few and usually indirect
• Academic
• Research (and teaching!)
• Music therapy
• Usually as a qualified musician
• Ad hoc consultancy

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Recommended reading

• Hargreaves, D. J. and North, A. C. (eds.) (1997).
  The social psychology of music. Oxford Oxford
  University Press.