PY0418 Qualitative Report: Music's Role in Stress Reduction

This report investigates the protective role of music in reducing stress and enhancing wellbeing among university students. A qualitative approach, utilizing semi-structured interviews and thematic analysis, was employed to explore the experiences of students at Northumbria University. The study identifies key themes such as mood enhancement and motivation for work, revealing that music, particularly preferred genres, can significantly contribute to stress reduction by triggering dopamine release and fostering a sense of calm. While the study acknowledges limitations such as time constraints and potential interviewer bias, it suggests future research using quantitative methods to further validate these findings. Overall, the research concludes that music serves as a valuable coping mechanism for students, offering insights for promoting wellbeing within the university environment. Access more solved assignments and past papers on Desklib to aid your studies.

Protective factor of listening
to music on well-being

Abstract
Music is considered to be method which helps individuals in releasing stress and anxiety. Music
have a way to release hormone from brain which causes stress and depression. It is considered to
be beneficial for impact on health and wellbeing as well on stress reducing effects. The study
will focus on finding the factors of music and what and how music benefits individuals. The
interview was conducted upon which the finding of this study will be based. The study is
significant as it can help in analysing up-to which extent music can help students to release stress
and anxiety in their daily life.

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
Method.............................................................................................................................................5
Approach......................................................................................................................................5
Participants..................................................................................................................................5
Material........................................................................................................................................6
Procedure.....................................................................................................................................6
Procedure of the analysis.............................................................................................................6
Results and discussion.....................................................................................................................7
Strength and limitation................................................................................................................8
Suggestion for further research....................................................................................................9
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
Listening to music is one of the important therapy and movement that is used for relieving
the stress. As stress is present and experienced at every extent varied from person to person like a
medical practitioner would have high level of stress while making it compared with the
individual who is pursuing a normal job (de Witte, and et.al. 2020). As stress would have
negative impact towards the health so various aspects and strategies would be taken in order to
reduce the stress and its impact. This is also assisted with the music which is one of the major
element in reducing the stress.
Various studies show that wellbeing is the state of mind and human body that is related
with the healthy, comfortable and happy. As per the researches of MARCS institute for Brain,
Behaviour and Development found that music play an important role in increasing the memory,
retention as well as raise the learning capabilities. Music not only release the stress but it also
plays an important role in triggering the emotion, memories and thoughts that will lead to play an
important role in mental health.
Various studies also show that music play an important role in relieving stress because it
is directly linked with the mood, emotion, brain and human actions. Music helps reducing the
level of stress and improves the focus and concentration. With the perspective of music an
individual would become stress free and this will be assisted with the concept of stress removal
(Baltazar, and et.al. 2019). This is further associated with the aspect of mental operation and
assisting an individual to be stress free.
There are various studies that shows the application of music in respect to wellbeing.
With the evidences it is being suggested that the use of music will help the patients in recovering
the stress and anxiety (Storrs, 2017). As per the study it is found that the clinicians use music
therapy during and before the major surgeries and medical procedures. Listening to music is
clearly associated with the concept that it will make ease for the patient in bearing pain. This is
also being proved from the studies conducted by Storrs (2017) which shows that the patients who
listen music before, during and after the surgery would feel less pain and stress while making it
compared with those who go with normal surgery procedures.
The research statistics also showed that the concept of music therapy play an important
role in surgical and oncology patients which is evidenced with the use of music in cerebral,
coronary angiography. Use of music is counted as one of the emerging trend in respect to

surgeries (Lieber, and et.al. 2019). As it is evidenced that the patients feel anxiety and high stress
before the procedure that will make the medical practitioners to perform the surgeries. But with
the use of music therapy during the cerebral angiography would results in positive outcome in
terms of reduction of pain and easiness in process.
The power of music and its association with the stress can also be evidenced with the
social media which contain millions of videos and posts that shows the people singing and
dancing the period of isolation of covid pandemic. As during the period of covid and isolation
the people get depressed and stress freak which is later associate themselves with the music and
singing in reliving the stress and passing the period of isolation (Situmorang, 2021). The social
media is one of the best evidence proof for it.
Aims:
The main aim of this study and research is to determine the impact of music on the stress
reduction and wellbeing. This study will evidence various instances which shows that the use of
music therapy play an important role in relieving stress and anxiety among human beings. This
can also be evidenced with various instances of surgeries and social media evidences.
Method
Approach
It refers to method of the research. It is generally of two types including the qualitative and
quantitative. Qualitative research is the study of non-numeric data while the quantitative research
is associated with the numeric facts and figures (Queirós, Faria and Almeida, 2017). The
concerned study will follow the qualitative research under which various studies will be studied
related with the aspect of music therapy and its impact towards the stress reduction. A team of
five researcher design 1:1 semi structured interviews in which it will be studied that how music
impact the stress reduction.
Participants
The participants were recruited with the use of opportunity sampling method from Northumbria
University.
Participant A was a 19 years old female who likes every bit of everything in music such as pop,
indie and 60’s music as well

Participant B was 20 years old male whose favourite music genre is rap and metal and rock
sometimes.
Participant C’s favourite music genre was rap/grime and slow country music
Participant D only listen to music only when they are watching a video which have that music.
Material
An interview schedule was used under which semi-structured 1:1 interview was conducted
followed with the asking of open ended question so that the responded views and perspective
regarding the concept of stress and the role of music therapy would be analysed (Roulston and
Choi 2018). Various open ended questions like the what type of music they listen? Do you feel
that music help you the most? How do you feel music helps you? are asked so that the
participants views in the perspective of the music and stress would be determine. All the
questions were asked to determine the mood and emotion of the participants in the context of the
music which will helps to know its impact towards the stress.
Procedure
The research was conducted in a synchronised manner under which the responded were
given a free choice with the giving of approval form that shows the compliance with ethical
consideration. In the same way the form also contain various details that the participants need to
fill along with signing the form which shows that the free consent has been taken in the research.
While taking the participants in the quiet room in the lab setting the participants were
interviewed and they were asked to provide as much as detail which they have. The debrief
interview sheets also provided to the participants which gives the right that if they do not want to
share their data in the research.
Procedure of the analysis
This is the most important step under which the gathered data will be analysed. The research
has been conducted on the following of the thematic test technique in which on the basis of the
gained data and information from the participants the relevant themes were made concerning the
main aim and objective of the research so that the data will be analysed adequately and deeply

(Terry and et.al. 2017). This will make the research to be focussed on various aspect of the data
which is being collected. This has added value to the research.
Results and discussion
Findings
The aim of the study was to analyse the impact of music on the stress reduction and
wellbeing on the students studying in a specific University. From the thematic analysis of
interviews the two themes analysed involved:
Boosts mood
The theme boosts mood reveals that many participants believe that music helps them in
boosting their mood.
For example:
“Music helps in improving my mood the most, yeah just makes you feel happier”- Participant A
The views of Participant A states that music can help them in being happy and improves their
overall mood. Music is considered to be mood booster as it helps the brain in production of
hormone dopamine. Hormone dopamine can help in relieving the feeling such as anxiety
nervousness and depression.
“I like to use tune to relax down my nervousness and tension” -Participant D
Impact of
music
Boosts mood
Focus on workouts
Focus on study
Enhances focus
Improves mood
Makes calm
Motivate to work Relax
Motivate for
work

The views of participant D reveals the same. Participant D uses music as a way to calm down his
nervousness.
Music is processed by amygdala in human body which is that part of brain which is involves
emotions and mood. So it helps in boosting mood of people.
Motivation for work
Theme motivation for work states that some people use music as a way to focus on their work.
This can improve their motivation level for the work they are doing.
“I would say music helps me feel motivated to do exercise”- Participant D
Even though Participant do not like listening to music that much, they listen to music every time
they exercise, it makes them more motivated (Chaudhary, Singh and Singh, 2020).
“I exercise 5 times a week and I listen to music every time and when studying I listen to a
different kind of music”- Participant B
Music helps in increasing stimulation. As participant B believes that music fuels a person’s
productivity and motivation levels (Frierson, 2017). As the brain release dopamine hormone due
to music, it helps in regulating motivation and goal oriented behaviour of human. The study
reveals that participants feel more motivated to work when they were listening to music while
working. Participants chose different kinds of music for motivation to work and for motivation to
workout.
Strength and limitation
The adoption of the 1:1 semi-structured interviews in the research would enable the
interviewers to prepare the question beforehand so the responded will be on the tack and on the
topic. Likewise, with the help of this method a detailed analysis of the responded views will be
possible because of the inculcation of the open ended questions.
However, the major limitation that is associated with this method is the requirement of
time to sit down with the responded and conduct the open ended interview. In the same way
another limitation includes the finding of the interviewer who possess high level of knowledge
that it can make conduction of the interview. In the same way another limitation is the escaping
of the relevant question that is necessary to be asked.

Suggestion for further research
The another research that would be suggested and used would include the quantitative
research in which the numeric facts and figures will be studied (Pinto-Llorente, Sánchez-Gómez,
and Costa, 2019). This will includes the analysis and study of figures and results of the blood
pressure, heart rate that would be measures at various instances that may include before the
surgery and the after the surgery. This will also be accompanied with the aspect of making it
compared with the use of the music therapy and its impact towards the results. This will lead to
make a detailed analysis of the research. Also the impact of music therapy with the context of the
stress would be implied among various sub groups that may include the various participants
belonging to different group so that not only the results will be adequately emerged but it will
also assist the research to be performed in a detailed manner.
CONCLUSION
From the study it can be concluded that the study was successful in analysing the impact
of music on stress reduction and well-being of people. Music have an important role in releasing
stress and boosting moods in people. It is also evident that music helps people to recover from
depression and anxiety as well. In the study qualitative approach was used for interviewing 4
participants in Northumbria University. The interview was open ended interview in which
respondents were given free choice and ethical considerations were also maintained. Consent of
each participant was taken before conducting interview. The research followed thematic
procedure by which finding was summarised into 2 main themes i.e. boosts mood and motivate
to work. Findings stated that music helps people in boosting their moods and also motivate them
to work and remain more focused. Various strengths and limitation of study were also provided
along with suggestions for further research.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Baltazar, & et.al. (2019). Is it me or the music? Stress reduction and the role of regulation
strategies and music. Music & Science. 2. 2059204319844161.
Chaudhary, D., Singh, N.P. and Singh, S., 2020. A Survey on Autonomous Techniques for
Music Classification based on Human Emotions Recognition. International Journal
of Computing and Digital Systems. 9(03).
de Witte, & et.al. (2020). Music therapy for stress reduction: a systematic review and meta-
analysis. Health Psychology Review, 1-26.
Frierson, A., 2017. Music and Stress Levels.
Lieber, A. C., & et.al. (2019). Effects of music therapy on anxiety and physiologic parameters in
angiography: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of neurointerventional
surgery. 11(4). 416-423.
Pinto-Llorente, A. M., Sánchez-Gómez, M. C., & Costa, A. P. (2019, October). Reflections on
Qualitative and Mixed Methods Researches. In Proceedings of the Seventh
International Conference on Technological Ecosystems for Enhancing
Multiculturality (pp. 508-510).
Queirós, A., Faria, D., & Almeida, F. (2017). Strengths and limitations of qualitative and
quantitative research methods. European Journal of Education Studies.
Roulston, K., & Choi, M. (2018). Qualitative interviews. The SAGE handbook of qualitative data
collection, 233-249.
Situmorang, D. D. B. (2021). Music as a Healing Medicine in COVID-19 Pandemic. Journal of
Pastoral Care & Counseling. 75(3). 224-226.
Terry, & et.al. (2017). Thematic analysis. The SAGE handbook of qualitative research in
psychology. 2. 17-37.
Online references:
Storrs, C., 2017. Surgery patients hear benefits of music therapy loud and clear. [Online].
Available through <https://edition.cnn.com/2015/08/13/health/music-therapy-surgery-
patients/index.html>
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